With apologies to Led Zeppelin, a mythic monster band from my youth, yes, it has been a very long time since I've posted anything to this blog. I've been tired, so inhumanely and desperately tired, the type of exhaustion that comes from stress that has been uncontrolled.
We are in the month of November now and we are nearing the end of the year. In news, well, the nightmare that Trump still dominates the news, with all his bluster and idiocy taking front stage on the various media outlets. Lately, we are seeing more and more reports from his trial in New York for financial fraud relating to his lying about the real value of his assets. He is mendacious, we always knew that, but the scope is just astonishing. Almost as astonishing as the degree to which his MAGA acolytes continue to overlook it and rage about conspiracies against their white (or more accurately, orange) savior.
Also, we have the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza strip in response to the Hamas surprise raid from several weeks ago. On campus yesterday I actually saw something that surprised me. My campus is not in the same league as the Ivy league in terms of having a tradition of protests, but they outdid themselves. They had one yesterday, one attended mostly by Muslim students (or those of Middle Eastern background because there are other religions in the area). I was surprised and pleased that they are making their voice heard.
Most of the stress revolves around uncertainty surrounding the prospect of a strike at our campus. Well, not only our campus. We are part of a statewide system so it would affect almost a dozen (or more) campuses. It has been the threat that has been overhanging us for almost all of this year, but it is developing at a snail's pace. This is deliberate, of course, because the state imposes a process that is designed to make this job action a very deliberate but slow process. We can't just go on strike "on a dime", we have to have a set number of weeks of negotiations, then deliberations, then votes that are held within the membership, then authorizations, then "cooling off" periods, then just waiting and waiting and waiting. Neither side is budging, and it just drains us because we (I) am afraid of what a strike would involve in terms of financial (and emotional) stability.
We are ending the "cooling off" period, so it is possible that we could hear something in the next week. I feel we have backed ourselves into a corner. The union (my union that doesn't really represent me well) has made such outlandish demands that it is almost guaranteed that the other side will not budge. They want to work less and earn more, plus they want all these side demands that have little to do with us achieving pay parity. They want lactation rooms, and nonbinary bathrooms. I am not insensitive to these issues, I know that trans accommodations are important, but I am being paid half of what other members in my job category are paid, and I am losing work, something that began at the beginning of this year when I lost assignments. It seems as if these proposals are out of step with what the majority of us need, but as they would say, something has to be done for trans issues. I think it has really overtaken everything.
So, I am awaiting news of a strike. This seems like the stupidest time to hold it, as well. We are almost done with teaching for the semester, and they (the administration) can see our interim grades that we have assigned for our students. Most of the teaching has been done, we have just five weeks, or four and a half if we count the fact that most of us will not be teaching on Thanksgiving, the "forgotten" holiday now that the Halloween decorations have disappeared and all the Christmas displays have overwhelmed the shelves of our retails stores. It is like what they used to say about the Korean War veterans who complained that the Vietnam veterans were just begging and receiving too much attention. The Korean War veterans took to calling themselves the "forgotten" veterans. I remember seeing bumper stickers to that effect on cars when I would drive around on the freeways here in the 80s. By far most of those veterans are gone, and the Vietnam veterans are long in the tooth as well.
I am so glad the the "Día de los Muertos" events are almost all over. It has become such a bloated holiday, with celebrations held everywhere. I am tired at the enforced pathos. It is supposedly about remember your lost ones, but really, it is just people painting skulls on their faces and pretending not to be afraid of death. Of course they are afraid of death, and they aren't as pious about evoking the memory of their loved ones as they seem to be. I'm just tired. We have this weekend still filled with events, but hopefully, by next weekend, it will be over. The big event in Riverside is taking place tomorrow. I might go. I should be honest with myself, though. I don't want to go.
And, tomorrow, Chino, Chino, Chino. A common nickname used by Hispanics to denote two different qualities. Either it is used to describe someone who has an Asian facial feature (they have "Asian" eyes even if they are Mexican), or a person who has curly hair. Both conditions are referred to as being "chino". But for me, it is the marching band review I want to attend.
Finally, the heat. What is up with the heat? I can't get over it, and it really, really irritates me. We have had several weeks of almost 90 degree temperatures here in southern California. It is the usual, I know it has been this way ever since I was a child, but I guess that as I grow older I get more annoyed about this and many, many other things that I used to just accept. I am angry that others have real fall weather, with temperatures in the 60s and 70s, but we still have heat waves in November. Plus, they have fall colors, the leave turn beautiful before they fall off and the trees become skeletal. Here, the same dull dark green colors until, for some trees, the leave turn brown (umber) then fall off. I wish I could see fall colors, but you have to drive. I took a trip a few weeks ago and went to the Eastern Sierras for the first time, and there, I went to lakes and canyons where I saw fall colors. The drive, though, was exhausting, clocking in at over five and a half hours. There are fall colors closer by, in our San Bernardino mountains, but I just can't find the time to go. I will have to.
Well, that is it for an update. I will start posting some photos.
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