Hawks Rd

We have been in this house for three years now. Which makes it the longest we've lived in any single location. And we've done a lot of work to the place both inside and out, though you'd have to look hard to tell. And of course, there are a lot of things we said we'd do that we still haven't done anything about. I don't have a proper study, or anything resembling one, but that's really the only complaint. Well, that and the windowless kitchen. Below, a shot of the back yard, since I can't seem to locate a shot of the front.

Iron Sharpening Iron

Found out today that two of my esteemed colleagues, with whom I've worked on various projects, received tenure (cue angel chorus) this week. Both are enormously popular, both are prolific writers and good teachers. Three cheers for CB (my Seventy Sevens patron, incidentally) and LL!

A good reminder for me to keep my eye on that goal.

I'm singing, I'm singing

. . . cause I just got a copy of one of the greatest rock/pop records ever: The Seventy Sevens, Pray Naked. I've been looking for this thing for like ten years! Thanks to CB. It's as good as I remember. Better, actually.

They're making me feel old

Governor's school students. Sigh. I walk into class today, and one student is laying on the floor, while several others are making the "Jr. Birdman" face. One student is helpfully gesturing for me to do something to my chin. I'm like, "what the heck? Is there ink on my face? what's with the Jr. Birdmen?" Turns out it's a game where if someone makes that face at you when you're not touching your chin, you have to lay down on the floor. And they say, "And you have to play, because you're cool!"

My response: "I'm an english professor. My cool evaporated long ago."

And now it turns out that there's more than one game going on. I said something in class, and all of a sudden, in unison, the class does some kind of "vogue" thing where they make boxes around their faces. I tried to ferret out what I said to cause that straaaange reaction--they were unhelpful in that regard. Furthermore, there's still another mystery game going on that you lose if you think about, so you have to play it without thinking about it.

I did meekly lay down at the end of class when, as soon as I said, "get outta here," several Jr. Birdman faces were made at me. One student tried to snap a picture, but I was too fast for him. ha ha.

Sigh. I'm only 34, but already having a hard time keeping up.

Who said anything about a Honda Fit?

This just came across our campus 'swapshop' list. Hard to resist:

FOR SALE:
1984 Chevy Scottsdale
Color: Blue
Mileage: 59,700 (Actual miles)
Excellent Condition

Asking Price: $2,000.00 OBO

an old-school Chevy pickup! If only gas weren't $4.00 a gallon!

UPDATE: I've tried to convince folks that an El Camino would be a good idea, but no one wants to hear that.

Bike Route

Yes it is.

You never outgrow Legos

This may be one of the most awesome $400 toys ever: The Death Star!.

A long ride

. . . for me, that is. I realized an ambition of mine today: I rode from our house to my brother's house, a distance of about 28 miles. It was a great day for a ride: clear, warm, with an occasional cloud.

I know that in the 'roadie' world, a 28 mile ride is not that big of a deal, but still, it was fun to do something I'd been saying I want to do since last March.

Department of Unintended Consequences

The Little Boy has learned to operate all the lamps in the house. Consequence: this morning at 5:35, he decided it was time for our lights (i.e., the ones beside our bed) to be on. Good morning.

The Little Boy has learned our phone number and address, and has learned how to operate the telephone. Consequence: he now wants to answer the phone.

The Little Boy has heard me play The Who now and again. Consequence: when we got out from church last Sunday, we noticed a couple of spiders on the car. He proceeded to sing the chorus from this classic:



In case you're not up on this brand of classic rock, it's "Boris the Spider."

Budget "Crisis"

I understand that state budgets fluctuate.  But what chaps me is when I see that every non-academic department on this campus has multiple Gators, golf carts, etc., and that they're all being driven by folks who apparently aren't hauling a thing.  Just today I watched a couple of students cruising around in a Gator, and for the life of me I don't think they were actually doing anything other than cruising.  Our chancellor says we're all making sacrifices.  I'm happy to keep my computer for another year rather than have it replaced this summer.  But I wonder how much all those golf carts cost.  I'll believe we're in a real crisis when those who tell me it's a crisis start acting like it's a crisis.  Right now, it seems like a matter of chooosing to spend money in one place over another.

And get off my lawn!

Twelve Songs #VIII

At last the secret is out, as it always must come in the end,
The delicious story is ripe to tell to the intimate friend;
Over the tea-cups and in the square the tongue has its desire;
Still waters run deep, my dear, there's never smoke without fire.

Behind the corpse in the reservoir, behind the ghost on the links,
Behind the lady who dances and the man who madly drinks,
Under the look of fatigue, the attack of migraine and the sigh
There is always another story, there is more than meets the eye.

For the clear voice suddenly singing, high up in the convent wall,
The scent of the elder bushes, the sporting prints in the hall,
The croquet matches in summer, the handshake, the cough, the kiss,
There is always a wicked secrete, a private reason for this.

--W. H. Auden (1936)

Ah, Respect

One of the advantages of my position in the ivory tower is that I command reverence from my students.  For instance, walking down the hallway today, one of my students from last term hailed me by affectionately saying, 

"Hey freak!"

I'm just a-feelin' the love and admiration.

I may use some of these.

One of my favorite features in Watterson's old Calvin & Hobbes strip (still champion, imho) was when Calvin's dad started "explaining" the way things work. Here's an example:

Q. Why does ice float?
A. Because it's cold. Ice wants to get warm, so it goes to the top of liquids to be nearer to the sun.
Q. Is that true?
A. Look it up and find out.
Q. I should just look up stuff in the first place.

Link to some others.

Boys 2: Live!

Boys

Father's Day

I have two boys now. It's fun to say "the boys"--something nice about knowing that there's more than one, even if it's just a phrase. I spent a pretty good amount of time yesterday with The Little Boy, trying very hard to give him some time. There are many times I feel like I'm not being as good to my family as they need or deserve, but yesterday was a day to set that aside and enjoy.

W had a fantastic idea: she allowed The Little Boy to choose some gifts at Wal-Mart based on what I like. She asked him, "what does daddy like to do?" His response: He likes to work! So, a pen and pencil. He likes coffee! So, a green travel mug. He likes to mow grass! So, a package of foam earplugs. So each gift meant something pretty special.

And then she and he made a book: it's composed of pages that say things like "This is What I like to do with Daddy" with The Little Boy's picture of us wrestling. The last page is "What I love about you" and he told Weslee what to write: "Makes Biscuits." "Pulling weeds." "Mow grass together." "Takes me a bath." "Get popcorn together." "Brushes my teeth." "When he reads to me." Knocked me flat on my back, let me tell you.

W surprised me with an iPod Shuffle (my first iPod! Thrilling!)--but I'll let you guess which present made the greatest impression.

Thanks to Friends

Thanks to JMA and WA from Virginia, who came and spent a wonderful couple of days with us.  It was hot outside, but we still managed to eat well and catch up on recent doings.  They showed pictures of their most recent trip to England, including their visit to George Herbert's church at Bemerton (!)

Thanks to the Bosvath collective for sharing pictures of the new little one, and we hope the growth spurt ends soon, so the new mommy can have some relief! 

Thanks to Hambone and Blakbuzzard for continuing to check in, though their schedules are surely rough.

It's another summer weekend.  The Little Boy is out in the wading pool, W is sitting under the shade tree on our freshly painted swing, and I'm monitoring dinner and the Baby Boy.  It's been a good day.

huzzah! gear!

Got my new pedals today! Haven't put them on yet, and they aren't the super ultra deluxe kind, but still, new gear!!

I'm not glad to be right, but I was right.

From my inbox this morning:

I wanted to let you know that KV has taken a job in Boston and CC has decided to stay there as well. This means we need to find two term people fast. If you still have contacts at your graduate school please have them let people know. Or if you know of someone who might be interested, please have them contact me.

This was the couple we hired on faculty two years ago. I was surprised they stayed for a second year. Hopefully they'll like Boston better than West Tennessee. What are the chances, right? heh.

In other news, we'll be doing multiple searches this coming academic year. Joy!

Post 501, or "Pedantry."

I'm in the midst of revising documents for a student handbook for our first-year composition classes. The other editor and I have solicited revision requests from other instructors in the department. Well, if you're familiar with English professors in groups, you know that getting them to agree about which grammar, punctuation, syntax, and usage guidelines apply in any given context is like expecting Baptists not to fight. Won't happen. Anyway, here I sit, slaving my way through minutiae of punctuation, participle usage, parallel structure--and one of my colleagues, instead of providing a straightforward comment or revision, draws a circle on one part and notes: "see Maimon 407."

Oh, hell no. I'm not some 18-year-old that you can send scurrying to a grammar handbook.

*Grits teeth*
*Returns to typing*

Inauspicious

How to tell that you'd better tread lightly over the course of the workday:

1. Bike tire is soft, which means there's a slow leak
2. Chain comes off the chainring as you're heading down your street
3. You spill an entire mug of coffee all over the counter
4. It's blazing hot in your building

I'm just waiting for my bookshelves to cave in or something like that.

Just call me "Dr. Rooter."

Replaced our commode today, yes I did. Just waiting for the bathroom to fill with water, heh.

We Have a Three Month Old

So, in honor of his recent doings, I present the following three:

yardwork

Diodia Virginiana! Soo, we meet again, my old nemesis!

From Hell's heart I stab at thee!

Gearhead

So I've already said, once, that reading Bicycling magazine gives me gear lust, which is a real issue in a gear-intensive sport like biking. Well, I was all set to shell out $100+ for Speedplay pedals, because they're flat awesome. What did I find out yesterday but that my biking shoes are incompatible with Speedplay pedals. I'm going to have to settle for cheaper ones. Much cheaper, actually, which is probably a good thing in the long run (i.e., these could still be used with regular ol' shoes when I ride the bike up to campus). Still, they're not nearly as cool, and we all know how important the 'cool' is when it comes to gear. heh.

wakka wakka!

Guess what DVD set just came out?

That's right.

Guess who'll be buying it post-haste?

Playing

Roscius: Boldly I dare say
There has been more by us in some one Play
Laugh'd into wit and virtue, than hath been
By twenty tedious Lectures drawn from sin
And foppish humors.

(from Thos. Randolph, The Muses' Looking Glass [1630])

Goddess Fortuna

It's understandable why the thinkers of the Italian Renaissance, standing as they were between the world of classical antiquity and the new world they saw being born (or reborn), spent a lot of time examining the conundrum of providence, especially as related to the "pagan" Fate or Fortune.

Life sometimes seems like a joke at your expense. We've all experienced it: at the very moment when you think the course is set and the weather benevolent, all expectations of the joyous return home appear to be met . . . and it is then that the letter arrives, the eye strikes you down, the precincts of the body revolt. Fortuna is a comfortless goddess, but at least you know what to expect from her hands, as Boethius and Machiavelli teach: she doesn't care about you, has her own agenda, turns the wheel. But Providence, ah, that's a tougher nut: God's benevolence, even for those of us who believe in it, can prove just as inscrutable and comfortless as Fortuna. Sometimes more so, given that we expect goodness from God's hand.

Every semester, I teach the opening of Milton's Paradise Lost, emphasizing the fact that he's got a very serious task: asserting Providence, and justifying the ways of God, given the weak and trembling world we live in, is too daunting for lesser minds, like mine. The older I get, the more I see, the more I read and hear and learn, the more daunting it seems. And I recognize that I'm still young, which makes me tremble even more. Is it any wonder when people throw up their hands and instead look to the fickle goddess and her wheel?

How Lucky You Are

CAT
When the news is all bad,
When you're sour and blue,
When you start to get mad
You should do what I do-

(The CAT mischievously lets the WHOS fall a few more feet)

WHOS
Aaah!

CAT IN THE HAT
Tell yourself
How lucky you are...

When your life's going wrong
When the fates are unkind
When you're limping along
And get kicked from behind
Tell yourself how lucky you are...

(THE CAT lets the WHOS fall a little more)

WHOS
Aaah!

CAT
Why decry a cloudy sky
An empty purse
A crazy universe?
My philosophy is simply
Things could be worse!

(The CAT sniffs the clover sneezes allergically - all over THE WHOS)

AH ... AH.. AH-CHOO!

(The WHOS react in disgust at being sneezed on)

WHOS
EWWW!

CAT
So be happy you're here.
Think of life as a thrill
CAT
And if worse comes to worse
(As we all know it will)
Thank your lucky star
You've gotten this far...

We're here in this beautiful theatre -

(To a child in the audience - obviously a rich kid!)

CAT
And you're in the first row!
(To audience)
How lucky to be in the theatre!
More lucky than you know!
You could have the luck of our hero
Whose luck has been running low

FOR CERTAIN!

Curtain!

(We see the huge pink clover field into which the WHOS have dropped)

HORTON
Oh, no!

CAT
How lucky you are!
How lucky, how lucky you are!

(THE CAT, WHOS and JOJO are gone, and HORTON stands alone)

(from Seussical, the Musical)