Walks in Fall and Winter, Cutting Redwoods

  Well, walking in fall can be problematic. If you don't like cool winds blowing your hairdo around  and leaves are not your thing, then autumn is not your thing. Of course, it is "winter" now, but since we have had a real lack of snow in the southeast, then it seems we're back in the autumn mode, with bare trees and the landscape and the grass turning yellowish or brown.
   Radford University has a small, some might say "cozy" campus. It can be a good place to walk and commune with nature for a short while. But the college "plan" is to expand and tear down Lucas Hall, thereby eliminating several dawn/don redwoods and a pecan and bald cypress. Yes, and that is not right. The cutting of established and big trees is never a good thing. But they are doing it to then tear down Lucas Hall and put up a huge Dept. of Humanities building. I like the campus the size it is now, and losing green space is not a good thing, don't you think?
  

Memorial for JoAnn Asbury, health issues, cancer

     When a friend dies unexpectedly it is kind of a shock, and
when it is related to cancer, it gives you even more to think about. I felt I should go to be present for my English Club friend JoAnn Asbury and drove on roads that were getting a big sleety (is that a word?), but since it was a basically straight, level drive I thought it would be okay.
    The United Methodist Church where the service was held, (Pulaski, Virginia) was spacious-- well, it was weird. It looked like they had two santuaries/chapels, and I got there a few minutes late and couldn't seem to find anyone. But I finally found a "connecting" hall and someone directed me to the service in progress, which one of my English club alum from R. U. also came to late.
    The church chapel seemed, as I remembered it (Dec. 14) white and gold and with a poinsettias and red ribbons in a few areas. She probably wasn't expecting to miss the Christmas season. This memorial service, which I only happened to hear about through an email, surprised me as JoAnn had only been diagnosed with it in August or September, and she told me about it the beginning of October. I don't know very much at all about "multiple myeoloma" (sp?), but they are not sure what causes it. It is a cancer of the blood. She went for (I believe) a stem cell (or bone marrow) transplant, but had MRSA and pneumonia and so decided to go home to pass away.
     The immune system is implicated in this cancer (and many others, from what my research is showing). I knew she was overweight, exercised little, drank a lot of diet Coke and was under stress. Well, she had to put off retirement to put a roof on her house, then her older sister started acting senile after an operation and JoAnn mostly wound up babysitting her, and her husband has M. S. Some retirement! All this added up to a body not well protected from disease, though she did have a cheerful disposition when I saw her.
    A fellow teacher and another English professor, Parks Lanier, spoke about JoAnn, her laughter and  ideas when it came to teaching. She was an "untenured" professor (special purpose faculty), yet she won the "Dedmon" award for outstanding teaching. Yet that did not save her from cancer.
    There is really too much sugar (inflammatory to the system), especially at Christmastime, in the American diet. But I recently read you should drink cocoa and add some truvia and that will "Help" with inflammation.

Wondering Things at Work in the cafeteria

    Well, everyone is so close together in the revamped Dalton cafeteria that it's easy to eavesdrop on people. My adjunct colleagues (I guess to be economical) don't lunch here, so I lunch alone, which is fine. I read The Writer magazine and write down thoughts (like this one) amidst clanging dishes and the quiet roar of so many voices around me. There is a TV embedded in the building's support column, maybe 30 feet away. It has "closed captioning" but I can't really read it from here. I had a light breakfast and now, after a meal and a dessert, should I get another dessert....
    It turned out, yeah, I ate another dessert (gluten free chocolate cake with vanilla yogurt with it, like a frosting). Then later, after my classes, I was thirsty, but instead of buying a water bottle, I got a drink at a fountain and bought one of those "Cadbury egg" chocolates with the gooey center -- what a mess on my fingers as I drove!
    But before I had class and left the dining area I heard a woman across from me talk about how you should help a doctoral candidate more with his/her work, doing a book. I'm not that ambitious and don't have a doctorate.Well, I want to write a book that involves some research (about nature), but geared toward a general audience. But I should consider writing a book for my "Core" course, as the present handbook is lousy. Could I make money doing that?

School Starts, Getting into a routine is hard

    School has started and both classes seem pretty polite. Or maybe it's partly that they don't remember a damn thing about logic and are trying to get it all down. The fourth class I had them read and then write about a few "case studies," judgments concerning the  use of guns and cell phones. I hope they were at least a little interested in it. It was hard to tell.
    One student wanted to "sit out" the class and told me so. He said it was "too nice" outside. I said we would go on a class walk next week, and would he come to this class? He did and I hope he thought he made the right choice. This generation of college students is very distractible. I hope they are learning something-- we'll see with the first quiz next week.
   I'm getting into the "school" routine, but not the writing routine. Both things are very isolating and wish I was doing this "more" with someone. But that is the nature of both. I am a very independent person anyway, I guess, but sometimes I would like someone here to confer with and encourage me with my writing.

School is right around the corner

Well, I have enjoyed my visits to Mount Airy and Fairy Stone State Park, but soon I will be teaching again. Teaching is that less than perfect profession. College adjuncts aren't paid a lot for their time and students should appreciate all the effort  we/I put into my classes. A few in the past have been downright rude. I hope this semester's students are decent.

Fairy Stone Park peaceful, now back to work

    We were probably the  oldest couple there-- in a tent, that is. But all ages can stay in a tent, one of those "pop up" tents (a metal bottom with wheels the car pulls, and the sides "pop out" so you have some sleeping space) or an RV. And our air mattress inflated to a foot high! And at Fairy Stone State Park (VA) recently we had all three! It was relaxing, coming during the middle of the week, mostly. Wednesday evening it rained and we had to stay in the tent and it wasn't that much fun. But the other days we lit out.
    Ranger naturalist Janette Lavier pointed out loads of info on one trail, from the fluffy orange mushrooms called "chanterelles" to the red eft (juvenile) newt she and I saw on the trail. If you know something about what you are looking at in the woods that makes it so much more interesting.
    We didn't swim "enough" (not in my opinion) but we went out in a rented rowboat and saw those slider turtles (what the ranger called them, as they have a red marking on the side of the neck/ear area and can easily slide into the water, though they look a lot like the painted turtle) sunning themselves on logs and also some cute, furry baby herons -- and I didn't have my camera with me!
    At the visitor center we saw a pile of "fairy stones" on display and also went to a site off Route 57 where you can look in a creek bed for the distinctive cross shaped pattern. Needless to say, we took some little rocks but they weren't at all cross or crisscross shaped!
    On the way back we stopped in Floyd at the "travel through time" shop for some nice frozen yogurt. And the cat survived our staying away (we left out water and dry food for her).
    Now I have to revise my syllabus somewhat and have to teach again very soon!

Naturalists Picnicking, Getting Back on dieting wagon, loads of cukes

    When you have something coming up, like a picnic or baking for the fair, then it is quite easy to dump all your precious dieting plans, in favor of, well, stuffing your face. I am afraid I had one piece of pound cake (someone tempted me with whipped cream to put on it and I gave in) too many, and we were sitting around talking and eating. As Master naturalists, we should have been also walking and hiking, though those who arrived much earlier also had jumped into the fast moving little river nearby before it started to rain. But we did have a canopy or two to keep out the rain.
    Fran(k) played a bit of ping pong with Will and Michael Williams, and I watched and stuffed my face too. I did talk to a few new people and I realized they had done a whole lot more volunteering than I did. I really need to get back to water monitoring and some other projects. And I am going to try to go back to my dieting!
    And my square foot garden is producing a lot of cucumbers with all this rain we've had this summer. I put them in the fair and they won nothing. But the zucchini bread took second place!