Day 36 - Governor Newsom imposes new restrictions

General Goofus…

Oh my, what a surprise. There’s a problem (gasp) with the vaccine shipment.  It seems that General Goofus Perna fucked up the transport of additional vaccine and gave a Zoom mea culpa.  But what, exactly, is the nature of the problem?  As usual, the ‘fubar’ is not fully explained and the American people are left in the dark, with General Goofus repeatedly apologizing for the “miscommunication.”  A miscommunication primarily involving Blue states?  Come on!

So, let me get this straight.  In order for the Pfizer vaccine to be effective, the second dose has to be administered three weeks later.  Unfortunately, that second dose isn’t coming for 30%-50% of the people who already received the first dose.  I guess Michigonians will have to fly to the UK to get their second dose, but be fair warned Detroit residents…you’ll get your second dose alright, but you’ll be quarantining in London for all of 2021 [did anybody see the more than 2000+ big-rigs stuck in Kent, England? – they can’t get to the Dover port and their perishables are rotting], enduring a virulent Covid strain that the vaccine you just received won’t cover.   

BTW, here are just a few of the states who aren’t getting the vaccine they were promised:  Michigan, Georgia, Connecticut, Nevada, Illinois, New Hampshire, etc.  Recognize the pattern?  They’re all blue with the Michigan governor screaming the loudest that she’s now on track to receive 50% less of what she was originally promised and this was AFTER the first half of Michigonians were vaccinated.  Hmmm…I wonder why there’s a delay for these states…  General Goofus says he’s on it.

Also, and I knew this was coming…what’s this?....there is a faint stirring among…who, exactly?...that people might only need ONE dose of the vaccine.  Funny how that works.  One dose will make the vaccine inoculation go that much more smoothly and is cheaper for the federal government.  Also, in light of the botched shipping issues, the less the military transports the better. Yep, one dose should do it…for Blue states (sarcasm here). Red states are trying to ‘thin the herd.’  Republicans will still get the one-two vaccine punch; Democrats will receive one dose and die. Don’t worry – General Goofus will apologize for that, too.

12/21/20. Monday

8:00 – Everything. hurts. That damn speed-walking workout yesterday.

8:30 – 9:00 - Up and I go downstairs to say good morning to the dog.  She’s still asleep, so I rub her tummy three times and we go outside. She poops, but won’t pee so back inside we go, then I have to pretend like we’ve never been outside and excitedly say, “Let’s go outside and go potty!” Back outside we go and this time she does her business and I’m finished.  Coffee for me, rotten turkey for her.  This is it for the rotten turkey.  Not because I’m worried about the dog…I just can’t stand touching it anymore.

9:00-11:30 - Well, my winter break continues but today, unfortunately, is a work day and I’m doing some clean-up. I return to my bedroom for a change of venue and manually re-type the Socratic Seminars I received from the top two students in last semester’s Specialty Class No. 2 into the folder on my netbook.  I like to have sample responses prepared for my assignments so I can distribute them as templates to the students if needed and these essays are really good.  This is tedious “grunt” work.  Most of my podcasts are down for the 2-week Xmas break and there isn’t much to listen to while I’m working. I put on Air Talk and PBS News Hour segments while I transcribe the essays.

11:30-12:30 – I have chicken chili for lunch and read a Money Diary. I also listen to Organize 365.

12:30-3:00 - At College No. 1, classes start on 1/11/21; at College No. 2, I have one class that’s scheduled to start on 1/4/21. The fate of this class is unclear because I don’t know if enrollment will increase and this is an age-old problem that has plagued me for years. I never hear other adjuncts talk about this.  Right now, I only have 13 students but I have to move forward as if the class will run so I “course copy” the class in Canvas.  Then, I go to College No. 2 and course copy the three classes I’m scheduled to teach.  Enrollment is low in two of them, but it could be worse.  One of the core classes has enough students and will definitely run – the other two are on the bubble. I continue listening to Organize 365.

- I check in with L. and she is hard at work, reformatting my core class PP slides so they are ready for the 1/4/21 date.

-L. individually emailed me each audio lecture from last semester’s Specialty Class No. 1 so I remove them from the “Downloads” file and put them all in a special folder.  Unfortunately, this can only be done one lecture at a time so it is a slow, tedious process.

-I email L. eleven chapters worth of PP slides for the new Specialty Class I’ll be teaching this semester, IF enrollment is maintained, so she can convert them to Google slides.  It’s a lot of work, but L. charges me $30 an hour, UNLESS she is feeling charitable, which is rare.  When that occurs, I get a “10% holiday discount.”  Most of the time I’m simply gouged.

-I check RatemyProfessor.com to review my ratings.  This site is “Yelp” for teachers and is important because students frequently consult it to see how other students have rated the professor.  Too many bad ratings and students will boycott the class and refuse to enroll. So far, since the site has started [about 15 years ago], my ratings have been pretty good; HOWEVER, I check today and the students just beat.me.up. Two students call me heartless and say I don’t care about them, even though they disclose that they both received Bs in the class. If I didn’t care, wouldn’t I have given them Fs? Yet another student writes, “she gaslights the students.” What?!  What does that even mean?

This is my “brand” so I have to do damage control. I identify myself, write a personal post on the site pointing out that the students who criticized me actually got B’s, and then tell everyone I’m not that bad.  I rank myself as “Awesome.”  L. also submits a post, pretending she’s a former student and saying what a great teacher I am. She flags her own post as “most helpful” so it will remain at the top and the first one that students see when they’re checking me.

-3:00-5:00 – I’m done for the day so I go upstairs, for a change of venue, and work on blog posts.

-5:00-6:00 – Shower. Spa day.  Covid-19 uniform. Light make-up.

6:00-6:45 – I pack an overnight bag and a few items for my insulated lunch bag, load everything in the car, and drive to B.’s house

7:15 – 11:00 - At B’s house and it’s cocktail hour!!!  B. already ate and I’m debating whether to eat some of the items that I packed in my lunch bag.  Eventually, I decide I’m not feeling it and settle on champagne. We talk politics and then call it a night.

11:30 – 12:00 – Night time routine. Bed.