The Thoughts of a Frumpy Professor

............................................ ............................................ A blog devoted to the ramblings of a small town, middle aged college professor as he experiences life and all its strange variances.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Random Thoughts


Just a bunch of thoughts that move into and out of my mind this morning.  Overall, I am feeling surprisingly "outside of myself" emotionally.  I do not feel worry or panic.  I do not feel joy.  I just kind of feel "here" for better or worse:

  • I wonder how soon a potential vaccine for Covid-19 will be available.  
  • I was able to get the lawn mower started and have trimmed one area that tends to grow earlier than the rest of the yard (the area where my friendly dog does her business).  Even though I always do what is suggested to put the lawn mower away for the winter so that it should start well come spring (run out the gas, put some stabilizer in the tank  and lines, etc), every spring it is still a struggle to get the gas flowing to the engine again.  I know it is a small needle-like feed in the gas line to the carburetor that is the culprit, but no matter how carefully I put it away in the Winter, it sometimes is damn near impossible to get it started.
  • Plugging away at electronic teaching has made me wonder if I might want to try to get hired by some on-line U after I eventually retire someday.  I wonder how much they typically pay.  I presume it is close to peanuts as far as income, but in retirement it could be helpful.
  • I look at all my beautiful pipes every day while I am working on the computer at home.  They sure are damn beautiful.  I have opened a few pouches of pipe tobacco too, just for the beautiful aroma.  I still feel tempted to smoke a bowl or two or a hundred pretty much every day.  
  • I have grown rather fond of my instant coffee every morning.  I think I mentioned how we do not have a coffee pot because I am the only coffee drinker at home, and I had always sufficed with free work coffee or coffee from Starbucks or 7-11 since I would typically pass by several nearly every day.  We had instant coffee on hand because sometimes (only rarely actually) a guest would really want coffee over some other beverage we had available.  
  • We have still been getting snow the last several days.  But, the snow, while it does cover the ground, will melt by about 2-3 pm in the afternoon.  I guess it is sort of like a refreshing, icy-cold Slurpee for the lawn.  
  • I have taken to running a 1/4 marathon each day for the last three weeks.  "Quarter Marathon" sounds pretty damn impressive, doesn't it?  :)  But, really it is only 6.6 miles (10.6 km), so it is not much more than the usual 6.2 (10km) I have been running for several weeks, and in truth not that much more than the 5 miles (8 km) I have been running each day for a few years.  But... "QUARTER MARATHON" just *SOUNDS* better.  :) 
  • I am thinking I am pretty close to having an established routine now with teaching so I can better plan my day and still have time for other pursuits.  It has taken a few weeks where I have typically been on the computer all day often till 6pm or later each night figuring things out.  But I think I am getting to a point where I will start to have a bit freedom and flexibility in the afternoons after this week so I can do something more "hobby" oriented.  I am contemplating tearing down one of the musical instruments I bought a while ago to refurbish and try to make beautiful again.  
PipeTobacco

6 Comments:

Blogger Pat M. said...

Professors at University of Phoenix, if they have a Ph.D., earned $1,200 - $1,800 per course the last time I looked. With courses lasting five or six weeks, a professor teaching two graduate courses 48 weeks out of the year would earn less than $30,000 despite a very busy schedule. Possibly quite a bit less until he had three years or more of experience.

You would likely earn more as a tobacconist, working fewer hours.

Thursday, 16 April, 2020  
Blogger Tom Cochrun said...

I got a kick out of your description of your daily snow as "...icy-cold Slurpee for the lawn." Thanks for the chuckle.

Thursday, 16 April, 2020  
Blogger David P. said...

Coffee "pot" ?!!! LOL , showing one's age here aren't we?!

I finally broke down last year and bought a "K-cup" type coffee maker; just an inexpensive one not the original Keurig models which are pricey. It has gotten to be habit forming in it's ease of use and good quality of coffee. Think about it ... might be good to have one in your home office that you telecommute / teach from.

Stay well.

Thursday, 16 April, 2020  
Blogger peppylady (Dora) said...

Here in Idaho it been quite sunny. But it could change any minute

Thursday, 16 April, 2020  
Blogger Anvilcloud said...

I have a tassimo almost every morning when I get up early and later brew a big pot for Sue. I have some from the pot too but not a lot.

Friday, 17 April, 2020  
Blogger Forsythia said...

We have a Mister Coffee. It's no trouble at all to brew a pot, although there are only two of us. I suppose this would horrify some people, but anything we don't drink the first day is put into a thermos and we heat it up by the cupful in the microwave the next morning.

Saturday, 18 April, 2020  

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