Journal of a Sabbatical

the sun is still out and the proposal is still submitted

May 13,1998

Previous Entry Journal Index	x	x	n	I hurt my hand somehow while doing the proposal. My thumb really hurts. I don't know what I did to it. I was very careful to take breaks every few minutes but I guess that in the heat of trying to meet the deadline I did not pay enough attention to correct ergonomic posture. So now I am worried about being able to spend long hours at my computer when and if we actually get the grant. I really have not had much trouble with my right hand since I left my old job for this sabbatical. Therefore this is a bit of a surprise to me. Nevertheless I did a reasonably good job on the proposal and a reasonably good job washing dishes and litter boxes at the cat shelter on Wednesday. At least now that the sun is out I feel better mentally. I considered putting this journal on hiatus for awhile to let my hand get better, but I remembered that I wanted to give the dictation software another chance. So I am trying again. This time I will not mention the place where I wash the dishes because no matter how any times I trained that word this computer did not understand that one word. Even though this is Weds. entry I am dictating it on Friday. I started Wednesday's entry but did not get very far with it. Here is what I have so far: I think I sprained my thumb. Right thumb. The scrivener's palsy hand. It hurts. Immersion in hot, soapy, bleach water all morning at MRFRS did not help. At least I didn't break any dishes this week. Ever since Star has been liberated from the sick room he's been rubbing up against my legs while I do the dishes. He is so affectionate - a real love bug - and looks a lot like Bertha (Kevin's cat). Ralph is over the ringworm and out in the main room. He misjudged a leap from the top of the cat gym and did a perfect cartwheel on the floor instead. I've never seen a cat do a cartwheel. It was very impressive. It stopped all work for a few seconds so we could appreciate it. Even the Russian judge wouldn't given it a 10. Jaguar joined me at the sink, companionably sitting and watching. He's so mellow now it's hard to believe he used to scratch everybody. The cats were all very affectionate. I think they must react to the weather like people do. Both cats and humans seem more active and less irritable since the rain stopped. I guess this rain for either 11 or 12 days straight was in fact some kind of record. I saw a graph on the front page of the Lawrence Eagle Tribune in the newspaper vending machine, but I was to keep to spend the 50 cents just to read about the rain I (and everybody else in the valley) had just lived through. The headline implied that eleven days was a record. All I know is that I don't remember it raining for this long in my lifetime. I wish I had more to say about the virtual forest proposal but until we hear from the National Science Foundation I had better just let it rest. Since I am dictating this on Friday I am forced to admit that I don't remember what else I did on Wednesday afternoon. I know that some time during this week I had coffee with Tom, and we talked about the proposal and about my fascination with ice. Last week he gave me a clipping from the Chronicle of Higher Education about the national ice core library in Colorado. They keep big pieces of ancient ice for scientists to study. If I can study ice in Colorado why go to Antarctica? We talked about what it would be like to spend the winter in Antarctica and agreed that we would go crazy if we did not have a coffee shop and coffee friends to chat with. I told Tom I would only winter over in Antarctica if he and Larry and Ned and Julie went too. If this conversation did not take place on Wednesday, it must have taken place on Monday but it is recorded here. Oh, wait, I know what I did in the afternoon: I went to the Honda Barn and got the lock on the driver's side rear door fixed. After that, I did in fact meet Tom at Starbucks. It all comes back to me now.
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