Back home again

I'm mostly over the cold (or whatever it was - my dad got it too, and just happened to be going in for a regular checkup, and his doctor gave him a prescription for antibiotics and told him to fill it if he wasn't better the next day....he did wind up filling it and seemed to get over the thing faster.)

I'm glad to be home. It's funny how the trip takes on different "stages." At first, when I first get on the train, it seems like it's still vacation...I have my book, I have dinner in the diner to look forward to. The next morning, it feels more like I'm on my way home, especially after breakfast. Then there's always the brief worry as to whether my car will be okay (one time, years back, it was not...I had gone to Longview to meet the train and my car was vandalized while in the station). Then the effort of driving back, braving the grocery store (on a Saturday afternoon), and then hoping my house is okay. (That I was less concerned about; people around me know that I'm gone and know how to get in touch with me if there were a problem).

It's a lot cooler here than it was when I left, but unfortunately it looks like it will get hot again.

I don't deal with idleness well. I'm glad to be heading back to work. Monday I have to put the finishing touches on my syllabi and begin prepping for teaching, Tuesday and Wednesday I might have "in service" stuff (still no schedule confirming that, but these things often happen at the last minute). I have an idea for a new research project I want to plan towards (for next spring) so I can start reading up for that, and I do also have a fair amount of data that I actually need to enter from the data sheets from ongoing projects.

Monday the 20th classes start. I'm grateful that I'm not doing an overload this fall; I only have two long afternoons out of the week (instead of 3-4, which was more typical with the overload). Hopefully that will translate to more research time and more keeping up with new stuff for classes.