Another long day

 Just lots of little things.

Like: Is a moped a bicycle? 

I ask this because of Zoom. I am teaching partly over Zoom for people who are staying home during the pandemic. And I use Zoom (which I am very tired of, but that's another thing). And Zoom, even though we enter our authentication information to get to our account, still asks for us to solve a "recaptcha," which takes the form of "click on the boxes" (of nine or sixteen) "that contain attribute x"

I thought I had cracked the code: almost always it is three of the boxes. So when it asked for bicycles, I saw three boxes with real, true bicycles in them, and then one with the back view of a guy riding a moped. And I thought "ah-ha, a moped is not a bicycle."

But that wasn't right! And I was served TWO MORE to solve before it let me teach my class. This is the kind of little tiny annoying thing I feel like I should not be annoyed by, but am. Part of it is I ALREADY have so many forks stuck in me (teaching four classes during a pandemic, coping with ongoing grief, worrying about a friend with a serious illness, having arthritis issues in my hips) that another fork is one fork too many.

(And yes, I know the bad old joke about mopeds, I won't repeat it here)

I had two in-person students in one class, and none in the other. Granted, it's cold here today, and north of us the weather was bad. (And it's also possible some people bowled the super a bit much last night; some people in this area are Chiefs fans, and even though they lost, still...) But it is harder teaching to a screen instead of to people. And I really, really hope things are better enough by fall that I can be teaching fully or mostly in person.

One thing I really feel is how a lot of the small simple interactions, a lot of the stuff that made teaching worthwhile, are just gone for now. And the annoying things - all the tech stuff - is magnified. (I had someone have major problems taking the exam and in a fit of pique I just opened it back up until tonight, but told the classes I would NOT do that again. Also I will NOT make an exam end on a Friday again if there is a technical problem great enough I need help fixing it; I need to be able to get in touch with CIDT in a timely way)

I did, however, read an article by a minister (mainly preaching over Zoom these days; there are a lot of us stuck in Zoom purgatory) and he said *exactly the same thing* - that the rewarding parts of his job are largely gone, and the frustrating parts seem magnified, so I guess a lot of us are just dealing with it. Maybe a lot of people are suffering in silence? I try to, though I admit I mutter a bit when I find someone using the room before me has messed with the configurations on the computer and I can't get something to work, or when someone over Zoom has a dodgy wifi connection and they have to keep asking to be let back in to the room (I should just open the room up and not have a waiting room, the likelihood of some jerk stumbling on my class to zoombomb seems low). So far I've not sworn on camera though I admit I've come close.

We're supposed to get the crummy weather here later this week, so I guess I try to make a grocery run between office hours and my appointment tomorrow afternoon. (Grocery delivery is not really a thing here, and anyway, if the weather's bad, I shouldn't make a delivery person go out in it). It's supposed to be colder than it's been in 10 years (so the weather guy is claiming) and we might get wintry precipitation. (If that happens? I can still teach lectures from home, womp womp, though labs wouldn't meet). 

It was really gray/rainy/chilly over the weekend. I wanted to go somewhere for a walk but it was cold enough it seemed unwise (given that some of my muscles seize up in the cold and I ache). This has just been a hard winter because of not being able to get out. 

If the pandemic is ever over, I'm definitely going to do more going out and doing stuff than I used to do, less sticking at home staring at tv or faffing on the internet.