RCG

I am working diligently in my office at the U so that I can finalize date adjustments and THEN print out hard copies of my syllabi, due dates, and other paperwork so I can build my semester's notebooks that I carry for each class to the rooms I teach in.  In these notebooks I have:

• Printed and slid in the 3-ring binder's front cover (replacing the blue sheet show in the image) a page that titles the course, has the photographic image of the historical figure atop of the syllabus for the course, and my name and contact information in case I leave the notebook/binder somewhere.
• Printed and slid in the 3-ring binder's spine (again replacing the blue spine in the above) a listing of the course so that I can easily locate the specific binder when it is on my office bookshelf
• Printed and slide in the 3-ring binder's back cover, an abbreviated listing of week-by-week topics I am supposed to be hitting in my lecture and a listing of exam dates.
• Inside the binder..... a copy of the full syllabus
• Inside the binder.... a copy of the full listing of due dates for every assignment
• Inside the binder..... for courses that have a laboratory component as well..... the laboratory syllabus
•  Inside the binder.... a three-ring, zippered "pencil holder" that contains a pen, a pencil, five different dry-erase markers (black, red, blue, green, purple), a "Post-It" pad to jot down notes from student inquiries before and after class, a replacement "AAA" battery for my "gizmo-ey" slide advancer/red dot pointer in case the one in the contraption loses power (I now have this "gizmo-ey" device which has replaced my old-school "antenna-style" pointers I used to use), and a flash drive with back-up copies of my PowerPoint slides in case the U's LMS goes on the fritz (happens occasionally) and the LMS files of my "electronic classroom" are not accessible when I get to class. 

With the above.... I will have created 5 different binders…. one for each of my courses for the upcoming semester.  This then allows me to simply "grab-and-go" a notebook/binder and scoot off to whichever lecture hall I need to be at for a given class.  

* * * * *

• Running was happily uneventful this morning.  I am thinking I am FINALLY (knock-on-wood) through the recovery of the heel pain (an offshoot of the plantar fasciitis) issue I had been grappling with.   
• Because New Year's Day is on Thursday, this has impacted the Retiree's Cigar Group.  The shop is sadly CLOSED on Thursday.  However, I saw my friend at Mass on Saturday, and he told me that at the group last Friday (the one I very sadly missed due to the ice storm.... but THEY DID MEET, and I was sadly foolish to not have gone it seems) that they would again convene the Retiree's Cigar Group on FRIDAY this week too, to compensate for the closure on Thursday.  So, I have that to look forward to.  
• Not attending the group last Friday has been gnawing at me a bit after he told me that most of the guys did go even with the storm.  I am not sure yet if I will... but I have been contemplating seeing if I could head over there TODAY for a sort of "after Christmas gift" to myself and spend a part of the afternoon there.  IF I do go, I have a bit of a plan... if any of the regulars happen to be there, I would allow myself a cigar.  If none of the regulars are about... I am also taking a pipe and pouch with me which I MAY indulge in instead.   Actually, I am not even sure if I will head that way or not.... depends on what I get done here over the next while.  BUT, if I do grant myself this bit of an "after Christmas gift" that is the plan I may allow myself.  

PipeTobacco