On the bright side, I bought a car. Once the cotton rat (which are not rats, but look like large mice with Disney eyes) moved in, I knew it was time. I ended up with the 2021 Mazda CX30: flake paint, turbo, moon roof, leather seats. This is so out of my league, and the first new car I have bought since I was in my twenties, but I was able to put down a decent downpayment so I have 0%, And because of my usual problems with all cars, I have a service contract. Whew. The photo attached to this post is the new car, with my dear old (but…maybe a little abusive?) Blanche behind it.
Yeah, that cotton rat. I managed to catch it in the car with a live-trap Friday morning. Relocated it, and then drove the Subaru away and bought a new car. Elizabeth always used to say she would deal with finding a spider in an apartment by walking out the door and renting a different apartment.
The weather has been a delight. Spring is really, actually starting. I am chopping Japanese hemlock that is encroaching on my house, which is very therapeutic
On the other extreme, I am disgusted with my department, my college, my university, and the board of regents — and all for different reasons, but all at the same extreme level. Heartbreaking and/or stressful emails and meetings on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and yesterday. Some is pandemic fallout; some is the reorg/not reorg stuff; some is the wretched landgrab I knew was inevitable within six months of Jim’s death (and here we are). As I type these words I am actually light-headed. I can’t move past yet because it’s still happening and will be for ages. And I can’t change things. And because it’s not one thing but four different things, each of them a different problem, I can’t seem to block it off.
This of course stopped my writing dead. It makes me feel better when I write but I don’t know if I can get back there at the moment. I do have plenty of things to do that are not this; most regrettably they are all school related, and that does not help.
Sunday is a prep-for-school day, though. And I do like and wish well for my students, who are quite wonderful this semester.
