Busy times now

Tomorrow I go judge the state Science Fair, as I do every year. (There's one of those joke websites out there called something like "41 unfortunate science fair projects," mainly poking fun at the inappropriate titles chosen for the projects. No link, because that kind of "humor" makes me squirm a little bit...I'd hate to be a kid who, in a fit of teacher-induced, "You HAVE to GRAB their ATTENTION with a CREATIVE TITLE" chose something that would turn out to haunt me as a double entendre. And then have my blunder live on the Internets forever, for the amusement of random trolly strangers.)

And anyway, the vast majority of the projects at this science fair are really pretty good; some of them are almost upperclassman college-level good, at least among the high schoolers.

So I enjoy doing it. And I get a free lunch.

I also went out and did my spring soil-collection to extract animalcules. (I think I am going to use 'animalcules' to describe my soil invertebrates rather than 'critters' any more. Neither is entirely accurate but animalcules sounds less countrified.)

It was about the perfect day for fieldwork: sunny, warm enough to be comfortable being outside for an extended period but not so warm that physical exertion became uncomfortable after a while. Low humidity (I actually find humid conditions less tolerable than heat for fieldwork). A slight breeze but not windy. The cooler conditions and the breeze kept away any unpleasant insects (wasps and ants) but I did see a few butterflies, always a welcome sight during fieldwork. (And there were lots of birds singing, too). So it was a nice quiet meditative way to spend an afternoon. The first batch of soil is extracting now; I will come in Saturday morning and change it over.

I'm also reviewing a textbook (I'm going to try to finish it this afternoon). Or rather, a couple chapters of a textbook. I get paid for this. I'm thinking what I will do - I always treat textbook-review money as "windfall money" that can be spent on what I please - is put the check, when it comes, into my bank account for a future day either at the end of this semester or sometime early in summer when I'm just bugging out and need a day spent in McKinney floating around the quilt shops and antique stores, that the money from the review will fund that trip.

It's work I like, generally (though I'm not wild about the new "read the whole thing online" because with the number of photos and figures in a typical textbook, it means a lot of scrolling - and because so much of it is in color, it's not practical to print it out to read). I've often thought that if I tried to have an "off the grid" life (living in a very small cabin out in the middle of semi-nowhere, with a well and septic system and either solar or wind power and being as unattached from the bills of society as possible) that the way I might earn enough to pay property taxes and dental bills and such could be by being an editor/reviewer/proofreader.

But the work isn't that regular, or at least is isn't for me. Sometimes I wind up having to turn stuff down because there are several opportunities at once (or they come right before exam week), other times I will go months without an offer. I don't think I could live like that. (And at any rate: living without "grid" electrical power in Oklahoma would be hard; I have to have air conditioning in the summer and I am reasonably sure there's no way a house-sized solar array, even with a mini wind turbine, could generate enough power to sustain that.)

I admit though, that's my little daydream...having as few attachments to the outside world as possible, because the more attachments you have, the more demands that can be made, like "We need you to let us install a new 'smart' meter" or "But the current set-up of your plumbing system isn't up to current code" or whatever other nightmares can be thrown at homeowners. (No, I haven't had any, lately. But I like the idea, I guess, of being dependent on as few outside forces as possible. Oh, I'd still have to have an internet link, ESPECIALLY if I were earning my bread as a reviewer of textbooks, but not being dependent on the power company or the gas company or the water district...there's something appealing to me in it. Maybe I read "My Side of the Mountain" too many times as a child or something.)

I do realize that's an unrealistic daydream for me, that I like having a regular paycheck (and health insurance, and the option to pay in for dental insurance) too much to just chuck it all and go live in the woods. As much as I'd like to, some days.