Postcard

Hello from mid-conference-and-Hometown travels!  We’re having ourselves a good time seeing family and friends and doing things we associate with these places.  The Snork Maiden seems to have hit a middle phase of childhood in which she clearly remembers locations and experiences of previous trips to Hometown and Conference City and wants to repeat them as closely as possible.  Whereas in earlier years we tended just to haul her along wherever we wanted to go, now she’s got some decided, if conservative, opinions.  Mostly this is fine with me; I generally like these places, since I took her to them in the first place.

However, we are also doing new things, one of which is visiting a swimming facility that’s recently opened in Hometown.  It’s like a small version of one of those theme-park water parks, with a couple of slides, a whirlpool and a sort of swimming channel that loops around and has its own current, and it is the Snork Maiden’s new favorite place.  She’s going to miss it when we leave, and look forward to it on future trips.

Blog posting will probably be intermittent for the next couple of weeks.  If anything really fascinating happens, I’ll be sure to check in.  Although I am parrying a small stream of work-related emails and phone calls, I am curiously relaxed (for me).  It helps that most of what I’m dealing with is pretty pleasant: an offer from New RU to teach a second class next year, proofs from a literary magazine for something of mine they’re publishing, a few minor and non-emergency conference things.  (My disaster mentality steps in to remind us all that a conference-related emergency could arise at any moment!–and so it could, but what can I do about it until it does?)

By the way, in case you were wondering, my calf is still sore, but I can walk normally, or nearly so.  I guess it was a mild strain.  Hurt like billy-o for a day or two, but now a very minor inconvenience.