the bfe and me, 'bout this and that

So, remember that letter I sent off to the physicist?
Well, here's... the rest of the story... as Paul Harvey would say.
All of this transpired about an hour ago.

bfe:
Hey I got your letter on Saturday!
I appreciated it!
How you holding up?

me:
Glad you got it!
I am pretty good, mostly.
I do best when i don't go to stores.
Wearing my mask freaks me out.
Silly, i know, but there ya have it.

bfe:
Well...I mean...
there a some issues I have like I had a mask and I would wear it but it hurt my nose.
Now I have a cooler mask that has a bunch of equations on it and it doesn't hurt my face as much but it's weird to think, "oh when I smile at a stranger to show something socially...they can't see it, etc" but what can you do?

me:
Exactly.
You have to stay safe.
I have a 3M 8511 mask inside my mask i made, so that keeps my nose from getting mashed.
I still feel like i am suffocating, though.
Makes sure i very much limit excursions.
Like, once a week.


bfe:
Yeah, I saw that my neighbor was even having her groceries delivered and left at the door.

me:
I still prefer to do my own shopping, find out right at the store when they lack something on my list.
No surprises that way.

bfe:
Yeah, I have never shopped that way before.
I know Lea has and she has talked about the mechanism used if they don't have what you want.
But I don't recall what it was since I don't shop like that.

me:
For panic attacks, i have these two awaiting my return home.

bfe:
Ha ha!
Erica's dog...Lily the Dog has all sorts of Tito's bling!

me:
Really?
I won this bottle a couple of years ago at a soup party at Dawn's house.
Not a fan of vodka, but it goes well with the peach liqueur that I've had for many years.
The Mathilde cork was so brittle it fell apart when I opened the bottle and I keep fishing bits of it out of my drink.
I find Tito's to be a little harsh.
When i first tried it, i was going to sip it like i do good tequila.
But this vodka was too hard on my throat.

bfe:
Yeah vodka can be a little bland...
but I also think that's the case for it too!
Yeah it's got a pretty high alcohol content...
it's not like wine...
you can see why people like to mix it with something.

me:
So, you are doing well?
How are classes going?
Did they change the semester end date?

bfe:
Things are Ok.
The upper division students in my cosmology course are pretty much on their own.
They have a book and I assigned some lectures for them to watch on YouTube.
They have a few projects and a paper to write.

me:
Sounds like more work for you.

bfe:
I have made a shit tonne of videos for freshman physics and we had to do all this virtual lab stuff.
They took an exam recently and in general they really didn't like it but they did fine.
It's OK.
Not really how I like to do things.
I do some Skype and google hangouts stuff for some of the students.

me:
Not familiar with google hangouts.
I know some folks using zoom.

bfe:
Well it's just done in a different way and I had to get up to speed over the spring break on how to do what I wanted to do.
Now that I am set up...I am ready to go.
What I don't like doing is talking via email.
But I mean, what else can you do?
In all reality it's not helpful really in any way...
I mean when we meet online and do some face to face...
I feel like it's a waste of time...
I mean what are you going to get out of it?
It's kinda difficult to talk math.
You can if everyone knows what's going on but otherwise...

me:
True.
That would be very difficult for unversed students to grasp if not in person.
Even then it's very hard for them.

bfe:
So I do it but I don't think it's so helpful.

me:
Yeah, i know you don't like email.
Still, you don't want them to have your phone number, that would really suck time.

bfe:
A lot of folks use zoom...but zoom images are an issue with time...
so I don't use it...
also this is all one-on-one stuff for like office hours...
so all the students use hangouts because if you have gmail...then you are set.
I'll have to do my summer class this way too...
but I am just happy to have a summer class.

me:
Good for you!
[A Summer class] is better than no money.
What about The Cole?
She teaching this summer too?

bfe:
Yeah, she is teaching a class that she is getting from Lea and Sarah Z that has been online for years...
so I think she will just have to figure out what is already there and then read the book that comes with the class.

me:
That's good for her, too.
That lets y'all continue to be DINKs.
:-)

bfe:
That's right...let's not be messing up our rock-n-roll lifestyles!

me:
Damn straight!
:-)