Response to Unknown & More

 

A busy day ahead for me today in terms of some more of the cleaning and reorganizing of my bigger laboratory room.  Even though cleaning and organizing is NOT a favorite task of mine, I think I will be able to have a wonderfully rejuvenated space here when I am eventually finished.   The lab has been in its prior configuration for the better part of two decades (since my prior refresh) and it will benefit from a modicum of purging of some things and reorganizing others.  Some facets of my research equipment will find more space in this rendering, whereas other research equipment will be moved and shifted to less important positions in the lab as well.  The organizational schemata I imagine in my mind for how it will be when finished, will give me and my students more elbow room for the equipment we use most frequently and also more clean, unencumbered areas for creative development of new research tests/designs.  I doubt I will be able to finish all I envision in this one day, but I think I will be able to put a sizable dent in the project.   

I should also do some grading, but I am feeling more like moving around than sitting at my desk today, so I may postpone some of the reading/grading that I need to do until another day.  Hah.... it is fairly easy for me to find just about ANYTHING to do that is more enjoyable than reading some of these papers.  Unfortunately, while the crop of students I have this Summer is generally very active and attentive and willing to learn... and they are doing well for the most part in terms of learning CONTENT, they are collectively suffering from what may be called "pandemic prose syndrome".... their writing is rather atrocious.  I have had to use an ocean of red ink to try to show some of them a form of how standard grammar should look.  Fortunately, as this is a science class, there are only TWO papers.  I believe I would be despondent if I were an English professor and had something akin to one-to-two papers a WEEK to grade, of this caliber.  

Other items:

• It is SO MUCH easier for me to roust myself out of bed early on a day that I DO NOT have a timed deadline for arriving at the U.  I got up and hit the trail today at 4:52am and ran 13.1 miles (~21 km) this morning, and was still then able to get ready and get to the U and arrived at 7:55am.  But, yesterday.... when I HAD TO be at the U before my 8am class, I hemmed and hawed about getting out of bed.  I also had my first run of 2022 in "Sasquatch" mode (running without a shirt.... scaring damn near every person and other animal I would pass with my furry countenance).  Fortunately, at 5 am, there were only a few squirrels that I passed today.
  
• My friend who goes by "Unknown" wrote in the comments yesterday that he "didn't think it would be right" to describe his experience with "Peter's Pleasure" pipe tobacco because he felt it would "deepen my internal conflict".  I would actually like to ask him to reconsider.  I think his describing his own impressions would NOT add to my conundrum in any sense.  I believe that if he were to describe how he found the leaf to be, that it would allow me to experience a modicum of either its wonderful beauty or conversely his disappointment if the leaf is not as amazing as it is described.  I do not know if Unknown has actually received the pipe tobacco yet or is still waiting for his order to arrive, but I sincerely hope he will choose to describe his impressions of it in robust detail so I may at least experience it vicariously. 
  
• Last night, in the cool of the basement, I began to tear down an old, decrepit, grenadilla wood, five-piece alto clarinet I acquired more than a year-and-a-half ago.  It was in rough shape when I got the beast, but I am confident, that with patience, I am going to get it back to its former glory.  I am also trying to learn more of its history and precise age.  But, with the lower woodwinds, that is not always an easy task.  But, I shall persevere.  I tested one key that I removed already, and it is polishing beautifully, and the ancient, brittle pad on the key was removed easily and a new leather pad installed.  
• It DID reach 100 yesterday, and it may do so again today! I suspect this will be wonderful for the garden.  
• Oh, Unknown also suggested that I may want to trim my beard because of the heat.  My wife suggested the same thing.  However, for me, the heavier facial fur is helpful to protect my face from the sun, and truthfully.... the bushier I let it grow, it feels more cool in the Summer and more warm in the Winter.  So, I cannot see any benefit to trimming it down to its old, shorter length. 

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