A too-beautiful day

There is nothing worse than having a ton of work to do (grading) and the weather outside is so spectactular that work seems impossible. Why can't it be like it was yesterday, when I was having to go in and out, in humidity so thick that it was like walking in warm pudding? No, today when the only thing on the agenda (other than three loads of laundry) is grading and more grading, the weather is nothing but sunshine and low humidity, one of those gorgeous early fall days that make Michigan bearable. There are SO FEW of them. It's hard to imagine that we'll be having snow within the month (unless it's a very weird autumn).

I keep checking my schedule for next semester. Odd, they had me down for one class, then two classes, then back to one, then back to two, and now there are three, and none of them is the one I'm supposed to do for the downtown campus. That's rather par for the way things work there. Maybe it's better to keep us on our toes--mess up, and your classes for next semester mysteriously disappear. I do think I had a productive chat with the person who oversees the comp classes. For sure, we felt as if we were on the same page.

However, I'm still behind, and my students (online ones) are complaining. Instead, here I sit, waiting for the laundry to go buzz in the utility room. At least the tension of yesterday is gone. We got a good report on my mother-in-law's health (no return of the cancer as she had feared). But there were other things yesterday that were strange. A bug on my neck and ear startled me as I was eating my breakfast. I brushed it away, and thankfully, it did not land in my food. Later I asked my husband if he'd seen a bug, and he said he'd killed a yellow jacket. If that was my bug, then I had a luckier day than I thought. I tend to react badly to yellow jacket stings. Of course, no one likes to be stung by them, but I swell up, turn red, and itch like mad.

Downtown for the second day in a row, manhole covers are blowing off and hitting vehicles. That would be a bit unsettling. I don't like those covers anyway--too many horror movie memories, I guess.

Okay, I have got to grade more papers. I need coffee, lots and lots of dark roast.

Caffeine-deprived, but onward! Dr. S.