Regaining My Feet
It’s been a while.
In the previous nine school years, I have taught a full schedule exactly one term. I was the scheduler, the programmer, for my small school. My 0.4 allowance was not generous, but comp time is comp, and I was not in the classroom. I told people that teaching was much harder than programming. But now I’m feeling it; I’m back to full time.
I’m a little nervous that my successor won’t do a good job (probably needlessly). I’m a little nervous that she will do a good job (what did they need ME for?) which is somewhere between silly and ridiculous. It is true that it took over two years to replace me.
But I’m mostly loving being back teaching five, and even loving the exhaustion at the end of a full day when I’ve really made a class go well. But no question, it is exhausting. Through September I did not fall behind. But I slept odd hours. I got sick. I paid insufficient attention to other responsibilities. And I stopped blogging.
But I’m back. We’ll see if it lasts.
JD2718 
Good luck! I want to hear about calculus! :)
Welcome back. You wre missed.
I want more.
What Fred said. Wait. Whatever Fred says. (concur-ment here)
Thank you. All of you.
“… loving the exhaustion at the end of a full day when I’ve really made a class go well. But no question, it is exhausting. Through September I did not fall behind. But I slept odd hours. I got sick. I paid insufficient attention to other responsibilities. And I stopped blogging.”
thanks, JD. i just read this passage out loud
to my girlfriend (of seven years… the one
who knows me best): “does this *remind*
you of anyone?” (broad hint: it sounds
a great deal as if i’d written it about myself.)
& i guess i’m about as steady on *my* feet
as i’ve been in, anyway, a few years.
like they say next door “the spiritual
life isn’t a theory… we have to live it.”
& blogging isn’t what it used to be;
i get to feeling like that “john milnor”
character in _american_graffiti_
cruising the strip beyond his own
natural sell-by date. (& it charms me
that “john milnor” is also the name
of a great topologist [who also writes
well… *very* unusual among top
mathematicians].) tweet, tweet.
yadda, yadda. gee it’s good to “see” ya.
someday soon i’ll post again myself.
to (cite warren zevon) the vast indifference
of heaven. yours in the struggle. OT
Did you really just sign that “w.p. Handel?
I’m not sure I can tell the difference between a great topologist, and an ordinary one (the first smart alecky answer that comes to mind, let’s not write it down)