Random stuff for a Thursday:

1. Hurricane Rita looks like it's going to be a very big, very bad deal. We may get rain and even flooding - and we are like, 18 hours + from Houston. They're saying on the news that Dallas and surrounding area hotels are full up. And my church is on stand-by as a temporary shelter for people who can't find a hotel and don't want to drive any further. (The Red Cross is supposed to bring cots). I may spend this evening setting up cots if that comes to pass, or cooking dinner for the folks who show up.

I hope the couple of former students I have living in the Houston area got out.

As for the loss of property that will inevitably happen - well, there's not a lot you can say. It's horrible, and this is going to have long effects on people. (I suspect if we shelter people in the church, it will turn out to be longer than the three days we were told.) I hate to say it, but the people who lose stuff in Rita may find it harder to get help than people did after Katrina - I know so many people gave so much, people are kind of tapped out.

2. In happier news, the seed bank study is a go. I found out this morning (with my research student's help) that the bulk density samplerS (I only remember ordering one but there were two in the box) will be perfect for getting the core samples we need, and one of my colleagues has money to order the germination trays (provided after we are done with them, he can use them for his fish specimins). Walked back to my office this morning going, "wow, that was easy." We will probably collect them the end of next week.

3. Worked some on my mom's socks last night. I realize that I need to get it in gear if I'm going to do gift knitting. (So far, she is the only one I have a project planned for).

4. There's talk on the knitlist about "having time to knit/not having time to knit."

My feeling on it is this: looked at in a cold, hard way, I don't have time to knit. I would be "better off" in terms of career-progress spending my time on research reading or professional development. But in the broader picture - how many people say on their deathbeds, "I wish I had spent more time at work"? You find time for the things that are important to you. (There's a saying: show me where your time is and I will show you where your heart is.)

I also have to admit I like the - absurdity? Is that the right word? of spending hours upon hours on something that other people would spend fifteen minutes on going out and buying. (Yes, I know, the quality is not comparable). I like the slowness of making something with my own hands. I like being able to look at something I knit and remember what else I was doing at the time when I knit it - I have some socks that I mainly did on a long train trip, and a shawl I started while riding along with my folks to go visit family. Knitting is leisure time made visible.

And if I didn't take time to knit, I'd probably have to take time to go to therapy. And I am dead serious on that. I don't think I'd be as well-balanced or happy an individual if I didn't have some kind of creative hobby.

I FIND time. If I am done with exercise, washing, dressing, eating breakfast, and packing a lunch at all "early" (before my leave-the-house deadline of five minutes to seven), I will do a little knitting. If I get home at five, and have a seven p.m. meeting, I quick fix dinner and knit while it's cooking. When I come home on Mondays for lunch (because otherwise I'd be on campus for 12 straight hours), I take a little time to knit.

After all, other people take smoke breaks. Or they call their spouses from work to chat. Or they have kid-activities.

I also manage by not being obsessive about cleaning my house. Oh, I clean it when I expect people are coming, or every two to three weeks, whichever comes first. But I don't do the "It's Tuesday so I must scrub the tub" thing. (I know a lot of people are big Flylady fans, but I'm too GDI to let some cartoon housewife tell me that I "must" do a particular chore on a particular day).