Random Update of my activities:

Today, I kicked off the September issue of the Tucson Mensa monthly newsletter. I take the previous month's file and update the center-fold calendar grid and the event details. The latter is typically two pages.

Now that I am the Local Secretary (LocSec,) which is the top administrative position, I write a one-page article in the newsletter. The previous LocSec wrote interesting little stories that did not seem to have anything to do with Mensa, and I decided to do better. Now, in my second year, I'm finding it rather difficult to find Mensa-related things to bring to the attention of the group members. Consider that to be my learning.

My wife, having passed the national test for Pharmacy Technicians, became eligible for a state license. As we live in Arizona, I took care of the application process, and she has that license. Little did I know how tedious it would be sitting and applying for jobs with her. Three or four times, she has been turned down. Today, she had a brief phone interview which led to a video interview scheduled for tomorrow. 

On my job-seeking front, I have decided to redirect my career to cybersecurity, and I'm studying online to prepare. cybrary.it seemed like a good place to study, and having exhausted their free offerings, I am paying the monthly fee. I don't want this to go on for too long. I'm aggressive about studying. Right now, I am stuck at the end of a lab session because the labs get "graded" afterward, and I cannot proceed to the next unit of study until I "complete" this one. But to complete it, it has to be graded. If I cannot proceed tomorrow, I will open a support ticket.

On the "home front," a recent very windy rainfall with hail broke two limbs on my big African tree that has thorns all over the trunk and limbs. The two limbs did not break off completely. I bought a long pole cutting saw and cut one free. It's hanging there, tangled in the other one. That one took a huge effort of slow cutting, and I had to leave it still attached. Today, there was just enough wind to break it off completely. So now, both cut-off branches are tangled in the tree and suspended high up. How to get them to come down safely is the next challenge. I think I need to tie a rope on one branch and pull it down. But I don't have a rope, and the pole cutter already cost me a bit over $50. I'll have to buy a rope and then figure out how to tie it to one branch. I would prefer to avoid climbing my ladder up that high. But it might come to that.

Jam