I’ve been doing some slow pokey updates around here and realizing that even though I’ve been thinking I’ve been at this for fifteen+ years, this year really rounds out the twentieth year I’ve been writing stuff down here. During that time I’ve had three (at least) different content management systems and only two web hosts which is something of a miracle. I’ve lived in six different places (seven if you count #dadshouse) and driven eight cars in that time period. Went cross country about ten times. The last few years have seen a lot of that leveling out. And then there’s some stuff I just can’t remember too well. This site has always been an outboard brain in some ways, reminding me about things I had forgotten or maybe misremembered. So giving the place a tune-up–just upgraded to the latest version of WordPress, made sure things were still showing up in Google, added a search to the sidebar–is one more small way of keeping my own brain a bit more together.

The day-to-day here is about the same. Flossing and meditation continue and seem to be helping. I got some sort of conference crud which means my sinus situation has downgraded to “again with the sinus rinsing” but it’s mostly okay. The longer days, some of them even sunny, have raised everyone’s spirits and it truly is a rising-tides-lifts-all-boats situation.

I’ll be heading down to Massachusetts to participate in a librarian panel at Hampshire with some other librarians. The situation morphed from a “Hey can you come down and be on a panel for an hour?” into a “We’ll give you a one hour tour, then a one hour interview with our Communications team, then a one hour break, then a one hour panel, then a dinner with everyone…” and as much as I’m looking forward to the panel, I’m also feeling a bit bait-and-switched since I heard about their million dollar Mellon grant (they are reimbursing my mileage for the trip). Which just reminds me why I asked Hampshire to take me off of their mailing lists in the first place, a decision I’ve never really regretted. Liked the place just fine, but feel they don’t owe me anything and I don’t owe them anything. It will be interesting to go back. I’ve been on campus a few times since the bulk of my friends graduated but never for more than an hour or two. If you’re in the area, here’s the announcement. Free and open to the public.