It started at about 2 p.m. and it flurried until late into the night.
We got about three inches.
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Jan 21
Jan 21
Light day around here
Web work today, and if only I meant Spider-Man work. But I updated a lot of pages I update around the web for work things, leaving only many of these pages un-updated. There are two glaring areas on this site to deal with, and I’m going to get into one of those this evening.
I did add one thing to this site, on the front page. Careful observers will note one of the old photos has been replaced by a new photo. Check it out. Maybe you’ll see it. You’ll definitely see it. There are only so many photographs to look at in that display. Maybe you’ll notice it.
So there’s a new student loan grace period in place thanks to an executive order President Biden signed last week. So I talked with Phil Schuman, who is the executive director of Financial Wellness and Education at Indiana University, to see what this means for alumni, students and potential borrowers.
Dozens of people will listen to this, and you should, too.
Nationally, student loan debt reached $1.6 trillion dollars last year. Average monthly payments are between $200 and $300 and the U.S. Department of Education says about 20 percent of borrowers are in default. Tough economic times, to be sure.
And I spent part of the afternoon looking for the next podcast idea. And that’s the day. Some days are more fruitful than others, what can you say?
25
Jan 21
Jan 21
The photos improve as you scroll
It was this kind of weekend. Cold and damp and it could work almost to the bone. It was 32 at best, and that didn’t last long, either day. It left us with lovely views, like this:
Timing is everything in meteorological events. All that fog would be a great mood-setter around Halloween. But here, near the end of January, I’m close to over it. The good news is have 10 more weeks to get good and bored with views like this:
“But we’ll have sunny skies on Friday!” he said, exasperated.
We punctuated the evening with ribs, of the fall-off-the-bone variety. They were quite tasty. We should have had more. We should have them more.
A friend said on Instagram that he wants to have abs, but he likes ribs too much. I don’t see what the problem is. Abdominal musculature and ribs are located closely to one another. Why not have both?
I didn’t mention he’s getting to that age where that idea is a vanishing proposition. Let him figure that out on his own. And then he can enjoy his ribs in peace. If he’s lucky, they’ll be in pieces, not unlike the ones we had last night.
It’s Monday, so, to the cats! The cats are grand. Just had a nice little play session with one of them, in fact.
Poseidon, as ever, likes being under the cover. It’s a morning and nighttime ritual at this point. It might be too cold for him here:
Phoebe also likes cover, but she takes her cozy naps in the evening.
Poseidon got himself stuck in a box.
He was nosing around it, the top and the bottom had been opened up, so the cardboard wanted to fall over on itself. But if you stood on either side it would stack up nicely and he shimmied in, grateful for the help, until he realized his predicament.
As ever, he is an embarrassment to his sister.
22
Jan 21
Jan 21
Bernie Sanders memes
I could not resist. Here are a few I threw together this week.
The senator is the new head coach for the Philadelphia Eagles:
They are re-making Willy Wonka for unknown reasons. I’ve long thought that Sanders is an incredibly personable guy. He’d be delightfully weird as the confection king:
President Biden has a Peloton, and there’s a security concern since it connects to the Internet. But I’m sure Sanders would let Biden borrow his bike:
Washington Football Team, as a name, has grown on me. And I still think my rotating cast of Washing Heroes is the marketing move of the century, but if they want to go another direction, there’s always the Washington Politicians:
The mittens were foretold in Wayne’s World:
And this is a local one:
The senator has been in that building. Two years ago he was in Bloomington stumping for a congressional candidate and they used one of our classrooms has a holding room for the Vermonter until it was time for his speech. He’s posing there with Ernie Pyle, the patron saint of IU’s journalism program. Pyle’s desk and some of his personal effects are on display in the building as well.
21
Jan 21
Jan 21
Leave it
On our walk late this afternoon, when it was unseasonably warm, you could hear it before you could see it. There was a breeze blowing and cars whirring by and it was all punctuated by our conversation but there was a crinkling, crunchy dispute of it all.
We’d already seen one driver, breaking the state’s hands free law, almost rear-end a pickup. We were making our turns based on maximizing the weak winter sun. We were talking about trips we couldn’t take when the dry parchment sound set upon the ears. Those dry, plaintive leaves, still hanging on in defiance, rustling in the wind.
It’s funny, the idea of trips. We had three scheduled last year that were canceled, plus probably three holiday visits. I don’t think I’ve been anywhere since Christmas of 2019. I mean anywhere farther than I’ve pedaled my bicycle. The Yankee has made a few trips to make appointments in Indianapolis, and that’s it for both of us. The curiosity of a staycation has been satisfied, and continues on. We, like the leaves, are still hanging on. But, lately, I’ve spent idle time planning other interesting trips that one might do. These don’t rise to the level of let’s make plans, but, rather ‘Wouldn’t that be neat?’ My favorite one was a four or five day bike-riding trip through New York … or a vacation home that’s both far away from everywhere, and yet easy to reach, and warm … or a B&B somewhere quiet. Crinkly, crunchy leaves would be required.
There’s another cold snap coming this weekend, and maybe some snow and ice, so a few more of those leaves may fall away before we find ourselves there again sometime next week. And while it is too early to think this way, in just 11 long weeks or so, those proud leaves will be replaced by a new generation of green sunlight collectors, and we can pretend like some of this never happened. But only some of it.
Biden: "The brutal truth is, it's going to take months to get the majority of Americans vaccinated." He says that's why the country must take actions to curb the spread of the virus, pointing to his call for Americans to "mask up" for the next 100 days.
— Joey Garrison (@joeygarrison) January 21, 2021
The IDOH reported today 3,733 new cases, pushing the state beyond the 600,000-case mark.
➡️ @LaneButInType https://t.co/Du3h51q2PA
— WFIU News (@WFIUNews) January 21, 2021
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Lindsay Weaver, confirms what many others have reported–there was no federal vaccine stockpile despite what fmr. POTUS Donald Trump claimed. Indiana has received NO more vaccines after announcement.
— Brock E.W. Turner (@BrockEWTurner) January 21, 2021
The absence of a national vaccine stockpile is preventing Indiana from moving forward with its COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan.
➡️ @brandonjsmith5 https://t.co/U8vTn6hZBb
— WFIU News (@WFIUNews) January 22, 2021
