Cold.

There’s really not much else to say about today.
Well, there’s always something, but that’s the main thing.    It’s cold.
It’s like in the upper 20s.

It’s the first day the snow is sticking.

That beautiful white fluffy stuff that inspires Christmas carols, serial killers, and snow days.    It’s a pretty versatile material, really.  But, it’s also the real first sign of winter.   It proves that whatever is left of autumn’s warmth has deserted us.  The trees are going to finally surrender their leaves and be replaced with ice.  The streets become hazardous and soup suddenly becomes in vogue.

At one point in my life, I could handle the cold.
It didn’t bother me in the slightest.    I thought it was pretty, pristine, and pure.  I actually did not mind shoveling the driveway or making snow angels.  Being more aligned with the environment, I enjoyed it.   I may have even relished it.

All of that really changed after I became part cyborg.
The steel in my spine doesn’t handle the cold well.   It causes the constant pain to intensify and I have to devote more mental attention to not becoming grumpy.

Yeah, sure, I could take pain meds, but – –  if you haven’t figured out by now —  I’m a pretty stubborn person.   I pride myself on control.  I would rather foolishly struggle with the aches and pains than take an addictive painkiller.

I know I can’t control everything.   Truthfully, I wouldn’t want to.  But, for now, I can handle this and I will.

So, the cold is fine — just as long as I’m not in it.  =)

However, brother dearest rather likes the cold.   After the gym, off we went to walk around downtown for about an hour.   It was only an hour and I actually pressed to walk longer, but he was apprehensive about the strive home.   The snow on the streets has melted and it could easily develop patches of ice.  We went home about an hour or two earlier than we usually do.

Guess who has to be at Doc S tomorrow at 8am.
Yep!   That’s me.   I’m hoping the highway isn’t going to be bad.   Surely not, right?  I mean, it’s just the first really bad weather day although tomorrow is supposed to be colder still.

Maybe it’ll be too cold to snow.

Adjunct life continues to be junk.
My current class, while grading is a breeze — so far, about half of them are failing.   Despite their Week 1 self-confessions on how they want to devote their lives to nursing and caring for others, some have very little drive to get there.

Maybe I’m getting my hopes too high.   Last term was actually really good.    I felt that I could challenge the students and have a little fun.   Very few turned in late assignments and only one person failed.   I later got a note from her and it seems like she failed every class that term, so I can’t be pinpointed to blame.

This term..  I don’t know.   All I can do baby them – which shouldn’t be a requirement, but we all know it is.

Found out that one of my previous employers, Harrison, closed up shop without notice.
In a way, I wasn’t surprised.   Harrison’s tuition cost quite a bit more than the surrounding community college and it wasn’t certified.  I guess that’s not the right word.    They weren’t nationally accredited, which they did their best to hide or downplay.

What really kept them going was the nursing program and they were one of the few around here that offered fashion and cooking courses.  Other than that, they were pretty meh.

I just find it so inhumane that they would close their doors without so much as a day notice to the staff and students.   From what I can tell, only the top tier knew what was going on.   The students suddenly found the doors locked one day.   The staff (outside of the adjuncts of course.   The adjuncts never get squat) received a note saying their health care was canceled on the previous Friday.

I remember when Everest/Corinthian was force closed…  deservedly so… but at least there were warning signs.  Bad reviews.   Horrible reputation.   It was on Obama’s hit list to become defunct.  I had little sympathy for the new students.  If they didn’t thoroughly investigate a college before deciding to go into massive student loan debt, that’s on them.

What really tore me up where the students who actually did their best.  Being an English adjunct who was mostly allocated to 001 classes, those students were very few, but there were some good souls out there who tried their best.   They were intelligent, dedicated, and self-aware.  Those students, after investing years of their life into a personal dream where completely shafted.

I hated Everest, but that left a dark void inside me for a while.

Anyway –

Tomorrow – Doc S.
Wednesday – baby brother and doc appointment
Thursday – baby sister and hemogoblin
Friday – my day

Saturday… not sure.
Sunday – Bro and me knocking out community day.

Sprinkle in some grading here and there and that’s my week.