Yay Pix!

Hil, I think the University systems are just breaking under this weight. It is really frustrating. We in instructional design are getting pushback from IT about the labor involved in recording lectures for students in quarantine. Which I understand, because everyone is just tired from showing up and going above and beyond our job descriptions. By the time we get the “accommodation” for quarantine approved, it will be beyond the time frame for the lecture to be recorded, because it will hav happened in the past. I am just amazed at the number of times I am suggesting time machine as a solution.

YAY no Cancer

Boooo not recording Covid cases correctly.

Coffee is gross. I will continue to love my Diet Coke and iced tea.

The vending guy who comes started putting only 1 row of diet cokes in the machine (we now have 1 machine with all the drinks instead of a separate Pepsi and Coke machine), I stopped him Monday and asked why he swtiched from 2 rows to 1 and he said we weren't buying enough. So now the one row goes empty before he can fill it up. He also doesn't turn the drinks front facing so there are some new ones no one is sure what they are since we can't see.

And he put 1 Viatmin Water in front of lemon lime gatorade and people want the lemon lime gatorade but no one wants to buy the Vitamin water to get to them. And someone asked him to take out the Vitamin water and he forgot.

Hooray, Pix!

These numbers are such bullshit.

Florida has been screwing with the numbers since day one. They won't count anyone who is a snowbird, and of course, since they contracted it and were treated for it in Florida the states (or countries) they are from aren't going to count them either. They had some crazy justification for not counting residents of care facilities too, but I think they changed that after pushback.

We know that the numbers are understated, but the wackadoodles swear that it is massively overstated or just not true at all. At this point I am holding on to the hope that the mid-terms will be helped by the fact that the death count is so much higher among the people I don't want to vote. Yes, I unashamedly think they asked for it. Karma, idiots.

DH agreed to stop near the VA/NC border and sleep in a hotel. He debated driving through and just catching naps here and there along the way, but good sense won out. I slept better too!

What is it with men (generally) and the need to drive straight through? I remember when I was young and we used to drive down to visit my grandparents or to the beach and my father would be pushing to get in the car early and then drive with no stops. With two daughters needing restroom breaks and my mother insisting on breaking for lunch, that didn't happen, but he'd be jittering to get going about three minutes after stopping.

In me me me news, my day started off with being trapped in a stalled elevator for about 10 minutes. No AC, so it got warm and uncomfortable. I called, but the elevator company would have to send a technician out ... with no indication how long that would take. It did, eventually open the door so I could escape (which meant the technician, whenever they arrived, would not have to deal with a frantic, sweaty woman), but it was an unpleasant beginning. The irony is that the elevator had been repaired recently ... obviously, not well enough.

Yikes, not a fun way to start the day at all! I'm glad it ended up being a relatively short time, but you wouldn't know that while waiting.

Yes, when driving with someone else I don't mind driving through. But for me (prior to Covid) stopping at the hotel and going for a swim and chilling was always a fun part of travel. When the kids were with us we would find a putt-putt course or something for a bit of fun too. He is getting more sensible. He did start out at 5 this morning but told me he was stopping around 9 and having a relaxed breakfast in a restaurant rather than gobbling a fast-food sandwich while driving. Wow, progress.

I think it's an efficiency thing. I once drove 19 hours straight through to Minneapolis to attend a MST3K convention in my twenties. Four hours each way to a family gathering in Kentucky was pushing my upper limit these days, though.

Yikes, Toddson, glad you escaped!

Sometimes I am in drive-straight-through mode and sometimes I am more into the journey than the destination, I guess, and leisurely stops are part of the journey. Been a while since I have road tripped.

When I was younger, I could do the 10 hours between Amarillo and Austin with just a couple of bathroom breaks. The trip back, ending as it did in the boring flatness of the Panhandle, was harder - took lots of Springsteen to keep me going.

Now, 6 hours is pretty much the most I can do in one day. For one thing, more bathroom breaks are needed.

I do two 15 hour trips on the way here and back. It would be 12 except I have to stop and charge my car. I spend the 15-30 minute charge stops to close my eyes and rest up a bit, and/or get food and restroom time. This year I have loaded up my phone with 18 hours of Harry Potter, which covers the first two books. I didn't read them so I am looking forward to that between music or news breaks. I generally do podcasts, but I thought I would try audiobooks this time. My car makes the trip much easier with autodrive.