Robbing Peter to Pay Paul !

 

Only a brief post, but I have to say I am "robbing Peter to pay Paul" at the moment and I am damn glad and literally exuberant in doing so!

The phrase "robbing Peter to pay Paul" technically means to take money from one person and use it to pay someone else.  Yet, in a colloquial sense the phrase has broader application.  

My own "robbing Peter to pay Paul" moment arose just a few moments ago when I read an e-mail telling us that our Department Meeting for tomorrow has been CANCELLED!!!!!!  I was literally overjoyed at the news.  This news allows me:

• to NOT waste 2-3 hours hearing various folks yammer about items not really needing to be discussed.
• to have more time in preparing and fixing materials for my classes (as it is still in the start period of the semester, I have quite a bit of finessing to do to ensure each runs smoothly).  
• to have a more flexible arrival time at the U tomorrow morning. 
• to spend more time finessing and fixing a few things in my lab, so that the research projects stay on track and focused.   
• potentially more time to write.... including here!
  

So, you may ask, "How the hell is the above a 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' moment?"

Well.... by having the meeting cancelled for tomorrow.... it guarantees that we WILL be having a Department Meeting next Friday.  And.... it damn near guarantees that next week's meeting will last the FULL THREE HOURS.  

Yet... for today and tomorrow at least.... I will rejoice!

* * * * *

I ran only 9 miles (~14.5 km) this morning.  I unfortunately slept through my alarm for about 20 minutes and this caused me to end up arriving at the track and start my hoofing around at 6:30am.  I was unable to complete the full 10 miles (~16 km) that I needed before I ran out of time.  I had to get home, clean up and get to the U for my class. So, I have to make up the missing distance tomorrow.  

PCS = 7 today.  It continues to remain a strong pull that I feel towards wanting to smoke my pipes.

My memory captured a small snippet of the dream I must have been experiencing as I was sleeping through the clanging of my alarm this morning.  The small piece of dream I recall has me sitting at one of my lab benches.  

It "feels" like it is probably the early-to-mid 1980s as I was wearing a plain, short-sleeve, light blue, button-down shirt.  I only wear short-sleeve shirts in the heat of the Summer, and only when I am not teaching (I always, no matter the heat, wear at least a long-sleeve button-down shirt and tie (and usually a sport jacket) when teaching.).  Yet, at the same time, I was my blustery, old, grey hairs and big bearded countenance I am today.  So it was a bit odd.  But, on those occasions today when I am just puttering around in my lab...and I wear a short sleeve shirt, they stopped being plain by the late 1980s and have been since that time  what I call a “peacock shirt” which is some sort of collared, button-down shirt that is a brightly colored, printed shirt of the garish "tacky-tourist" variety.

Well, in this dream snippet.... I am peering through my dissecting microscope at some sort of specimen I have stained on a slide.  As was common for me back in the good-old-days, I had wonderfully flavored pipe tobacco smoldering in the bowl of a pipe I had clamped between my teeth with the stem cantilevered to the side of my mouth, so the bowl of my pipe would not get in my way while peering through the ocular lens of the scope.   That is the remembered part of the dream... in total.

PipeTobacco