Vacation has come and gone.
Someone and I did the usual Myrtle Beach vacation with Someone’s family –
same vacation in all senses of the word same
for as long as we’ve been married...soon to be 24 years, I think. Someone loves Myrtle Beach so much that he
wants to move there. Perhaps some day we
will sell our house so that Someone can move to Myrtle and old KYLady can get a
small cottage in the country somewhere in Kentucky. We will visit each other when one misses the
other.
I’m just not a beach person. The landscape is bare – too desolate. Sand, water, and sky. Blah. I go out on the beach with a good book and sit and read for a bit. Then what? It’s hot and the sand gets all over everything. I don’t like intense sun for long. I went for walks and read my book on the beach in the early mornings and walked on the beach at night. The rest of the time, I worked or played golf. We did play golf five days, so that was fun. The course we played is nice, but expensive.
 |
| walking over the sand dune at Myrtle Beach |
While we were gone, our garden fell mostly to ruin. Nearly all the cucumbers and peppers
died. The lettuce bolted. The bugs destroyed the cabbage and Brussels
sprouts. My flowers on the back porch
withered away. I think we should
vacation in the winter or spring and stay home to tend our garden in the heat of
summer, but Someone won’t hear of it - Blasphemy! One
cannot bake in the Myrtle Beach sun in the winter or spring!! Someone and his family like suntans.
In my world of work, tonight at 11:59 PM the summer term closes
for my 41 students at University #1. The
final exam is online and has been open for four days. Professor KyLady realizes that students have busy
lives outside of school-life and tries to keep things flexible. The exam becomes unavailable in less that 20
minutes and I can see that six students are taking it just now, and another
five have not started it. Why do they wait? It blows my mind. My policy was clearly stated at the beginning
of the course and four times over the past week in course announcements,
emails, and news videos. There is no
make-up for the final exam, NO EXCEPTIONS.
Still, they delay. No doubt there
will be emails through the night and tomorrow from students asking that I
reopen the exam for them because they got called into work, they had to run an
uncle to the hospital, their dog got hit by a car, their Internet died, their
kid broke his leg, they got stuck in traffic, they overslept, and a host of other
creative reasons. Sometimes they will pair
misfortunes to influence me (i.e., my dad had a heart attack and I wrecked my
car while rushing my sister’s dog to the vet).
Yes, it’s all sad but NO EXCEPTIONS means just that. It’s why they get so many days. I hate to say no, but I do (except in a few
very rare cases for students who have sincerely worked hard and being late is
not a chronic habit).
As for me personally...things are...not happening. No resume, STILL. No CV.
What the hell? I’m worse than my
students. I’m failing Life 101. Something needs to happen. Something...drastic?
