Yeah, I missed posting Friday. I didn't get out to do anything; right after I got up it started pouring (remnants of the tropical storm from the Gulf? I don't know) and I do not like driving on the interstate in heavy rain, especially given how much worse our drivers have gotten in the past few years (*story later in the post)
So I mostly stayed home, did a little cleaning, did get out to Aldi and to the regular grocery. Saturday was Zoom knitting and it was still overcast, Sunday I had duties at church.
But darnit this Friday if the weather is even REMOTELY friendly I think I AM going to the museum for Dino Days. Even if it's mostly the same fossils as last year. It will be Out, which will be something. (It's also just possible my redone framed picture will be ready at Michael's - they sent the wrong frame, the right frame is more expensive, so I pay for the right frame but they're going to comp me the labor on reframing, whatever, it was kind of upsetting and if there hadn't been an error I'd have it already)
I did, however, put up the plaque I bought the previous weekend at the antique mall
I really like the colors in it. It was sold as vintage, I have no idea how old. My gut suggests it's probably as recent as the 1980s or 90s but who knows, it could be older. It's an Emerson quotation that's not familiar to me but I'm not going to look it up lest I learn to my disappointment he never wrote it.
At any rate, it's nice. I replaced a plaque of a daffodil I had been given as a gift years ago when I spoke to the garden club; I was getting a little tired of that one (I still have it, I don't know whether to donate it to a thrift shop here - I need to weed through my clothes and some other things again)
I also worked on the vest a bunch more this weekend; the top back is almost half done now (the armholes are supposed to be 11 1/2 inches long and I think I'm at about 6".)
* and the story about yet another reckless or distracted driver here. At the end of the day today, driving home, I saw a guy ready to come out of the parking lot of a small branch office of a bank that's on the east side of the street (I was southbound, so it would have been closest to my driver's side). Almost before it registered as a thought in my brain, I sensed "he doesn't see me, he is going to pull out" and by golly he did. I slammed on my brakes (fortunately I knew no one was behind me) and, I admit, laid on the horn (I was badly scared and often when I'm scared like that I feel a short burst of anger). The front of his car was six inches from my front panel; if I had kept going he would likely have hit me, at the very least damaging my car.
He turned (Older white guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth) and made a rude gesture at me and then pulled ahead of me. Tentatively, I started back up but immediately doubted myself - did he think I was going fast enough and he'd have missed me if I hadn't stopped? Had I been in the wrong actually? But I think a point in my favor: he put on his lefthand directional but then at the upcoming intersection turned right (in front of another driver) onto that street.
But I was badly shaken, and upset and I admit after I got home I had a short cry about it and felt bad much of the rest of the afternoon. I think part of it was that was literally my only interaction with another person for the day - no one else was really in (my colleague who is teaching was, but it was his lab day, so he was busy all day) and I just spent the entire day wrestling slide-decks into "accessibility" which is a frustrating and often iterative exercise (make all the fixes you know to make, load it up, get told it's not good enough, go back and make the fixes for the stuff it pings on, sometimes you have to do that a couple times). I got, I think, four sets of slides done, which isn't a lot, but it is several weeks of the semester (remember: I have four classes to do this for). And again - it feels to me like the work is both invisible (in that: no one will really know what I had to do) and also it can be frustrating because some of the slides are uglier now, even if they are technically supposed to be more accessible for people with low vision. And I also know we won't even be thanked for this even though most of us are spending hours and hours on it. And it's just....unrewarding. So I was already primed to be in a bad mood and that guy's reaction (being angry and rude instead of apologetic like some drivers are when they realize they messed up) just made it worse.
At least tomorrow I meet with one of the tech people to get some guidance on the accessibility guidelines for the class where I DON'T use slide decks and with a few other things. I mean, we should have been like given a booklet or something listing all we need to do, but we're usually left on our own to figure stuff out and it takes longer. But that's just life, I guess.
I really don't like summer; most of the things I find most rewarding (teaching classes) aren't happening, and I'm alone a lot, and it's just HOT out, and it really does feel isolated here in town.
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