The midterm Friday is calculus. My geometry students also have a midterm tomorrow, but that one's a lot easier -- just 25 students, and it's a small classroom so not much walking, and I trust them a lot more than I trust the calculus students (plus it's pretty tough to cheat on a geometry exam to begin with), so I can sit down a lot more.

I got my painkillers refilled, so I have those ready for the weekend, when I know I'm going to need them. The class that I'm covering tomorrow morning is only about 10 students, so that shouldn't be too difficult. (I've got two classes of 65 students each right now, and I am not great at managing that many.) Then spend most of the day grading geometry midterms from today, then give the calculus midterm, then grade that.

I bought nachos stuff, because I know I'm going to want some kind of junk food by the time I'm finished with that grading.

does that calculus grading have to be done right after? It couldn't wait the weekend?

It's group grading -- there are about ten of us who give our students the same exam, and to ensure it's graded fairly, each of us is assigned a particular problem to grade, and we grade that problem for all the students. The logistics of it work out best if everyone's in the same room at the same time, and the general consensus is that we should get it over with and grade right after the exam.

Oh, I thought it was just you and the one other guy. Yeah, that would be trickier to move.

Hil, good luck today.

I have concert tickets for the end of August which means that somehow between now and then I have to get ltc to start on a bottle so I can leave her with my mother for s few hours.

Feeling sad and out of sort today. One of my older friends passed unexpectedly this morning. We still don't know what happened. She was 72 going on 22. I believe everyone thought she would live well over 100 years. (Tom, this was Pat that gave us the tour of her ranch)

Pat was so full of life each and every day. She grew or raised or traded for everything her family ate. I'd bring her citrus or the mango chutney I'd canned to fill in where she couldn't do it herself. Avid hunter and big ole Republican. She would happily discuss politics with me and never considered taking it personally. At the frequent Otter Lake get togethers she would be my dance partner when her grandkids didn't get her out there first. She shoveled roofs and moved lawns and I just couldn't imagine her stopping. She had joint issues from Lyme disease that slowed her a bit on the dance floor and chores, but I didn't think she had any serious health issues.

One more lovely story of Pat while I reminisce. Pat had a number of animals, emus, hogs, chickens, deer and such. Through the years she hosted buses of disabled children and adults for farm tours. When her granddaughter was born a couple years ago with Down Syndrome she expressed her gratitude that she had known so many children and adults with the syndrome because it gave her more experience to be loving guidance for the grandchild.

We could not have been more different and we certainly had completely different life experiences, but we loved each other. It is a much larger hole for her family and the community, but I have a hole in my heart. RIP Pat. You made the world a better place.

I'm sorry, Laura. She sounds like quite a person to have known.

I'm sorry, Laura.

Is is a reminder to me that I tend to go out of my way to surround myself with "just like me" big city far left thinking people. Then today thinking of Pat I know we had almost nothing in common. We loved our families, and we loved to dance together, and we loved to talk about every subject without it mattering if we agreed or not. It just breaks my heart that I won't have a drink next to a bonfire or dance with her again. It probably wasn't a week ago that we talked about seeing each other soon. At least I am confident that she lived her last days with all the energy of the previous decades.