.
Much Better Day (So Far)

I am in very good spirits at the moment. I am keeping my fingers crossed, but I *feel* I am over being angry and resentful about the incident Friday with 'ole Ed.

It is beautiful sunny day here today, the temperatures are quite brisk (-12 Celsius (12 Fahrenheit)) when I went walking at 6:30 this morning. Watching the colors of the horizon change from murky indigo blue, to blue-grey, then light blue... and then adding the splashes of orange and yellow as the sun began to crest were beautiful to behold. Today is the 80th consecutive day I have walked this journey without missing a single day.

For class today, I decided to play up the stereotype a bit and wore medium brown khaki pants, a dark tan button down shirt, and a deep umber corduroy sport jacket with medium brown suede elbow patches. My tie is one of a large array of brown, grey, rust, and orange colors in an orderly geometric pattern.

As it is an exam day, I actually get to have free-time which is always a pleasant time. While watching my students agonize over the exam questions, I have done some planning for my Winter classes, searched through some of recent research articles related to my neuroendocrine research interests that I have as .pdf files, I cleaned and groomed a few of my more well used pipes I leave here at the U (scraped the bowls with my pen knife, ran pipe cleaners through the stems and shanks, gently polished the outside of the bowls), sent out a few e-mails, and wrote (or more accurately am writing) this post.

As I look at the three pipes sitting here before me, I see them both as beautiful pieces of art, and also as well constructed tools. They make me grin a furry-faced grin just thinking about my enjoying a bowl or two or three sometime later in the day before I head home. The anticipation of them is a beautiful feeling.

In the last few weeks, I have become more hopeful that the Obama presidency MAY indeed be as wonderful as I had hoped for in a Hillary Clinton presidency. I am seeing more and more signs that his efforts, his appointments, and his vision ARE centered in the right arena... namely in trying to do good for the people of this nation. Having Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State will be a wonderful thing as well. I am thinking Obama will truly strive to change health care, will strive to get sensible energy policies, will fund science research and education better, will fund the arts better, and will help our nation to grow in GOOD ways.

PipeTobacco