Circuitousness

 I guess it has been a long day, as it is already past midnight... it started with a trip to Dave's in the Village to get that pickup (I was told I was not needed at Aldi).  This was fine, and as I was given a number of frozen pizzas, I decided to drop them off at the OC before heading to Aldi at Kinsman.  This was good, because I soon discovered that they had sent the van off to Kinsman anyways, so I saved myself a trip.  Our operations manager was a-flutter over this, as we had "wasted gas" with the van.  I told her that the point of the WAS to save gas for all of us by driving that thing around, but it seems all we save is her gas.  This is yet another evidentiary point (to me) that this van is, on the whole...superfluous.  Oh well.  There were not a lot of things to pick up (which is fine) and as there were no produce pickups...we worked on cleaning.  Floors were swept, an old and broken desk tossed, stuff in it consolidated to another desk, the coffee station moved, other crap disposed of, and I took the excess pots away for pitching/scrapping (someone asked for one for the hot meal, so it is sitting here).  It does look better in there -- less clutter, more space; I hope the other volunteers like it.  I suspect many of them will start applying for jobs in my name...

Then it was off to the gym and then home for some work, where I completed my first month of work for Avalo.  Still haven't finished the project, as I keep looking at new tangents (sort of) to explore; most are not profitable, but some are, and I don't want anyone to think I am not being thorough.  I do like the work and the people (though my interactions have been somewhat limited).  I hope it continues, especially into something full-time, as the other efforts are... not progressing fast enough for my taste.

I had a haircut and then a friend and I went for a walk in the Rocky River Reservation; he had some stuff to get off his chest and he is a nature lover, so... it was nice, for a bit, to go around; it is sort of pretty there, and it was good to smell the smells, hear nature, and look at something pretty.  (Hilarious interlude:  he told me it was good to be unemployed, as I could work on my work-life balance.  I was vastly amused, as you can imagine.)  Of course, we got there too late for the sunset, and then it was dark, and while I was not scared, it was a bit unsettling, meandering around the fairly deserted trails.  We finally made it back to the car, and while I was glad to hang, there was no small part of me that was not relieved when I finally pulled into my driveway.

2024 Republicans want to eliminate the Education Department. What would that look like? (msn.com)
I think this is a pretty solid plan, actually!   One thing I would add -- I read the WSJ article about the cuts at WVU -- is a plant to mandate that any school that receives federal aid has to reduce the number of administrators by, say, 25% and replace them with tenure-track faculty positions.  If you think about it, this administrative bloat is one of the main reasons for the soaring cost of education, but no one seems to want to do anything about it... this would be one way, and the call to add more faculty -- who can teach the declining number of students they do have -- would be particularly insidious and clever.  Of course, we are Republicans, and we all know what I say about that.