{"id":573898938,"date":"2026-04-27T20:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T00:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/?p=573898938"},"modified":"2026-05-22T02:05:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:05:42","slug":"the-bridge-between-here-and-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/blog\/2026\/04\/27\/the-bridge-between-here-and-there\/","title":{"rendered":"The bridge between here and there"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the last week of class. The last week for my two in-person classes. My online class runs another week. I don’t set the schedule and I’m not sure how this works. They start on the same day, the classes end a week a part and the finals are six days a part. <\/p>\n

In a practical sense I don’t mind this; I know about all of the things I must grade in the next three weeks. (The official count: a lot.) I wonder if a student taking both online and in-person classes notices. I have one student this term in one of my in-person classes and one online, she hasn’t said anything about it. Maybe the students don’t mind it because, in a practical sense, they have a fair amount to do, of course. <\/p>\n

The online students are now working on social media platform audits. This is a four-step process that we spread out over five or six weeks. It is a substantial portion of their grade. With each of their submissions I send them a lot of feedback. We are between steps two and three, with the third being the dress rehearsal, if you will. There’s a lot I try to offer, most importantly it must be done quickly since they don’t have a big turnaround. Also, they have a final to worry about. <\/p>\n

This week in my in-person classes I have one final lecture on Tuesday and group presentations on Thursday in my Rits and Traditions class. In criticism we’ll have one final conversation tomorrow about some written content, and one final documentary on Thursday. They’ll both have finals due next week. <\/p>\n

Then grading, and some grading, and probably some grading. Also, there are meetings.<\/p>\n

So, busy-busy. <\/p>\n

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Late this afternoon we tore ourselves away from work for a quick 60-minute lollipop route. There was no candy, sadly. It just looks like a sucker on a map. I noted that it felt sluggish, but mostly because the last few miles felt that way. In the early going, I was as happy as could be. <\/p>\n

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We went down a road we haven’t been down since last July or so. I’ll give you one guess why. <\/p>\n

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The bridge is still closed, but not closed-closed. If you are properly motivated that sign is just a suggestion. If you go over the bridge right now you’re traveling over firmly packed dirt. It’s just a highway overpass, so it’s probably safe as can be. Hearing all the cars and trucks roar beneath you as you’re on an out-of-order overpass might be unnerving. <\/p>\n

It’ll probably be another year before they get done with this project. No one seems to be in a hurry to fix it. <\/p>\n

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I’m still living in the happy memories of our wonderful Irish vacation. So, I’m sharing extra videos that we didn’t get to at the time. It was a great vacation. I have a lot of footage. This will go on for some time. Enjoy it with me, won’t you?<\/p>\n