Day 277: The fungus among us

Our simple walk around the block took a few interesting turns today, but fortunately none of them involved broken bones.  When visiting with our friend Penny, we walked the perimeter of her property on Matteson to examine the varieties of mushrooms in their yard.  They had the largest puff ball I have ever seen, about the size of a basketball.  Clusters of bright yellow fungus grew under the pine trees and villages of small brown fungus sprouted in the yard where trees once stood.

Once we reached campus, there was an emergency call at one of the dorms just as we were passing by, so of course Steve went in to help.  As I watched the volunteers arrive, I noticed that many of them had been my students.  There was Daniel, Derek the fire chief, Jordan the ambulance driver and Tim the professional firefighter.  The trees around Ring Rd. are nearly at peak and several were brilliant red.

The entire side of Dods Hall is torn out because they filled in the old swimming pool and are building a new fitness center in its place.  So many changes on campus!

I worked for hours to keep my mind off the approaching debate and then settled down in front of the tv right at 9:00.  Both candidates ran all over Jim Lehrer and Gov. Romney's interrupted him and the President often.  I thought a lot of the questions covered the same territory and they repeated the same responses.  The most disturbing thing to me is that the top priority in 2009 for Mitch McConnell and the Republicans was not to address the financial crisis and the plight of those losing their jobs, it was to destroy Pres. Obama and make sure he would be a one term president.  Despite their efforts and lack of cooperation, the nation has made huge economic progress in the past four years.  And suddenly today, Mitt Romney is concerned about all Americans.  Do we believe what he says in a debate or what he says behind closed doors about the 47%?

It will take hours to calm down before I'll be able to go to sleep.

Dods Hall