status quo

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?