I can't believe it is this cold on the last day of February! There is no let up in sight, so March will be coming in like a lion. The cold is what's most memorable from this winter, but it looks like another snowstorm is on the horizon too. But Spring will surely come eventually!

Yesterday was Rosie's 2nd Gotcha Day.

Since I'm all about equal opportunity

Once again, I have had some pent-up things to post but just haven't gotten to it until today. In faith formation (where the kids have been awesome after the email about their behavior a couple weeks ago), I brought in the Bible I used when I was in catechism to show them. One boy looked at the battered little New Testament of the Jerusalem Bible and asked incredulously, "how old are you?" I laughed and said "I'm 52." "You're old!" he said. "Yes, I am old," I responded, "and believe me, you will get there someday. It seems like only yesterday I was your age." He won't understand this for many years, but maybe someday he will remember and it will resonate as the wisdom of elders often does.

I gave both my foundations classes a talking to about their use of electronics in the classroom, and that how apparent it is that they are not reading (the latter was mostly directed at the evening section). The evening section was perfect afterwards. In the day class I still had to call out a few students for nonstop texting, but on Thursday they shaped up.

We did an exercise called "the five most important events in American educational history" that I started using last semester, inspired by this website. The activity is similar to the new fad known as "flipping the classroom." Students individually do a scavenger hunt through this comprehensive online resource to find their five, then work in groups of 4-5 to come up with consensus lists that they write on the board and present to class. At the end I suggest events that might be missing. (Yesterday I added the Old Deluder Satan Act, the Morrill Act, the GI Bill.) Students are engaged by it and it works really well.

Today I am inspired to write about educational philosophy. I took the class I'm teaching this summer in 1998 when I was a doctoral student. At the time it was taught by two different faculty members, neither of whom are at the university any longer; one retired and the other went to greener pastures. One professor focused exclusively on the roots of the field: Greek philosophers, European Renaissance thinkers, with Dewey’s progressivism as the most modern approach covered. The other, and this is the class I took, addressed the subject from a feminist and socio-economic perspective. The Greeks, Europeans and even John Dewey were never mentioned.

When I was preparing to teach this class, I reviewed the syllabi of the faculty who have been teaching it more recently. For many years after the two professors I described moved on, an adjunct from another local college taught the class. He is no longer teaching it, but two other professors are. Two-thirds of the syllabi reflected the “roots” approach, while the remaining syllabus indicated “roots” plus a more modern approach.

I’ve been teaching educational philosophy as one of seven themes in my undergraduate foundations classes for years now. When I first tackled it, I (pretty much) had to learn the subject from scratch, as my own experience was not very helpful – whatever it was we studied, I knew it was not educational philosophy. I now devote about four weeks of the semester to the discipline, and have come to believe that it is the most important of the educational foundations.

Last night Bob stopped at Barcelona while he was waiting for me to finish class. A man was sitting next to him at the bar who was exclaiming about his age (50), in that way people do when they perceive you are considerably younger. Bob's blessed in this way, he appears a decade younger than his actual age (53). He chose not to disabuse the man of the notion.

This led us to talking about age, retirement, etc. Sometimes I wonder how I'll manage to continue teaching for 15 more years, but the alternative, administration, is not more attractive. The problem is that the students keep getting younger (it can't be that I am getting older, LOL)...the challenge is to figure out how to stay relevant, in sync.

The woman who teaches in the same classroom before my afternoon class is teaching a writing-intensive course. We've chatted a few times about the decline in students' writing and critical thinking skills. I'm generally more of an optimist, but then my classes aren't writing intensive. They aren't absent writing requirements either, though, and on Thursday, with this semester's performance on my mind, I mentioned SED's proposal to her.

We are in agreement that it's a good idea, and she said the proposed requirement -- four pages using four sources -- is what her students are up to right now, and they grouse about it. She also said she'd attended some forum with corporate employers who shared that they refuse to hire recent graduates because they are so lacking. Tough message in an economy that already is not friendly to the inexperienced.

On the other hand, Bob is having a hard time finding experienced  architects and engineers to hire. Really illustrates what I've anecdotally heard, that there is a shortage of candidates for skilled jobs.

I've been thinking that I have to make an effort to change some of the requirements in my classes, to intervene sooner and teach more about writing. The timing is good, since with the creation of the new reader, I will have to transform some of the curriculum and assignments.

I missed this in the student newspaper (which doesn't have a great website and I never bother with the paper version), but here it is from the TU. What bad publicity!

I will have to pick up a paper copy on Tuesday so I can read the original story. I'm shocked they named one student involved, I thought that sort of information was confidential.

As I've written here many times before, I do everything I can, but I'm sure a few still slip through occasionally. I change assignments as much as possible every semester, keep past semester's assignments for comparison, stress the importance of ethical behavior to students, and if that's not enough, try to scare the daylights out of them with colorful tales of students I've caught in the past. But, it's not possible to police whether a friend is logging on to the class Blackboard webpage and doing the work.

I haven't discovered any instances since last spring, but this semester, if students in my classes are paying someone to do the work, they should demand a refund. (LOL.)

I got my haircut yesterday, and while I was waiting, I read the newspaper. I've written before that I stopped receiving a daily paper in February 2011 (after being a lifelong subscriber). I expected to miss it, anticipated the loss of my morning routine -- but after a very short time, found I didn't miss it one whit.

I still read many articles from the news, of course. It's just that now I read them online. Rather than as a morning coffee companion, I read in brief intervals throughout the day. Actually reading the hard copy has become an unfamiliar experience. Another thing I notice is that my reading patterns are different online than they are in the "paper." Admittedly, this is probably the biggest loss: in the paper I would read stories that I either miss or skip on the website.

This is one example. I saw the headline, but didn't immediately "click" it as I was busy working. When I was perusing the dead tree version, it was a top headline, I remembered it, and I'm glad I read it. I want to use it in class next week. PLEASE, SED! Adopt this!! Maybe it will result in no more grade distributions like the one I wrote about yesterday.

This isn't really another example...I did read the story online, which made me sick. The "perp" better not cross my path. What a shameful thing for campus to be associated with. Here's hoping they catch this monster pronto.

Interesting piece about Pope Francis, from the Chronicle. Also, here's the official translation of his first homily.

Related: Sadly facebook empowers people to opine on subjects they know nothing about, and share opinions on things they (allegedly) don't believe in and so shouldn't care about. Go figure.

I'm feeling generally irritated about the university's academic calendar this semester. In the first place, this was too long to go without any break. Second, suspending classes starting on a Friday after midterms was essentially inviting students to skip Thursday classes. Third, having the break timed so that the week we come back is Passover and Easter week guarantees attendance will be low for another week.  Finally -- it is an outrage to craft an academic schedule for social rather than academic reasons. The timing of St. Patrick's Day and having a cynical expectation for student behavior is controlling the calendar? Are you kidding me? Are those social norms surveys true or not? Let's treat young adults like children, just to reinforce our jaded view, right?

Today is all about putting out fires and sparking a few new ones.

10,000 protesters are downtown today. Another example for toleration in a few weeks, when we cover political toleration and free speech. I think this was a serious miscalculation on the governor's part.

 Last night I was casting around for a (kindle) book to read. A friend had posted her short list of five books Americans should read. It consisted of My Antonia, The Grapes of Wrath, the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass, and the poems of Emily Dickinson and Gwendolyn Brooks. I don't have a problem with her list, but mine would have to include at least one by Mark Twain and maybe A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

That musing got me thinking about John Steinbeck (as it happens, it was his birthday yesterday). My favorite book of his is not GoW but Winter of Our Discontent. I own it in paperback, and have read it more than once, but it has been many years since the last time. So I decided to get the kindle version, and I started it last night. I can already tell that I am going to thoroughly enjoy it once again. (And, I see some possibilities for the toleration midterm, which I have to write next week.) I even enjoyed the introduction, which is a surprise. One of the reasons I did not like English classes that focused on novels in high school and avoided them entirely in college is that I don't care to suffer through someone's interpretation of a work of art. I want to develop my own understanding. But I did glean a tidbit from the introduction that was news to me -- the setting was Long Island. I thought it was coastal New England, likely Massachusetts when I first read the book 30+ years ago.

 This has nothing to do with any of the above, but I couldn't stop myself:

1) I didn't watch the Academy Awards last night, but Bob put it on for about 15 seconds. It happened to be right when the cast of Les Mis was singing. Even he thought it sounded atrocious and I think he was afraid it might cause me to have a seizure so he quickly turned it off.

Weeks ago, when we were discussing Lincoln, my nephew emailed me that Hollywood loves Ben Affleck and especially George Clooney so he predicted an Argo win. Somewhat less annoying, Hollywood also loves Ang Lee, so the best director nod isn't a shock either.

I saw several nominated films this year, but I did not see either winning movie, for very different reasons. Having lived through the Iran hostage crisis as a teenager, I have zero interest in Hollywood's take. And I don't care for most adventure / fantasy movies so was sure I couldn't sit through Life of Pi. (Now, Life of Pie, that's a different story.)

Something that came to mind this morning when I saw the results on AOL's headline was that I've heard movie buffs discuss the irony of a best picture win with no actor or director awards. How can that be? It's certainly a good question.

2) Now, for a totally unrelated subject...the latest development for the La Grange Inn. It's essentially the same proposal put forth by Walgreen's in 2008, just switch the mega drugstore to CVS, and there you go. Allegedly they will move and restore the original structure, but unless the town makes that a requirement and monitors the situation, I have my doubts.

Bob grew up on the street behind La Grange. Only a fence separated his backyard from the parking lot and the building. As a kid, he made a model of it for a school project. We took Bob's Oma there for lunch not too many years before she died, and his mother had a dinner there to celebrate the marriage of his brother and sister-in-law.

Sadly, Long Island -- maybe suburbia generally -- does not especially value historic preservation. Why couldn't this place remain viable? I think destination or banquet hall extravaganzas are favored by today's bride- and groom- zillas, national chains have cut into the routine dinner trade for privately owned establishments, and the abysmal economy is hurting every business -- and us all, fancy eating out being a luxury, restaurants in particular.

3) And...in still more unrelated news, this is outrageous! Really, I'm shocked. Talk about board of education and administrative overstep into teacher autonomy. What's next? Micromanaging every lesson plan, all grades, and handing out scripts for teachers to deliver in the classroom?

James Coleman (1981) argued that private schools outperform public schools because they enforced more rigorous academic standards, were more intellectual, and gave teachers more autonomy. Little (1995) found that the development of autonomy in learners is related to teacher autonomy. Pearson (2005) demonstrated that teacher autonomy decreased on-the-job stress, and increased empowerment and professionalism.

I finished I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had last night. In the end, I'll stay with my impression that it was a good read, and I intend to watch the show Teach on the A&E website. (Added later: There are only brief clips on the website, no full episodes.) I'll more than likely share it with my students. However, there was a passage near the end that really irritated me:

...the sheer logistics of teaching, counseling, comforting, coaching, and inspiring 150 students each and every day are beyond the capability of most normal human beings. Yet public school teachers are expected to perform these tasks calmly and brilliantly while simultaneously documenting and evaluating every move they and their students make.   Oh, and don't forget staying up-to-the-minute and responsive to those constantly changing district mandates and national policy shifts. All for less money than the average plumber, real estate agent, or sales manager makes. Shouldn't we value the job of expanding our children's minds more than we value the job of Roto-Rooting our pipes? We say we do, but we never seem to put our money where our mouths are. [emphasis added]

Now, obviously I don't know Tony Danza personally, but he always came across as a likable guy on television (full disclosure, I was never a Taxi fan, but felt he was the best character. I did watch and enjoy Who's the Boss?...however, it is a show that did not wear well with time, sadly). He comes across as likable and relatively down-to-Earth in his book, too.

But there are so many false assertions in that excerpt it ended the book on a sour note for me. First, maybe he should have done a stint in the district finance office when he wasn't teaching his class. I'm not suggesting for a moment that teachers are the source of our problems in education. I appreciate his desire to defend them, especially since it is indeed a burn-out job, and teachers often are simplistically targeted for blame. But review school expenditures, and it is quite clear that we spend enormous sums. It is unrealistic to assume we could afford significant increases if we just shifted our priorities. What are we going to cut? Where will the funds come from? The military or the 1% are also simplistic targets.

The sentence in bold is the most telling. In the first place, does he have even a most basic understanding of economics? If plumbers are in demand, the market will respond with compensation. It doesn't make me happy that teaching is under compensated and jobs are hard to come by -- it is my bread and butter, after all. But we do not have a teacher shortage at present and it is unrealistic to argue otherwise.

However, none of that is what irritates me the most about the slam on plumbers. While I firmly believe being an educator is not a bad way to make a living (as my father would say), despite the critics, the burn-out, and the under compensation, I don't have a problem with his fretting about our priorities. But why is he singling out plumbers? Isn't there dignity in all work and all workers?  Has he so disconnected from his roots that he no longer has empathy for people in the trades? Why is he silent about the true incongruity: the way celebrities are compensated compared to almost everyone else. That's an area he know well and could speak to with some authority. Or does he believe he, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Venus Williams, the guy who stars in the Jackass movies, A-Rod, Charlie Sheen, the Kardashians and the host of Survivor deserve millions?

Tell me a plumber is not important the next time you awaken on a below zero morning and your bathroom pipes have frozen and burst.

1) Great column today.

2) So incredibly happy about this. (More here.) Two of the four U-Haul dogs are recovered and up for adoption today at MHHS. The remaining two will be available once they gain more weight. And, it turns out two of the U-Haul dogs are the parents of the Railroad Puppies (not really a surprise). The father is one of the dogs available today. I know there will be many good folks there hoping to be chosen as the forever homes, hopefully the ones who miss out will adopt one of the other needy dogs in the shelter!

3) My personal email account receives so much crap on a daily basis. It isn't necessarily unsolicited spam. It's caused by the necessity of providing an email address for various reasons, with the result being 10 emails a day from the site or vendor. I try to remember to click don't send me email alerts but often that only prevents email from their "partners." It has gotten as bad as paper junk mail. Such a time waster.

4) Yesterday in my evening class, the (rhetorical) question was asked, "what was done in school before computers?" The student didn't mean what did we do before email or texting or google or GPS, ie, how did we live without them. She was marveling at the change in her experience between grades 3 and 12, and wondering how was the time filled, how was the curriculum taught, before K-12 students had computers in the classroom. 

I've sometimes discussed a similar question with friends and family. What did we DO (in offices) before the computer? Now we sit harnessed to machines, writing email, researching on the Internet, typing in word processors and spreadsheets, looking up thing in databases. When the machine is down, might as well go home. 

I remember an enormous amount of time spent on carbon paper. Whiting out and retyping. Hours spent looking thing up in filing cabinets, binders and print-out tomes. And a lifetime spent on the telephone.

5) I have to work on my website. Tweaking necessary...usually I'd spend this week doing things like that, because I'd have winter break. But the kegs 'n' eggs fiasco of '11 resulted in a March week off rather than a February or April break. I loved the old spring schedule, which was five weeks-break-five weeks-break-five weeks. Perfect. So this sucks.

6) My class has been chosen as part of this spring's sample of students to respond to the counseling center's survey. It's used as marketing to challenge the stereotypes of UA students. Here's the one that is plastered in my hallway right now:

You can see the others from this semester here. I've always thought the campaign silly and the research design suspect, but whatever. I'm OK with allowing my class to participate. However, right now I am thinking, if most students don't do these things...why am I losing my winter break?

7) I'm reading I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I've Ever Had by Tony Danza. I can't say that it is great literature exactly, but it seems sincere (if occasionally a bit sappy -- did he really cry that often?), despite his year as a teacher being the basis for a reality show. (The network pulled the plug after six episodes, but he continued to teach for the full academic year.) It's definitely an enjoyable read. Here's the article I found a while ago that made me aware of the book.

I'm the type of person who can be very undisciplined when I like a book. What I mean is, I will do nothing but read...slack on all else. Stay up until 3 am every night. Just one more page, just one more chapter, just until the end of this section. So I am forcing myself to be happy with one chapter per night, with maybe a few pages sneaked in here and there during the day. It's not easy, but so far I'm managing. I'm rationalizing that this way I can read more books, without having to wait until I have the time to do nothing else.

Yesterday we went to Litchfield, CT for a second birthday celebration for our grandnephew (& Godson).

On the way down, we stopped at the Fuel Coffee Shop in Great Barrington, MA. I had the most delicious scone! I remembered (sadly) that the last time I was in Great Barrington was when Rudy was dying -- he was receiving Vitamin C treatments and we had to leave him at our vet in Ancramdale for a couple hours for the infusion.

They had about a half dozen recycled designer fashions on display such as this one, very clever!

Bob gave Nolan his vintage ~45-year old Tyco HO electric train set that we have been storing for about 30 years. It's mint, he even saved the instructions.

 They live on the campus of the Forman School.

On the way back we stopped at The Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, which is fairly close to home. It was packed with skiers, even more so because of the President's Day three-day weekend, I suspect. All in all, it was a really nice day.

Unrelated: we watched the movie Flight. Spoiler alert! It was a good movie, but very different than I was expecting. The ending seemed off to me, so much so that I googled to see if there was an alternative ending, if perhaps with advance screening it was determined that audiences really didn't like the ending at all and so a slightly more crowd-pleasing one was tacked on instead. I discovered that my sense of the ending being "off" is not uncommon, but I did not find anyone else who also perceived the ending I predicted. Most of the others who had issue with the ending wanted Denzel's character to either walk away a hero, or felt the alcoholism angle was over-played, or the girlfriend subplot was pointless. They felt the direcotr or writer had painted themselves into the corner and may have had no choice but to end it in such an unsatisfying way.

My POV is very different. I think everything after finding him passed out in the hotel was a Hollywood re-write. I believe he was either dead, or would have died shortly afterwards in the hospital. The entire movie had so many religious overtones and a general theme of death, from his crashing near a church, to meeting the cancer patient and heroin addict in the hospital, to the co-pilot and his wife. I have a hunch that he would have been exonerated at the hearing posthumously, but the ending of him dying from alcohol poisoning and drug overdose without eventually shaping up, taking responsibility and making a Denzel speech was not acceptable. So the ridiculous closing scenes in the hotel with John Goodman, at the hearing and in the jail were tacked on. Audiences don't like it much, but it's cheerier than the much more logical one I've described.

Took advantage of the nice day and weed whacked. It is still damp outside but I also emptied some of the tomato containers near the fence. The fence is hanging together on a lick and a promise -- it badly needs replacement now that we have Rosie, who is a scamp. Keeps us busy -- in Samsonville, the fence is in good shape but it was designed for larger dogs, not little teeny beagles. She isn't as obsessed with getting out in Castleton, luckily. The fence here would be very easy for her to slip through if she worked at it. Not solely due to the large dog thing -- it is wooden and getting to be in bad shape. Some sections need replacement. It's on "the list" that never ends, and who knows when the task will ascend to the top bullet. I am constantly fussing over it, locating trouble spots, doing rube goldberg repairs on gaps where she could escape. As I mentioned, fortunately she doesn't try very hard here. The rabbits must be farther away than in Samsonville (where they are under the sheds and on ledges right next to the fence).

Professionally, I've been working on some articles for a magazine for charter school leaders. The assignment sort of fell in my lap unexpectedly, on the day of my father's surgery. So far, I think it will be a rewarding experience. I'm also going to teach winter session again.

This week I had lunch at the Patroon Room with someone I hadn't seen in about 15 years. She asked me, kind of out of the blue, whether I find my job rewarding? The question took me by surprise. At the time I wondered if she was judging me. I was wearing a tie dye tee shirt and bright pink capri pants. I'm so not where I was when we were peers in class. I have a great memory, and 15 or 20 years ago still resonates on occasion, but actually seeing her again made that reflection all the more powerful. When we were both students, she was full time, GA supported. Doted on by the faculty. Hung out in study groups where they memorized every nuance of the literature in preparation for the comps. I was one class per semester, wearing a suit, running to class from Western Avenue where the bus dumped me out, often late if the class was 4:15 since my System Administration ball & chain did its level best to keep me inside the velvet trap, and off CDTA bus 10. I was invisible to most faculty, and truth be told, kind of liked it that way. Did my funded peers covet my situation? I always felt they disdained it. Or maybe they were just afraid of me.

The question was polite, it was a friendly conversation. We had a lot of fun gossiping. But I wondered, is she thinking how could I chuck the ladder and excitement to become a mellow, spacey hippie? I didn't think about it a lot before I said that I love teaching and that is the part of my job I find most rewarding. I told her the only downside is being an adjunct, but I don't worry about security at all. After ten years being fired seems unlikely, and even if it happened, I'd land on my feet.

Afterwards I thought about it some more, and wondered whether she was not asking me because she questions my motivation, but because she is soul searching her own choices and future. Clearly the stress of running fast takes its toll.

I thought about it some more and decided even when my "cohort" was hanging out in the study lounge and I was dragging my ball and chain to class, I was the hippie.

An quasi-unrelated aside: Now I figured everyone knows I am too young to have been a hippie. But yesterday, one of my students said to me while explaining a contemporary band and protest music: "you're from the sixties, you understand..." I didn't bother to correct him, didn't say "hey buddy, I am a decade too young to be 'from the sixties' except as a baby" -- but that took me by surprise too. LOL moment (in my head).

Added: A funny moment, the blast from the past and I were discussing a person we both know, and I summed it up suddenly: "he has little man syndrome." This so surprised and tickled her. She may have forgotten how fearless I am in my discourse.

As a result of this post, I was asked about a cost comparison. Both districts are in NYSED's similar schools category of "average need / resource capacity." In 2009-10 [the most recent year of data], districts in this category spent $18,262 per student (while all schools in NYS spent $19,921 / student). Similar schools spent $9,695 per general education student, and $26,949 per special education student (compared to $11,105 per general education student and $26,888 per special education student at all schools in NYS). The classification rate for students with special needs at similar schools was 12.3%, and at all NYS schools it was 13%. At Schodack: $18,715 / student total; $8,932 for general education; $26,067 for special education; 14.7% classification rate.

Now hang on to your hat...At OCS: $30,747 / student total; $15,495 general education; $40,128 special education; 17% classification rate. In terms of performance, all of Schodack's schools are in "good standing." At OCS, the high school, Bennett and Woodstock ES are in "good standing." The junior high and Phoenicia ES are labeled in need of improvement (year 1).

But the most shocking statistic to me is that Schodack's graduation rate was 95% for the cohort entering ninth grade in 2006; OCS had a grad rate of 81%, and so did not meet the aspirational goal set for students completing HS in 5 years (95%).

How's this for a punchline? (My mother loves this commercial):

I wanted to wait until I had my tax bills, pencil and calculator in hand before commenting. (They arrived Saturday but I wasn't home.) For OCS, it comes to a 2.7% increase over last year (slightly more than reported in the article.) For Schodack, it is an increase of 3.8% over last year (although overall the OCS bill is 56% higher than the one for Schodack). However neither is over the 2% tax cap. I must need to sharpen my pencil and get a new calculator. Or maybe this is "new math?"

The Schodack newsletter explains it this way: "the law requires school districts to use an eight-step formula to determine how much they can increase their tax levy by. As a result, most school districts can raise their tax levies by more than 2% and still be within the tax cap.The reason is the state’s formula allows exemptions for certain school expenditures that are outside a district’s control – such as contributions to the state retirement system – as well as allowances for growth in a community’s tax base. In Schodack CSD, the state allows the district to increase its tax levy by 2.47% and still be within the cap. The district decided to raise the tax levy by that amount to reduce the level of cuts that would be required to programs." 

OCS newsletter says "The Board of Education has adopted a budget that contains a ZERO percent increase to the tax levy. This does not mean that each individual tax bill will remain unchanged from last year."

But I am just being funny, not really expecting a comprehensible explanation. Reconciling the much-touted 2% with reality reminds me of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Academic integrity hearing took just over an hour. It was quite an experience, one that I hope to never go through again. I have no idea why a student who is not innocent would want a hearing. The student did not deny the offenses, but argued 1) embarrassment and 2) ignorance of the rules. Her goal was not to change the outcome in either my class or the other professor's, but to avoid being expelled. I am not sure why she wants to stay and keep throwing money away, because her GPA is abysmal and I'm guessing she will be on probation this fall regardless, and kicked out in December anyway. But I suppose academic integrity violations would be a worse reason in terms of getting readmitted eventually. I don't know the outcome -- the decision is not made during the proceeding, but my suspicion is: she will be expelled. In her remarks, I didn't see even a glimmer that she has soul-searched and has now developed an appreciation for learning and the importance of education.

Being on campus was a little strange, but I was happy to go back before classes start. The crush of students will be enough of a shock on Tuesday, after my isolated, quiet summer.  Today it was not busy, but it turns out that my building is still a construction site. Furniture is packed into the hallways, floor is stripped down to concrete in places. There was an electrical burning smell everywhere. I asked, and was told it was normal and the heating system was being tested. At least my PC wasn't crashed, something I have been greeted by at the beginning of the semester more than once!

One positive outcome of the hearing, what they call the "referral" side (us) got to vent, commiserate and share ideas before it started and during the break in the proceedings. Campus may be crowded next week, but faculty will continue to work in (relative) isolation, amidst the chaos. It would be nice to have a chance for more dialogue on issues such as this.

A sense of melancholy arrives with August. Not because of the looming end of the growing season (since August is a month full of produce -- anticipated all year). Not because closing the pool is on the horizon. No, it's those back-to-school ads. From childhood I remember the annual August assault, although my feature that some say is a bug has kicked in* and I can't remember the specific retailers. (My heart is thumping with pride over the alliteration of that sentence.) I do remember the products in this instance -- school supplies and school clothes.

I haven't heard the ads for 2012 on the radio (I don't listen to the radio) or on television (I don't watch programs with commercials). This morning I received an email from a retailer I do remember (and often patronize)...amazon: "Back to school: Dorm and K-12 essentials."

The television and radio versions that I remember from childhood were a repetitious bombardment. Amazon emails don't annoy me in the same way, but the melancholy isn't caused by the tiresome nature of the ads anyway. No, it is the reminder of going back to school, the dread that evoked even for a good student.  Funny that I have chosen to live my adult life on the school schedule, with the workload of semester's end and depressing countdown to the first day of classes every academic year.

That surely seems lame when the charms of the schedule -- a winter break and a long, leisurely summer -- more than makes up for sleepless December and May and bittersweet August.

This morning's view from the kitchen window

*I can't perceive in any way -- hear, see or remember advertisemens unless they feature a cute animal and even then I don't usually remember the product or retailer afterwards.

The weekend wasn't a total rain-out. It was quite nice yesterday late afternoon until early afternoon today. I did get to the nursery for the deer fence and window box plants, and today I recruited Bob to help me put up the fence. It started raining during the job, but we soldiered on and finished. Yesterday we got a new gas grill - it must be five years since we had one in Castleton - and so we could barbecue last night! Visions of grilled zucchini dance in my head. I spent the afternoon reading the consultant report about merging the Schodack and Ichabod Crane Central School Districts. It badly needs an executive summary, because the salient information could be presented in two pages. I slogged through all 72 pages, and went to the district's website to read supplementary information, but who will bother? FWIW, the partners hail from Western New York. The "study" is a strange blend of neutrality and advocacy. The assertion is that it doesn't take a POV, but in some places it definitely does, while in others the tone is distant, lacking even low-level analysis. More on the report another time, I think!

The registrar's link is down, which means that students won't get their grades until tomorrow. Since the weather is not nice enough for gardening (the original plan, sigh), this means I won't have to be interrupted by queries of "why did I get ...?"(pick one: A-, D or E; in my experience other students rarely ask that question) today, and can happily surf and catch up on various details. One important loose end related to my research that I'd planned to wait at least a day before addressing has taken first priority.

Bob had a big day yesterday, and since I finished the grades, we went out to celebrate. That rarely happens when the grading marathon is done, because invariably I am done but he has a big meeting to prepare for or is traveling or something so it has to keep. Same is often true of his "big days" (yesterday is not my story and so not shared here), the timing almost always means that I have something major due and we can't celebrate. So that the planets aligned yesterday and we were both free and champing at the bit is notable.

It being a Monday complicates things, naturally, but we have a favorite restaurant that opened about six weeks ago. (The link goes to the original Delmar location.) The decor is so "2012," there is parking (given the location that is not a given), the food is fabulous, the by-the-glass wine selection satisfying, the prices not bad, and the owner is both competent and extremely gracious. We have been to the Albany Shogun location numerous times since they opened, and last night did not disappoint. Can't wait to go back!

Our anniversary is Thursday. Bob has a two-day meeting in NYC (of course) so we've been pretty up in the air about when to celebrate. With this being Memorial Day weekend, we are headed to Samsonville and neither of us likes going out to a fancy dinner there. When we go out it is usually casual, and we more often prefer to stay at home. We don't go there to go out on the town, we go there to be in the woods. (That sentence is making me think of ticks, eek.)

Given last year's fiasco, 2009's nightmare (and how could I forget this?), he thought it over and decided to go to NYC on Wednesday, and telecommute on Thursday so we can go out on the actual date, and be closer to Castleton. The current plan is to go to Lee, MA to the Salmon Run Fish House. It isn't really a fancy place, but it is special.