Sleepy Feelings

I am rather "bushed" this morning and it is showing in my somewhat "clumsy" gait as I meander about on campus. It was a result of a rather busy weekend.... it was my wife's birthday.  As such, it was FUN, but it was also quite out of my weekend routine and very busy:

1.  Her birthday was Friday.  So, immediately after I was done with the very pleasant Retiree's Cigar Group on Thursday..... I high-tailed it all about TWO towns (one the Retiree's Cigar Group town, and the other the town I live in) stopping and shopping at a whole bunch of venues to get "accessories".... not the presents I had already gotten for her.... but the flowers, bows, wrapping paper, present bags, cards, balloons, treats, cakes (yes, plural, more in a minute), ice cream, and various other items to help make the times (yes, plural, again more in a minute) festive.  

2.  My wife had to work late on Thursday, so after my shopping foray (I am not particularly fond of shopping, but I can do it very efficiently), I did a very quick (slightly abbreviated) swim, and then got home to wrap (I am extremely meticulous about wrapping and it has developed into an "extravaganza" of its own with all the ribbons, bows, etc), arrange the flowers as artfully as I could in a vase, put one cake and the ice cream hidden away,  Then I wrote out notes of love, appreciation, and gratitude in the five birthday cards (my wife loves cards for any occasion, so I evolved over the years to get her multiple cards for EVERY occasion I can think of, but especially on her birthday), and then I carefully hid the receipt for the second cake in my beast of burden (my vehicle) so that if she rode with me she would not see it.  AND THEN, I had to find various hiding spots all over the place that would be unlikely spots she would stumble across any of these things.  The flowers are usually the most challenging.  I ended up hiding them behind some boxes of Christmas ornaments in the storage area under the basement stairs this time, hoping our cat would not ferret them out and want to nibble on them.  The helium filled "Happy Birthday!" balloon was also a bit of a challenge to hide as well. 

3.  Then I had to clean up ALL my messes so there were no remnants showing, and get dinner ready for when she eventually arrived home.  Luckily it was "Tacos" (including my taco salad bigger than my head) so it was a relatively fast preparation as we had most of the ingredients ready to grab and go in the fridge as part of our meal prep work earlier in the week.  

4.  Then I sat down at my den/office desk and was pretending to work on the computer when she arrived home, like is my usual mode on Thursday while I wait for her.  The reality was I didn't do a damn thing of merit on the computer.  Instead, as there was not much time before she would arrive, I relaxed by looking at pipes and pipe tobaccos in an online website I like and find very relaxing and enjoyable..... but even then I had only ~15 minutes of that before she came home.  

5.  Friday afternoon, two of our kids were available and dropped by.  We went out to dinner, and actually went bowling!  My wife's family is very into bowling, so I ended up bowling with them all regularly during our marriage, even being in a league for a number of years.  Neither my wife nor I had been bowling for about 9 years now (basically stopped when my FIL grew ill and passed away, and then my MIL developed dementia).  We played three games.  It is funny, the bowling movements are different enough from my running that my left hip was rather sore by the end of the evening.  

6.  Saturday, the whole day was occupied by a simulation event my wife had for work (and I volunteer at as well (I have spoken of this before, it is a simulation on poverty.), but the participating audience was ~100 community leaders this time so the simulation was impactful in a different way, as most of these folks were more "high falutin" and did not have much association with working class struggles or struggles of the working poor.  It opened up some eyes.  The only other two things we accomplished were to attend Mass and to go to the grocery store to get foods for the Sunday gathering  (I also very early in the morning ran to get Sunday's cake and hid it.... I should have mentioned that first in this #6 statement.).  

7.  On Sunday, we hosted at our house, a gathering of my wife's siblings and anyone else who could make it and had a large spaghetti/pasta feast with garlic bread, beans, and other accoutrements.  We ended up playing "Uno" for a few hours as well.  

It was a fun few days, but very active, so I was bushed when we sat down Sunday night to relax and watch an hour of tv before bed.  This morning, I dutifully got up and ran, and prayed the rosary like usual.  But, I have felt tired all day.  I am certain I will be a bit sloppy (I will try NOT to be) on my bass clarinet this evening because we have a scheduled concert tonight.  

But, the one very happy occurrence, is that even though I was rather tired all weekend long, I did have enough fortitude to reminisce and remember various pipes and pipe tobaccos each evening as I drifted off to sleep.  It is  nice to have that back.  Those memories are so pleasant and beautiful.  

PipeTobacco

Worms

Well, more precisely, nematodes.... and even more precisely, Caenorhabditis elegans have been on my mind today.  These beasts are small (~1.5mm in adulthood), but they are profoundly valuable research organisms. It has been, I estimate, ~10-12 years now since I have incorporated these little wrigglers into my research.  Their value to me is that I have been able to translate much of my rodent and fly work to similar methods of study for this nematode.  It has been very helpful to me in my research work with undergraduate students especially because of its very rapid generational time (~2 days) which means undergraduates, with their chaotic schedules (my graduate student’s schedules are more flexible and lab focused) can more easily be involved in research meaningfully.  PLUS, their semi-transparent/translucent body plan allows for relatively easy observation of various of their body systems real-time watching them under a simple light microscope. The generational time for my rodents varies between 90 and 120 days, and even my flies have a generational time of 15-20 days. And, both my rodents and my flies are rather opaque even in early development.   

Well, today I have spent a good deal of time producing and storing food for the little worms and culturing up populations of them for use in one of my classroom lab sessions AND also for some new research work to be starting soon.  

But, what I was thinking of in the back of my mind while working, was when I was able to briefly meet the fellow atop of this entry.  He is the Nobel Prize winning biologist, Sydney Brenner (he used the nematode in his research)  And, he has been a long-standing "hero" of sorts to me from when I first happened to see him in a television program decades before he received the Nobel, back when I was a young undergraduate myself.  

Brenner lived within the same time frame as my parents,  roughly at the tail end of the "Greatest Generation" and the start of the "Silent Generation.  In fact, Brenner's birth year was 1927, only one year earlier than my Mom.  

I was able to hear one of Brenner's talks at a very early research meeting I attended in the start of graduate school.  It was so very exciting to me.  I was in awe.

* * * * *

I did go to the "Retiree's Cigar Group" yesterday, and it was wonderful.  It was a smaller group than usual.  There were only four others besides me, which actually was even nicer in some ways as it encouraged me to open up and talk more.  It was pleasant, jovial and relaxing in all regards.  

* * * * *

I am starting to feel the cold when I run in the morning.  Most days, even though the high temperatures are still (surprisingly) reaching the 70s (and this weekend perhaps the 80s), the 5:00am time when I hit the pavement is usually somewhere between 44-48 degrees.  I am still forcing myself to run in shorts, but I also am running with a sweat shirt and a thin pair of gloves. My prayers as I work through the rosary and listen to Mass music (on my Pandora app on my phone) while running have been especially emphasizing a sincere request to have the pressures I have been experiencing reduce, and I have been asking for guidance on how to work and strive to become a kinder, more helpful person in my work, in my home, and in my external life.  I also ask for help and support in reducing the selfish thoughts I sometimes have.  

* * * * *

After the fiasco about the abstract resolved, things have felt wonderfully even-keel.  I am hopeful for continued smooth sailing, for a while at least.  I even felt relaxed enough last night that I searched around on my pipe racks at home and stuck a pipe in the jacket pocket I would eventually wear this morning when I headed to the U.  Even though I do have a rack of pipes in my outer office here at the U, It gave me a sense of happiness to have selected one from home, and to have purposefully carried it with me while I worked.  I listened to my Crosby, Stills & Nash channel (again on Pandora) while I worked in the lab with the worms.  The channel pulls random songs of a similar ilk of CSN in addition to actual CSN music, which is nice.  But, what is especially nice is that every once in a while, the app adds in a rare, seldom heard (at least to me) CSN song as well, and it feels especially fresh and exciting.  And, I have also enjoyed when Pandora slips in some of the solo works by the members of CSN (& Y) every once in a while too!  I have minimal prior exposure to much of any of their solo careers, and there have been a large number of gems.  I give them a thumbs up to keep them in my Pandora rotation for this channel.  

PipeTobacco

Another Bout of Craziness

In this case, the last few days were UNEXPECTEDLY BUSY (preventing my writing).... and  were edgy and frustrating.... but I was instead just feeling ornery.  So, in this way, it was better than the gloomy feelings I had about the business of the time prior.  

The long and short of the story:

A while back I had submitted an abstract for an international science conference I was planning to attend.  "International" is truthful as it does draw scientists globally, but it is not as exciting as it sounds THIS YEAR, as this year it is being held in the United States.  But it is an important and valuable meeting.... and some of my undergraduate researchers are co-authors on it (very important and valuable for them as they are navigating the next steps in their career). 

One thing non-science folks may not realize.... is that getting to present at scientific meetings is a juried competition.  And, the bigger the meeting (aka more "prestigious" (hah, "cough"... not really more prestigious in my opinion)) the greater the potential that they have a submission FEE to have an abstract CONSIDERED.  

This meeting is one of those that thinks it is "high falutin" as all get out... and charges $300 (non-refundable) to just SUBMIT the abstract so they can decide IF they will let you present.  Again, there ARE some conferences that do this routinely... but MOST do not.  

I have been submitting abstracts to conferences to present research for decades, so I damn well know how to write an abstract.  I knew the research was sound.  

I also had to plan and purchase the tickets for travel, reserve hotel accommodations, and all the other usual things, which I did.  

So, I received an e-mail bright and early on Monday..... telling me my abstract had been REJECTED...... get this..... because it "did not report data."

BALDERDASH! (I would have liked to use far more vehement language here because I felt rather enraged, and I DID say much more vehement language under my breath.... but you can use your imagination.)

My abstract DID (of course) report data, and I was furious.  I do not know if the folks selecting abstracts were intoxicated when they were reading, or if perhaps some of the evaluators were skimping and feeding abstracts into some damn AI tool to try to get out of work, or who-the-hell knows.  

So.... I began my MISSION to get this rectified.  Any time I had at the U when I was not teaching was spent on this damnable process:

1.  I first spent a helluva lot of time phoning the governing body of conference to eventually get some contact e-mails of folks.  

2.  I then put together an angry (but, polite and subdued) e-mail showing my abstract and attempting to point out the profound error of their ways.  I then received notification from someone there that I had to submit a "FORMAL APPEAL" to their ruling..... without any indication in the e-mail of what a "FORMAL APPEAL" entailed or any sort of link to find such information. 

3.  I then scoured the organization's website to see if I could find ANYTHING talking about what a "FORMAL APPEAL" entailed.  After scanning for probably a good three hours, I gave up as there was absolutely NOTHING on the site indicating any sort of process, and hell, not even mentioning what happens when an abstract is rejected.

4.  Unwilling to give up, I then spent much of late Monday and much of the day, Tuesday, developing what I considered a "FORMAL APPEAL" and put together a document of ~seven pages which I attached to an e-mail of every person on the conference committee I could find.  I put "FORMAL APPEAL for Consideration of Pipe Tobacco's Abstract" as the heading of the e-mail.  Most of the document pointed out how my abstract DID present data, but I also spent considerable time explaining why the data are important, and a lot more as well.  I then sent the e-mail.

5.  This morning..... I received an e-mail simply stating that my abstract had been accepted.  No reference to my "FORMAL APPEAL" no indication of what had happened previously, no apology, no reference to any sort of problem with data...... NOTHING.... just a standard acceptance letter.  

So.... "All's well that ends well."..... I guess should be my motto.... but.... I still feel rather "spicy" about the whole damn thing.  But I am glad it is now accepted (as it should have initially been... not a damn thing was changed about it)...... but mostly.... I am especially glad for my student co-authors.  

But.... it was a whole helluva lot of my time (which is already scant enough) that DID NOT need to be devoted to such meaningless nonsense.  I will not get back that time.  This is why I did not write on Monday or Tuesday.

I can tell you.... I am looking forward to being able to be at the "Retiree's Cigar Group" tomorrow.  I hope THAT pans out.  And, now that the above fracus is over.... I can also return to enjoying living in the beautiful memories of my beloved pipes.  I am even now hoping/trying to get back into finishing up the "Father's Display" so I can finally allow myself a real bowlful of pipe tobacco too!

PipeTobacco