Varied Thoughts

 

First, thank you to AC who sent me the image above.  It is cute!

A veritable whirlwind of thoughts for today.... in no particular sequence or pattern: 

• Ran 10.2 miles this morning.  I tried really hard to PUSH myself into exhaustion, and I ended up doing so with an average per mile pace of 8:23/mile (16.4km at 5:13/km). 
  

• Listened to Daily Mass from yesterday from the Capuchin Monastery while I ran. As I mentioned before, I typically listen/watch these Mass and other Service tapings a day after they occur as their live presentation is during times when I am working at the U. So, today I listened to the Wednesday Daily Mass. 

• As a second part of my run, I listened to the Capuchin's "Blessing of the Sick" service they hold every Wednesday afternoon. They have begun videotaping this as well, and it has been helpful to me.  It was interesting to me that the discussion after the readings at this service were VERY MUCH focused on the same ideas I wrote about yesterday.... basically the ideas of not ruminating on the past, not fearing and worrying about the future, but instead living in the present.  I found the timing of this being the focus for this service yesterday, and my own similar blog post yesterday being so similar was quite comforting to me.  

• I had a Parish Council Meeting scheduled for this evening.  Surprisingly, Father A.,  just a few minutes ago had his secretary write to us that the meeting was cancelled due to having no new business.  Even though I willingly serve as Parish Council President, I was delighted to have the meeting cancelled as it gives me some more free time.  Truth-be-told.... most of the time, the amount of information and decisions that need to be made at Parish Council could be handled in either 15 minutes in-person, or actually even more easily by an e-mail.  But, usually the meetings go on for around two hours, as a fair number of the folks on the council are more interested in socializing and just talking.  Since I talk/lecture for a living, lots of idle chit-chat at the end of the day is not usually my favorite activity.  

• I am in the midst of writing two new applications to the U's Research Review Board.  This activity is not exciting because the board consists of only two scientists.  Then there is one statistician and the rest are folks who are often science "unfocused" and often science "uninterested".  It is a requirement that we have several folks from the non-U "community" as part of this board.  The statistician is a bit challenging to deal with because this fellow absolutely loves and adores and craves "statistical creativity" in his life.  He regularly nit-picks and obsesses over extremely small minutia in terms of statistical analysis of projects.  This makes some sense as it is his passion in life.  But, the difficulty is that in my particular research specialty in biology the statistical tests used and desired as rather quite standardized.  And, deviations from the standard statistical methodologies is frowned upon in my field.  So, I get a bit caught between a rock and a hard place at times.... the fellow whom I have to convince at the U to approve my statistics..... craves for me to make them more complex and exotic, whereas the discipline where my research hopefully gets presented/published, does not like deviations from standard methods unless there is an important reason to do so.  And, the non-science focused folks from the community.... they come up with all sorts of half-baked questions and opinions that are typical in the anti-science crowds.... and it is a true pain in the posterior to deal with them. 

• I am taking my dog to the veterinarian tomorrow.  As I mentioned before, this appointment was one I tried to get quite a number of weeks ago, but this is the earliest they had an available slot.  She has a worrisome bump that has developed near her scapula on her right side.  I am *HOPING* it is a cyst or perhaps a benign fatty tumor.... both of which are fairly easy to treat surgically.  I am trying to not think of the other potential, more sinister maladies it may mean.  If I am fortunate that it is a cyst or a benign fatty tumor.... I am hoping the veterinarian will allow us to schedule both the removal of the bump AND a teeth cleaning at the same time.  I get a bit nervous about my dog going under anesthesia often.  And, I would far rather have her be under anesthesia this one time, rather than have two separate occurrences.

• If I can get out of the U before it gets dark, I should probably try to do some lingering yard work I need to accomplish both in preparation for winter and for hopefully having a pleasant day sometime next week where I can put up Christmas lights outdoors so they will be ready to turn on beginning December 1st. 
  

• I am carrying around a pipe again with me today.  I have even been spending a fair amount of my time at the computer, with the stem clenched between my teeth.  It is comforting.  It feels akin to a pacifier.  

 

PipeTobacco