Chaos Ensues

All manner of chaos erupted since my last post.  But, I have wanted to post, so I am going to at least make a bulleted list of as many details of various thoughts as I can recall and muster to list:

• Went to the funeral of my musician friend.  The Catholic Church of his funeral was one of only a few in the region I had not visited before.  

• One of my kids came home and is having to be in quarantine due to a direct exposure to a COVID positive individual.

• Students in my classes are dropping like flies.... I have had at least 30 students who have had to quarantine and I am working like a dog to keep up on all the requests for accommodations and electronic alternatives to damn near everything.

• The editors for my book revision have seemed to have gone AWOL.... their deadline is fast approaching yet they do not respond to my queries.  
  

• We had snow yesterday..... the harsh, windy, cold is hard to get used to when you have just felt the pleasure of warmer weather only a few days prior.

• I had a grant deadline to meet that has required more time than I have available. 

• And there are a whole helluva lot of other things, I am not really remembering at the moment as I try to feverishly write out this list.  

Besides the "news" of the above, my mind has been like a pinball shooting around from place to place all throughout the landscape of the machine. My varied thoughts have hitting on these bumpers a lot during the last several days:

• I have to get preparing of final exams to get them ready so that they may be finalized in time for all six classes.

• I have to better plan my running so that during this chaos of not only the COVID chaos, but the chaos of the approach of the end of the semester, that I do not neglect this important activity.

• I have to figure out if there is some way I could return to my pipes in a way that is not going to create worry and also not going to take substantial effort.  My PCS score.... my pipe craving score has stayed consistently at 9 for the last several days and it is exhausting.  But it is also just as exhausting to try to figure out a way to do so successfully.  I have thought about it a lot.  But, I am not seeing a viable path yet.  

Running out of time for today's "brief" post of bullets.... but a few odds and ends:

• I was concerned that I had not yet ran my April half marathon (13.1 miles ( ~ 21km)), so I forced myself up extra early yesterday and ran 13.2 miles to get the damn thing done.  It actually did feel good when I finished.  I felt the least amount of stress I have felt in about a week when I was done.  I am still keeping up with the 52-54 miles (~86km) a week I have been maintaining in running for each week even though sometimes it is quite a challenge. 
  

• I am enamored with molasses lately, and have been using it as a substitute for jams, jellies, and preserves of late.  It is very tasty on an English Muffin, and I was contemplating using it instead of maple syrup in the next go-around I have with pancakes, which I am thinking about making for my wife and me for dinner perhaps next week.  

• I am thinking that if I have enough time to think, I will try to have at least some of tomorrow's post be in reply to comments from Ol'Buzzard. I had been meaning to do this since he left me comments last week.... but with the chaos, I did not get a chance to be on here to reply in a cohesive fashion.  

 PipeTobacco