anfin’s Blog

I woke up Monday morning with two major goals, and I accomplished both by the end of the day.

The first goal was to start figuring out how to use the Gainesville bus system which is free for UF students. The first step in this goal was to walk to the OTHER side of campus to say hello to the Chemistry department so that I could discretely ask where to get my student ID. This was a big step (one hour and twenty minutes of steps actually), and it didn’t take me long to figure out that I would not be walking to work every day or even ever. The graduate studies coordinator directed me to the ID office which wasn’t far away. I had to go through the book store to get there and on the way through I saw some Internet connected computers. I got on, checked my mail, and looked up the bus routes relevant to my new apartment. I obtained my ID, went to the nearest bus stop, and took my very first Gainesville bus ride which dropped me off at my doorstep in a quarter of the time it took me to walk the other direction. Goal one accomplished.

Goal two was to groom Rusty because he seemed to be very hot. Due to my refusal to waste too much energy (i.e. money) by cranking up the AC, in addition to my unusual dislike for AC, I have in fact not turned the thermostat down from the 80 degrees I left it at for the past month. I wouldn’t think this would make much of a difference to the poor dog considering the fact that that is the very same temperature that I slowly but surely turned up the thermostat in Greenwood to (due to my aforementioned unusual dislike for AC). However, hearing him panting through the bathroom door well into the night made me feel extremely guilty so I had to due something to relieve him. I started out going to the Petsmart down the road and getting some grooming tools. The only one I ever needed was the demattifier (I don’t actually think this is its name) and the rake comb. In case you haven’t already noticed, A LOT of hair came out just with the brushing. No wonder the dog was so hot. After I brushed him, I trimmed his hair a bit. The pile of hair from this venture was noticeably smaller than the first, but nonetheless impressive. What’s most remarkable is that after losing all that hair, Rusty doesn’t really look any different (except for the fact that I was a little bit too gung-ho about cutting the hair on his back right leg).

Some other notes about Monday:

1. I found myself an outstanding pooper-scooper at PetSmart. It’s everything a pooper-scooper should be, and using Walmart bags was getting old.
2. My Old Navy pants of which I have four pairs and which I have worn almost every day this summer apparently contain some sort of chip which sets off half the security doors to large stores in Gainesville. I am going to have to apologize and explain my pants every time I enter fine establishments such as the UF bookstore, PetSmart, and Target. Woohoo!