Wednesday, March 30, 2011

30 March 2011 Le temps passé

Another phrase might well be “time marches on,” as the month of April looms ahead.

The year 2011 is one quarter gone, our planet’s circum-Solar journey well underway.

In earlier eras, this month would have been the New Year. The calendar calculation would have noted the greening of trees and the return of food crops to the fields. Livestock giving birth to the next year’s meat would cement the relationship to the vernal equinox.

Now it signals the return the mowing season. The hated knotweed has sprung from shoot to 5-foot cane, seemingly overnight. It is time to do battle with weed trimmer and herbicide, to prevent as much encroachment as possible.

I’m still doing battle with the graphing assignment for Volcanology. Lack of engineering scales and my reluctance to spend $ 20 for a triangular scale I won’t need again this semester is delaying my final revision of this project. The first group project is now submitted for grading. It fell to me to write the report for submission and to me and one other of the group to finalize and submit the report. I essentially pulled up at least two people’s grades at no effort to them. This failure to attend class and share in assigned work is really annoying. I could have modified my report to denote non-performance, or to lower the quality of the report and drop the others’ grades with little effort. Yet, while I don’t even receive a grade, and could simply opt out of these projects, I can’t bring myself to do less than I’m capable of.

We’ve only about a month of classes left in this semester. I’m not sure what courses I may take next fall, if any. Gasoline prices are really out of hand as the speculators who destroyed the housing market and walked away with overflowing pockets, are now using crude oil to even further destroy the middle class and the national economy.

Last night we dined on grilled pork chops, sautéed yellow squash, and red pepper strips. Tonight will most likely be burritos and salad.

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