Three Beautiful Things 05/04/16: Sube is Cool Again, Bus Stop Monologist, Kids Tell the Darndest Jokes

1. Once I dropped off the Deke at work, I took the Sube into the Sunoco station and left it off for the day so that Jens could repair its air conditioning unit. It has run for over twelve years without a problem, but I guess time caught up with it and a leaky line had to be replaced.

2. I flopped around in the pool for about an hour after I dropped off the car and rode the bus back to our apartment home. While waiting for the bus, I fell into conversation with a woman who must have been twenty or so years older than I am. She was embarking on a trip to the Greenbelt Metro Station so she could catch a couple of trains and a shuttle bus to George Mason University where she was going to attend and observe the Faculty Senate's meeting where they, as it turns out, decided to ask the GMU administration to put the naming of the law school after Antonin Scalia on hold. She was fired up about this meeting and supported her concerns about how donors corrupt university curriculum by pulling a copy of Jane Mayer's Dark Money out of her book bag. I had heard Jane Mayer interviewed about her book on the radio, so I knew what my new friend was talking about.  Did I say earlier we had a conversation?  Ha! We didn't really. I was a willing audience to her monologue about education, money, the over reliance on part time faculty at universities, courses she takes tuition free at local universities and community colleges, coal mining in Tennessee, Herman Melville, smog, corruption, and her hopes that she would have time to drop in on the Arlington Democratic Party meeting after she was done at George Mason University. Unfortunately, we weren't riding the same bus. Her twelve minute monologue ended when her bus arrived and, as she boarded, we both wished each other well.

3. I walked back to the Sunoco station to pick up the Sube -- I got in just over 7000 steps today -- and the Deke and I went over to the Diazes and the highlight of dinner conversation was listening to David and Olivia make up jokes on the spot.

For example:

David: Why did the chicken cross the road?
Me: I don't know.
David: Because the stupid farmer didn't fix the hole in the fence.

Ha!