22 September--cold, windy and wet

Very chilly and wet. We can always tell the temperature by looking across the street as the old man who lives there walks his dog. If he is wearing shorts and no shirt it is very warm. If it is just warm he will add a t-shirt; longs sleeves and long pants if it is cooler. This morning he was wearing a jacket. The temperature was about 58F when we went out shopping. I am not ready for really cold weather but cool, or even a bit chilly, is nice after the heat of late June through early September.

A commentator on one of the news/talk shows remarked on the anger in the "vaxed"vs."unvaxed" split. The anti-vax people have always been on a hair trigger but he thought the rising heat of the people who have been vaccinated was new. They seem to have gone from bewildered to ballistic in record time. The speaker quoted the Roman orator Seneca that anger is a person's response to frustrated expectations. Everyone waited anxiously for the vaccines to come out thinking that all would be well when we all dutifully lined up and got our jabs. He said he shared that view and was surprised and angry that it hasn't  come to pass. I was a bit amused by that reaction and realized that I was amused because I hadn't shared the expectation. I had noticed the response of our group of anti-vaccination idiots (not much covered and easily passed over) and had looked up the percentages of people who get flu shots every year (only about 45%). So when the stats came out that 65% of those eligible had received at least one shot I was pleasantly surprised.

This is an interesting article posted on Naked Capitalism about the trend of fewer men enrolling in both 2 and 4 year colleges. I have argued for some time that the cost of tertiary education far outweigh the benefits for most people. And too much of that cost is covered by debt.