1. You forget, three and a half years into a pandemic, that there are such things as colds. Especially when you’ve already scheduled a flu shot and a Covid booster on top of everything and you can’t really reschedule them and – BAM! – there you go. So yeah, it’s been a fun week around here.
2. It’s the middle of the semester and it’s been a fun week that way for pretty much everyone, as far as I can tell. This is the point where the stress starts to get to students and we just try to be there for them. Sometimes all it takes is a friendly voice telling them that this is normal and here’s what you do next and why yes we do have a form for that exact situation, in fact.
3. At some point I will get back to reading books again. It’s been that kind of year. I actually have good books I want to read. I’m in the middle of a book on Douglas Adams for which I was one of the Kickstarter sponsors – have been in the middle of it for over a month now – and last week I managed to see John Scalzi when he came to Madison. He was gracious as always and very funny and I came home with yet more books that I really will read at some point.
2. It’s the middle of the semester and it’s been a fun week that way for pretty much everyone, as far as I can tell. This is the point where the stress starts to get to students and we just try to be there for them. Sometimes all it takes is a friendly voice telling them that this is normal and here’s what you do next and why yes we do have a form for that exact situation, in fact.
3. At some point I will get back to reading books again. It’s been that kind of year. I actually have good books I want to read. I’m in the middle of a book on Douglas Adams for which I was one of the Kickstarter sponsors – have been in the middle of it for over a month now – and last week I managed to see John Scalzi when he came to Madison. He was gracious as always and very funny and I came home with yet more books that I really will read at some point.
4. I will also get back to the BFT posts, as there are – by my count – three more I need to make. I’m glad that there are people who find them entertaining. I try! But mostly I just want to get the stories down before I forget them, which happens faster and faster every year. Maybe someday I’ll get all this whole blog printed out as something more permanent than electrons on someone else’s server, and my descendants will enjoy all these stories too. One can hope.
5. I have nothing in particular to say about the current situation in the middle east, because I do not really keep up with goings on in that area and there is already enough uninformed nonsense out there that I don’t feel any pressing need to add to it. The history behind all of this is more complicated and less decisive than either side is willing to admit and there are sins and atrocities aplenty to go around.
6. Meanwhile, Kyiv still stands.
7. Over here in the Land of the Free™ the House GOP managed to select a leader even worse than the sexual predator or the open racist that they tried to elect before this guy, which is an astonishing achievement but it is a target-rich environment that way – really, all they had to do was toss a beanbag at one of their meetings and the odds of hitting someone worse were pretty good. The new guy is an avowed theocrat who thinks his personal faith is more important than laws, morals, the Constitution, or you; who is perfectly happy to abandon our allies abroad and anyone who isn’t exactly like him here at home; and who has exactly zero experience with any responsible post in Congress. So we got that going for us. At this point the chances of a complete trainwreck are somewhere between Absolute and Already Happened.
8. The bunnies are in for the winter now, as we are about to head into a solid week of below-freezing overnight lows and that’s just not good for their water bottles. They’re down in their newly reconstituted basement lair, where it will be warmer but rather less interesting visually, though I’m not sure how important that is to a bunny when all is said and done.
9. The Phillies lost in the NLCS, and there was much sadness. They were an entertaining team this year. On the other hand, the Eagles are leading the NFL, the Union is in the playoffs, and the Flyers are, well, working hard. The Wolves haven’t been relegated out of the Premier League yet, and none of the other sportsball teams that I follow in whatever vague ways I follow them seem to be doing too badly. So that’s going well.
10. I am really looking forward to a period of downtime where I have nothing pressing to do. I suspect this may happen in June. We’ll see.
4 comments:
OK, David. You were doing so well. But you just can't say "The Wolves."
"The Reds," for Liverpool, sure. "The Gunners," fine. Conceiveably if arguably, "the Spurs." But "Wolves."
Please hand in your temporary British ID card and report for out-processing.
You know, I looked at that and thought, "I wonder if I really need the article there" and then got distracted and in it stayed.
Sigh.
1. Maybe that’s what’s had me down for the last couple of days. A friggen ol’ run-of-the-mill cold!!!
4. You may number me among the fans! And, 1,864 posts so far - that’s gonna chop down a forest or two … Maybe saving them as a PDF instead would be a better plan??? (Just thinking out loud here)
7. They would have done better to be tossing horseshoes. Make that mule shoes. (They’re significantly larger and, more importantly, heavier.) Just sayin’. And Chances? I’m going with ‘Train Wreck has Started - but it’s going to take a long time before everything stops crashing into everything else’. And a couple of generations to pick up the pieces.
10. I am, at long last, Officially Retired. Whatever the hell that means … I haven’t a clue what comes next.
Lucy
Hi Lucy -
Congratulations on your retirement! I knew that was sometime around now but wasn't sure of the exact date. I wish you well! My advice is to spend the first month or two just not doing much of anything - catching up on sleep, minor projects, half-finished books, and such. Eventually you will get bored - or someone else will get bored for you - and then other options will magically present themselves. But a break in between is a lovely thing!
4. Thanks! I am trying to save each post as a pdf on my own computer, just to avoid the "Google changed its business model" problem, and I'm mostly caught up. If I ever do try to print them I suspect I'd drop the more topical ones that don't age well and just go with the ones that have stories I want to remember. Or maybe I'll just print the doorstop version and let my descendants worry about it. ;)
7. They can toss bricks for all I care, but one must start somewhere. And yes, my grandchildren will still be paying for this crew of vandals.
I'm finally starting to feel better now. Of course every single one of the students in my office today sniffled and hacked at me the whole time so we'll see how long that lasts.
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