News and Updates

1. We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging, already in progress.

2. I’m never sure who is going to read about someone else’s travels and mostly I write those posts so I can remember the stories later, but I am grateful to those who took the time to read and travel along with me that way.

3. So, did I miss anything? Any extended barbarism and outright war crimes in the Middle East? Further evidence that Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump is unfit to walk the streets unsupervised, let alone run for public office? That his supporters and minions are an existential threat to the survival of the American republic? Catastrophic evidence of global climate change that fools will explain away as coincidence even as they bury the dead amid the rubble? Anything? Hello? Is this thing on? I don’t think this thing is on.

4. We’re deep into the semester down at Home Campus and once again I have signed on for 130% of a job so I’m mostly just trying to beat back the nearest alligators and hoping the swamp drains of its own accord. Half the people in my office are new this year so I have become the Answer Guy, which is odd considering how recently I was still the Question Guy. On top of my advising job I’m teaching five classes on three different campuses. Fortunately I’ve made it past the madness of the first few weeks, so that’s a good sign.

5. We now have a soccer team at Home Campus and it’s going about as well as you’d expect for a team that didn’t exist three months ago. They’re learning – the back line isn’t bad though they’re constantly under siege and the goalie is saving them as best he can, but they need to work on their link-up play and getting to the middle third in possession. But they knew this would happen and they’re mostly using this season as a scrimmage to get ready for next year when they will have had more time to gel as a team. I’ve seen parts of a couple of games so far and they’re out there working hard, and as a Philadelphia sports fan that’s pretty much all I ask of a team.

6. About half the team is in my Western Civ class this semester. I’m not sure what a grounding in the transition from medieval to early modern Europe is doing for their game, but perhaps when we get to Machiavelli it will be more useful.

7. The jalapeños in the garden are growing well and I’ve already made two batches of candied jalapeños and one of jalapeño jelly with another batch of jelly that I should make soon. So much to do.

8. I have two long term projects that are rapidly coming to their respective conclusions and that will be a good thing when it happens.

9. Lauren’s trip with Arden went pretty well by all accounts. They spent a week in Guatemala, of all places, and there were many stories to share – some of which, as a parent, I was glad to hear after they were safely over, but that is part of the adventure I suppose. I picked them up at the airport at around 12:30am one Saturday night and got the full Volcano Hike story as well. It is good to have these adventures when you are young and strong, and I’m glad they were able and interested in having them.

10. I wrote out a To Do list a couple of weeks ago and it was depressingly long but I have been chipping away at it and it would be a lot shorter now if I hadn’t been adding more things at the bottom the whole time. But that’s the nature of things these days.

11. Did you know that the Post Office now has D&D-themed stamps? They’re actually really nice, even for those of us who have somehow not gotten into the game despite being exactly the target market for it. And yes, I know, every time I mention a) the Post Office, b) cash purchases, or c) physical media of any kind someone will pop up immediately to condescend at me about how I could possibly still be using any of those things when there are so many shiny digital versions of each of them to choose from, but I like them and will continue to do so. I have my reasons. And they’re really nice stamps.

12. On that note, I somehow managed to get handed half a dozen Bicentennial quarters in a five-day period a couple of weeks ago, which I thought was pretty cool. Add a wheat cent to that haul and it was a good time to be a coin collector.  There are times when the fact that my dad is no longer here to share the news of the day is more deflating than usual, though.