In my spare unemployed time, I have been working on personal development. It wasn’t a conscious decision. I just have more time to find out about these opportunities being offered. And I don’t have to rush home from a job an hour away to get to them on time. And I am not too exhausted from working 40 hours a week, commuting 10 hours a week, and running my mom’s errands, and doing housework to attend.
I have gone to meetings about genealogy. One was about the basics, which I am already beyond. But that meeting did provide me with the suggestion for the new software I am currently using. The next one I went to was a tour of genealogy resources at the Lenawee County Historical Museum. It helped, but I would need to dive in myself to really understand what is there and how it is indexed, organized, etc. But it was very nice to get out of the house child-free and spend a few hours with other adults who talk about adult things. Of course, recently I haven’t had time to work on my family tree stuff. Spring cleaning is taking up all my time.
Last week I went to SKYWARN weather spotter training. The website says that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “National Weather Service (NWS), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, established SKYWARN.” When I went I wasn’t even sure if it was to be a weather spotter, but it turns out it was. If you read Tuesday’s post, you know I have an interest in severe weather. I don’t feel any more knowledgeable than before I went, but they gave me an awesome weather booklet and the secret spotter call-in number. They spent a lot of time on storm cloud formation. Which is good, except I live in the city and am surrounded by trees and other houses. By the time I see a cloud it is usually directly overhead. So, I feel like I could be a more useful spotter if I lived out in the country, but whatever. It makes me feel important.
I love how the booklet says things like “Personal safety is the primary objective of every spotter.” But then the booklet is filled with awesome photos of tornadoes people took while driving around in their cars in weather they shouldn’t be out in. It is like they give you the disclaimer so that they won’t get sued, but they know if you are a weather spotter you have an interest in this and will probably be out in a storm anyway.
One thing I always said I would do if I had free time was to volunteer at the Lenawee Humane Society. But I can’t really do that right now because I would have to take my son with me. Plus, I am sour on LHS at the moment (not their dog care skills or facility, just how they run their fundraising events). And I am sour on dogs, because Parker is becoming unbearable to live with.
My husband is doing personal development too. He has never been confident in his reading/writing skills. He believes the public school system failed him, and I think he may be right (more about our complaints about the school system in a future post). I knew this, so last fall when I saw an ad in the newspaper about free tutoring opportunities, I showed it to him. He got very excited. He called a few days later. Normally he would procrastinate and probably never call at all. Over the years, he has tried buying workbooks, etc., to try to teach himself, but with no real success. They gave him a test at the literacy center. He actually tested high enough that he wasn’t eligible for the program. But one of the tutors was nice enough to agree to help him anyway. See, he reads and writes well enough to get by. But with his new job, it would be great if his skills were elevated to say, what you should know when you graduate high school (which he did). Details are important in his new job. I am hoping the tutoring helps him with that.
All this and raising an almost 18 month-old too. Oy. I guess if you are positive (as in attitude) about the things you like, opportunities to expand your knowledge of them will come along. Who knows, maybe this year I will get to attend Word Camp. (That would be awesome!)
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