Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Gainesville

Glad to hear about your resolve to get back into playing the organ for fun. I occasionally get the urge to play my keyboard again, and remember how much I enjoyed playing easy arrangements of things during my first sabbatical, the 8-month one when I didn't have a real project driving me. I want to get back to playing some after I retire.

Which reminds me, a strange coincidence. Last night I had Chanson Triste going through my head, and for some reason, realized I could remember all the fingerings for playing it on the violin (it's pretty easy)-- and next thing I knew, I was playing "air fiddle" -- placing my fingers very precisely on the invisible violin I was holding. I have not given one though to playing the violin, other than how much I hated it, for 50 years! I did enjoy playing in orchestra, but just couldn't stand hearing myself practice. I always envied how beautifully you could play, Mom. You made it seem so easy.

Another hot day, no rain. Parts of I-95 (on the east coast) are closed because of the smoke from fires.

It is very very strange at work these days. The Great Exodus of management continues. Today the chair of Special Collections announced he is leaving. I'm unhappy about this because he was very GOOD in supporting the growing comics collection (his predecessor was not). Who knows what the next guy will do? My fingers are crossed that the collection itself has now reached a critical mass, and would be hard to abandon as long as there is academic interest in it at UF. I think that even after Donald Ault retires, the interest will remain, since I hear John Ronan is returning to UF next year.

Today the Great Move of staff back into the new building officially began. Right up to the very last minute, various local regulatory bureacrats were still threatening to delay things by making silly demands. Somehow Bill managed to get everything taken care of in time to keep the schedule that had been set up. He deserves a medal, if I do say so myself!

Good thing it's Wednesday; even after just two days at work this week, I'm already horribly sleep deprived-- less then 6 hours each the past two. Bill read some new findings that people who fall asleep quickly need less sleep than those who don't. That would make sense of why I seem to need 8-9 hours minimum to feel human.

Tonight I was so exhausted I had to have a 15 minute nap when we got home, even though it was late. Truly a desperation dinner-- I forgot to buy the pork chops I'd planned to cook! However, with chicken breasts in the freezer and sliced mushrooms in the fridge, Google found me a splendid recipe I was able to adapt and turn out something quite wonderful. It called for onion soup mix, but since I'm trying to use up onions, I chopped up the real thing and used chicken broth. We all liked it, and I now have the makings of a very fine home-made chicken mushroom soup with the leftovers.

I agree about preferring to have drinks before dinner, but I've learned that when one has to cook, night caps are the way to go. I'm glad you're doing this, Mom, as it is obviously helping you eat more sensibly. We still drink before dinner when eating out, as you know.

It's about half past crash time. Sink is shiny, all is well. G'night.