Blogging on the Powwow

During my first fall at Bridgewater State, an unknown person came down the hallway of our office suite pulling a rolling suitcase. He stuck his head in my office and said, “Professor – do you have any books that you want to sell?” Books that I want to sell? I thought. What does this person mean? I did have a couple of books that I wouldn’t mind passing on to someone else, but sell? So, I identified a few books and watched the process unfold. The unidentified person scanned the barcode on the back of book with a handheld device and said, “I can give you $7 for that book.” “But, I didn’t buy it. It was sent to me as a desk copy.” (A “desk” or “exam” copy is when a professor requests one copy of a book from a publisher, on the understanding that the professor might use that book in his or her own course. The copy is usually free.) “That doesn’t matter. They are sold to students as used books for a reduced rate. This second book? I can give you $10.” “But, it’s an instructo...

I once read that if you're going to be a dedicated runner and especially if you are going to do distance running, it's all a matter of time before you get injured. There is no way to avoid it. I wish it wasn't true, but it has been for me. I started running in 2004 and that spring suffered many, many running injuries. I fell in love with the sport so much that I just couldn't hold myself back. Being a novice at all things sport and exercise-related, I thought, "What's the worst that could happen?" I was really ignorant, to say the least. Me - 4 days before the Turkey Trot. Never a good sign, under any conditions. I've had at least one--if not three-- stress fractures , inflamed knees, chronic   shin splits ,  Plantar fasciitis ,   vamp's disease , and numb toes or   Morton's neuroma . The latter is what put me in my infamous surgical shoe that was the subject of many comical Facebook postings (if I do say so myself). The neuroma app...

I always said that I didn't have time to cook. Neil thinks that all things food-related are a colossal waste of time, so there were no expectations or complaints from him. When Dorothy was still at home we shared cooking duties, but we spent very little time in the kitchen. That isn't to say that we didn't eat healthy meals. We ate the kind of meals that one would prepare if one was in a hurry or didn't want to spend much time in the kitchen, such as pasta, red sauce, broccoli, and a glass of skimmed milk. (In fact, this was what I ate every night as a college student in my apartment.) Or, baked potato, melted cheese, and microwaved broccoli. Pan-fried boneless, skinless chicken breasts, carrots, peppers, and a jar of sweet and sour sauce. Grilled cheese with cut apple pieces. See? Healthy, but easy. I always maintained that I could  cook and when we had company, I usually did  cook, but it was not a priority for me or my family.  A couple of years ago, someon...

This is what I call the "dark" part of the semester. It sets in around weeks 9 and 10 (our semesters are 14 weeks long). We are heavy into the semester's work. The grading is crushing. Student concerns, having received some feedback on their work, is heightened and anxieties run high. The days are darker and day light savings means that I need to exercise Drake by 4:30pm each day. It begins to get cold. At the end of this dark period of work, we will face finals, heavy grading responsibilities, committee work that needs to be wrapped up, and holiday madness. When the holidays pass, we face the spring semester with all of the activities that we planned throughout the fall. It is a dark time. Photo credit: Pictures to Pin. The beginning of the fall semester is insanely busy, but it is warm, the sun is high, days are long, and we hold the promise of a new academic year ahead of us. Finals in December are endured because we can see light at the end of the tunnel (they...

We're getting close to the time of year when Trevor called to tell us about Mark. It was November 12, actually. I was meeting with students in my office in the evening. Neil was teaching in Gorham. I called him with the bad news. Silence. The truth is, I never knew Mark very well. I knew Mark through other people - Neil, Trevor, and Neil's colleagues. Mark visited Neil and me at our home in Saco on occasion. Between these visits and the stories I heard, Mark made a tremendous impression on me. Mark was larger than life. He was a fantastically talented oboist. Mark was driven in a way that caused most people to take pause. He was incredibly demanding of his students and even more demanding of himself. He poured himself into his work in a way that would crush most of us - solo, chamber music, teaching, administrative duties in Iowa, recordings, auditions ("just to stay fresh"), festivals, music camps, and the like. His productivity knew no limits. I'm a highly p...

What happens the day before a marathon? I visited the race location for the marathon to pick up my running "bib" and race packet. At this race, there was also a table labeled "SWITCH" for people who had registered for the full marathon and wanted to switch to the half. I was happy not to need this table! My running bib for the marathon! #261 Race organizers usually hand out a shirt or a even better...a jacket! I was happy to get another running jacket! Carb-load! It's very important to eat lots of carbohydrates before a marathon. I am gluten/wheat-intolerant, which means I usually eat rice or potatoes. It's very important to stay hydrated  the day before a marathon ! It's very important to rest the day before a marathon. I try not to do anything out of the ordinary. No running, jumping, rearranging the furniture (to prevent tripping), running down the stairs, or wearing shoes that will pinch my toes! Pour over your runn...

Wander the halls of any academic institution in June or July and when one academic encounters the other the conversation usually goes along the lines of... "Have you recovered from the end of the semester? Are you getting a break... at all ?" Fast forward to late August and regardless of where you wander, you'll note that the conversation has changed to... "Are you ready? Are you ready for it to all begin... again ?"  I used to try to get ready for the semester and then I realized it doesn't really matter. One can anticipate some of the potential obligations - faculty meetings, applications for endless committees to join, endless work to get those committees up and running, getting course Blackboard sites up and running, copying syllabi, etc. But, the tsunami comes and crashes regardless of preparation. At that moment, it's sink or swim. After week two or three of the semester, we usually find ourselves lying on the equivalent of a trash ridden beach, ...

Sometime in the middle of the summer, I heard children outside our house, in the churchyard that is adjacent to our street and home. I looked out the window and saw two school-aged children, a girl and a boy, digging in the untended churchyard. They were there for quite a while. I watched through the windows without making myself known, so as not to disturb their adventures. They were making a small garden plot. They dug up a tall weed and replanted it, poured a canteen full of water over it, and used a pile of bricks along the retaining wall to mark off their new garden. Neil, delighted, took pictures from the second story. The first day of the garden. They were back within a few days, this time with packets of seeds. They dug in the dirt, planted seeds, and raced back and forth from the river (for water), to the garden plot, to their home at the top of the street for supplies, and back again. Their enthusiasm and excitement was palpable. I enjoyed being a "fly on the wal...

Thank goodness this old adage is true - that you reap what you sow , because Neil and I figured out that in just this one spring/summer season, we planted about 65 trees, shrubs, or other perennials. If we weren't busy reaping what we sowed, we'd likely be crying. It's been a summer of amazing transformations in our yard and luckily for us, constant bloom. Here is our "summer of bloom" in pictures. Holly, planted in 2012 We even accidentally grew a fungus called "Dog Vomit Slim Mold." Isn't that lovely? Turns out that it is not harmful and may even help plants, so we left it alone. Wonderful butterfly bush - with sunflowers in background, planted  2009. Dahlias and sunflowers - planted every year. More sunflowers and dahlias. Snowball tree, planted 2012. Black-eyed Susans, planted 2011. Jethro Tull, planted 2012 and very hardy! Delphinium, planted 2012 Spiderwarts, transplanted from neighbor, 2011 ...