Less negativeness this time

There has been some time since the last time has there not?  I just got ran out of the coffee shop that I usually go to because some old ladies were having a meeting.  So, I'm here at  Starbucks with a smile on my face and a good attitude.   I'ts hot in here and it prevents me from wearing my English cap which is costing me cool points.  Not only do I not look cool, but I'm also in Starbucks not looking cool  (我不但不是酷而且在咖啡馆打着字).  I'm sure there are some grammatical errors in my attempt at translating but that is the best I can do with my current level of dedication. I miss the Jade tree and its only been a month...hope everything stays the same.  Work has been getting more interesting lately.  I'll be doing my first class on radiac operation ( devices that measure radiation for the uninitiated).  The colleagues span a wide range of age.  As far as I can tell there are two main classes among us: the academics and retired military.  The retired military sneer at the academics for their lack of experience and scoff at their presumptuousness.  The academics seem...indifferent for the most part although this divide gets more apparent as the days go by.  The academics will move on soon and segue into higher positions, more profitable ones.  The retired military are solidified in their experience, the kind that is so specific they would be obsolete if the strayed beyond the familiar umbrella of the Feds.  Still, I find one guy in particular really interesting.  He is on the upper end of the wide age bracket;  A middle aged man with a jolly red face and a tobacco voice.  He sports a grey mullet and a mustache that might be distinguished and might be goofy.  He told us a cool story about this old couple in the 80's who would send President Reagan home made jam.  I 'm sure he never actually ate any but it apparently made the news a few times.  This couple lived in northern Oregon down wind from Hanford, Washigton a nuclear waist disposal site.  Eventually the white house began to frisk ( it means scan for radiation with a Geiger counter) in accordance with security measures that were new at the time.  Well, the jam they were sending Reagan was ,according to my co-worker, "Hot as shit."  "Hot" is an idiom for something that emits radiation above background.  Reagan was getting dosed via-radioactive jam.