It's too darn hot!

Okay, folks: another reference in the title! What show's it from? Email me the right answer and I'll give you a complementary reward!

So yeah... Ithaca has been very, very hot lately. I know any Southerners reading this will scoff, but it's been in the mid-eighties with high humidity lately. Thunderstorms are a regular thing in the weather forcasts, and we've gotten a few. In fact, a huge tree in DeWitt Park (just on the other side of the church) fell on Monday, right on top of a tent that had been left there after Ithaca Festival. Oops! That'll teach 'em to leave their stuff lying around. But anyway, I've been very grateful for the kind donation of a window air conditioner unit from Kristin, my boss. She just moved into a house with central a/c, didn't need the window unit, and knew how hot it gets in my apartment... so I have a/c! In my bedroom, at least. It tries on the rest of the apartment, it really does... but it's too much for the poor little thing. S'okay. I have fans.

And speaking of Kristin, she hired Gibson to mow her lawn this summer. Since Gibson's down in Florida, I got to do the mowing. I got there on Thursday, gassed up the mower, and started it up... and it started spewing out so much white smoke I thought I'd choke. Somebody had overfilled the oil on the thing, and so the engine was just burning off whatever excess there was. There was nothing I could do about it -- I thought about changing the oil, but that would mean draining the fuel first, and I didn't have a pump or syphon or anything. So the mower soon stopped belching smoke, and I proceeded to mow.

I got the biggest chunk of lawn done before the engine overheated and quit on me. I took the thing back into the garage and checked it out. Nearly burned my hand on the top. Had to clean oil out of the air filter, which explained a lot about why it overheated. So I left it in the garage, told Kristin, and went back on Friday morning to finish the job.

Well, Friday morning rolled around and the mower wouldn't start. Period. Kristin's going to have to try changing the oil or just getting the thing serviced (my vote's for the latter). I feel a bit guilty, really. I shouldn't have run the thing that hard... but in my own defense, any time that sort of situation happend on my dad's lawnmowers, there weren't any serious problems. *sigh* Hindsight is, as always, 20/20.

In other news: I have been offered a JOB!!! Funny story behind this one. Read on:

I'm subscribed to a listserv from the Human Services Coalition (HSC) of Tompkins County (where Ithaca is). I signed up for it during my time at the Red Cross, because it's useful news and good to find contacts and that kind of thing. Well, I checked my email the other day and there was an email from the Community School of Music and the Arts (CSMA), looking for a "head counselor" for a summer day-camp program for kids ages 6-10. "Hey," I thought, "I could do that! Heck, I have done that before!" So I looked closer. Well, I found out that the dates of the camp conflict with the first worktrip I'm taking with the youth groups -- basically, I wouldn't be able to start working at the camp until the camp's second week.

"Well, no harm in trying," I thought. So I wrote an email to the nice people at CSMA, explaining that I had a good deal of experience working in a summer arts camp and would be interested in the position, but I would unfortunately be unable to start until the first week of July, and I would appreciate any consideration despite that fact.

Apparently, they were about to select someone from their list of candidates, but they were so impressed with my prose that they gave me an interview.

Apparently, they were so impressed with my interview that they offered me the job!

The position's a little different now, however. Because of my absence, they're combining two people into the same job -- I'd work three days each week, and I presume the other person would work the other two, plus one day when we'd overlap.

I have not yet accepted the position. I will be calling them on Monday to let them know. I think I'd better be taking it, though. I need the income, plus the experience will be good for me. Play with some kids all day? How hard could it be? (Famous last words... :-p)

If you're interested, I've posted the emails here.