dr_phil_physics | This And That

Fire One!

Yesterday Mrs. Dr. Phil realized that her university was doing free flu shots today (Friday) from about ten to noon. Usually this is complicated for me -- as a spouse I can get them free, too -- because my teaching schedule in Kalamazoo doesn't always mesh. But this was easy, with me at WMU only Tuesday and Thursdays this semester.

So there I was at 9:46am feeding quarters into a meter in front of the Kirchhoff Center, then head inside where (a) I saw Mrs. Dr. Phil right ahead in line and (b) the table filled with clipboards and data sheets and pens. I picked up a clipboard, started filling it out, and by the time I was done -- there was a line of faculty and staff waiting for clipboards. Ha! Got in line next to Mrs. Dr. Phil and a few minutes later we stuck with very thin needles.

This is the Ordinary Flu Shot, same as we've been getting for fifteen years or more. Gotta be about the earliest I've got a flu shot in years. The Piggy Flu Shots? Expected the end of October, but the county health department will be regulating who are the highest risk. I'd think a college professor would be a high at risk person. (grin)

Autumn Arrived

Sure, it's the week before the autumnal equinox, but by Thursday this week Fall seems to have come it. Lows in the 40s and Thursday it barely made 70. Of course it got up to about 83°F in Allendale today, but we're turning some of the corner here. Tuesday the drive home was made more painful by hitting the westward driving segments just when the sun was straight ahead. That and the massively fast repaving of M-45 west of Allendale.

Bouncing Prices

Meanwhile, since Labor Day, gasoline has been playing ping-pong between about $2.42.9 to $2.59.9, with the price shifting up or down by a dime or more for no apparent reason.

Actually, there is almost NEVER a real reason for gas price fluctuations, not ones which make too much economic sense. Or decency.

For Your Amusement

Might as well do something to make this post worth reading. So here's a link to my online friend Jim Wright's Stonekettle Station blog with some hilarious postings about cats. PLEASE, put down the food and drink before you click on this. Jim is a gifted writer and when he gets really going, his manly tour of his many workshop or how his cats are trying to kill him, he is funny. I read the series out loud to Mrs. Dr. Phil and I dare you to read this aloud without breaking up and becoming incoherent.

Seriously.

You're welcome.

Dr. Phil