Cravats (and other things that happened today)

Cravats, eh? Not quite a topic that one usually writes about in the early 21st century. Well, here's how that came about: the majority of my work gear is from op shops--Goodwill, other thrift stores, second hand places in cities I go to, online thrifting, and so on. It's environmentally more sustainable and, more importantly, cheaper. 

The reason I bring this up is because today (Wednesday) is a day I don't teach. I usually end up doing some writing, contemplating cleaning my place (contemplation doesn't often turn into action), and doing chores. Today, I bagged up a bunch of clothes, shoes, etc and took them to the local Goodwill. 

While there, this happened: 

Me: Oh, I'm going to drop off a big bag of stuff and not actually browse.
Also me: There's a shirt that comes with its own cravat. For $1.90. Come home with me, my precious!

[I'm wearing it to class at the next cool (temperature-wise, not otherwise) day as it's a full-sleeved shirt.
I may be more excited about the opportunity to tie my own cravat than is seemly.
*filed under: academia has its issues but being able to wander into work in 19th century (earlier?) gear is definitely a plus]

It was also a day during which the NYT claims the President placed Chad on the travel ban list against the advice from the State Department and DoD; The president himself gave an unfathomable (Is that the accurate term here?) response when asked why Sudan was dropped from the list; aid remains slow to reach Puerto Rico; next year, the US will accept the lowest number of refugees in almost 30 years; som kind of law means we'll never find out what happened to the policeman who mistakenly arrested James Blake (and slammed him to the ground) and, for work, I came across this "Visualising violence" special issue of Global Discourse that I've bookmarked to read over the weekend.

National Security class tomorrow at 8am. The topic is non-violence so let's see how *that* goes. 

So it's been another year...

I seem to be doing this more and more often. Well, here we go again. It's been another year and I will try to be more frequent in my updates. Most of the things on here will be about what I notice in my wanderings in Southwest Virginia as I live/work here. There will be (some) rants about Things in the News, and about sports/sci fi (not both together. Though maybe both together?)

What happened in that one year, yous ask? Well, you don't but I'll tell you:

1. My dad had a sudden cardiac arrest (aka a massive heart attack) last September. The odd thing was that he'd had a full check up the week before and had been given the all clear. He is a hiker/walker and always active. Then, this happened. He was in hospital for 3 months. My parents had to put up their house for sale for medical expenses. He's all right now--walking 2 miles a day, watching cricket, discussing politics but, for months, we weren't sure what would happen. Would he be ok? What would "ok" entail? It's hard being thousands of miles away while things like this are happening.

I realized that, while academia is flexible (I'm on a 9 month contract and so I have "time off" in summer), it is not flexible always. I couldn't just quit teaching and go to my folks, for example. There were classes to be taught, student papers to be graded, etc. I couldn't take (unpaid) leave because it's not just me who depends on my salary.

But, hey, my dad's all right for now. I spent two months with him and my mum over summer. We (Dad and I--mum sensibly stayed home) forded flooded streets, got stuck when the roads were washed away, and generally had a grand time. I am deeply grateful to the powers that be for this time but I can't help thinking if I'd stuck with my job (pre-PhD), I'd have been on hand to help, no financial worries, and a place to stay in a country with good healthcare (Thailand). Ah well. Choices.

2. Right, while all this was going on in the other side of the world, I had to get my file together for my tenure application. This was around September/October too. Yeah, Fall 2017 was memorable. No one in my department had gone up for tenure and promotion since I started since 2011. It was stressful but not as much as people kept asking me about--I was more concerned about my dad, my mum who had to take care of everything (and who is a cancer survivor herself) and my head wasn't even in SW Virginia. In May 2017, I found out I was approved for tenure and promotion--so, yay!

3. I've got things I want to say about being with my folks in the summer and doing research but that might have to be another post. Future posts will be short(er) and (most likely) just snippets of life here. Like this:

Date: 24 September, 2017
Time: 10.51pm
Place: road leading to the park next to my house in the 'burg

Small mouselike creature =0.
Also small (mostly obnoxious) dog = 1.

First (hopefully last) dog-related MURDER! of the fall season...

[I usually don't let her eat the creatures since who knows what diseases they carry. She's also not too keen on them once they are dead (aka stop struggling, aka stop "playing"). This means I end up with a half/mostly-dead creature that I have to finish off. Today: shovel to the body--it was squishy as. Packed up in a bag and chucked in rubbish bin. Thankfully, no neighbors around to be horrified]

[The excitement never stops in this town]

And this is what living here has done to me: 

2011 me: 

2011 me: WTF. WTF. WTF. A half dead creature. (small scream) 

2017 me: Yeah, hit it with a shovel and killed it dead. Look what academia has turned me into.