April 28, 2021

This is the week of SMC's budget hearings, departments presenting their vision and needs for the upcoming year and beyond, as leadership attempts to coordinate an overall budget with long-range planning.  In non-COVID times, they are exhausting, but with all being Zoom meetings, they have been all the more challenging this year. Especially since state funding is threatened and enrollment is a challenge.

Today was particularly exhausting as we basically ran through seven Zoom meetings interrupted only by lunch. . .  a time at which I turned poetic.

Hearing Disorders

". . . not sure you are aware

of this, Dr. Fleming . . ."

I lurch back to attention,

Like a rubber band stretched to its max

Than snapped back.

I'm cognizant of the vibrations,

But I need a device

That as words get delivered,

They get translated more quickly 

From dead ear to dead ear,

A budget CROS hearing aid,

To help me stay ahead 

Of the conversation

And not sit there like the babbling idiot

Who is doubly not aware.

For truth be told, in a week

That has plenty of distractions,

Birthdays and anniversaries,

Not always pleasant,

I need an amplifier

To nudge this receiver

From his hours of reverie

And multi-tasking.

Alas, my wishes are huge asks

In a time when these hearings

Might as well be called budget re-pairings.