Tomorrow it Begins Again

 

Two important dates (and one valuable "milestone") have occurred since I last wrote:

1.  The birthday occurred of my niece who committed suicide in 1994.  She would have been 49 years old now if she had continued living.  That event still impacts us in ways easy to see, but also in ways that are more nuanced and even more harshly in quiet, less recognizable ways.

2.  It was Mother's Day.  My wife and I took a long drive accompanied by our youngest son to visit the town of our one daughter who is in graduate school.  We ate lunch at a Pakistani restaurant and walked about the college town a bit.  

3.  The important "milestone" is that I was able to deliver the files for all six of my researcher's posters to the Graphics Office before noon last Friday so that they can (hopefully) be printed in time for the big conference in about a week.

* * * 

Tomorrow is the start of the 1st Summer session at the U.  I have a cadre of only 50 students (plus 11 who want to get in but are only on the wait list, but the U admin would not allow me to earn that much "bonus" pay by having another section).  The U is rather "anti" teaching in the Summer sessions because it involves what they refer to as "bonus" pay and they do not wish to spend the money.  C'est la vie. Or perhaps since I studied it more, I should say, "So ist das Leben" in German, or perhaps "Talis es vita." if I am in more of a Latin mood.

Not much else to report.  I feel lackadaisical and unmotivated.  I have been working from home today, as I just did not want to go to the U.  I did write a new PowerPoint that I will use with my new cadre of students to try to explain to them from class #1 on methods on how they should work with wisdom, care, and EFFICIENCY on learning the ~1000 anatomical structures (most in Latin) they are being tasked with knowing as part of their laboratory experience.   Try as I might over these last several decades, there are always a cluster of students who (no matter the presentation style) think they know "better" ways to accomplish this hefty task, and it takes them a few sessions before they realize the error of their ways.... and they then struggle to try to catch back up.  I am hopeful that this new PowerPoint which has a lot of graphic imagery will (fingers crossed) hopefully make the cluster of strugglers (those that initially do not heed my advice) a bit smaller.  

I have still been daydreaming about pipes and pipe tobaccos.  Yet, while I want to rejoin into the beautiful activity, the how to do so successfully stays just beyond my ability to currently grasp.  I wish I could figure out a legitimate plan, and I need to figure out a legitimate plan.  With the abbreviated course session this semester, it blows completely out of the water for these several weeks, the ability to attend (even extremely late) the Retiree's Cigar Group.  I am thinking, however, that last early Summer, I did have a modicum of success seeing a few of the guys if I were to go on Wednesday, early afternoon.  I am considering that again during this time, as it is good to see them.  I probably should have put it on the list above, but last Thursday, because I had NO classes at all.... I WAS able to attend the Retiree's Cigar Group and I was even able to be ON TIME, and everyone was there.  It was extremely pleasant talking with EVERY one of the regulars!  It had been a damn long time.  I had not seen several of them in months.  We spent our time catching up and just chatting.  It was wonderful.

Yet, tomorrow never knows what will transpire.  It is always a surprise. And, yes, I would list Tomorrow Never Knows in the top five of my favorite Beatles songs.   

PipeTobacco