two more rounds

 But first, the sleet/ice/snow storm

We never lost power, thank goodness. And so far, we haven't lost water, though there is one small subdivision on the north east side of town that had a water main break and was without water for a few hours. (It's supposed to get very cold tonight so I hope dumping the storage buckets - so I could shower and wash my hair - wasn't premature. Except it IS supposed to get above freezing tomorrow).

Campus was closed today and again tomorrow; it's VERY cold and the streets are completely covered with a hard film of sleet sandwiching snow, which has compressed into sort of an ice. Not a slick ice; I was able to carefully walk on it once I could get out of the house today.

 Because at first, I couldn't. Sunday morning I looked out and overnight enough sleet had come down that my screen door was blocked shut by it (at first I thought it was frozen). 

This is looking out the screened portion of the door. I had been able to open it on Saturday, but the sleet all came overnight. I was kind of uncomfortable with the idea of not being able to get out in an emergency (because of course the local news channels are warning about house fires, though most of those are folks using space heaters improperly.

So I decided to see if I could open the side door. I rarely use it because it's old, and the wooden door still locks with an old skeleton key (you know, the kind you leave in the lock so that it's harder for someone with another key to unlock it). There's also a very old storm door that will need to be replaced since in the process of working, I broke the catch on it (I have it wired shut now, there was a screw eye mounted in the door frame close to the catch), 

It was also not possible to open. I didn't like that. But this one has a glass panel you can lift up, and is also close enough to a plug so I could set the space heater up to blow warm air on it in case it was just frozen shut (it was not, it was blocked closed by sleet)

 At first, I thought I could lean out the panel and scrape the sleet away, but I couldn't get purchase on it from that angle. So I thought, "Well, with the panel up, the gap is big enough I can climb out on the porch and do it from there, and then walk around and clear the front porch" (I had my snow shovel). 

I thought - well, this panel SLIDES, and the catches are old, I should block it open with something" but I couldn't find ANYTHING that worked, so I thought, "Well, I'll be careful, and I'll also probably be able to open it from outside if it slides closed" 

Well, I was wrong. Shortly after starting to scrape (and it was REALLY hard, if I hadn't wound up EXTRA motivated I might have given up), the panel slid closed. I took my gloves off to get a better grip and tried to slide it back up. No go - it had fallen with enough force to engage the lower catches and was latched shut from the inside.

And no, I had not brought my cell phone with me.

So I thought: well, you could walk across the street to see if the neighbors you slightly know are at home and see if you can at least stay warm in their place until you figure out a solution. Or you could break the glass in the door and try to crawl back in without slicing yourself. Or you can try get the door clear. Those are literally the only choices...

In the end, a lot of hard work, and I got the door clear and squeezed back into my house. 

This was fairly early in the day, midday my neighbor texted me to see if I was alright and I mentioned my front door was blocked shut but that I'd managed to clear the side door. She said "I'll send my husband over, he can clear your porch."

I said he didn't need to, I had an emergency exit (he has to be at least 70 and I worry sometimes about exertion in extreme cold, even for myself). But he did come over, and he had METAL shovels (mine is just plastic with a thin metal lip) and was able to work from a better angle (even if I had been able to take the glass out of that door) so eventually he got it cleared enough that I could open the door (and today I scraped away more of the stuff). I thanked him but I also think once we can get back out I'll pick up a Braum's giftcard for them; if they don't want hamburgers from there, they also sell some grocery-type items.

 This was all before I knew that classes were cancelled today; there really was no way anyone could safely drive in.

Midday today, again before I heard about tomorrow, I decided "well, I better see if I can get my garage open." I had unlatched the automatic opener but I was worried the door might be frozen, or the sleet banked on it would be a problem. 

So I suited up and carefully walked out, using my shovel to help balance. I worked for about 40 minutes out there (it was cold but there was no wind so it wasn't so awful) but I never got it able to open. And as I've noted before, the rather silly remodel an earlier owner did (putting a wall of shelves up between the side door and the rest of the garage, so the main overhead-door is the only entry to get in to the car), there was no way to get inside (where there was a plug I could have hooked a heating device up to or force the door from the inside)  so it wasn't going to open. I think it's frozen. And it didn't get above freezing today but will tomorrow. 

Also, my first WEDNESDAY class is not until 9 so if worse comes to worse and I can't get it open tomorrow afternoon, I should be able to get someone to drive me in to campus. But I trust it'll get warm enough that I can get it open.

I wasn't willing to get down on the ground and really try to work it because my knee was really hurting by that point and I was afraid between that and how slick the ground was, I'd not get back up. I also tried to think of some thin but strong thing I would have in my house that I could try to use as a lever, but couldn't think of anything. And any of the OTHER tools I might use were locked in the frozen garage...

So anyway, I spent the rest of the day trying to read a book on the Ice Age in North America and I did a little knitting on the vest. I thought round 9 of the current repeat of the pattern would be enough, but measuring tells me I need to carry it to round 11 before I can divide for the front and back:

 

 

 

 

And it starts

 I can hear what I think (hope) is sleet rather than freezing rain. 

I had a meeting at 3. Only two of the five people showed up, the other three thought it had been cancelled. The person who called the meeting and I were able to do a little work; I got home around four. Then, it was chilly and misting. I unhooked the cord to the automatic garage door opener so I can manually open it if the power goes out - if it's safe to walk out there (not too icy), I could charge my phone, and if the power outage is bad enough it extends past Tuesday, when the roads should melt clear, I could get somewhere else. 

I also showered and washed my hair; would not want to do that without lights, heat, or hot water if the power goes out. And then I filled two large buckets with water and left them in the tub; in case I need "non potable" water if the water system goes out (sometimes water mains break in weather like this). 

I have food I can eat without heating, and I have bottled water, and I have flashlights and a lot of blankets. I'm hoping, in sort of a "fairy tale logic" way that my extensive preparation means nothing bad happens. 

I haven't heard anything but I expect church will be cancelled if the roads are icy, and it seems likely that campus will be closed Monday, it's going to be very cold

 

(And there goes someone driving down the street in a boom car. Wild. They are telling people not to go out unless they have to).

So I guess I'm stuck at home tomorrow and Sunday; I hope the power stays on.  

Thursday evening things

 *not a lot to say, my whole face hurts, probably because of the weather coming in (sinuses).

* I pulled the vest back out this evening and added a couple more rounds but didn't feel up to doing very much.

* I have been watching the 'local' news channel to see the scroll of school closures. So far, the two small universities closest to me are closed, we are still open as of this point. The local school district is open. Granted, the bad weather isn't supposed to arrive until noon, but I thought IF we did decide to close and I knew, I could just turn my alarm off.

 * I have got a few e-mails from students telling me they have longish commutes and aren't coming in and I get it; this storm is probably going to be dangerous.

* I've done what I can to prepare, the last two things will be filling buckets with water in the tub (in case we lose water; you still need to flush) and also going in my garage and unhooking the "manual override" for the door opener - so if there's no power, I could still get in there, I could AT LEAST charge my cell phone off the battery, and if we have  catastrophic power outage that still exists after all the ice and snow melt, I possibly could bug out somewhere where there would be heat.

I admit the main thing I am worried about is not being able to have heat; it's supposed to get down in the teens and my house seems to lose heat pretty rapidly, and I'm afraid of going hypothermic, especially overnight. I don't know if that's a possibility or not, indoors, with blankets, and my own body heat, but when it's 10 degrees or less outdoors I suspect my house won't stay over 60 F for long without electric power. 

* I keep reminding myself that it will be well enough above freezing by Tuesday that even if I have no power, IF I can drive, I could probably get SOMEWHERE that would be warm - whether they have the dorms powered, they might let me hang out there, or the public library if it has a generator, or, if I could get somewhere far enough away to have less of an effect of ice, I might be able to get a hotel room somewhere. 

It's also possible we won't get enough ice for major problems; they keep changing the forecast and reducing the amount of ice. I will get a little cabin feverish if it's just snow and sleet and I'm stuck in the house for three days, but three days of cold/dark/no water/no way to heat food would be bad.

But also a thing I have noticed in myself, something that seems to have developed in the pandemic - what I call the "forever now phenomenon" - that any bad situation is going to be forever, that it's always going to be cold and dark, or it's always going to be impossible to go out without risking getting a deadly virus, or there's always going to be things going on in government that are horrifying and things will never get better. I don't remember being like that when I was younger; I don't know if my brain has just shifted or it's a buildup of stuff I've experienced. 

*It was kind of a stressful day. The heating in part of the building went out and even with a few little space heaters Physical Plant brought, it was just cold, and I can tell I tensed up (my shoulders hurt). Also, the grad student who helps out with the lab prep (and teaches the one right after mine) told me he was running home for lunch and a quick nap before his lab (this was shortly after noon; his lab was at 3. He is an International student with an accent and darker skin. So when he didn't show up right before 3 (he is normally a few minutes early always), I started to worry, thinking "if he had car trouble he'd e-mail me" or "if he took sick but not too badly he might e-mail me" and while I've seen no evidence of DHS forces in town, I did worry.....what if he got confronted. So I prepared to launch into teaching his lab, and could tell I was concerned enough that I probably wouldn't have done well, when the undergrad who is the assistant said "oh, he just texted me, he overslept and is about five minutes away"

I think I visibly relaxed in front of the class when I heard that, and he ran in the door a couple minutes later. 

Later, he came and apologized to me and thanked me for being on hand and ready to teach if I had to. I didn't tell him I had been worried and why, but I suspect he knew. (And since it ended happily, I admit: if I had had wound up doing the pre-lab for him, I might have gently dunked on him about it, just because he is normally so prompt and isn't the type of person to take naps during the day, but I think this week was a lot of evening meetings for him and he was probably tired). At any rate: while I could have taught for him, I'm glad I didn't have to, especially not for the reason I was worrying about. 

Wednesday night things

 * Still working on the blanket. I won't be done before the storm hits.

* I made a few more preparations today. I thought about "how can I try to stay warm in the house if there's no power" and I remembered those shiny mylar emergency blankets, and hunted around online, and found the local Ace had them, and they do "order online for pickup." So I got that, and more batteries for my little headlamp and the radio/flashlight/phone charger. I also got one of those "hot hands" thing that heats up from a chemical reaction just in case. And ice melter.  

I also remembered to get my snow shovel out of the (detached) garage; if I needed it it would most likely to be clear my porch and steps FIRST.

* I got another half gallon of milk. Plains brand, not the usual one I buy, but I opened it at dinner (it had the shortest expiry date) and it's not too bad, so I can remember Green Spray has that for emergencies in the future. 

* I think if we lose power for a while and it gets cold, maybe I try to make sort of a tent over my bed with quilts and maybe the emergency blanket draped over chairs. It would be small, might not be possible to sit up in, but I thing that's preferable to trying to make a "sofa/chair fort" (like the Belcher kids did in that one episode of Bob's Burgers when the family's heat was out) because my floors get cold (crawl space under it) and it's also harder to sit or lie comfortably on the floor now. 

*it's really hard to tell, though. The OKC news channel (which we get for some reason) makes it sound like we're going to literally be wiped off the face of the Earth and we might lose power for over a week; they seem a lot more sanguine about things locally and I don't know whom to believe. I guess the current forecast is for a quarter inch of ice at most, which is at the border line of where things get bad - less than that and we're probably in the clear; more and power lines and things like cable will snap. 

* I did all the accumulated "clothing laundry" in preparation of maybe not being able to do it for a couple days. (Sheets, I won't worry about, or maybe I do a set tomorrow night). I could also take unused sheets and hang them up over windows to block cold. I don't love climbing up to do stuff like that but maybe I can use a broom handle to do the draping and stand down on the floor. 

*I guess I'm pretty good at making plans to be safe and all that, but you know? It's kind of exhausting and it's a little scary and worrysome to do it alone. I did warn my mom that if it gets bad, the best I might be able to do was a short phone call Sunday night to let her know I'm OK

 

I really hope we don't get a multi day power outage with the cold; that's a situation where you have to go to a shelter, and that is something I would find very stressful because of noise and strangers and being alone in a place with other people.  

Everyone's on edge

 Like much of the country, we're supposed to get an enormous winter storm starting Friday. They've warned us it might be the next Wednesday before the roads are passable. 

The one bit of good news is they seem to have reduced the amount of ice we are likely to get - 1/4" or more will take down power lines, and while I have gas heat and hot water, both those things have electric starters rather than the old school pilot light (and of course the furnace needs an operational blower).

So if the power goes out, especially given how cold it's supposed to be, I'm in a world of hurt. (I will have to run the taps, in case. Frozen pipes would be even worse). 

 My plan, if the power DOES go out, is to get into bed, with heavy pajamas and socks on, and several blankets. I have a headlamp that's battery powered (and I know where it is, so I can run it) so at least I could read.

I have a battery radio but whoof, our over the air stations are terrible. Perhaps the BEST one is the sports chat station, that's how dire they are - we don't have NPR, we don't have a decent oldies station, I can't pick up the one "just the news, no unhinged commentary" station out of Dallas in my house, it's not powerful enough. 

This is not great, if we lose power, because since the pandemic, I have found that abject silence - no news, no voices - is not good for me. 

I will say the battery/solar/handcrank radio has a flashlight and also supposedly will charge a cell phone from a USB port. I admit I'd be anxious about frying my phone with it, if I'm desperate enough, I might try (though without wifi, I'm not sure how much I could do)

Yes, I have food, but I might see if I can buy another carton of milk tomorrow just in case.

I did run to the walmart today on my lunch break for emergency food (that doesn't need to be cooked) and bottled water (back in 2021 we had a freeze that broke a water main and we had no water for a day or so. I want to at least be able to drink water (though flushing would be nice, too, though if there's a lot of snow....then again, it takes so long to melt in a cold house that's not viable). 

Anyway, I really hope we don't get ice.

I can put up with things being shut down due to snow if I have heat and light and water, I can stay home and knit or read. 

(I am still trying to finish the blanket, I probably won't get it done before the storm, these things take forever, but it is very warm and would be good to have if the power got cut)

Anyway, the walmart was kind of a nightmare. Not really shortages yet, but there was much less choice in the milk fridge than there normally is. But people were really on edge, it was crowded, and loud (they were playing a local radio station loudly - complete with ads - and several people were listening to their phones broadcast stuff on speaker as they went down the aisles). One woman was walking along loudly talking, I think to herself (it was disjointed, and I could not see a phone or earpiece). At one point I had to stop in a nearly empty aisle and just close my eyes for a moment; I felt like I was melting down a little and I needed a moment of peace.

Another thing I noticed - and I am SURE this is pandering to RFK jr and what he's pushing - many of the foods (including the highly-processed foods that he's going to war against) feature PROTEIN! yes, they add extra protein, I'm not sure from what. There were high protein crackers and bread and even Pop-Tarts, for goodness' sake. And I wondered what happens to the people who have to limit protein intake  - I knew someone with a congenital kidney problem who had to do so. What do they do when almost all the food in the store has that stuffed into it?

Anyway, I hate bandwagonism.

And it seems like a lot of people are struggling a bit now. I had three interactions with different faculty - reassuring one about the weather (that was the shortest and simplest). The most important one, and the one where I might have done some good, another colleague came to me right after I got out of class (it was fine, it was my office hours) and told me she "needed to talk to someone" and went on that "I needed to try to find someone who is the same kind of Christian as I am, and I know you are." It turns out a relative of hers, she has had to go no contact with them (not a parent or sibling, but....someone she had been close to). Apparently this person has gone all in on the nationalism-Christian stuff and was telling her she was "following Jesus wrong" for her more politically-liberal positions, and for working as a college professor, and on and on. And yeah, that kind of thing is hard to deal with. I don't even remember all I said other than that it sounded like it was a "them" problem and not a "her" problem, and the fact that they are talking about not loving ALL God's children suggests that they're being a bit blinkered in what they're doing and.....it's hard. I hope I could reassure her. I think she felt better after talking.

Then at the end of the day another colleague came to me to complain about another person calling a meeting at a certain time when that person wanted to be out of town. I admit I was less soothing and conciliatory there, because I could remember the time I postponed the ONE fun thing I was going to do during exam week in favor of some interviews (and in fact, interviews THIS person called for). And I also object to it when people come to me to air their beef with a third party, where I am in no way involved. But I finally kind of pacified them (or at least enough that they went away).

But man, I'm tired, along with all the bizarre and unhinged stuff going on in the world. 

 

I did also wind up deciding to order tickets for Spring Break, on the grounds that you never know how long you'll have older relatives, and it would be nice to see my mom, and I can work starting my spring research around it anyway. It's expensive but unless something happens to prevent the trip*, I have something to look forward to.

 (*and in the world the way it is now? I would not be entirely surprised if it did. I will prepare myself emotionally so I won't be too upset, and yet, at the same time, I hate that, I hate that I have to remind myself "even the small good things you might arrange for could be taken from you through no fault of your own") 

Today's Federal holiday

 Of course, today is the commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birth. 

Yesterday at lunch after church, a newer member asked if we had a parade in town here and one of the women who had lived here her entire life, laughed ruefully and said no, and then explained that until the 1950s, this place had been a so-called "Sundown Town" (I knew what that was, and I knew we had been). 

Some of the cities in the area  - Sherman does - do have official commemorations - parades or walks or similar. My own campus does service projects. 

 But I will say, it feels in the past year like the country's going backwards. Things seem worse than they were. I don't know if it's my prejudgment but people do seem to be meaner, and less willing to live and let live. 

I hope I live to see a time where things get better again but some days I wonder. 

Anyway, there was a dream of a better world, where people cared about each other more, and understood that someone being different to them didn't make them bad or wrong. 

I will say a current favorite piece of music has a link to this day - Oscar Peterson's "Hymn to Freedom," which he composed in the mid-60s, was (later, I guess) dedicated to Dr. King, and Harriet Hamilton wrote words to it

Here's a purely instrumental version with Peterson playing piano. Unfortunately towards the end the microphone tips over or something and there's a loud crash, but it's a nice performance of it otherwise:

 And here's a version with the words, with Oliver Jones (who was a great friend of Peterson's) playing piano, and Dione Taylor singing:

 It's that gospel style which is so familiar to me. I can envision the next chord in the progression even if I don't play by ear well enough to figure them out. It all sounds so "right" to me. 

I did find sheet music for it somewhere. I can play the first two pages, sort of, but after that I'm not there yet, and the part where you do...I forget what it's called, but it's symbolised with three heavy diagonal lines between the notes, and you're supposed to vibrate between the two tones as fast as you can, and I can't my my hands that fast these days.  

restarting a project

 Today, I got to thinking about the corner-to-corner blanket I started out of one of those color-shifting cakes of yarn. I started it back in 2022, but because it's so huge, and it's all garter stitch (so: easy to get bored with), I haven't worked on it much. I am getting close to done; I'm on the decrease section so it gets a tiny bit smaller (well: one stitch) each row, because you decrease.

But I'd like to be done with it some time, so maybe I try to work on it some (I have a long weekend this weekend, and there's neither bell choir nor Sunday school - the teacher is having minor surgery, and bells don't restart until next week. 

I admit what pushed me to pull it back out this evening was a flying trip to Sherman - I needed to go to Ulta (almost out of a couple of cosmetics I use, and I figured given how unreliable package delivery sometimes is now, I didn't want to trust to order it). I had thought of going tomorrow; but it's supposed to get cold and at one point they were talking about "there might be a few flurries" though I think that's been taken out of the forecast. And I wanted to bigger grocery shopping than I can locally. So I ran down there. And wound up on the side of the interstate where Michael's was (There are two of those strip type shopping malls pretty much across 75 from each other; the one with the Ulta is where JoAnn's used to be; Michael's is in the other one). So I decided: okay, I'll look quickly in Michael's and then cross over on the overpass and do the stuff I need to do at Ulta.

And they had more of those yarn cakes, and one set of them were on sale (and I had a coupon) and there was a pattern for an interesting crocheted blanket.

And I admit it: I'm a sucker for those color shifting cakes and I really do have too many ahead. But I had a COUPON, see. So I got them. And then I thought, "I really should finish the blanket I have going on" (never mind this one is crocheted, and the one I've been working on is knitted).

So this evening, after doing a few things (I wanted to change the bedsheets, and given I now have six pillows to prop up on/keep myself sleeping on one side, and multifarious stuffed animals on the bed, it's kind of a preoduction) I got the blanket out. 

I'm closer to done than I remembered but it will still be a while. But the nice thing about projected like these is that they do wait for you. 

and more socks

 I got the first of these socks done over break, and started the second one a few days ago.

 

The yarn is called "Cosmic Dust," it's from an Etsy seller I've bought a few sets of sock yarn from. Her shop is called UP North Yarns, she is based in Powers, Michigan, which is not terribly far from where my relatives in the UP lived, so I like that connection. Many of her yarns are inspired by colors in the UP - I have another one that's supposed to be like Kitch-iti-kipi springs, and another one that's like a sunrise over an icy landscape. 

I like her yarns, the base she uses seems to be good quality, and the color combinations appeal to me. 

They're just simple socks, which with these kind of patterning yarns, often work best. (I have a lot of striping yarns in my stash and I admit I try to find patterns that work that are OTHER than just plain. I might see if I have any plain solid colors that match with some of the stripes on the other striping yarns and do solid stripes with stripes of the patterning yarn.  I also have one from the Simply Sock Yarn club that is light colored enough it MIGHT just work with a simple cable. 

I'm still reading on "The Black Spectacles;" I just got to the point where Fell FINALLY appears (one of the police, trying to figure out the crime, have gone to visit him while he is "taking the waters" at Bath.)

And I was actually a bit surprised. At least in his introduction to Elliot he describes "taking the waters" as drinking large quantities of what I presume is some kind of mineral-spring water. I always thought of it as literally soaking in the water, kind of like what people did at Hot Springs in Arkansas (but then again, maybe they drank the water too?)

"Taking the water cure" seems like such a bygone thing - I don't think people would do it to improve health now (then again, in the Brave New World of who we have in top governmental "health" positions, we may once again be told to "take the waters" instead of, I don't know, go to counseling for burnout or something). Though then again, a reasonable bunch of time off where you got more or less taken care of (a nice place to stay, food you didn't have to cook, being able to sit and relax) might help mental fatigue as much as anything - it just wouldn't cure, for example, gout or something. (I assume Fell, given his Gargantuan appetite and tendency to drink a fair amount, might be at risk) 

 

It only Tuesday :(

 That was an old Onion thing, a photo of a bunch of sad looking people standing in what looked like a subway station, and the caption "It only Tuesday"

A friend of mine posted it on Bluesky today and it is, as the kids say, a Mood. 

There was still noise from the scissor lift today and I just have to accept, I guess, that it will always be loud and chaotic, because that's just my life now. 

And my lab got changed to Thursday, which is the best solution I guess, except I didn't find out until midmorning today. I could have come home for lunch, but I already had a packed lunch.

 so it's gonna be four days straight this week of Sad Desk Lunches and while that's not the worst thing ever, it's just.....all the little unpleasant things loom larger in the face of all the bigger unpleasant things in the world. Like, Cant' I Have One Nice Thing Please?

***

But anyway.

I guess there were nice things on Saturday. I ran down to Quixotic Fibers; they are closing out their Dream in Color (they got bought up by a big conglomerate and Quixotic's owners decided they wanted to feature smaller dyers, ideally more "local" (FSVO local) ones. So they had it marked down to $20 a skein, which is almost half off of what it was up to (like everything, inflation has hit yarn).

I did have some money that was a Christmas gift, so I figured: might as well spend it on yarn AND to help keep a small semi local business afloat:

 I don't remember any of the color names and I'm not going to get up and look. There's a variegated bright pink (the top one) and then a pink/red/orangey one that's more of a controlled color mix. And I bought 800 yards (2 skeins) of the yellow (it's actually more of a gold than it looks there) for either a scarf or a small shawl. 

I also went to the used book store. I bought a book of Conrad Aiken's poems (I read a couple of his short stories but never poems) and had a nice conversation with the owner, who knows me slightly (the shop used to be here in town, but she moved to Denison. Understandable: it's larger, clustered around a lot more shops, closer to Dallas so might get some of people from that area, and it's a more prosperous customer base. Still, it stinks to have to drive an hour's round trip rather than having a spur-of-the-moment trip downtown for fun.)

***

I pulled the British School Slipover back out but it feels like I never get more than a round or two done on it. This first week has been brutal (and yes: "it only Tuesday") and I'm really tired. 

I'm probably about 10 rounds from dividing the fronts and backs, so I am perhaps close to half done with it, though.

***

and over break, I finished the "Roadside Attraction" socks that are made out of a skein of hand dyed sockyarn of a colorway called "Griswold Christmas Tree" (I presume, since the main color is a dark "burnt" brown, that it's from AFTER Uncle Louis burned up the tree)

 

Maybe that knit-purl pattern wasn't the best for a dark and busy variegated skein; a lighter one that was more evenly self striping might have worked better. (I might try it again some day with one of the light colored String Theory self stripers I have to see how it goes). 

silly little thing

 today was the first day of classes, it was kind of a cluster:

 - facilities people showed up by surprise with a scissor lift and was replacing the lights in the hallways (14' ceilings). But: scissorlifts have a super annoying backup beep, and I got to hear it all through ALL THREE of my classes. And they're not done, so I assume we get it tomorrow.

They were not here last week when there were no classes but the buildings were open, so it's annoying

- Because of a Registrar mistake, a room I am in for my intro lab is double booked. So the lab might be moved to another day (which is okay, I can do that, if the students can) OR it might be moved to a different room - meaning I have to gather all the stuff before class, move it, and then move it back afterwards. Which I don't like. I feel like in the past I've taken on extra labor (some years I taught the last lab section and everyone left their dirty glassware, sticking my TA and me with it - the TA gets paid by the hour but I'm salaried, and if the TA has burned up their hours for the week, I have to do it all). 

I'm hoping the resolution will be the easiest possible. 

Also, CWF was tonight, and I found out someone who goes to a different church, but is a mutual acquaintance of many of us, has cancer. I hope it was caught really early; I don't know details but I'm ready to be done for a while with bad news for people I know. 

***

But the silly thing that makes it a bit better - something I ordered months ago (it was one of those kickstarter type things where enough people had to order for it to be made) came.

This is from an artist called Poorly Drawn Cats. I have several of the t-shirts with her designs on them, but this is a plushie:

 It's Vampurr! a vampire cat (the initial ordering period was around Halloween)

He has a little cape

 I think I ordered him on one of those days I was feeling a little sorry for myself about things. But I'm glad he finally came.

I named him Viago, after the European-dandy vampire in the movie version of What We Do In The Shadows (the character Taika Watiti played). 

 

Not pictured but he has funny little embroidered toebeans, and yes, that makes a difference. 

the biggest project

 I didn't finish a lot of things over break. This is the single biggest one, and it was sort of a last-minute choice - on Wednesday the 17th of December, before going to the train station, I stopped in Farmersville for a trip to Yarn and You.

And they had a whole wall of little balls of Sirdar chenille yarn, and little books of soft toys to make with it. Sort of an Assemble Your Own Kit thing. There was one book called something like Fanciful Animals with a couple mythological ones (unicorn, phoenix) and three real ones (a llama, a narwhal, and an okapi)

Now, okapi are among my favorite animals because they're so odd - they are the closest living relatives to giraffes despite looking more like a cross between a zebra and a deer (though when you see video of them - and a couple zoos do have it online - you can see that they move kind of like a very small giraffe would). So I decided to splurge on the yarn and booklet of patterns. (I didn't buy the optional fifth color - a rose read, to do pink cheeks on the okapi, I didn't want to spend that much more money to use a few inches of yarn) 

Also, chenille is not my favorite yarn ever to work with, but crocheting it is a lot easier than knitting it (it tends to "worm" when you knit it, with loose stitches and all). And these animals are crocheted. 

It came out much larger than I expected; I was picturing one of the little 5"-6" amigurumi things, this guy is nearly a foot long

 

And yeah, "guy." I was toying with naming him Louise (I watched a lot of Bob's Burgers reruns over break) but then I remembered that only boy okapi have the little horns (the girls have tufts of hair) so maybe I call him Oliver instead. 

The chenille yarn is nicer than many (it's denser and is close to a DK weight) and it does work up into a velvety fabric

 I did use lock washer eyes, which you install on the eye patches (made separately and sewn on at the end) and I wound up lightly stuffing the patches because the posts on the lock washer eyes - which were what the pattern recommend - made them stick out, but it makes him look a little odd in front view. I might later try to do a little needle sculpting with floss to pull them in more so he doesn't have bulgy eye patches)

 Other than that, I kept the expression neutral. I experimented with scraps of the leftover black and tried to see if eyebrows were necessary but I decided they weren't. 

Maybe cataloguing books

 If I can remember to consistently label posts "2026 reading," maybe I'll be able to find them again so I don't stop at the end of the year and go "wharrrgarrbllll I didn't read ANYTHING!" (I do read, I just, sometimes forget what I've read, or I think I read something longer ago than I did. Like, in 2025 I read Pratchett's "Equal Rites" but I was remembering I read it in 2024).

Anyway, maybe I keep better track so I feel less like my brain is running out my ears or something. 

I finished one novel (novella? long story?) already this year - I read Tolkien's "Farmer Giles of Ham." This was presented to me at some point as 'this is a story to make you more hopeful' and I admit the person.....kind of oversold it? It's an entertaining story, basically a fairy story for adults (not to say there's anything INAPPROPRIATE for children, it's just, I think adults, especially over-educated adults, will get the humor more). Mostly it felt like an extended philological joke, with the formal and vulgar languages (Yes I know that was a real thing a thousand or so years ago) and people having names in both, etc. 

And I admit I like that the animals could talk. (At least the dog and the dragon could. The mare seemed to "keep her own counsel" so presumably she could speak but chose not to?")

And yes, there's perhaps a bit of a reflection on greed in there. The dragon has his hoard, he comes to Ham, people want to chase him off, they realize maybe they can grab the treasure if they slay him and also please the King ("Dragon Tail" is a Christmas delicacy but for many years, real tails were unavailable, so it was recreated as a sort of marzipan cake). Then the King sticks his oar in and reminds the people HE would own any treasure recovered.

Anyway, they send out Giles, because (a) he owns a sword that is literally named (in both the Formal and the Vulgar) "Tailbiter" and (b) he previously chased off a rather dim-witted giant by stuffing a blunderbuss (!!! anachronism alert) full of scrap metal and basically peppering the giant's hind end with it

Though the events of (b) are how the dragon came to Ham - the giant told Chrysophylax (the dragon) that there were "no more knights, just stinging flies" in the Middle Kingdom, and that's why the dragon ventured forth. 

 (Aside #1: this reminds me a bit of The Brave Little Tailor and "killed seven with one blow!" even though Giles is not the one boasting here)

 

(Aside #2: Chrysophylax is a banger name for a dragon and I'll have to remember if if/when I get or make another dragon stuffed toy) 

Giles is no fan of this turn of events; he just wants to stay home with his wife and drink beer and banter with his dog. But at least Tailbiter is an ace in the hole, given that it will attack the dragon on its own without Giles' really knowing how to wield it. 

Anyway, there's a lot of palaver, and a lot of knights killed, and Giles manages to talk the dragon into giving up MOST of his hoard, but also "cutting out the middleman" (not reporting back to the king, who would just grab all the loot). Giles becomes a rich man, the dead knights' servants come to work for him, Ham and the surrounding country prosper, Giles becomes a Lord in his little part of the world.

And yet. The one unsatisfying thing to me - though maybe this is more realistic, really - is just how everything is driven by some sort of greed. Maybe Giles is better than most in that he seems to see to it his little slice of the kingdom prospers. But how many problems are created, how much peace is upset, by someone looking at something someone else has and saying "I want, and therefore I should have"?

The edition I had had the nice Pauline Baynes illustrations in it. Apparently someone else did an earlier edition and Tolkien did NOT like those, preferring the ones Baynes did. It also has another story - Smith of Wooton Manner, which I intend to read some time.

 

I'm also currently reading "The Black Spectacles" (Apparently published here as "The Green Capsule") by John Dickson Carr. Another murder mystery, this one triggered by poisoned chocolates but also involving the poisoning death of a man who wants to try to "prove" that someone suspected of the original poisonings did not do them. I'm not very far in yet.

 It's a Gideon Fell novel, and I like Fell as a character; I hope he shows up soon. I admit the poisoning plot affects me more than it might have a few years ago; I have less of a stomach for murder mysteries now when the world seems more dangerous than it once did to me.

 

I put aside "Trojan Gold" yet again - it's, kind of.....I might call it an "airport novel." It's a thriller, not particularly well written and I feel like the author doesn't particularly worry about verisimilitude. And also, whoo, some of the characters have active, uh, love lives, makes you wonder how they got any work done. I might return to it but I prefer the Carr novel for now.  

Year in review-ish

 this is the thing that Roger and Kelly do most years, and I've done a couple years. So here we are again, a little sadder and older, definitely not leaner, and not really colder (and yes, I still need a little Christmas) 

 

Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I never really make them; even in years when I tried to do "fun" ones I never seemed to follow through very long. I presume that is because I have so much stuff in my life ALREADY that I can't make room for something else, and either there's nothing I can dump (duties) or want to dump (the few things I already do for myself)

So yeah. Maybe "survive 2026" is the best resolution I can make, and even then that feels questionable.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

No. My one colleague/friend who seems to be in the position of wanting children is "done" after having three, and my other two youngish colleagues seem not to want kids, and none of my cousins had any

Did anyone close to you die?

My aunt, who had had Alzheimer's disease. I'm sad she's gone but Alzheimer's is so terrible you almost wish for an end for the person to remove the suffering from them and their families. 

And my friend Jane E., who had moved away from here a few years ago, she also died. IN this case it was a lot of physical infirmity that she was dealing with, and again, it's sad, but at least she's not suffering now. 

What countries did you visit?

I didn't even really travel other than to visit my mom. I think leaving the US is off the table for me for a good long while. I wouldn't want to go somewhere and get spat upon or turned away from places but I would understand Europeans or Asians not wanting us anywhere near them.  

What would you like to have in 2026 that you lacked in 2025? 

 More hope for the future. More close friends. More motivation to take care of some stuff I need to take care of (I still have not replaced my dishwasher because wharrrrgarblll decision paralysis and the LAST appliance installation I had was a bad experience - it's hard living here, there are not a lot of options and if one business sucks, in some cases you don't have much choice). And also: for powerful people who do wrong and evil things to face some sort of consequence, so they maybe stop doing those things.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I hate this question. I never feel like I did anything much. I started two research projects, one I'm just a minor collaborator on and the other one I didn't get very far on because a drought stopped me from getting effective data.  I painted a painting but that feels like it doesn't really count because it's not "official productivity" and it was also kind of formulaicly done. I mean, I juggled all my work (four classes in the fall plus an absolutely grinding committee, and being exiled from my building due to renovations in the spring) but I also feel like "that's not special, that's not an achievement"

What was your biggest failure?

Not getting more done with research or with trying to redevelop some course material.  

What was the best thing you bought?

  This is dumb and silly, but this:

 I still have the Home Alone ("Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal")  t-shirt on him but now I'm tempted to get various seasonal accoutrements (I guess valentine's day would be next) and dress him up for each upcoming holiday.

Yeah, marking the holidays even if it's a small silly way is important to me. 

Whose behavior merited celebration?

Everyone who is keeping on keeping on trying to be a decent person and do good in the world in ~all this~. I try but it's too small and never enough and it's very easy to get discouraged  

 Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Frankly, most in government at any level, and also, a lot of the lower level employees who are either enabling the bad, or are gleefully participating (I of course exempt the rank and file people at places like the EPA or OSHA who are trying to hold the line and keep things patched together; they are in the previous group of "meriting celebration") 

also those who seem to be collaborating in business, with especial disdain for the AI bros who are putting that **** on everything (like the hot sauce ad tagline)

Where did most of your money go?

Honestly? groceries and utilities. I didn't buy anything so very big this year. I did give some to charity, especially my regional food bank, especially during the shutdown where I knew there might be people not really eating without others' donations of money  

What did you get really excited about?

helping one of my newer colleagues with a research project she initiated. I hope we can pick it back up in the spring and gather more data and work with more students. Also the possibility of getting a new colleague (the search committee thing) partly because: new colleague, but also: being done with these committees for a while .

Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?

unequivocally sadder; I think this year will be one to be endured. I hope I am proven wrong but I don't think I will be.

Thinner or fatter?

Fatter. Both post-menopausal slowdown in metabolism, plus being less active because of my stupid knee hurting some days plus stress eating (and probably more cortisol in my bloodstream). I need to work on this, probably by the low-level starvation of a calorie restricted diet because exercise seems not to work for weight loss. I hate that. 

No, I am NOT considering the weight loss shots. I hate the thought of injecting myself AND I have a dodgy stomach on the best days and I know two people personally who had to quit the meds because of the horrific GI side effects they had. I'll do it if I'm FORCED but not voluntarily   

Richer or poorer?

About the same but inflation does nibble at the end-of-the-month tiny surplus there once was. I need to cut back on discretionary spending.  

What do you wish you’d done more of?

had fun. Though I'm not sure what that looks like for me any more. Or maybe more research if I'm not good at having fun, maybe I'm good at working more.  

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worrying, and searching for stuff I put in a "safe place" and then forgot what that place was.  

How did you spend Christmas?

With my mom. It was quiet and I never feel any more like I enjoy it as much as I should  

Did you fall in love in 2024?

No.  

How many one-night stands?

what do these people think, that we're all 22 year old urbanite Instagram influencers? my answer as always is "never, and I would never"

What was your favorite TV program?

I enjoyed most of the episodes of Elsbeth. Still love Bob's Burgers and Bluey (even if I've seen every episode of the latter multiple times)  

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I try not to hate, I really do, but it's hard. I'll pass on answering here, thanks.  

What was the best book you read?

My memory for what I read last year is poor, but I do remember enjoying "A Far Better Thing," which is a fantasy/supernatural retelling of "A Tale of Two Cities"  

What was your greatest musical discovery?

More of a rediscovery, but I've really enjoyed Oscar Peterson, especially his Hymn to Freedom. 

What did you want and get?

For the renovations on my building to be completed. 

What did you want and not get?

For DOGE to get kicked out of having any power whatsoever in the first six minutes of its existence.

What were your favorite films of this year?

I didn't see any new movies. Mostly just rewatched things I've already seen

What did you do on your birthday?

I taught, but on the weekend went to a yarn shop.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2024?

Same as it ever was: a little bit Earth Mother, a little bit "slobby, for comfort," a little bit "bright colors because I feel like I fade into the background too often

What kept you sane?

Books. The occasional bit of decorating I do. Knitting and crochet though I didn't do nearly enough. Talking with other people

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Ugh, I don't know. Most famous people turn out to have feet of clay., Better to care about the people close to you

What political issue stirred you the most?

The sheer selfishness of some people and how all kinds of public goods, from local libraries to public health to possibly National Parks are being dismantled and privatized for people who already have more than most of us do.

Who did you miss?

I still miss my dad some times. I miss a colleague who moved to another country after retirement even if he sometimes aggravated me when we were working together. I miss some folks who are no longer part of my circle because of changes in circumstances or having moved away

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2025:

You can't fix most things. Sometimes you can't fix anything. And you have to learn to be okay with that. I still haven't.

If you take selfies, post your six favorite ones:

Naw. I will be posting a lot fewer photos of ME in the future because of the fact that there are nasty people with nasty programs who could do bad things if they had nasty enough motivations. And while I doubt anyone would do that to me, it still gives me enough ick that I may only post photos of things I've made and plants forever now

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

I'm bad at this. I can't really think of one. Maybe later. "Do it brokenhearted" isn't a lyric anywhere but that kind of sums up the year: keeping on going when I feel like I can't at times. 

It’s almost Epiphany

 I finally figured out how to post photos using blogger on my phone; they changed settings and it was a real fight to even get that Christmas tree photo posted.

But now it’s almost time to go back home.

I went to church up here with my mom today. They  have a fairly new minister; I liked his sermon today. Apparently some congregations have designated the Sunday right before Epiphany as “Star Sunday” and talk about the visitors to the Stable both highly placed (the Wise Men/Magi) and humble (the shepherds) and he emphasized that everyone has a “gift” they can give, even if all they have to give is being present.

He also sang “This Little Light of Mine” (and he doesn’t have a bad voice; it takes a certain courage to sing, completely acapella, without even a prompt note.

At the Communion table he had a box of stars (see below) and told us all to take one at random, without peeking. They all had different words on them and he suggested meditating on “yours” to see if it had something to say in the coming year 

I admit I thought I’d get something like “duty” or “moderation” or one of those resolution-words that might suggest my 2026 is just a year of digging in and existing, without a lot of personal fulfillment.

But I got

Yes, “art”

Which is interesting. I had expressed to a couple of friends that I had a vague plan for retirement of maybe doing classes in art of some kind - I think I would particularly enjoy learning again how to throw pottery on a wheel - or maybe something like landscape painting. 

I had also thought about how I always enjoyed art classes in school (but then, maybe all kids do?) and I remember way back, before I decided (at a depressingly young age) it would not be possible to make a living at it, that I wanted to be an artist. Even before I thought of teaching. 

Now, no, I am not going to quit my job to go to art school, but maybe if I have a chance to do something with art, I’ll try to take it.

The Huron Carol

 This is an old, old, one - credited to Jean Brébeuf in the 1600s. (Though as the singer - himself a composer - notes, the tune probably postdates Brébeuf).

It's a chant, which to me gives it an older and wilder sound.  

He sings it in both French and English. He notes there are Native words - in the Wendat language, but he felt he couldn't do that version justice as Wendat is a language basically being resurrected, and he felt there weren't enough speakers of it for him to learn proper pronunciation from

 He also notes that the Nativity story has been "reset" from the First Century Middle East to pre-colonial North America. You see this done. I am not bothered by it: the idea that Christ is for all times and all places can also sit along with the idea of "we know a little of the history so we should try to be accurate"

I am similarly not bothered by the reset of time of year (a lot of theologians thing Christ was probably actually born in the spring, and the December time is to piggyback on existing Solstice celebrations. But to me it makes sense to celebrate the coming of the Light as the light is returning to the earth in the Northern Hemisphere).

I think this is also why I like to see Nativity sets that are culturally distinct - I've seen ones from Mexico that definitely incorporate traditional art styles, and ones from Asia where the figures have Asian features, and so on.

(And the funny thing? I think of a throwaway joke in a long ago sitcom where a Black person - I seem to remember her as a "mom aged" or older woman takes a younger white person that they either taught or cared for to her church, and the younger person expresses surprise at the portrait of Jesus depicting him as a Black man, and the woman makes a sort-of joke about "well, yes, everyone sees Him as being like themselves; I bet in Kermit the Frog's church He's green" and yes, maybe there's something to that. Just as long as we remember the historical Jesus was not blonde and Northern European looking...) 

a Christmas poem

 This is by Edwin Arlington Robinson (better known for Miniver Cheevy and Ruchard Corey). Apparently it's the last sonnet he ever wrote.

I guess in a way, since it was written in 1928, it's reflecting eternal feelings and problems, but I admit I feel this one especially hard right now:

While you that in your sorrow disavow
Service and hope, see love and brotherhood
Far off as ever, it will do no good
For you to wear his thorns upon your brow
For doubt of him. And should you question how
To serve him best, he might say, if he could,
“Whether or not the cross was made of wood
Whereon you nailed me, is no matter now.”

Though other saviors have in older lore
A Legend, and for older gods have died—
Though death may wear the crown it always wore
And ignorance be still the sword of pride—
Something is here that was not here before,
And strangely has not yet been crucified.

And yes, there's a lot in there. But I feel hard the "brotherhood farther than ever" and also, yes, I admit at times I grab that thorny crown and shove it down on my own brow because I want to fix things, and yet, I cannot, and I feel somehow I am guilty for not being more (and yet, at the same time, I feel I am too much in some other ways)

There's a short essay talking about the sonnet (and the personal experience of a friend of the essay writer) here. 

 

 

 

Tree is done

 Small one this year, with just us it’s harder to wrangle a bigger one, and they’re expensive now 

We still have to put down the tree skirt.

Also getting ornaments from a storage box, I had the little jolt of  sadness of seeing my dad’s stocking. Yes, sometimes it still affects me. He really loved Christmas and was really more into doing all the things than my mom is, and I inherited that.

I do still miss him. Not as badly as earlier but it still sometimes comes back.

It’s cookie time

 Did Christmas baking this weekend 

Fruitcake cookies (surprisingly good even if you’re not a fruitcake fan)

I also made shortbread with brown sugar and crushed pecans, but don’t have a photo, it’s really fragile.

And mint meltaways, which I make every year, but this year I had to use “pastel gel food coloring” so they’re not as pretty 

And I made the traditional cut-outs 

Different recipe this year; it made three dozen or so instead of like six dozen, even with careful dough geometry 

And finally, an old Pennsylvania Dutch recipe called Slapjacks. Molasses, coconut, and pecans. It made a LOT and with my caution about my teeth I have to soak them in tea to eat them 

A silly thing

 Some of you may have seen (and probably more heard the recording of) the surprising Bing Crosby/David Bowie collaboration from the late 1970s:

 

It's surprising, here's Crosby near the end of his life, and Bowie roughly mid-career, and very different styles, and yet they can sing together (and yeah, I've heard the unpleasantness about Crosby, but I've generally heard Bowie was a fairly lovely person). 

About 15 years ago Funny or Die did an almost note-perfect parody of it, with John C. Reilly (who always seems fairly likeable, at least in his roles I've seen) and Will Ferrell (who I liked in Elf, though I've not really seen much of his other work)

 I feel like Reilly's impersonation is slightly better, even though he is a larger man than Bowie was. His accent is maybe a *little* different to Bing's, but I think he's got the cadence down. (I guess Crosby was not actually Southern? I always thought he was maybe from Virginia or one of the Carolinas, given what I hear as a soft "tidewatery" accent, but the internet says no, he was born in Washington state.)

(There are a couple bleeped swear words at the end, playing a bit on the mispronouncing of Bowie's surname - "Bing" pronounces it like Jim Bowie, the Alamo guy.)

But it is entertaining, though mainly as a "wow, they really nailed the performance" than as "this is laugh out loud funny"

(I can't quite tell if they're the ones doing the singing themselves - and if so, props to them - or if it's dubbed) 

achieving escape velocity

 * ran the last few errands (bank, dropping a bill in a blue box to mail it without having to trust the mail guy would pick it up, retrieving my good steel water bottle from my office, so I can take water with me in case they don't have the little bottles on the train)

* Packed. I use a detailed list because I have no memory any more and I don't want to, for example, forget something small but important like the sleep mask I wear every night and have gotten so used to I probably couldn't sleep without it (I started when my neighbor had a roommate who left a light on in her attic room all night every night that shined down into my window, and it seemed that using a sleep mask was simpler than trying to negotiate "hey can you turn it out or put up curtains. it's shining through the gaps in my blinds"

* Planning to leave town always feels a little like planning an invasion as a result. All that remains now is the "morning stuff" - the makeup and medications and making sure I have some replacement "dinner like" thing since I can't eat the main dish of the "flex meals" (every single one of the recent ones I've tried have upset my stomach - probably celery or a lot of cumin in them - or they are carrot-heavy (Carrot-forward? I don't know what the foodie term is). I keep hoping eventually the car attendant will suggest either they can get a sandwich for me from the cafe car (I COULD do that myself, and pay, but it irks me that as a sleeping car passenger my meals should be comped, but I can't eat any of the four or five entrees they have) or that they have hamburgers off the kids' menu. I"m not quite brave enough to ask because sometimes the staff is super grumpy and a lot of times in my life I find it's easier for me to just put up, than  to risk someone being rude to me.

* But at least I have a little break. I've been really tired these past couple days, to the point where if I sit down after lunch I almost feel like I'd like to go to sleep (but I don't). I think it was just a really long semester, coupled with a LOT of bad news in the world. 

*I've got projects. And books. I finished "A Far Better Thing," it was good, of course I knew the ending and how it was going to turn out (and so: it was a little sad) but it is an interesting re-imagining of the Dickens novel and I'd recommend it if you like that kind of fantastical story. 

I pulled out "Trojan Gold, " a slightly unrealistic thriller about an art historian and the missing Trojan pieces that Schliemann excavated (I had to just now check to be sure that was "for real life" and doing a websearch on "Trojan Gold" takes you to a very different place until you add "Schliemann"). I started it some years back and I can't remember why I didn't keep reading. It does feel a little less realistic than some mysteries I've read (I mean, in terms of the characters) but so far it's fun. I also have "Farmer Giles of Ham" (which I bought a while back when I saw it recommended somewhere,. maybe on Christ and Pop Culture) and a couple non fiction books, and then a Gideon Fell mystery (The Black Spectacles). 

*I just need time away. I'm not taking any work with me. I DO have to finish my post-tenure review when I get back but I feel like taking some time off will help me work better on it. (And also: if the world ends I would in my last moments regret having slaved over something so ultimately useless. And yes, after the COVID pandemic and given geopolitics, I find myself feeling that more often about things - "if there might not be a future, why waste the time on this?")

* I do also plan to leave earlyish tomorrow and go to Yarn and You. It's about an hour and 20 minutes down there, and then maybe another hour and fifteen to the train station from there, so I figure if I give myself a bit more than two hours to make the drive from Farmersville to Mineola (in case I get a little lost), I'll be okay. And if I get to Mineola early I can always faff on my phone (being able to hang out on social media is nice if you're stuck somewhere) or I can pull out a book. 

* I have a few embargoed posts lined up, depending on how early I'm totally ready tomorrow I might write one or two more (not much point in leaving here before 9:30 or so). And I may try to write a few on the road, though it's less fun to write on a phone that doesn't have a "real" keyboard.  

As is traditional

 Here's this years (obviously time-embargoed; filmed earlier) post of my tree video.

 

Imperfect, but......maybe that's how you know I made it? instead of AI slop? (there are a couple times where I moved and bumped something and you hear it)

 

Also, I can't get it BIG with the mp4 import unfortunately, and I am not sure how otherwise to make a video that will work on here now.

well, rats. I wanted this to publish on the 21st but wanted to be sure the video upload worked. And I can't unpublish and redo apparently

 

What a week...

 I'd make the "Lemon, it's only Monday" joke but.....woof, this was a bad weekend for scary violent things - a campus shooting, a shooting pretty clearly motivated by antisemitism that killed a LOT of people, and the tragedy with Rob Reiner and his wife (and his son; however that man went wrong, that's a tragedy too)

 

I find myself thinking a lot this time of year about things.

First of all, this: I know people mocked it at the time it came out, and still mock it today, but I think it has a point ("7 o'clock news/Silent Night" by Simon and Garfunkel)

 Every year I think about what  news stories would be subbed in for an update of this.

Every year there are enough upsetting/unfortunate ones for a song at least twice as long.

People don't change. I mean, I get it, if you read at ALL, even just the Epistles in the Bible, you realize that humans are much the same as we were 2000 years ago.

 

And second - a lot of things in Advent hit hard this year. 

I was particularly thinking how powerful the story of Christ coming to Earth is now - here is a being of infinite power, as the Gospel of John says, "The Word who was with God, and who was God" and was there at the very beginning of everything, choosing to give up that power out of love of humanity....And that's just... if you're a believer at all, it should catch you up short, especially when you see humans with far less power just abusing it, and sometimes it seems abusing it out of the chance to be cruel to another living being, not even for any profit to them. And it breaks a person's heart. Or at least it does mine.

And the Coventry Carol ("lullu lullay, my tiny little child" which was about the Massacre of the Innocents by Herod) always makes me sad in the best years, but this year.......yeah.

The holiday channel I had been playing in my car had this John Denver version (which I had never heard before) on one day and I found myself tearing up a bit as I drove.

 This year has been a lot. Not just in the outside world; a lot in the sense of spending a semester "in exile" from my usual teaching building, and having to trek all over campus to teach, and the added mental burden of having to carry all my lab stuff with me, and having to make sure everything I might need from my office was in my backpack. And serving on a never-ending search committee. 

And worrying about things at church - never enough money for everything to be right, and struggling to keep the pulpit filled, and it does feel like we're keeping it together with duct tape and baling wire a lot of the time. 

And my knee still bothering me - it will never be fully right again and I'm not even sure submitting to surgery and the concomitant recovery time would make a sufficient improvement, and I never seem to be able to make time often enough to do the PT stretching to keep it from hurting, and shoes are a perpetual problem - they can't be too stiff nor too loose, they need enough padding without being too heavy, and they wear out too fast when I do find a pair that works,. 

And I am just tired. I find I have less stamina for a lot of the things than I once did (I am sure the periodic flares of chronic pain from the knee do that). 

 

But maybe a little happier, or if not happier, more peaceful, John Denver song, from his Christmas album with the Muppets. This is actually based on a British poem, and portrays the quiet, peaceful country life that the poet once had:

(and an aside: I remember we had this - on record, a vinyl record - when I was a kid. I loved it. And then when I was in college, and we found it in the dorm library (yes, the dorms there had their own tiny libraries!) some of the other girls mocked it. And I just kept my mouth shut; I had been taught too much that the things I loved were, as they say now "cringe," and I didn't have the energy for it then. And then some years later, in grad school, a little older, with a different group of friends, someone brought it up. And almost to a person everyone was: "oh I LOVED that record! it was so much fun and John Denver was so good on it." And I don't know if it was a maturity thing - people growing out of that adolescent need to mock and be "so over" everything, or if it was simply a different group of people, but it struck me. I have it on CD now, and I still love it; I never stopped loving it, because it brings up happy childhood memories)

 For what it's worth, here's the original poem, the lyrics are shortened and rearranged: 

Noel: Christmas Eve 1913

Robert Bridges

1844 –1930

Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis

A frosty Christmas Eve 
   when the stars were shining
Fared I forth alone 
   where westward falls the hill,
And from many a village 
   in the water'd valley
Distant music reach'd me 
   peals of bells aringing:
The constellated sounds 
   ran sprinkling on earth's floor
As the dark vault above 
   with stars was spangled o'er.
Then sped my thoughts to keep 
   that first Christmas of all
When the shepherds watching 
   by their folds ere the dawn
Heard music in the fields 
   and marveling could not tell
Whether it were angels 
   or the bright stars singing.

Now blessed be the tow'rs 
   that crown England so fair
That stand up strong in prayer 
   unto God for our souls
Blessed be their founders 
   (said I) an' our country folk
Who are ringing for Christ 
   in the belfries to-night
With arms lifted to clutch 
   the rattling ropes that race
Into the dark above 
   and the mad romping din.

But to me heard afar 
   it was starry music
Angels' song, comforting 
   as the comfort of Christ
When he spake tenderly 
   to his sorrowful flock:
The old words came to me 
   by the riches of time
Mellow'd and transfigured 
   as I stood on the hill
Heark'ning in the aspect 
   of th' eternal silence.

 

And yes: Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. 

And almost done

 Graduation is tomorrow.

Today, I submitted my grades and finished my syllabi and verified that I don't have to have my post-tenure review stuff in immediately I am back on campus, so I can put the finishing bits on it when I come back. I moved most of the lab stuff for my soils class back into the "renovated" lab; I will get the rest of it there Monday. Monday afternoon and Tuesday I will pack and do a little cleanup here and make sure I've run necessary errands (bank, having mail held...) 

And then Wednesday - the yarn shop, and then on to the train station and break, and Christmas.

I did finish one thing last night, and I'm pleased; this will go in my mom's stocking. It's simple but these dishcloths are always useful, even if you have a dishwasher (as she does) there are always pans or delicate utensils better hand washed.

It's the "Grandmother's Dishcloth" pattern, which is simple to do and takes about half a ball (maybe a bit more) of that yarn that is sometimes sold as "dishcloth cotton"

I also knit a fair amount more on the garter-stitch part of Syyslaulu, though I still have maybe fifty rows to go before I can start the lace part. I think I'll take it with me and try to finish it, and I have several pairs of socks in progress, and the new scarf/shawl I bought yarn for last weekend. 

I never knit or read on breaks as much as I think I will though; I think I just get tired during the semester and sometimes I spend a lot of time just sitting.

I do still have to do which cards I plan to send; that might be a task for after graduation tomorrow.
 

Human and messy

*update* Now at least one commenter is insinuating that it's an elaborate hoax, and because of the "rule of three" in some of the descriptions, the whole piece I linked was written by an LLM as a THING and I don't even know any more, maybe I really DO just refuse to read anything written before 2022. I hate this all, I hate the future being shoved down our throats. (many things about the future being forced on us). I guess you can't trust anything 

 

 This essay showed up linked on Metafilter, and I perhaps will note: maybe don't read the comments (someone comes in and basically suggests running it through an AI to "de messify it" and to "stop making everyone a stereotype" and then people start fighting back and forth. There are few things on MeFi that DON'T lead to a comments-fight).

 

But I found it interesting, even if it's a different style than I'd write in (but that's also part of the point of my post). The writer here describes himself as Blind (he also describes himself as gay and as "an obscure writer")

He describes - I have no idea how fictionalized this account is, but it feels true - how his writers group devolves when a couple AI bros move in and push people to use things like Claude to generate their prose

The Colonization of Confidence 

In particular, I was struck by what happened to Leo - who wrote powerful and surprising images (collard greens' smell "subduing the air in the kitchen," which, yes, anyone who's been somewhere with some kind of mustard family plant cooking nods in recognition, even if they never thought of it that way before) that get smoothed out to a bland pabulum when he starts using an AI to "help."

And he gradually loses his voice - because he loses his confidence. Because he believes AI is better at it than he is, culminating with him successfully selling an AI written essay to a magazine. (I recoiled in horror at that bit).

And the writer of the piece describes making a NEW writer's group, one that doesn't use AI, one that embraces the messiness and humanity.

And that's what struck me. That's part of why I dislike AI taking over "art" and "humanities" in particular.

When I read, I want to be surprised. I want to be made to think in a way I'd not thought before. I want to see someone else's experience that is different to my own, and, sitting with it, try to understand it. I don't want some kind of bastardized average human experience, smoothed and "corrected" via an algorithm that is trying to make the most "marketable" thing. 

I don't want writing that is like a slick tv ad! I want the messiness and humanity and genuine emotion! 

And I don't know how we stop the onslaught of AI, other than, maybe, refusing to buy books written with it - which may eventually become "buy no books written after 2022" because just as bad money can drive out good, I suspect stuff like AI may drive out the quirky, real, genuine-ness of writing.

***

I used to write. I was never very good. I wrote poetry, a lot of it (I posted a little on here years back). Most of it, as I said, wasn't good, which was why I never submitted poetry or stories anywhere. But it was enough for me to have written it. It was enough to take the idea I had and either scribble it down in a bound blank book, or type it into a Word file, and edit it a little, and then periodically look at it again and think "I wrote this. It came out of my brain, and it helped me deal with the world."

I wish more people would just do the messy writing and put it out there.

I wish there weren't so many people looking to profit by promoting what some call "slop engines" - the algorithms that turn everything into something inoffensive and the equivalent of a simple bland frozen dinner - unchallenging to the palate and maybe actually not that nutritious and probably stuffed with artificial ingredients. I like the messiness and the reality.

And also: sometimes there are - and there SHOULD  be - things you just for yourself. Like the poems I never tried to publish or share. Sometimes I wrote them because an image popped into my mind and I wanted to play with it and develop it; other times, I was having Big Feelings and sitting down and writing about them helped me process them. I am not at all convinced telling an AI "I am in deep grief, write a poem about someone grieving" would help in that way. 

AI writing doesn't have the element or surprise or whimsy or novelty. I admit sometimes when I post a riposte to a joke someone made on Bluesky, or make a standalone joke myself I think "Hah! an AI couldn't do that." I am good at "lateral thinking" when my brain is having a good day and I'm firing on all cylinders and it feels to me like an AI can't do that kind of leap-of-thought that is a very human thing, and that some humans enjoy both reading and doing - the whole "Aha!" moment thing. 

And I admit, I worry about it.  I worry about what happened to Leo happening to a lot of people, I have had fellow profs (mostly at other universities) report that their students don't "trust" their own writing any more and feel like they have to use Chat GPT or Claud as a "crutch" to help them write. Or that it's "easier" than doing the hard work of generating a draft and then editing it (And an aside: I yell at my students about how you really should probably spend at least twice as long editing a paper as you spent  writing the original draft. An entire YEAR of my Ph.D. program was just me doing rewrite after rewrite of my dissertation, and finding additional sources or cutting out some references or doing the analysis a little differently and rewriting with that)

I don't know if I'm being alarmist when I think "we are going to lose something of what makes us human if we give too much of this kind of thing over to AI" but other days I do not think I am being alarmist enough about it....