Back to Reality

Like UC Davis, most universities that have programs to study single-celled life have a Department of Microbiology. My graduate program was one of the only ones in the country in a Department of Bacteriology. While I was there, a package arrived for one of the professors that had been addressed by somebody who must have been hard of hearing; it was addressed to the "Department of Back to Reality."

Well, it's the Department of Back to Reality here. Ending a vacation reminds me of entering a glacier-fed alpine lake. There's no graceful way to end a vacation--a slow careful return with a couple of days to readjust, like inching into ever deeper water, seems to prolong the agony, while diving right in seems too awful to contemplate. I am taking the latter course; I arrived home late today, and my class starts tomorrow morning. There's a pile of laundry to do, and before night fell I had to get out the lawn mower and get rid of two weeks' worth of growth. The bean seeds that I planted in early June had just started bulging up through the soil when I left; they have grown like Topsy and are now almost a foot tall. The bad news is that all the dandelions and purslane and grasses have done the same, and I have a long week of weeding ahead of me.

We'll see how the first day of class goes. I think everything is ready, and I've mentally rehearsed what I want to say, so the potential is there for things to work. Of course, there is always the potential for things to go wrong, especially since I'm in a hall that I don't particularly like.