Garage/yard sales are the order of the day. It is 6:30, the sun is barely up, it is cold out, and the wind is still blowing. About that wind – for about 3 weeks the sustained velocity has been above 25 mph, often in the low 30s, and gusts up to 50. Yesterday was the first day in three weeks I didn’t do something outside – I fed and watered the horses. I’m sure they were thrilled with their day of rest. Sunday morning the forecast claims the blowing will be down to 10 mph.
I tagged along with Nancy Friday afternoon to a meeting of the Trustees of Central Washington University. First order of business was to have someone say nice things about recent retirees from across the employment categories. They don’t give out gold watches. Maybe the deep thinkers finally realized that someone that is retiring really doesn’t have the need for a watch, gold or otherwise, that might have been useful while they had a job.
The Trustees are empowered to vote on bestowing titles on faculty and in the current situation have voted to name Nancy as an Emeritus Professor of Geography. She got to say a few words of thanks to and appreciation of CWU and of her joy of working with students. I took a couple of pictures that are not too bad considering the nasty lighting, and then we (all the various honorees and tag-alongs) hightailed it out of there before the trustees and CWU administrators got back to figuring out how to run the University in a period of declining State revenue.
In addition to the new title, Nancy will be given a continuing parking decal which, truthfully, will be more useful than the gold watch they didn’t give her. In her remarks, Nancy was dignified as is appropriate for one with such a high-falutin ’ phrase in front of one’s name. She did manage to insert a comment about her under- appreciation of “departmental politics” and that created a moment of hilarity.