Discombobulated

I have been very unfocused the last several days since I wrote, and I cannot discern any real reason to attribute it to. Yet, oddly, at the same time, I am not really falling behind in things that NEED to get done either.  It is just odd... it almost feels like I am "detached" from "feeling" and "experiencing" things... at least in the way I am used to.  I am going to try to list highlights of "stuff" that has been going on both for me to try to recognize what has been happening, but to also see if I can muster energy or thought to figure out this "detached" feeling:

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Hmm.  I just am not really sure what to list.  It is all just "stuff" that doesn't seem worth even trying to put down.  There are A LOT of things that have happened, do not get me wrong.  But why write it?  

I DO KNOW that I want to go swimming.  Summer without swimming..... not exciting.  

Running goals have been consistent.  I have ran over 1,250 miles (~ 2,011 km) so far this year.

My pipe craving score is about a "2" today.

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Maybe I will end this post with just a couple of thoughts that have penetrated my "fog" to some degree:

Yesterday, I was working on revising and updating some of teaching PowerPoint slides.  In my embryology course, there is a series of slides I have made where I speak about and show a variety of aspects of fertilization.  

I have slides showing the internal female reproductive architecture and highlight how in we humans (it is different in various species, which we also eventually talk about in this class) fertilization occurs in the ampulla region of the female's Fallopian tube, and how the spermatozoa have a fairly difficult and competitive race over great distances, much like a marathon runner, to try to be the first to reach the unfertilized ova.  

After the male releases his gametes in the vagino-cervical orifice within the female, these spermatozoa must, in order to succeed, start swimming through the cervix into the uterus, and traverse from the base of the uterus all the way up to the uterine opening of the oviduct (Fallopian tube) and then continue to swim deeply into the Fallopian tube to nearby the ovary at the ampulla region. With a single spermatozoa only being about 5/100th of a MILLIMETER in length, this is a helluva long way to travel.  The directions in which these gametes discern how to swim in order to try to find the ova are through a mixture of two different chemotaxic and one thermotaxic gradients within the fertile female's reproductive architecture.  Those spermatozoa that get there the most rapidly then have a competitive edge to potentially be THE ONE to fertilize the ova.  

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Well, very early this morning, my wife was kind enough to allow me to "sow some domestic oats" with her.  This, of course, was a very good thing and both of us were content and able to snuggle afterwards for an hour or so before the work routine for the day began.  As is my typical pattern before work, I needed to get my run accomplished for the day.  And, I was able to complete my 10.4 miles (16.7 km) this morning even though I must admit my pace was more "leisurely" as a result of the earlier activity.

But, as I was running, I was thinking about my swimmers.  And, I was wondering if they were able to find the ampulla.  As my wife is post-menopausal, I was also wondering if there were or were not any chemotaxic gradients for them to use on their journey.  I did not really know how to answer such a question.  It seems likely the decline in estrogen and progesterone my wife would have had occur since menopause would have altered these chemotaxic signals.  I would suspect the thermotaxic gradient would remain wholly intact, however.  It is very foolish, I know... but I do admit I felt just a bit of melancholy for the swimmers, because there was  no potential that they would find an ova, even if they could find the ampulla.  

PipeTobacco