Just Plugging Away....

 

It has been a rather disjointed and dis-articulated last few days. I have been paddling like a frantic dog just trying to keep my head above water:

• Thursday, I spent every moment I was not in class "big voice lecturing" on trying to revise and update my vitae.  I was able to get the beast done and sent out by 4:27pm.... it was due by 4:30.  It is now current, and is 14 pages.  Now that the damn thing is out of my hair, I will simply sit back and see how it goes.  It would be rather nice to be recognized.... but as with most things at the U, it is also a rather "politicized" sort of thing.... it may very well be that someone who plays the political game far more elegantly than I is already earmarked for the award and my and other's vitae's are being requested simply to "legitimize" the competition as a facsimile of an actual "race".  I despise political wrangling, and am therefore not considered an "insider" to the powers that be at the U, so if the award is being used as a political tool this year, I haven't got a chance.  But if it is an actual award this cycle, I *might* have a small chance.... although there are some folks here who are very strong.  I often think I am more akin to whom Foghorn is describing in the above image.
  
• Friday, I spent the entirety of the day writing out new exams for all of my courses and updated the electronic classroom materials for all my courses.  I also built an array of PowerPoint slides for a cadre of my research students to take as a template to develop the specifics of their upcoming research talks they are preparing for. 
• Saturday, even though we had a fairly large snowfall Friday evening, I ended up on a bus Saturday morning, and traveled half way across the state to a Community Band Festival.  This event is somewhat akin to the Solo & Ensemble Competitions and School Band Festivals  that are a mainstay of major events for students who are in high school band.  However, this Community Band Festival is an annual event that draws in most every regional and local wind band, wind ensemble, etc from across the state for performance and competition.  I and the other members of our band boarded the bus around 8:30am and spent the non-travel times listening to other community bands, performing our own concert, receiving a formal critique of our work, participated in a teaching session for us as a community band, and also had a specialized teaching session based on instrument group (I was in the woodwinds group, of course).  We arrived back at the parking lot ~9:00pm and I drove home by ~9:15pm.  
• Sunday, besides Mass, my wife had to go to her Mom's house as the siblings were yammering and wrangling to try to get my wife to move onto cleaning and ultimately selling my MIL's house.  My wife has been against this, because she did not want to upset Mom, but one of the siblings demanded something be done about the house and that this sibling had "talked to Mom" and she was "a-ok" with it.  I (very happily) was NOT invited to participate as it was meant to be the siblings alone... no spouses.  While my wife was a way, I worked at cleaning our house stem-to-stern because a variety of house messes had accumulated and general upkeep had gotten away from us during the last several days.  As you might be able to anticipate..... the gathering that my wife had with her siblings was not a smooth, silky, "kum-ba-ya" sort of affair.... and is typical for such an activity, my wife came home angry, in tears... and was rather grumpy at me and at everything.  
  
• So, now my wife is back at my MIL's house with her siblings again, today, Monday.  We will see how that goes, although I am expecting a repeat of yesterday.

  So, other than that..... lets see:

• I happily hit my mileage goals for the week, last Friday, and had two days off.
• Today I hoofed 10.5 miles (~17 miles) on the track, and was there at 6:03am.  I listened to Sunday's Capuchin Mass and prayed the rosary while I ran.  It was not the most rapid nor joyful run for me today.  I felt sluggish.  I did not want to get out of bed this morning.  Even though emotionally, I had been feeling more positive the last several days, this morning..... I felt blue and out of sorts.  I tried to sort it through in my mind, to little avail.  I tried to focus on the Capuchin ideas of living a life of gratitude.  But it did not really stick well, this morning.  
• PCS = a surprising drop to a "6".  This means that if I actively think about my pipes and pipe tobaccos, they seem enjoyable and fun, and I would willingly participate.... but... thoughts of my pipes and pipe tobaccos do not right now enter my mind.... unless I purposefully think about them.  In other words... for whatever reason, today, I am not having unexpected thoughts/memories of my pipes randomly jumping into my mind's field of view today.

 PipeTobacco

Addendum.... just as I was getting ready to submit/publish this to blogger... I have received a phone call from my wife.  My MIL has tested positive for Covid... in the weekly test all residents must take.  (sigh)