Wednesday morning things

 * Had a nice short talk with the new-ish custodian - I was the only person in the building and he introduced himself. Always good to know the support staff. He started out in computer sciences here but didn't finish, he said he couldn't justify going into debt (we try to stay affordable but yeah, if you have no family support it would be hard to do). I know who his wife is; she's in one of the offices here.

And he mentioned he was a fellow congregant with several people I know; he goes to the Methodist church and that led to a short discussion of religion in America and he noted "we didn't vote to disaffiliate and leave" (I think this was the thing over LGBTQ issues, where "disaffiliation" here meant you didn't approve of full membership for LGBTQ folks) and said he was glad, because "some of the congregations that left have gone a little bonkers" and yeah, and it led to basically a "we need to be better as a nation about "live and let live" for those different from each other"....but it was nice to talk to someone about things NOT work related; I need that to keep me buoyed up over time. 

* Ordered some new ear savers realizing I'm down to like one. I don't regularly mask any more but I suspect maybe this fall and winter I will have to start again. I ordered from Hivata (on Etsy); I've ordered from them before and the little rubbery ear savers they sell seem to be the best. This time they had clear ones, and I'm telling myself it's not sad to be excited over the novelty of that. They shipped this morning; that's another reason I recommend them,, they do seem to ship fast. 

* someone on bluesky this morning brought up the Jonestown thing and I admit that's always *slightly* "triggering" for me as it was the first really bad mans-inhumanity-to-man news story I remember my parents not being able to insulate me from. And that led me further to think of all the stuff (or all the s***, is more like it) I've seen in my life: that, and the 1974 megatornado outbreak, and the barely-remembered resignation of Nixon, and the Pope getting shot, and Reagan getting shot, and the Challenger explosion, and plane hijackings (back when it was some goofball wanting to go to Cuba and they usually talked him down) but also one I remember where someone was killed, maybe a man in a wheelchair? , and the IRA bombings, and the AIDS epidemic, and then the OK City bombing and 9/11 and every political thing since 2016 and COVID.... and MAN it's tiring. I mean I guess every couple decades in anyone's life is such but it's hard not to feel like the 1970s until now have been *unusually* tumultuous and I didn't even include the Gulf Wars and Sarajevo and other things...and climate change. And now the fires in Lahaina, and the hurricanes, and....man I can just keep listing stuff. Horror after horror. I can't think too much about the Lahaina fire and how some people will never even find enough remains to bury (shades of post 9/11) because it makes me too sad.

and of course now, in my own teaching, I have to navigate the whole COVID thing now (I gave the "you are free to wear a mask in class and if anyone gives you grief come to me and I will shut it down") but also navigate the AI thing and other stuff as well (there was some concern earlier this week about a 'disgruntled student' maybe returning to campus. They did not but....yeah. I thought about bringing my shillelagh back in but did not). 

I can very much see now how "The Peaceable Kingdom" was a thing for many classical painters and others; how nice to just lie down on clean grass (with no bugs to bite you) with a bunch of nice animals, maybe get to pet a tiger or something, and not have to worry about war or pestilence.

* Thinking again about the comment someone made about how they didn't want to be resilient any more, they didn't want to HAVE to be resilient any more and that resonates with me. I mean I can keep on keepin' on but it does make me very tired and I admit there have been days where I look at the material I teach and wonder WHY given the way the world is. I remember after 9/11 trying to teach probability in stats and just feeling very...feeling like it was kind of pointless. 

* that said: at least UPS isn't going on strike. That's how my dryer parts are to be delivered and given that the Teamsters signed the new contract that means (hopefully) they will be in before next week and I'll have my dryer back.

* I tried to watch FBI last night (it was what was on, and I very much want shows with 'a story' right now, and I expect come fall we won't get that, it'll just be game-show/reality drek because the studios can't put forth a reasonable contract for writers and actors) but it was too loud and too much violence and I don't know. But I am worried about entertainment for the fall given that the strike has become protracted; maybe I look into audiobooks as a thing, so I can "read" and knit on stuff. Again this is one of the things I know I cannot take personally and yet it just feels like another miserable thing about Right Now that seems both miserable and unnecessary. (And part of this is the whole AI thing; creatives are justifiably worried about losing their jobs to the plagiarism engines that churn out garbage but if everything's garbage I presume people will still watch it because....well, everything's garbage.)

Yes,, streaming, I know, but I balk at shelling out even MORE money, especially right now. I think there are some audiobook options that are less than streaming services.