Long week over

 * Didn't get a lot of time to knit this week, outside of while proctoring exams. Either there were upsets and problems or evening meetings. 

* I'm picking away at the various books. I picked up a mystery book I thought I hadn't read ("Weekend at Thrackley" - one of those vintage mysteries from some time in the 30s). Turns out I had, partway through (when I hit the antagonist's "jewel cave" part) I realized I had. But I kept going, sometimes it's too much in the evening to read "The Poison Squad" (about how we got all the food safety laws, some of which are doubtless being repealed now) and sometimes you just want the escape of an entertaining novel. 

I am still reading on the Witches series by Pratchett but sometimes that even feels a little fraught. 

* 12 measles cases reported in my state. In every case the individual was either unvaccinated or "status unknown" - no one reporting one or two doses was infected. We'll see if that holds. I've had three doses (two as a child even though my age cohort largely only got one dose, I got a second dose when my brother got his first because the pediatrician we went to at the time said he didn't believe a single dose would be effective.. And I got a third dose when we couldn't find my records when I started grad school). But if a fourth dose seems advisable, I guess I'll go get it. I might if, for example, cases show up on campus. I have no idea if there's a vaccine requirement here or not. (There was for grad school in Illinois, for example. And the public schools when I was a kid had pretty strict vaccine requirements). 

Lots of things now seem frankly kind of stupid. I'm only one generation removed from when measles was common and widespread - my mom had a bad case that wiped out one of her schoolgirl summers, and I think my dad must have had them. The vaccine came out in the early 60s, not that long ago....

I guess we have to refight old battles of many kinds once the first-hand witnesses are gone, or don't talk about their experience. 

* I'm back to putting on Bluey re-runs as a comfort show thing - the kindness of the characters to each other (like: how kind Rusty is to new-kid Jack, where Jack is implied to have ADHD or some other learning disability. And Rusty just....he looks at Jack and goes "here's a new friend" and plays with him. I've said several times I wish the kids I went to school with had been as nice as the "kids" portrayed on the show). 

It also has nice music even if you just have it on in the background. What I refer to as "friendly noise" is something I need when I'm home alone - I use a lot of the "lofi streaming" channels online too, that's something that doesn't require attention but it's pleasant enough and it covers up the silence (and the creaks and crackles of an old house).

* A weird thing I noticed though - I was half watching something on tv and listening to music, and then I thought I smelled something.....and I hit mute and turned off the music so I could smell better. I suppose what it was that I wanted to focus my concentration but that struck me as odd when I thought about it later on. 

(I thought I was getting a hint of a smoky smell, and in an old house you always worry. But I think what it was was some vehicle passing outside that was poorly tuned)

* I would like to go out to Albertson's tomorrow for groceries BUT I'm not sure I want to go back out on 69/75 just yet (and apparently again today they were shut down for a while) and also, I have zoom knitting, so I don't want to be late after missing it a couple times. I guess I'll shop locally but I admit I often run out of ideas of what to fix. I need things I can fix quickly and that are nutritious but also don't have any of my allergens in them, and that gets hard. I admit some days I consider those meal replacement things but that feels too much like giving up. 

*I keep feeling like I want to start new projects, but I have so many things tucked away places that I have to continue to work on and finish. I pulled out those brown-and-multi socks ("Griswold Family Christmas Tree") to work on them but I didn't feel like I had the energy tonight (I got home around 4:30 pm after spending the entire afternoon grading, and then I had to do a workout)