The Markives
30 January 02026 (Happy birthday tomorrow!):
A Little-Known Conundrum
Here in the home of The
Markives, we are pondering a philosophical question that
few minds have considered*:
If a college closes down on Friday due to the
weather, will its library be open on Saturday?
This applies most prominently to Laurie's employer. Even
though my employer called off all classes last Friday, whether or
not the library was open the next day didn't really affect
me. Since Laurie is scheduled to work on Saturdays
throughout the spring semester, this is of more than casual
interest to her.
One could see arguments both ways.
However, since the campus was not closed today due to the weather
being ever-so-slightly more clement, we have missed our latest
chance to get an answer to this whatever-the-antonym-of-"vital"-is
question.
Of course, winter is far from done with us yet, so we might get
more chances to resolve this.
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*--With good reason, I hasten to add.
23 January 02026: Updates From A Secure Warm Location
My employer has shut down all non-essential
services, in which category we include in-person classes, today
due to the cold. Time for some semi-random observations.
1. I've heard entirely too much recently about the Mercator
projection. What's vaguely annoying there is that much of
the pontificating overlooks the very real benefits to navigation
that Mercator provides/provided.
2. Most of us do not have a blood clot in our lungs. I count
myself among that group, and I do so with hard evidence to that
effect in the form of 2 CT scans I underwent last week.
Two.
Not "one for each lung". No, no--evidently the second one
was necessary* because the first one wasn't readable.
Which is not what I was told in the 830 AM phone call that said
"Get to the ER right now, and expect to be admitted."
My confidence in the medical profession--as a whole, not in any
individual or group of individuals--took a small hit that day.
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*--Probably necessary, truth be known. There's a little
uncertainty in my mind about what might have happened.
5 January 02026: Into The Second Quarter of
the 21st Century (When Did That Happen?)
As the new year dawns, I look forward to Congress doing
nothing useful about, well, anything currently plaguing the
country, including but not limited to international affairs.
I do so with no measure of delight at all.
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