Monday, May 18, 2015

Definitively Done, and On Track

On track to a new life. Still in Old Town, but that's drawing short as well. Wednesday we leave for our Alaska cruise - very exciting - and then, once that's over, a mad rush to the big Moving Day.

Alaska is going to be a joy. Three of my favorite people are going with me, we've got nice cabins with balconies (for leisurely morning coffee and evening wine), a full list of activities (none of which, for me, include the fancy-schmantzy doings on board, but do include hikes, wildlife walks, whale watching jaunts, etc.).  We leave from SFO, have a couple of days at sea before the activities on shore start. I'm hoping that those two days allow my friends to relax and get past the last couple of weeks which have, for them, been filled with trauma, stress and plain hard work. Me? Hell, I've done so damned little over the past two weeks that another two days of rest will be more of same.

Which, in itself, is rather lovely. Friday we did my garage sale; an experience I intend to NEVER repeat. Yeah, I made some money, but not enough to justify the hassle. And I still have stuff that has to be donated to some good organization - can you believe nobody bought some really nice bookcases? How odd.

There are boxes everywhere in my house; the stuff that hasn't been packed will be packed by the pros.  So there's nothing there that needs my doing it. So the pros come June 23 to pack, the truck will load on the 24th and J and I will take off for PNW Retirement Haven bright and early on the 25th with the dogs and bird. The cat will be flown up on July 9 by former critter sitter. By which time, if I'm very luck, all my stuff will have arrived and at least the cat box unpacked and readied.

Between Alaska and Move Day, I'm taking a SCUBA class, getting re-certified. That's been an interesting study as well: how things have changed! When I took the class in my 20s, it was all about formulae re: gas exchange and compression/decomp rates, reading dive tables, learning the dangerous wildlife we'd be encountering in a tropical fishbowl. This time, it's learning that the computer does all that stuff (except the dangerous wildlife), the jargon has changed, the equipment has changed a lot. So it's interesting and challenging. Really interesting to find that similar things still challenge me; I really thought that the physics would be easier for me. Wrong. However, I do know how to learn, and that'll get me through. The physical requirements are also doable, but will be harder on a body now 40 years older and following a long period of inactivity. From what the book says, all that I have to do is prove that I can exchange a regulator underwater, clear my mask, ascend/descend safely, swim 200 yards (no time limit) and tread water for 10 minutes. Know the hand signals. I can prep for all that.

I still consider myself an academic, just a temporarily displaced one. I do intend to keep up some scholarship, but to focus more on the aspects of it that truly interest me. I don't have to deal with scholarship funding committees, justifying how my research impacts my teaching. I don't have to attend faculty meetings, deal with venal deans and shortsighted students and misguided and rude administrators. Instead, I'll find all of that out In the Real World.

O. Joy.

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