21 April 2010 But the forecast said…

21 April 2010 But the forecast said…


This morning began as a cloudy day with intermittent rain showers. Never mind the gloom; whippoorwills were back on our property as I dragged Loki outside and up to the road to retrieve the newspaper. It was becoming light enough that surprise bear encounters were unlikely.

The forecast called for highs around 68°F and partly cloudy skies. Planning for that, I left the house lightly clad, and had to go back inside for a rain jacket. The outside temperature never exceeded 51°F on the drive in and most of the way was graced with rain. I make this mistake, under-dressing for the real weather, about once or twice a year. Normally, I wear and carry more than is necessary. My hands are still thawing out from the outside air blown onto them by the defroster in the Pathfinder. It worked well in Florida, they told us at the dealership. In fact, we didn’t ever use it for the first four years after we bought the Pathfinder. It was only during our 2005 trip to VT that we first needed to use it. We’ve gotten used to cold hands when the windshield fogs up. I have gloves with me today but was in too much of hurry to dig them out.

I’m wondering if any of my CSI class team mates will show up this morning. I e-mailed them a link to the pictures I posted for their benefit on Friday. Today is Wednesday, and I’ve yet to hear from anyone in the group about photos, measurements, or anything else. At this point, I’m somewhat annoyed. I have enough measurements to complete the project. They have no photos to submit if I choose to dump this project. I can heavily damage their grade for 1/3rd of the class by simply doing nothing. As a “special student,” auditing the class, I don’t get graded and really have no obligation to complete any exams.

It may be that none of them have even bothered to look for e-mail about this class. National news items broadcast over the last two days indicate that teen-agers only communicate by text message. Neither Gloria nor I use text messaging or IM at all. We see no reason to pay for individual messages, outgoing or incoming. We still use cell phones for verbal communication. And since our home is located in a very spotty to no service area due to the location and terrain, we still use a land line for our primary phone service. How quickly technology outdates us. When Gloria and I met online and married it was still an uncommon occurrence. Now, it seems verbal communication may be, for the time, passé. I’ve sent three text messages that I can recall and those all happened in Vancouver when we were trying to meet my older son for dinner.

Part of the problem with text and instant messaging, for me, is that it all too often takes place in situations where the sender and recipient should be doing something else. I watch students serve their cell phones while professors attempt to lecture, pretending that they aren’t being ignored by students passing electronic notes. Frankly, it is rude. It is rude when it happens in business meetings, in classrooms, in checkout lines, and almost everywhere else.

I stuck my head into the CSI classroom in passing today. Didn’t see anyone from my group. I guess they don’t bother with low-tech common any more. Too bad. They probably all under-dressed for the weather, too.