Only worth a hair over one penny now

Monday, that last-kid-picked-for-play-yard-games, is back. Groan and roll your eyes, try to move away, but to no avail.  Monday comes.  This one comes with more wetness, darkness (at this cloud-thick hour of the morning, anyway), and coldness.  High today won't exceed the mid-forties (about 8-9° C), and with just enough wind to make the cold sharp-edged. Probably should have brought a pair of gloves for my walks to and from main campus today (the calendar suggests a 2+ mile walking day).

On the other hand, it is the first day of our college's quarter, so the campus will spring intensely back to life, and that is a good thing.  The quiet of break may be great for catching up on things, but a campus should be alive and vibrant, and that requires the presences of a large and diverse group of folks.

I stopped on the way in to give the Miata a sip of dinosaur juice.  The premium pump cost me $4.09/gallon this morning.  We've hit that tipping point price now, so expect to see changes in commuting behavior.  If it's painful to fill my little pony-keg-sized gas tank for a couple weeks worth of driving it must be shocking to keep one of the far-too-many over-sized people-haulers around me running. I hear small cars are driving auto company sales again, and that some hybrid models are back on waiting lists (though Japan's recent tragedy may be adding to that situation). It will be interesting to see how many subsidized bus passes we sell this quarter.

In other Monday news, one of our two chambers of state government (the House) is set to release its budget proposal for the coming biennium.  Early indications suggest this one will be especially hard on higher education, more so than either the Governor's or Senate's proposals. Early indications also suggest that nobody is seriously considering the revenue side of the equation yet.  Until we deal with our fragile and regressive tax policies, our state is going to have to continue to slash our way into the same sort of state revenue death-spiral that we've seen in California.  I'd say that's my two-cents on the subject, but at current rates of funding cuts to higher education, it's only worth a hair over one penny now.  Maybe I should leave it at, "for whatever it's worth."

A solidly good, but not amazing, mix of music this morning.  Rock, then jazz, with Eugene Maslov providing a very suitable bridge between the two genres with a highly percussive piano tune followed by Walter's rhythmic jazz organ.  Certainly a wake-up-and-get-with-it sort of sound track, and that's not a bad thing for a wet, cold, dark, and budget-anticipatin' Monday morning.

Today's full playlist:

 - Matchbox Twenty:  Push

 - Bruce Cockburn: Five Fifty-One

 - Eugene Maslov: Kolobok

 - Robert Walter: Don't Hate, Congratulate