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In this season of COVID-19, I had hopes of being able to offer the MO-200 Excel exam to the half in my students who were still in the Puget Sound area. Alas (one of my top ten most used words it seems), the rain and wind storm that I wrote about last month, September 23/24, did far more damage to McKenna Hall than it had originally seemed. In fact, over twenty campus buildings were damaged, and the ruin to "mine" was high on the severity list. Individual faculty offices (and the Collaboration Lab) were unharmed. But the fire alarm, elevator, carpets and sub-floors, and certain walls will need repair, spare parts, or replacement. The two classrooms that were undamaged will remain closed because they are housing the furniture from the damaged rooms, (photo lower right). Above left is "my" computer classroom, McKenna 113. Above right is the first floor foyer, elevator, and double doors to what I call "my outer-office," the Collaboration Lab, McKenna 123. My office is at the north end of that room, McKenna 123A. Due to the measures taken to combat the COVID-19 virus, the "C Lab" was already being used to store extra furniture to help promote social distancing. The two lower left pictures show the first and second floor hallways. I will work with our Computer and Information Systems folks to see if we can get a few computers set up in the C Lab, the one room I control. If this can be done, then I can give exams, perhaps three students at a time. [Update: I did get four computers set up in McKenna 111, one of our two undamaged classrooms. One student passed the exam there on the 28th. It was a good to test the exam software. I have 16 students coming in groups of four on November 4th. | |||
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As the family grows with new lives, we have more and more opportunities to celebrate birthdays. Cynthia surprised us at her party with a new haircut. Cute! I continue to enjoy playing with Charis and Jonathan. They play a laughing game whenever they get on the big swing. Seeing Reuben once or twice a month really highlights his rapid development. After this party, we didn't see the Auburn Sleights until Halloween (see photos below).
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In these stay-at-home days, it should be easy
to find time to exercise. But most days have been just too full of
duties. So this month, I began taking Charis for
walks in her stroller. A walk of over ten
This month, a double stroller arrived from Susan's in anticipation of future walks. The Countdown Continues Annie's late October check-up revealed that her countdown to the launch of Baby Disher #2 is right on schedule. We are told that they have picked out the name for one gender. But the gender of #2 is still a mystery to all but the doctor. | |||
Thomas models the fruit of the Spirit. . . . Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness . . . etc. He's a quiet fellow except when duty calls. He spends long days with Charis and finds ways to keep her entertained and educated. He is a gifted story reader that keeps the little ones enthralled. Exercising with Charis on his shoulders is great fun (for Charis), and hard work for Thomas. Because I do a lot of my SPU work from 8:00 PM to midnight, I can take a few hours during the day to give Thomas a break. But now that days are colder and shorter, we are done gardening and playing outside. It's especially enlightening to see that our very animated Charis turns into a blank-faced zombie in front of children's programming on the TV, which we do limit carefully. |
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   Who was that Masked Man? I ordered higher speed Internet service on July 20th. Nearly three months later, Nathan from CenturyLink worked to boost our download speed twenty times faster. We had hoped for the advertised 80 MB/second but are happy with half that speed. Actually, we now have two 40 MB/second channels. Thomas connects to our original Treehouse channel, and I connect to the new channel, HMS_Victory. This way, we do not slow each other down. It took Nathan three hours to track down problems and get us our new modem/router. (That new device reminds me of one of Thanos's Dropships.)
I also found that now the web-enabled TV in my basement office now picks up scores of new online channels! |
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This Halloween, Charis gave and received her first trick or treat candy. She visited the neighbors to our west at 1234 99th. Earlier that week I'd prompted her to want to dress up as a Strawberry, and that idea stuck. Nancy escorted her as an auto body mechanic, wearing her dad's hat and a coat from his shop. The Pastrick's hosted a Halloween party from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM at their home in Lake Stevens. All the immediate family attended, except Jean and Joel. We hope Jean's sniffles are just the common cold and not the common COVID. She and Joel are especially wary of prevailing bugs. Alicia and Richard decorated their living room and had games for the toddlers. I'm suspecting it was something of a test drive for years to come. Alicia is especially fond of Halloween. Julie Adams brought another magnificent cake. Look in the photo for the Wicked Witch that met her demise under that cake! The meal was a potluck with enough variety to satisfy all. I made Deviled Eggs, as appropriate for Halloween. Cynthia brought pumpkin pies. Randy brought a rice dish that worked well with the Mexican dish the Pastricks made. As usual, I chronicled the event with my Nikon D750. A 50mm f1.8 lens worked well enough in the subdued light that set a spooky mood. But letting in the sunlight later on, helped greatly. Nathanael remarked that all my years of sports photography were just training for mobile grandchildren. |
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Bits and Pieces
But the bigger news from Colorado is that her husband Thomas has been hospitalized over 80 days now. Laurie does not lose hope that she'll soon welcome him home.
Jean and Susan both drove to our rescue from Susan's house nearby. Susan waited for the tow truck while everyone else loaded into Sillie (Jean's car). To make room, I took the 535 bus home. Amazingly, it arrived (nine minutes late) just as I got to the freeway bus stop. And a reroute in my neighborhood allowed me to be let off just one block from home.
The one service pin I wore was one of the three I wore as a cadet. It was for membership in the Society of American Military Engineers. And I looked up Dad's "Marksman" badge that I wore and found that it was actually the higher grade "Sharpshooter" sterling silver medal. Now if I could only lose weight to fit in my old "Ike-style" Air Force jacket! (Thank you Nancy for the hair cut, but my second COVID-19 beard is not close to regulation.)
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Unfortunately, my last lecture in BUS 1700 was
two days before
the
upgrade. I needed to go to SPU to teach my classes just to use
Zoom with the fast Internet there.
