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random musings of a crazy cat lady

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Something in the water

There must be something in the water in the chem department. There are a number of professors who are >80 years old and still going strong. My office neighbor is 83 or 84 and still comes in 6 days a week. His wife also works in the department, and around the same age. Upstairs there is another emeritus prof who still comes in most days. There's also a 90 year old and 100 year old, although the latter is actually retired and moved to Florida.
Whatever it is, I hope I get its benefit and enjoy many years of old biddydom. I can't guarantee that I will want to work past normal retirement age, but who knows. Perhaps that is the secret.
It may be a good place to get old, but it's seemingly dangerous to be a student here. In the time that I've been here there's been a death by fire, several by falling into the gorges, a couple of fatal alcohol poisonings, a car accident, and several deaths by natural causes. There haven't been any suicides, but there was a spate of them right before I got here. The email letter of condolence from the university president is an unfortunately frequent occurence. It seems like a lot more than I remember from grad or undergrad days, although the size of the student body is somewhat larger.

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