Day 340

Weekend! Don’t know why, but I needed this one. I am ahead on grading so I am not even grading today or tomorrow.

Every semester the department chair has to sit-in on a class for everyone, and I got luck last semester and it didn’t happen. It’s not that I care, particularly, but I just don’t like it. It’s weird to me to have someone else in my classroom. I spend time getting certain camaraderie in the class and having someone else there is silly, to me. I’ve been doing this a while, so I definitely know what I’m doing, and it would seem her time could be spent much better elsewhere (like looking for some way to pay us a living wage, for instance). Anyway, it went well. The class was really interactive and with the exception of having a lot to cover in only 50 minutes, it was a good day. For those who don’t know – which is pretty much anyone who isn’t in college – there is a site on the Internet called ratemyprofessor.com, and it does what we used to do by word of mouth back in the dark ages when I WAS AN UNDERGRAD. Students can check on any professor at pretty much any college or university in the US and see what others have thought about their teaching methodology, class, etc. and I, for one, think it’s great. I’d have loved such a place to gain info when I was an undergrad (or in grad school, for that matter. My grad advisor was the poster child for arrogant and he was anything but helpful). When classes opened this semester, it took 7 minutes for mine to close and I got a number of calls from former students upset that they didn’t get into another class. That makes me feel good, as I am very serious about my classes and the fate of all of my students. That is part of why although I teach at a major university, I also teach part time at a community college. I hate to see anyone fall through the cracks who really wants an education, and I will do anything I can to help my students succeed.

An old injury has made most of this past week miserable, and it’s part (only part) of why I haven’t been as diligent blogging as I really should have been. It’s funny – I made a commitment (mostly to me, apparently) to do this and I thought maybe someone would be reading along. Regardless, I feel bad that I don’t seem to make it as often to the blog as I would like. I will try to do better.

Back to the injury. I used to more “guy things” than I do now when I was much younger, and, as they say, much dumber. My first adventure into “guy dumb” was when I first hurt the left hip. I was ten – a mere child. Trampolines were all the rage for a while back then and I went to a place that had them to rent by the hour. Two minutes before my time was up, I did a back flip and landed wrong. Instantly, the hip let me know I had done something to it. It got better in a day or two, but I hurt it again playing football later. And then there was the skydiving “incident” followed by some stuff involving racing and motorcycles and going too damn fast for any human being to try. That (meaning all of it) led to a re-injury of the hip where I broke bones in my right foot, compressed my shoulder, dislocated my left elbow and all the fingers of my left hand. Oh, and I was unconscious for a while too. More than once. All this “guy history” led up to Monday when the hip started up – again. Only this time, bad. Real bad as in can-barely-walk sort of bad. I have lived on Aleve for the last week and can highly recommend them for hip injuries as they work, at least to some degree. Now for those who are somewhat into pain, I also have been doing Rolfing (a process) for some months now. It’s sort of like ninja massage, only it can get pretty intense and the pain is often right at the yelling-I-am-going-to-hit-something-ouchie threshold.

It has been a tough week.

Passed up all the comforting food that I would really have liked to help with the pain – and somehow I know they would have – and it went okay. Damn near answered the wild M&Ms though, on more than one occasion. Ate cereal for breakfast all week, and it was really a struggle to do. It works – breakfasts have made a difference in how I feel all day – but damn it was hard to do when I was nauseous. And I was, most of the week. Still taught classes (though I considered cancelling a few for the first time ever).

Lunch most of the week was one of the Chopra shakes, and they work surprisingly well. Only 8 ounces – yet the powder isn’t too bad and apparently it has enough fiber/vitamins/minerals/whatever to be relatively filling as I didn’t miss not eating a real meal.

Dinner has been pretty light all week, except for last night. Tool KL out to the local (as in only 16 miles away) cool gourmet restaurant we eat at sometimes, and I did bring nearly half of it home for today’s lunch. Doing okay with food overall, and for that I really am glad.

Working on the radio station here and nearly ready with that part. Will be working on the tower base again tomorrow and that is a job in and of itself. A 30”X30” X5 foot hole in nearly solid rock is pretty difficult to do. But the weather is finally good here (been raining every day), and the sun is out, so I’ll work on it while I can. Next weekend is Valentine’s Day and our daughter is due to pick up a gigantic armoire/computer desk/thingy that is sitting in our living room at the moment. She got it on Craig’s List and they delivered it here.

Well, Guess it’s about time to go. I’m getting hungry and I need to give KL a call before the wild M&Ms know.

Tomorrow (I hope!).

-Average Joe
Somewhere, USA