I love planting stuff, and that's an understatement. This month's virtual museum on my Gully Brook Press website focuses on gardening. Both gardening and website updates are about half done. I will finish getting the plants in tomorrow, and the web stuff on Monday. With any luck, I'll get the treadmill space finished on Monday, also. I am tired from all the yardwork -- too tired, which really highlights why the treadmill and other exercise are so important. I don't care to be a health nut, but I don't want to be feeble, either. It's too bad that a life spent watching a screen, under a lightbulb is so conducive to physical weakness.

Jill Carroll, who is something of a super adjunct, regularly writes interesting stuff for The Chronicle of Higher Education. It's great to have someone addressing things from the part-time, non-tenure track faculty member's perspective. Her latest article, Avoiding Adjunct Burnout, contains much good common sense - for example, really use the breaks between semesters for yourself, since as a part-timer, you are not on the university's nickel when there are no classes, and adjuncts often don't have a leisurely summer off since they frequently teach during summer session. I do my best to not spend my weekends here, in my office, and I try to pursue personal writing, reading, etc. during breaks - but I am not teaching the number of classes that she does, so for me there is always the scramble for writing and consulting jobs. I think, though, that I am not at all good at really drawing that line when it comes to students and academic paperwork - I speak to several students per day who want to get into my classes, and I find that many former students contact me for recommendations and assorted favors (most recently to request additional work, in the hope of a grade change). Also, a couple things she mentions apply to any job, I think. (Like the restorative power of taking a bath.)