I can tell

I can tell Christmas is coming.

The past couple days, the mail has been NOTHING but catalogs. (Including a toy catalog from Amazon, which is just kind of weird in the "everything old is new again" sense - put it in the same bin as my prediction that in five years, there will be 100 streaming services, and many of them will be "bundled," and it will essentially be cable all over again).

Also, my e-mail box has been clogged with ads. I mean, I get daily ones from Ulta and Lehman's (which is just WEIRD, given that a goodly portion of their original customer base were Amish, who would not use the Internet or a computer) but I'm also getting others. (Like Bissinger's Chocolates, which makes me a little sad, because that's where my dad used to frequently order stuff from; every Thanksgiving for several years we had their dark-chocolate turkeys as a "placecard holder")

Today it's cold and nasty and rainy. I'm trying to get caught up on grading, putting grades on papers I'd already read but just couldn't bring myself to write comments/put grades on the other day. And clearing the decks of all the "late work" I had. (Normally, I do not accept it if it's just "I didn't get it done" but I have had SO MANY PEOPLE out sick*)

(*And a school district about an hour north of me is closed today and my first thought on hearing that was "too many kids out with the flu" but sadly no, it was a threat leveled....against the whole district? So instead the Boys and Girls club said they'd be open for kids needing care? I hope that they have good security there in case the threat wasn't just a big hoax, which it probably is)

And yeah, it looks like a bad flu season...I am glad I got vaccinated and I know my mom got vaccinated and I think even my brother (who is normally lackadaisical about such things) did, but then this year he's teaching and will get exposed to a lot more viruses.

But anyway. Part of me is looking forward to the run-up to Christmas. I want ads for "The Clapper" and Chia Pet and all the toys to drown out the news of the world. And I cleaned up my kitchen the other day and found myself thinking "you should bake cookies" and maybe I will at some point; maybe I will make something special for the exam-week snacking we have in my department.

Annnnd....I am caught up on grading. (Just in time to get a NEW batch from my class today, sigh).

Am very tempted to do my bit of research work after class and then bail off home and either grade papers there or clean....

what I really want to do is knit, but you don't usually get what you want.