Day 210 -- Our Lady of Grace

Just west of Burlington is (get ready for this) West Burlington, where I found Our Lady of Grace Grotto. The grotto dates back to 1920, and was restored in the 1970's. My favorite part of this website is the following quote: "If you have yet to see a geode, you're about to be comforted."

Day 209 -- More Burlington

I didn't want to leave Burlington without showing this cool photo of the Burlington Bridge in the fog, taken by Jim and Mary Kay on their bicycle trip down the Mississippi. Also, below, you'll find the old rollercoaster at Crapo Park. (Hey, I didn't name it!) The photo was apparently taken in about 1985, according to this site. Apparently, Crapo Park is now a huge arboretum, but no word on whether the rollercoaster is still there.

I ran four miles this morning, so I'm already on my way out of Burlington.

Guess the text -- Update

From Dr. Crazy:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

Here's mine:

"Mud clan. Married into Standing Rock Clan. Used to live around Heart Butte? May be dead?"

I think Uncle Not A. should get the author, anyway.

Update: Uncle Not A. did identify it as a Tony Hillerman mystery, but somehow failed to get that it was "People of Darkness." Maybe if I had included the next sentence: "Rudolf Becenti." Anyway, Blogger wouldn't let him post a comment, so he sent me e-mail.

Day 207 and 208 -- Burlington, Iowa

I'll keep this short, because I have no confidence that it will actually get posted, so I don't see a lot of point in writing too much....Blogger has been having difficulty for two days now. Yesterday, I couldn't even read any blogs on Blogger (which you yourself may have experience, if you tried when I did.) Earlier this evening, I could read, but not post. Right now, it thinks it's going to let me post, but who knows?

I ran into Iowa today, the seventh state of my Odyssey, and in some respects, my home state. I was born in Michigan, and lived for a while in New York, but I went to high school and college in Iowa, and my family still lives there. I think that if the emperor called for a census, I might have to go there to be counted. In fact, I'm heading for Grandma Jogger's house next, and then westward.

Above, the bridge over the Mississippi at Burlington, from this site. I'm surprised to find out that it was just built in 1996. Below, a Jogger in a field of Patterson's bindweed. This photo is from Big River State Forest, north of the crossing on the Illinois side of the river. It's what I intended to post yesterday.

You can't blame the wreck on the train

My Discrete Math students are not doing well on the exam that I gave last night. This doesn't surprise me. It was apparent, in the weeks leading up to the exam, that they weren't getting it. A number of them are simply not doing the homework, and a great deal more are doing the bare minimum -- scrambling to get something down, writing down whatever hints I give in class, and handing it in. So I did what I often do in this situation: I based the exam heavily on the homework. I always try to keep the homework in mind, but this exam, I lifted several problems almost verbatim from the homework, and had several more that were the same idea, just worded differently. And, as I say, my students aren't doing well.

In some sense, I should be pleased that my demonstration "worked." Now I can go in and say, "Hey, bozos, try rubbing a few brain cells together when you do the homework." (Actually, I never talk to my students like that. I'll be polite and positive, but also try to convey the idea that homework is there for a reason.)

In another sense, I'm still disappointed. Somehow, I blame myself. Why couldn't I have covered this topic better, or spent more time on that? Of course, the truth (and I really do know it, deep down) is that it barely matters what I do in class, if they aren't going to do the work outside of class.

technorati tag: teaching-carnival

Day 205 and 206 -- Lone Tree

The definition of a busy day? Yesterday evening, I was thinking that I had stopped into the bank two or three days ago. Then I thought about it a little bit more, and realized that it had been that morning.

So, I didn't post anything yesterday. Which is probably just as well, sice I'm not finding many photos from western Illinois. I'm around Lone Tree, about eight or ten miles east of Burlington, Iowa. I should cross over by the end of the week.

I ran indoors yesterday. I never even considered going outside, it was so cold. It was probably just as cold this morning, but less windy, so it seemed better. Anyway, I ran outside this morning.

Day 204 -- Biggsville

I went 10 miles today. I had planned to do 12, but I left myself an out. I planned a 10 mile route that ended up back at my house, and a 2 mile loop, to do if I felt like it. Well, I didn't feel like it. There's a part of me that feels guilty for "quitting," but I'm not listening to that part. I can do 12. I have done 12, and I will do 12 again. Conditions just weren't right for it today. And it was a good 10 mile run.

I've made it about as far as Biggsville, Illinois, where I visited Biggsville United Presbyterian Church. I was raised a Presbyterian, and still have a lot of affinity for the Presbyterian Church. This seems like a nice little place.

Day 203 -- Warren County Public Library

I know, I've visited libraries before, but I like libraries. They are cool places. Just imagine if we didn't have a tradition of public libraries, and someone decided to start one. "Hey, I've got a great idea! We'll buy lots of books and movies and magazines and music and people from the area can just come and borrow them for a couple of weeks. And if they are late bringing them back, we'll charge them a dime!" People would laugh so hard milk would come out their nose. But we do have such a tradition, and even really small towns have libraries, and moderately sized towns like Monmouth (and like my home town) have really good ones. It's so cool.

I ran 4.7 miles this morning, in the cold October air. It was a good workout.

Day 202 -- Monmouth College

Just down the road from Galesburg is Monmouth, Illinois, the home of Monmouth College. I applied here, once, too. That's not quite as big a coincidence as it seems. I've been on the job market several times, and each time I concentrated on small schools in the midwest. So there are quite a few such schools around that I applied to. With Monmouth, I never even got a phone interview, even though, in my opinion, I was the perfect candidate for them. Having been on the other side of the job search now, I can see what a crap shoot it really is. Especially back in the mid-'90's, when there were a lot of applicants for relatively few jobs. It's really easy for little intangibles to add up to a big difference. In any case, that's not where I ended up. Their loss.

Wednesday is my day for running hills. I made the hill five times today. I run relatively fast up the hill, then jog down, then run up again. It's a good workout.

Day 201 -- Cameron, Illinois

In the background, a timber frame home from Trillium Dell Timberworks. Kind of cool, I guess. Aren't most homes timber frame?

It was a long, long, day. I spent much of the day swimming against the tide. I'm trying to get a mailing together for a professional organization of which I am a part, and it is a pain. For bulk mailing, they want addresses in a spreadsheet. Which has to be just so, with everything in the right place. And then they run it through some sort of computer that checks for valid addresses. One person lives at 123 E Griswold Street (or whatever), but the address we had on him was 123 Griswold Street, so the computer choked and said, "Sorry, I need a direction." Mind you, this is in a Wisconsin town of 7000 people. Griswold Street is probably three blocks long. Hell, you could probably put his name and his town on it, and they'd find him.
The good news is, once we get the database cleaned up, we can use it every year. We'll just have to make minor changes as we add and drop members.

I gave an exam today, and threw it on the growing pile of crap I have to grade. I really need to cut down. I'm just not grading it as fast as I'm collecting it. The students seemed to be satisfied with the exam. There were no major surprises. I suspect that there won't be any when I'm grading it, either. (Unfortunately, one major surprise would be if most of them did their algebra correctly, and I don't anticipate that happening.)

Tomorrow is a moderately slow day. I may have to resort to closing my door and locking out the world to get some work done. I hate to do that, but there it is.

Day 200

Today was the 200th day of my journey, which began on January 2. According to my handy-dandy calendar, October 16 is the 289th day of the year, meaning that I have run a little over two out of every three days. I note that Day 100 was June 6, which is the 157th day of the year. So I got through my second 100 days in 25 fewer days than my first 100. In fact, since June 6, I've run over three fourths of the days.

Day 199 -- Knox College

This is as close as I'm going to get to Galesburg, so I thought I'd stop at Knox College. I had a phone interview with Knox College, once, but it didn't go well. As I recall, the guy asked me how I felt about technology in the classroom, and I waffled, not wanting to offend him. Eventually, I figured out whether he was pro- or anti-technology (I forget which it was) and I told him what he wanted to hear, but it was too late. Alas. It seems like a nice school. The current head of the math department was at Michigan at the same time I was in the previous century. I knew her slightly, but not enough to drop in while virtually running by.

I ran outside this morning, because the gym isn't open early on Saturday. It was 30 degrees, but at least the wind had died down. It was a good run.

Day 198 -- More Knoxville

As predicted, another day in Knoxville. Another day when I went to the gym. I meant to run outside, but I didn't. Anyway, I made four miles.

Today was our "Fall Break". There were no classes. So I went into school and worked all day, on grading and on other things. I got a lot done, but not enough. I'm still going to have to grade all weekend to get caught up.

Water Tower courtesy of Water Towers of the World. I don't know why this particular water tower was good enough to be posted, but it was.

Day 196 -- Knoxville

Sometimes, when I'm trying to find a local photo to use for my day's journey, I have a tough time. I might not find anything that I really like, or I might have trouble making up my mind. However, when I saw this giant frog at the Galesburg East campground, I knew I had a winner. I don't think that I'm quite to Knoxville, yet, so tomorrow might be another Knoxville area photo. But I doubt it will compete with this one.

I wimped out today. It was snowing when I woke up, so I went to the gym to run. I want to start running more in colder weather. On the weekends, it's going to be run outside or not at all. But this morning I just couldn't face the snow.

RfP Wednesday -- Erma Bombeck

I picked up a copy of Family - The Ties That Bind...And Gag, by Erma Bombeck, at the library the other day. I haven't read any Erma Bombeck for years, and I was probably too young to appreciate it when I did. I'm sure that I get a lot more of the jokes, now. I'm not getting many belly laughs, but I'm getting a few chuckles, and quite a few ironic smirks, as I reflect on how her family reminds me of mine -- both the one that I grew up in, and the one that is now growing up around me. So that's what I'm reading this Reading for Pleasure Wednesday.

Day 196 -- National Coming Out Day

Did you know that today was National Coming Out Day? I didn't, until a few hours ago. I attended a "Safe Zone" training on our campus, intended to help "allies" of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trangendered (LGBT) to, well, figure out how to be good allies. We talked about issues, from appropriate language to myths and stereotypes to Wisconsin's proposed Anti-Marriage amendment. It was really a good discussion. Of course, the people who were there were mostly people who were already aware of most of the issues. But I'm sure that at least some of them were like me. I'm very committed to respecting people's right to be who they are, and open to people who are different from me in whatever way, but I'm not sure how to express that commitment and openness without having to get up on a soap box.

One of the interesting things in the training was one of those dorky little exercises in labelling. They had three or four people come up and they put a label on one's back, and then the others were supposed to treat the person stereotypically, and see if the target person could guess what they were. So the first guy was blind, and one of his co-actors spoke to him in a loud voice, and another one kept asking if he needed any help getting around. Then the second guy was a young woman in a miniskirt and too much makeup, and the others tried to hit on her. Then the third woman was a lesbian, and one of her co-actors did something that really made me think. She walked away and sat down in her seat. It really sent a powerful message. We all know that it's bad when people beat up and villify people because they are LBGT. But I, at least, don't usually think about how bad it must feel to be ignored because of it.

Anyway, I thought it was a pretty good use of a couple of hours of my time, and I got a little logo to stick on my office door, declaring it a Safe Zone for LBGT people. I don't know that it will make much of a difference. I don't expect hoards of students to come knocking on my door wanting to talk about the issue. But I hope it will make a few of my students a little more comfortable around me, and perhaps push a few different students to ponder why such a thing would be necessary in the first place.

Yes, I did run today, 3.9 miles in the rain, on hills. It was miserable, but fun.

Day 195 -- Dahinda

I love the sound of "Dahinda, Illinois." It just sounds cool. Behind me, you can see The Barn Bed and Breakfast, in Dahinda. Rustic decor, antique furnishings, deafening quiet, and an outdoor shower for hot summer nights. I don't think that I'll take an outdoor shower tonight.

I spent much of the day fighting jobs that people were trying to fob off on me. I managed to deflect a few, defer a few others, and accomplish one or two. But I didn't do many of the jobs that were already on my list. Oh, well, that's what tomorrow is for.

Day 194 -- Yates City

Thought I'd drop into the Salem Library in Yates City. Looks like a nice place. I wonder what their policy is for loaning books to passing joggers.

I ran to the gym and lifted this morning. It felt good. Yesterday was a scheduled day off, so my legs are rested. We're supposed to get a cold snap tonight, but this morning the weather was great for a brisk run.

Day 192 and 193 -- Rex Allen, Jr.

For the second Friday in a row, I was too busy to blog anything. I did run in the morning, about four miles. When I got home from work, Grandma Jogger and her housemate were here for a visit. We visited for a while, and after supper, Mrs. Jogger and I slipped out to go to a get-together for the new pastor at our church. When we got home, Grandma has just gotten the little Joggers into bed. We stayed up and chatted for a while, and then went straight to bed. I never even had a chance to read blogs, never mind write one.

This morning, I ran ten miles again. I felt pretty good. I did get a little tired towards the end, but in fact I picked up the pace in the last half hour, trying to complete the 10 miles in an hour and a half. I missed by 29 seconds, but I still consider it a good time. I'm a little sore now, but still high on endorphins.

Above, you see me with a picture of country music singer Rex Allen, Jr., taken in Brimfield Illinois. I just couldn't resist the jacket.

Happy Birthday, Dear Jogger

Yes, today marks the end of my 42nd year on this planet. I've been thinking all day about something profound and insightful to say on this occasion, and here it is: 42 ain't bad.

I've had a good day. I did not run today, because I wanted to rest after yesterday's tough day. I think that was a good decision, since my legs are sore anyway. I got a lot of work done today, although somehow more work just seems to keep cropping up. Funny how that goes.

We're not really celebrating tonight. Grandma Jogger and her housemate are coming up for a visit tomorrow, and we'll have cake and ice cream then. Although I just might sneak some ice cream yet tonight, after the kids are in bed.