Bullets Today

First lectures are today, and I am getting all my ducks in a row and finessing things.  Here are some brief bullets:

• Hit the trail at 5:27am this morning.  It was gently raining.  It was dark outside, so I had to use my headlamp.  Besides normal running, I also did again my 1 mile of HIIT.
• At the U, I helped one of the laboratory instructors for my class with getting her class started as she was nervous and had a lot of questions even though she taught the same damn thing several times before.
• I big voiced for the first time since the end of June.  Today was only for three hours.  But, my voice is tired.  All three hours were in the gigantic lecture hall so I had to project very strongly.
• As it was day 1, it was my usual "fire and brimstone" lecture about due dates, and planning to study, and planning ENOUGH TIME for ADEQUATE study.... all while working through the syllabus.  I then, as usual, apologize about seemingly being harsh and dictatorial.... and then assure them that lecture from this point is more about the beauty and inherent excitement of the science.  My "fire and brimestone" first lecture is designed to wake them up about PLANNING their week so that they can attend class, have adequate outside study, do their money-earning jobs, get sleep, and still have time for family and friends..... they are damn busy people, and if they do not PLAN, they will give the "short schrift" to their school work.... which will NOT be helpful to them.
• Last week, due to the plethora of meetings on Thursday (all day..... ALL day... including Parish Council, which I should write about)... I did not get to go the Retiree's Cigar Group. So, I decided to visit the shop on Friday.  I was happily surprised to find Jerry there (he is one of the regulars at the Retiree's Cigar Group.... and he seems to go there several additional days a week as well), and he and I chatted for a good while.  When he eventually left, I finished my cigar while reading a leisure book (a novel).   It is interesting to note that I RELISH the camaraderie of the Retiree's Cigar Group.... the FRIENDSHIP is the key to me.  Do not get me wrong nor consider me naïve... the cigar too was generally pleasant of course..... but I keep re-realizing what I already know, but do not fully understand.... that I do not have the same sort of  "kinship" with a cigar as I do a beloved pipe.  I am rather ambivalent about the cigar.... it is nice.... but in comparison, where I have a clear affinity for pipes and pipe tobaccos (hence the sometimes mentioned Pipe Craving Score (PCS, which by-the-way would be an "8" today)) I would never really even imagine having a equivalent Cigar Craving Score.... it would be unnecessary.  This fact still just has me wonder about the matter as it sometimes seems illogical.
• I have the first rehearsal of band this season tonight. I have put the reeds and mouthpiece from my beloved "Frankenhorn" bass clarinet through the usual start of the season paces...... a wash of them in a denture tablets solution, followed by an overnight soak in a weak hydrogen peroxide solution, and now having them sit all day (until I dry and package them up for rehearsal tonight)  in an alcohol-based, mint mouthwash (a store brand version of "Scope").  I do this once each season because I sometimes worry (probably unnecessarily) that prior cold germs from prior playing may be laying dormant within the mouthpiece and/or bamboo fibers of my reeds.  
• I better go get lab ready for tomorrow and the day of more big voicing this time for my embryology course.

PipeTobacco