fall, newspaper, rain, rumination

Meandering ruminations

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While I pondered weak and weary …
My apologies to Poe, but those words really sum up what the day has been like here today. It poured rain off and on last night and today has been wet and drizzly all day. What more could you ask for to herald the arrival of fall. Nothing like a wet, drizzly, overcast, cool day to bring home the arrival of that precursor to winter.
One thing that really irks me about this weather is that the paper delivery guy always throws the paper down on the front sidewalk where all the water flows. Thus, even though he bags the papers, the plastic bag just fills with water and the result is a soggy mess.  His predecessor was wonderful – he always put the papers on the front porch.  Not so with the new guy. You can tell when the old guy subs for the new guy because all of a sudden the paper starts appearing on the front porch. I guess I shouldn’t complain – at least the paper gets here. Does your delivery person do any better?
It occurs to me that perhaps I should ask a different question first: do you even subscribe to papers in the physical form? I find that I use both online and paper versions. The preferred form  depends on why I read that particular paper and how often I read it.  I find that online versions of papers work OK except for crosswords and comics. Crosswords because I am not a fan of the electronic entry forms I have used. It is more acceptable to me to print the puzzle and then fill it in with pen. Then I don’t to have to be tied to a computer to fill it in. Crossword puzzling is a time as available thing for me and the opportunities tend to be hit and miss, with more misses if I have do it on the computer. I like my comics in print because I tend to be a clipper. I like to cut out and pin on my bulletin board any comic which strikes my fancy. It just isn’t the same to me when printed on the laser and then clipped and pinned.
In any case, it was late this afternoon before the papers got dry enough to get to my beloved crossword puzzles. I always try to do the New York Times crossword every day. I then do others if the opportunity presents itself. I find that the NYT crossword is always interesting and I like the ebb and flow in difficulty that matches the week. Monday is usually trivial and then it gets harder and harder, culminating in the Saturday beast. But then Sunday comes and the puzzle can be easy or hard, but always fun.  You can probably tell I’m an addict.
Well, I’m off to my now dry NYT crossword!
fall, soup

Soup Weather

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It has definitely turned fallish (nice non-word, blogger’s spell checker thought I might mean fullish or foolish), cool and misty. What I call soup weather.

Last night when Molly and I were out for our walk, it was misting, the wind was blowing and the temperature was already down in the 40s. It may have actually frozen last night, I haven’t checked yet. In any case, it is the start of ideal weather for simmering a pot of soup. Not only do you get the joy of eating a warm and flavorful meal in the end, but since the house is closed up, you get the wonderful aroma of simmering soup throughout.
Given the weather, there was really was no choice but to start soaking the soup beans last night. Then I got up early this morning in time to chop the onions and veggies, wash the beans, and start the soup simmering. Even as I write, the soup is simmering away and the aroma is permeating the house. Ahhhhhhh.
I have a supper date tonight (Hi Mom!), so this soup is going to be lunch. I can’t wait!
dentist, lawnmower, sprinkler, weather

Fall is Coming

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Today it felt like fall was really coming.  It was overcast and windy and cool. Made me want to curl up with a good book near a fireplace and Molly (the dog).  It was only up in the low 50’s by noon and felt like snow was in the air. I figured I’d try to get the last lawn mowing of the year done later in the day and then see if I needed to turn off my lawn sprinkler (and my mom’s and my mother-in-law’s and …).
So I walked over to my regular dentist visit for the joys of clean teeth (and the prevention of all the ills of decayed teeth).  I spent about an hour in the dental office because the dentist is a long time acquaintance so we visited for a bit after the exam and tooth cleaning. And then I walked out the door and my jaw about hit the sidewalk.
It is now a completely different day.  The heavy, ugly overcast of earlier in the day has mysteriously disappeared. Instead, it is sunny and fast approaching the mid 60’s. So I mowed my lawn and finished winterizing the lawn mower under the assumption that the cold is coming. But I didn’t have to consider shutting off the sprinkling systems yet. And it was warm enough to break a good sweat while mowing the lawn even as dusk set in.
This is one of the things I love about living on the eastern plains of Colorado.  If you don’t like the weather now, wait a bit and it will be completely different.  Here’s to hoping that this weekend isn’t snowy! {*grin*}
accreditation, college, community

Accreditation

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This morning the accreditation team was in town for the local community college. As a local politician (and long time member of the college’s Foundation board) I was invited to the community interview part.  Pretty much the standard thing.

College accreditation is one of those “voluntary” things that really isn’t.  Almost all federal monies and scholarships require the accreditation.  So I have a deep suspicion that there are very few colleges who choose to not be accredited and make any claims to legitimacy.
Most of the accreditation process is verification – does the institution really have the facilities and faculty they claim, do they offer the programs they claim, etc.  But another part is advice for improvement.  After all, accreditation committees are fountains of experienced experts that make recommendations for future improvement.  Sort of like having a team of expert hired guns available for free.  And a final part is “challenges” in which the evaluators point out things that they think must be fixed if the institution is to remain viable.

The process is well organized and useful to the institution and to the consumer.  After all, you really would like some assurance that juniors education is really what it claimed to be. But the community interview part always makes me wonder about some things. Do community members (who are invited by the college to be interviewed by the accreditation team) ever really stand up and rip into the college?  It doesn’t seem like it would happen often, does it?  How bad would the college’s relations with the local community have to be to cause that kind of a rift.  And how insane would the community members have to be to down-mark one of the prime economic engines in their community? In every such meeting I have been a part of, the hard part is to get the community members to stop gushing forth on how good the college is for the community. I suspect that this is even more prevalent is a rural area like this where the college is a major community icon.
In my discussion with the leader of the accreditation team after the interview, I asked him if he ever ran into the rabid anti-college community faction during these reviews.  He surprised me greatly when he said that it happened from time to time.  Sort of like shooting your own foot off. Really makes you wonder at times, doesn’t it. Were the community invites issued by someone at the college with an axe to grind? Was it a case of bad student/townie interactions? Or are there just a whole lot of insane people running loose out there?

Things Done Right