I think Bob has shown some gradual improvement for the past two days. It's very slow-going, though, and he often feels like crap.

I have a heel spur! It is so minor in comparison to what he is going through that I hate to complain. Time for an adjustment to my orthotics.

Finally, today, spending a little time on grades.

Bob seems a tiny bit better. He ate a little, and went outside for a brief time twice.

Bob was improving after he came home Tuesday and into Wednesday, but then he had another setback yesterday afternoon. It didn't require him to return to the hospital, and in some ways, he is improving.

I haven't written a lot of details about his surgery, and I don't plan to - he probably wouldn't mind, but I don't feel it's my place to do so. It's his, not my, surgery and complications. Also, I haven't had a lot of time to write here. For one thing, every moment I have spent on the computer (or blackberry) has been occupied with sending email updates to family and friends, and responding to work-related stuff. Remember my grading deadline is 5/18! (Which I believe I will miss for the first time in the nine years I have been teaching).

Instead I'll write about my experience. Today I put the newly acquired permit to good use, and went to the drug store to get an anti-nausea medication that his surgeon phoned in. I had to take Bob along, of course. I felt bad about that, because if I wasn't so driving-phobic and had a license, he could have stayed in bed. But I think the fresh air may have done him some good. And no way could I have done it alone. For one thing, I would never break the law, and for another, I need a co-pilot.

Nine years ago I finished the PhD, and moved on to a new goal. I resolved to finally get my license, with a date in mind of before turning 40. For the first time in my life, I actually practiced. I'd had my permit three times before. When I was 16, I practiced a little and never took the test. For my second permit (in my 20s) and my third (early 30s) I never practiced at all. Those permits were simply glorified IDs.

In 2001, I wound up failing the road test four times. It was really hard to take it that many times. It is more in my nature to walk away with the message of "unworthy." I finally did give up, and never drove again. My permit expired in 2005 and I didn't bother renewing it in the two-year window.

Anyway, whether I actually drive a lot and take another road test remains to be seen. I suspect I won't do it. I'll drive short distances right now and maybe occasionally in the future, even after Bob is cleared to drive again, and be satisfied. I don't see myself ever getting over my nervousness, and frankly, the road test itself is a barrier. I know I could never pass it. Not because I can't execute all the skills competently - but because my nervousness is apparent. I am always hyper-vigilant.

I'm that way as a passenger, too. I'm often that way in other parts of life as well. I was the kid all parents wanted to go with their kid - because they trusted that I would never do anything stupid. Or if something dangerous happened, I would know what to do.

In any event - I'm really proud of myself for driving today.

Bob is home! Hooray!

But seriously, thank God.

I hope I am as good a nurse as the ones in the hospital.

Bob is still in the hospital but he seemed much better today. He saw his surgeon (who wasn't on call over the weekend) and assuming there are no more complications, it looks like he will be coming home tomorrow afternoon. He seemed (almost) improved enough to be home today - but he was still on IV and a clear diet.

Bob had some complications and is still in the hospital. Prayers appreciated!

It's been a long two days. Bob had surgery yesterday and is still in the hospital. He had a bad night, but is somewhat better today. Coming home tomorrow (actually today, but in my owl world, it is still Saturday night) or Monday, not sure yet. I have been very unproductive in terms of my end of semester work, something that I will pay for next week. (The grading deadline is 5/18.) On Thursday I went and took the fifth driving permit test of my life (and got my fifth 100). My old permit expired four years ago, so I couldn't just remew it. This way, I can drive us around a bit once he is feeling well enough to go in the car.

For the past couple of days the university has sent out emails with swine flu information. Then, today, there was an email instructing faculty to log on to our grading roster area for an important message. The message asked us to reflect on what we will do if the semester is ended now, rather than in two weeks. It said it was not happening yet, they were just floating the possibility. It really doesn't matter very much to me. My last class is Tuesday and I don't use finals week. All work is submitted online. Even if my classes didn't meet any longer, I have almost everything on class websites. But this did make me wonder if they intend to suspend classes - either very soon or at least for finals week. It also made me think there may be a student case. Spring break wasn't that long ago and I'm sure many students went to Mexico.

I'm not one to get into a panic, but this made me remember this post.

Unrelated links:

That creep Michael Vick makes our local news. Who would think that was a good publicity stunt?

And somehow I doubt the university is going to put this story on the alumni page.

OK, here is my site. I hope this works.

I finally spent some time today rebuilding my website. It should be here: Gully Brook Press. As you can see, I didn't get very far. Actually, I got farther than what is appearing when I click that link, I am not sure what is up. Maybe it is working, but I need to re-boot. If not, that's where the site is supposed to be. I am hoping to FTP some of the existing content back up there once I finish the framework. I've decided not to reload everything, and I also decided to make some changes using Verizon's site builder. Whatever approach I take, it will be time consuming. I'll get to it eventually.

Here's a picture of almost the whole gang on Easter Sunday. There must have been about 35 people there, nearly all immediate family.

I've been having a very hectic time of it; although I resolved to not fall behind in evaluation work this semester, that only held until March, when it was derailed by toothache and oral surgery. So I am scrambling to catch up, and finally today I see some daylight.

Another hitch happened during the past two weeks; Bob had two episodes that landed him in the emergency room, was out of work for a week, and he will need surgery on May 8. That will be followed by two more weeks of sick leave, and then for three months he will be restricted from lifting, etc.

So, I guess I am going to have to sharpen my lawn mowing and pool opening skills. I am already taking out the trash and recycling, putting the water jugs on the cooler, carrying in the groceries, loading the dogs in the car (all things I can do, but haven't in years).

I finished the taxes yesterday, and although I should have moved on to the next item on the list (reading student journals), I didn't. The replacement adapter came for my Iomega zip drive, and I resisted trying it until the taxes were finished. Today was a different story. The good news is that it worked! I went through the disks and everything was there: my stories, my book, my website, in addition to a bunch of other things. Yay! So, I tinkered with my entries and sent in two submissions to the contest. Yeah, I know the deadline isn't until the 17th (and I probably won't win anyway), but I couldn't help it. Then, I sent another story to a magazine. I haven't spent enough time writing lately. The journals will keep.

Tell me again how we got stuck with this a-hole?

Oh yeah, that's right. The last a-hole was an unethical, controlling nutjob (who could't keep it in his pants).

In other news, I am working my way down a spring break to do list (that is probably far too ambitious), and today I landed on doing the taxes.

For the past few months, every time I sign on to blogger, when I view my blog - it freezes the machine, I have to do a Ctrl-Alt-Del, sign back on - and then it is OK. It doesn't happen when I make a post, only when I view it. Very irritating.

I went to a two day conference on Friday and Saturday. Overall, it was fairly good. Some speakers just read a 40 page paper in a monotone voice - really, TMI! We are going to get a book of all the papers eventually, we can read them, whey bother presenting? Others were truly dynamic and the two keynotes (Friday dinner and Saturday lunch) were truly inspiring. It hit me that we haven't had intellectual leadership in the SUNY System for 15 years.

About my last post: I wasn't happy about not entering. I checked the magazine again and saw that the deadline was Friday, April 3. So, I searched the hard drives of all my computers, and couldn't find a thing. I couldn't find a print out of anything suitable in my file drawer either. Then I tore apart the bedroom, looking for old floppy disks. Bob has been saying he plans to throw them out, but luckily he hasn't yet - I found a box, went through the ones that seemed promising, and found the story I was seeking in an older version, plus a bunch of other things.

I got together two entries (you can enter up to three) - one old story and a new story that I created from snippets I'd written about my grandmother in the past. Needless to say, I spent nearly all day Wednesday on this. I knew I had to teach all day on Thursday and go to the conference on Friday, so it was the only time I had.

I went to the magazine website to submit - and discovered that they extended the deadline until April 17! So I could have been doing what I should have been doing (grading midterms). [I did manage to get a bunch done Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings. I only have 13 left at this point. But I have a LOT of things to do over break, including the taxes. Still swimming upstream.] I am going to wait to submit until the new power supply comes, keep my fingers crossed that it fixes the problem, and assuming it does, see if there is anything on there for a third entry, or if I like something better than what I have assembled now. Also it will give me a chance to make more revisions after I sleep on it, for the new story in particular.

The Mimmie story is extremely appropriate because she has been gone 16 years as of yesterday. Hard to believe. Seems like yesterday she was there at the kitchen table in her trailer drinking tea and heating up a danish in the toaster oven. I remember how many times we talked about death when I was a teenager and stayed overnight at the old place (actually should be talked almost all night - she was even more owl than I am). She said, "it is likely that I will die before you and I will come back and tell you what it is like."

I am kind of bummed out. I wanted to enter a writing contest (deadline today). I have several stories that I thought might fit, so I hooked up my Iomega USB zip drive. I have most of my writing stored on one of those zip drives. I haven't used the drive in over six months, and I've had it since 2004. Well, it doesn't work any more. I am hoping the problem is the power supply, but when I looked it over, I discovered that it is only 5 volts, and all the alternatives I have are 12 volts. So last night, I went to Staples, where I bought the drive, to get a replacement. I didn't think they would still have Iomega drives, but I thought they might sell replacement adapters. No dice. I went to Radio Shack, but they didn't have 5 volt adapters either. I made peace with missing the contest, but today I visited the Iomega site, and discovered they still sell the same zip drive. For the whopping price of $149, which is probably even more than I paid in 2004! They also sell replacement power supplies for $9.95, so I ordered one. I really hope that fixes the problem, because I don't want to shell out $150 for what is essentially an obsolete piece of equipment. I am not sure what other options I will have though, since the alternative - data loss is more than I can bear.

Meet Heidi.



My parents' new German Shepherd Dog, from GSD Rescue.

I took several pictures with my blackberry, but none came out great. On Easter, I will bring my "real" camera, since I usually have more luck with it.

I'm glad they were caught. Scum. Who would stoop this low? I can't help wondering how these guys knew each other, how they knew about the shelter, and why they would travel up here to take such a risk for $600?

I have made some progress on the overwhelming pile of work. It will be several more days before I catch up, though. Next week is presentation week for students, and the following week is Spring break, so that will give me a chance to break even, if I don't manage to do it before then.

I took a lot of criticism in all my classes, but especially in last night's, because I require students to evaluate each other on their upcoming presentations, and I tell them that they cannot give everyone an identical assessment. Many, many students argued with me over that, some quite vociferously. That happens every semester, but I would say that this semester has been the most vocal. That's true in the discussion components of class generally this spring, so I suppose it comes with the territory. I told them I am not a big fan of grades either, but I have to do it, and no one in class opted for S/U grading, so how can they insist that everyone deserves the same assessment? Many of these folks want to be teachers, and they will have to learn how to do fair and quality evaluation. I don't think everyone bought it, and that will probably show up on my student evaluations at the end of the semester. (In the "Allows Input from Students" category.) Oh well.

I'm a little concerned that the tooth next to the extraction site is feeling sore. I hope it is just from the extraction - or that it is ghost nerve pain or something, and not that I am going to need yet another root canal and crown.

My recent tooth episode set me so far back in terms of work that I am now up to my eyeballs and feeling kind of anxious. So, I decided the best thing to do today was get organized, which I did. The office looks a lot better. The problem is, I still feel like procrastinating!

I am just about back to normal. I took my last Motrin Sunday night, and last night, for the first time since the toothache, was able to sleep through the night. I think there might still be a stitch in there, but otherwise, I am fine: eating normally, with little pain.