I've picked up a new . . . um . . . obligation? duty? responsibility? . . . on Monday evenings this Spring Semester. I'll spare you the details (though I may attempt to describe this thing in a later posting), so let me just say I volunteered to be the embedded librarian in an undergraduate architecture class.
This embeddedness is part of a pilot program that is intended to provide an improved undergraduate learning experience that is, in turn, part of a larger desire to somehow take standardized-test-taking-rote-learning-drool-zombies and turn them into "critical thinkers." Uh-huh.
Foolish me, I actually believe there is hope in this approach. I realize that's a big change, like, oh say, turning a Bible thumping, talking-snake-believing, Young Earth upholding fanatic into a Scientific Materialist but, oddly enough, even that kind of transition takes place on occasion. As the old saw goes, "If only ONE student makes the transition I will have succeeded." Of course, we know that even one in one hundred is asking a great deal but Hope lives with Belief and so on I go.
The fact that I like to learn new things and have an abiding interest in architecture helps.
So . . . with the class Monday evening, the screening of "Bicycle Dreams" Tuesday evening, a Bicycle Friendly Business visit Wednesday evening, two meetings on Thursday evening, and other like things eating my time, my laundry didn't get done for the past couple of weeks and I REALLY needed to do it.
Three loads take about three hours plus a little to wash and dry, assuming no other tenant is using the one washer and one drier in the complex . . .okay, so, the time won't vary depending on how many people in the complex want to do or, more accurately, NEED to do laundry at any given time. That only affects my ability to actually get access to the machines and DO my laundry.
I just couldn't bring myself to do the laundry Saturday. It was too nice a day and I really needed to slack off a little as well as needing to do laundry. The weather and sun won and I went for a ride after a leisurely morning at the Farmer's Market.
To leave the house I had to find a way around the street closures for the afternoon Mardi Gras parade. I just didn't want to head an extra mile east just to turn around and head back west so I could ride the levee to Farr Park. Instead, I opted for skirting the eastern edge of the route looking for opportunity.
The western edge of the route was River Road. That part of the route was closed tight given that the parade starts downriver on River Road then heads upriver to the Capitol. I didn't want to risk riding head first into the parade. Better to get ahead of it and then behind it, right?
Most intersections were either blocked entirely or had two or three motorcycle cops idling to one side. And then there was the barricade busting to get into the route and the parking lot trap at the Federal Building. I did get through but there were cops everywhere along the route. The open levee was a welcome sight.
End Part One of Sunny day, lazy day
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