Around and round

I have not written anything in my blog lately – life has been much too busy.  Sometimes I wonder if it’s coincidence that my life is like it is (so dang busy), or are things the way they are because I’ve somehow unintentionally (unknowingly??) engineered this chaos.  I’m not saying that my life has always been so hectic, but many years are almost a complete blur.  I even picked a career some 35 years ago that puts me in the midst of constant change and trouble – what was I thinking?  I was in love with the steady paycheck…that’s what I was thinking.  You can learn to like any job if you’re paid well enough…or so I thought.  WRONG!  Not true – trust me!

Well, I didn’t plan to get divorced when my first baby was weeks’ old…but that happened.  In reality, maybe that was somewhat planned…the handwriting was on the wall before any decisions were made.  I didn’t plan to have twins…but that happened too.  The doctorate – that came from impulse, and after the first class, I couldn’t stop myself…kind of like opening a Hershey bar and telling yourself you’re only going to eat half of it.  Nope…that just doesn’t happen.

When my dissertation was done, I told myself that things would never be that hectic again.  But now, it’s like I’ve circled back and here we are again.  Working, working, always working or thinking about working, or how can things be juggled so there’s time to fit this or that in.  This career change situation has not unfolded the way I expected, but why didn’t I see this coming (this could be hindsight bias…fascinating phenomenon).  I’m at least as busy as when I was doing the doctorate, except there’s none of the extra stuff thrown in…like running kids or taking care of grandparents, and definitely less travel for work these days.  It’s the same amount of work overall though, just much fewer family obligations to deal with. 

Despite all I have to get done this weekend (grading, inventing another test, and doing plans for Monday classes), Someone and I took Gracie out to Greenbo for a hike.  Oh my, it was a muddy mess out there, but I loved every minute of it.  Today was like spring.  Someone even wore shorts; both of us wore short sleeves and there was no need for a jacket today…it was that warm in February, no less.  We walked around 4.5 miles uphill and downhill, back and forth across creeks that were running fast with all the melted snow and lots of happy little waterfalls.  My socks were wet within the first mile.  I hate wet socks.  Gracie was a muddy mess, but she was happy enough to wade out into a deep creek before we put her in the car.  It washed lots of the mud off, but then she smelled like wet dog all the way home.  It’s OK.  An adventure in the woods, even for a brief 3 hours, is just the thing to reset after a long week of hard work.  

We tested our balance several times today.  We still got game in our old age.

Cane growing along this creek

We were outside the park boundaries, and didn't know it until we turned back.  Good thing we didn't get shot.