Pert near, but not plumb

I don't know where I heard it -- or if I made it up -- but the definition of "nigh" is pert near, but not plumb.

Labor Day is nigh, but it sure ain't here yet.

Today we did little business at the little railroad that could, and I expect it will be that way until the holiday weekend. I will most likely have to work every day this week, but I am supposed to have off next Sunday and Monday. I am hoping so, because Michelangelo will be visiting from Chicago. If the weather holds out, we will even get to go to the Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw and Festival in Sauk Prairie. It's a thing.

The mail was interesting today. I got a postcard from Cris in Seoul. She and Idris have been traveling in Asia, and I also got a postcard when they were in Vietnam. I gather they are now headed home to Italy.

The mail brought a book order for six copies of the Elijah book and three of the mystery. Hooray!

I also got an ad for in-home care for people on Medicare. Uh, not yet 60, folks! (Although pushing very hard.)

H1N1

Only it's not funny. I have a friend in the blogosphere who has it now. Sixteen cases have been reported in our county so far this year.

Go wash your hands.

Seriously. Use soap. Wash for thirty seconds.

Don't get crazy, but do get smart.

Students

A couple of years ago, I had a student with special needs (nearly blind) who took one of my classes. I made all sorts of allowances for her -- gave her twice as much time on assignments, helped her with her research (Okay, I looked it all up online and gave her the URLs), and so on. I watered down the expectations a lot on the grounds that she was taking it non-credit and, I thought, just for her own personal enrichment. (Remember, this is a graduate level course. People normally take it as part of their Master's degree program in theology.)

When it was all over, she wrote and said she wanted me to write a letter saying she had done A-level work so that she could use it to get into a doctoral program. Needless to say, I had lots of issues with that. After some conversations with the director of the Carmelite Institute, I decided not to write such a letter, although I did offer to write a letter explaining the work she had done and under what circumstances and even saying that I believed she might be capable of graduate level work. I had not seen it, however, in my class because I had not required it of her.

I thought that was all resolved, but I went away feeling guilty and manipulated and generally icky.

Now she has signed up for another class. As soon as I sent the syllabus outlining the requirements, I got an email saying she [her readers] can't read all that and she can't possibly get papers done on time and on and on and on.

I wrote back explaining that I will be flexible and make allowances as to time and what I expect of the papers. It feels like the same old, same old, though. Makes me wonder if this is a game she plays with all the profs.

Or maybe I am just being too insensitive.

On the other hand, I have worked with students before with cerebral palsy, visual impairment and such things. They did the work, did it on time and did it well. Often they went well beyond the requirements.

Oh, well.

Oh, the weather outside is ...

Weekend of August 29-30: High today of 61 (16.1 C); low tomorrow night of 38 (3.3 C).

Can snow be far behind???????