Some Wednesday thoughts

* No craft content again, because as soon as I got home (about 4:30) yesterday afternoon I (a) did the workout I skipped in the morning, (b) washed my hair and then (c) buckled down and read about 100 pages of a book that one of my directed readings students is coming in today to discuss. (I don't think I ever read it all through before; it's on soil ecology but there's stuff in there I don't remember, so). And now I need to work on prepping regression/non linear regression/multiple regression for next week. I'm hoping I can have a little time this evening for something for myself.

* Advanced Biostats did go better yesterday and maybe I just need to get out of the mindset that "you're only as good as your most recent success" which also carries the corollary of "you are every bit as bad as you imagine your most recent failure to be." But still, I did make the mistake of assigning a paper I hadn't 100% read myself when I assigned it, and that won't be happening again.

* But yeah, I am getting kind of tired and worn with all the scrambling to keep up. I'm hoping this coming fall the ONLY thing I have to be concerned with is making the adjustments to keep up with the current Administration's (in DC, not the one on my campus!) changes to environmental law for the Policy and Law class. No new preps. I did a new prep last in 2017 and am doing one now and new preps (where you are 100% from scratch and are not just updating existing information or adding in/changing some things) are a young person's game.

* Two more full weeks to spring break. And I have to decide quickly if there's enough risk of me running into someone with COVID-19 on the train that I want to cancel my trip. I have a roommette, so I suspect it's *unlikely.* And I'm less worried for myself; the apparent death rate for people in their 50s is 2% and I've even read that "unless you're seriously immune compromised, in your 50s you are very unlikely to die from it" even with my asthma. But I do worry about picking it up and transmitting it to other people (My mom is in hear early 80s and while she is in excellent health, she is still in her early 80s).

I would hope Amtrak would temperature scan people and immediately refund anyone above 101 but that seems vanishingly unlikely, and honestly? People being people I expect people would scream bloody murder about being "cheated" out of a vacation even if they were getting sick.

I guess I'll wait another week and see what happens. I've already warned my mom that if the outbreak gets a lot worse here, I'll be cancelling my trip. I don't WANT to, but....

It is SO HARD to be able to triangulate on this. I remember H1N1, how that was going to be the humanity-ending outbreak, and not much came of that. But then again, they also got a vaccine out quickly (and I got it when it became available). And they say "ooooh you should worry more about seasonal flu" but I get the flu shot every year and am careful about washing my hands regularly, which seems to me the most reasonable courses of action about seasonal flu, so I don't worry about seasonal flu. This, I do worry a little about. Mainly because there's no vaccine yet, and it may be deadlier than the flu. Not clear yet if it spreads more easily or not.

As yet, no direction from our administration. By this point in the H1N1 outbreak, they had had us write up plans of how we'd finish the semester if we had to temporarily close campus, and during the SARS outbreak, there were some plans in place even if it was much more unlikely - given our location - someone carrying SARS would be here. I'm hoping it's not a "oh, well, everyone teaches online already anyway" blasé attitude, or if it's something that's getting lost in the shuffle with the transition to a new president.

I mean: if I had to I could teach from home EXCEPT FOR THE LABS. And testing security would be a major issue; I'd probably have to write tough involved essay exams instead because I'd have to assume people would be using their books and notes and everything else on them.

* Tentative thought for Lent - take a two-pronged approach. As per a suggestion Purlewe made on Twitter - make weekly trips to the Blessing Box outside the Wesley Center here and leave some canned goods or bags of rice and beans. It means a little expense on my part (buying the food) and a little effort (it is out of my way home) but it might do some good. Or look into donating to the Wellness Center supply closet where they have simple food for college students who need it. I think the campus webpage even has a list of what they can particularly use.

And secondly: no online shopping EXCEPT for necessity items (I did stock up on the canned trout I use regularly; that means I don't need to make trips to Wal-Mart, which is annoying and out of my way). I'm not banning ALL frivolous spending but this is almost a de facto ban because I am so busy these days that going OUT to shop is a rare thing, maybe once a month. And by lawyerballing it like that, that means I still get my Saturday trip to Whitesboro. (And heck, depending on what happens with COVID-19, we may all be staying home a LOT LOT LOT more in the future. And at that point all bets are off; if the only comfort left me is a little online shopping, I will do it, though I suspect a bad outbreak could lead to problems with mail and with the supply chain in general)

And yes, even a friend of mine who gave up chocolate a few years back pointed out that Sundays are technically not-Lent, except here, most of the places I would want to shop "for fun" are not open Sundays....