A Mind of Hidden Ideas

I am too embroiled in the coaxing and cajoling phase for my undergraduate researchers in the moment to actually expound on the myriad of thoughts I have been having since receiving my notification about my grant being approved. 

But, I can say I have many exciting (to me) ideas about how I may be able to utilize these funds to do all sorts of wonderfully intriguing things.  And, one of these things, that my be only a pipe dream, but also may be able to BECOME reality.... is that I may have enough focus from this grant to actually write a damn BOOK!  Not an article (they will come), not a chapter (yawn), but a whole damn book!  Again, it may be a pipe dream, but right now it feels do-able.  

It will take a lot of work, of course, but also a lot of organization.  So, we will see.  

I was reaching in my pocket for my keys to get back into my office earlier.  There was a student out front waiting for me to "talk" about his grade.  I reached into my pocket and as I drew out my keys, part of the chain holding some of my many, many keys in a somewhat unified mass must have caught on the Zippo lighter in my pocket, and the lighter popped out onto the floor and clanged around a fair amount.  The kid looked down to the floor due to the noise, and then he asked with an odd hint of surprise in his voice, "You, have a lighter?"  

Not being quite sure which direction he was coming from with that question, as he could have been meaning the question/statement from a host of different angles (he could have been anti-smoking, pro-smoking, pro-camping, hell, perhaps pro-marijuana, or who knows what the inflection in his voice was about)..... I did not know how to frame my response.  As I ushered him through my outer office door, I simply said, "Yes, and perhaps another 5 of them at home." 

The POTENTIAL for a visit to the pipe shop on my way back from this regional meeting next week is still a possibility!  No research kids have thus far asked me for a ride.  Other aspects of the meeting still seem "ok" for this pipe shop possibility as well!  

PipeTobacco