Karin's Adventures

For over half a century I have been taught to actively solve problems whenever I am confronted with them. I learned, that it is *good* to act immediately, instead of waiting things out and letting a situation become unbearable for everyone involved. When I see something that isn't *right*, I feel an urge to jump in and help to *fix* things.

During the past ten months, however, I had to learn how to passively watch ugly circumstances turn almost hopeless. All my help, advice, and ideas, which I volunteered in an effort to reduce the damage, were vigorously rejected. Matters had to hit rock bottom before the person in charge finally decided to act responsibly.

While I consider this ordeal a valuable, character building, experience, I am still greatly relieved that it is over. Life seems to be heading in the right direction again, without me doing a thing - other than holding still and staying calm.  

OK, I had nothing to do with it. But considering the outcome, I'd say the election results are acceptable. There were no big surprises. Just some records were broken. Indiana voted Democrat for President, a first in 44 years. I'm glad we keep Mitch Daniels as Indiana's Governor. I like his plans with property taxes.

I need 123 college credits for my degree. At a rate of one class per week, five weeks per class, taking eight courses per year and earning three credits per course, I figured it would take me about five years. So every opportunity to shorten that time is more than welcome.

One very quick way to earn credits is thru a CLEP exam. I like that idea a lot! Why not prove that you acquired valuable knowledge about something somewhere outside a classroom?

Which is why today I took a CLEP test for a subject I master without special preparation: German. I scored a perfect 80 points, the maximum possible, which is worth 12 credits.

Saturday is usually the day that I go to get groceries at Meijer. I try to avoid preprocessed foods with long ingredient lists, so most of the times I don't even go thru the cereal aisle.

Today I had a coupon for $1 off any cereal - and therefore had to stroll along the endless shelves of cornflakes loaded with sugar. At the very end of that aisle they have a small section with healthier choices, and there I spotted something new!

Meijer now carries several different kinds of Seitenbacher Müsli, imported from Germany! The price isn't beyond reach either, even though it's more expensive than in Germany, of course. Now I can have some more variety for my breakfast. I'm not limited to the only acceptable kind of cereal I found years ago (Bob's Red Mill Müsli) anymore.

Yum!

The motorcycle license I had achieved in Germany back in 1981 is still valid all over Europe. But it is worth nothing in Indiana. Ever since Tom bought his motorcycle, I wanted my *M* endorsement back.

Being a resident alien I had to go thru a few extra hoops to reach that goal. First pass the written test to get the learner permit. US citizens receive the permit instantly. Aliens have their paperwork, including copies of passport and green card, processed in Indianapolis. Verification of your status takes about two weeks.

The next step is a weekend on a parking lot. That's called *motorcycle safety training*. Good thing, for somebody who has never rode a motorcycle. A little bit boring for everybody else.

After you pass the riding exam at the end of that weekend, you can go sit and wait around at your local BMV again. US citizens walk home with their new license on that day. Aliens like myself need to be checked out again, going thru Indianapolis again, just to make sure that you are still legal.  

Today my pretty new driver license, with that extremely valuable *M* on it, arrived in the mail. Woo-Hoo!

OK, I know you need to walk or run at least 30 minutes every other day to stay in shape. Especially with the kind of jobs we have, sitting behind a desk all day long. But then, sometimes it is too hot, or too cold, or too wet, or too dark, or too late.......... and I find myself getting the exercise I need only once a week, at most.

Now this is going to change! We went to Dick's sporting goods and bought a treadmill. After doing some research on the web and looking at different models in the store, we decided on a Horizon T900, which seemed to offer the best value for the price.

Getting the 360 lb. machine set up in our big, empty family room - which has been redefined to be the gymn - was a major challenge. Especially since one of the holes on the frame wasn't drilled in the right place. MADE IN CHINA - do I need to say more? 

Indiana Tech's new student residence hall is growing rapidly.
When I go for my lunch-break walk, I usually take a picture of it with my cell phone's camera.
Just for the fun of it, and to find out how that works, I turned my PowerPoint presentation into a video and uploaded that to YouTube.

Enjoy!

One very nice detail of American workplace culture, something I haven't seen in over 27 years of employment in Germany, is the recognition that you get for working hard.

Today Indiana Tech celebrated the annual employee awards ceremony, where individuals and teams are honored for their outstanding contributions to the success of our institution.

The surprise at the very end of this ceremony was this year's winner of our *Team Spirit Award* - the Information Technology department. We each received a nice plaque and a $100 gift certificate for Eddie Merlot's - a fancy local restaurant.

Our old 1990 Geo Tracker, with 207,000 miles on it's first engine, had been very convenient and fun to drive for two years. We bought it cheap, did only minimal maintenance on it, and got a lot of use out of it.

But the water pump was showing signs of imminent failure: random squeaks and anti-freeze on the ground underneath the car.

We had been thinking about replacing the old junker anyways - so now was the perfect time to actually go do that. Tom had seen a 2005 Ford Taurus at the same car dealership where we bought our van two years ago.

They took the Tracker for a trade and gave us a good deal on the Taurus. It cost us $7,000 - almost $2,000 below the Kelly Bluebook value. We are now the proud owners of a flexible fuel car, it runs on E85 (or regular unleaded). I like the idea of burning Indiana's corn instead of OPEC's fossil fuel.   

OK, you might say that, after roughly 30 years in Information Technology, it's maybe kind of late for me to start pursuing my Bachelor's Degree - but this is exactly what I'm going to do.

I am going to take advantage of Indiana Tech's generous offer - free tuition for employees - and start working on my BS in Business Administration. My major is going to be Management Information Systems. I'll be going to class for the next approximately four years, one night per week.

I picked an easy one for my first class, starting in January 2008: Foundations of Quantitative Methods.

Today I went over to the bookroom and received my algebra book for that class.

I am very excited about it!