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I had meant to go to the gym this morning, but I slept later than I ought to have done, and I forgot to run an errand yesterday that I needed to. The simple logistics thwart me for the moment. I mean to go this evening, after my lovely wife gets back from work. (My teaching schedule this term allows her to pick up a few ore hours at her job, which means more money for us. It is a good thing.) Workouts work better for me after work, anyway, or they used to when I did them regularly. And it will be good not to have so much of a time crush.

For had I gone to the gym today, I would have had to go from there to my teaching work, which begins today for me. (It would have been Monday had I not been returning from Vancouver at that time.) I am easing myself into it; my students will be writing today, giving me some initial impression of how they work and who they are as writers. This is necessary for me to know how to push them so that they can 1) demonstrate the skill-set program directives require of them and 2) demonstrate the skill-set and habits of mind that I believe will help them to be informed, engaged people (and the two do not always accord as neatly as one would hope). It begins to habituate the students to writing (and since I am teaching technical writing this term, it makes sense that I would want to do so), and it offers me a gentle entry into things. (Seriously, my throat is sore, and several hours of speaking after I have had a month off from teaching is not something I feel I ought to drop into.)

Things will improve, of course. I will re-habituate myself to the work of the classroom, and I will re-habituate myself to the work of self-improvement. (It was not until Saturday that my arms actually felt good again after my early enthusiasm for the workout. I do not think the airplanes helped.) In both instances, I think I will be working to return to the kind of sleep cycle I like to have, one that lets me wake early without difficulty and work in the still quiet of the morning. I appreciate maintaining such a cycle greatly, and I have not been sufficiently diligent about doing so (with consequences to my work, I am certain). And maybe, just maybe, I can do something to secure a good and useful future for myself and my family--particularly Ms. 8, who deserves much but has a father who can provide but little as yet. Being able to do more for her would be a great relief for me, certainly, although I am just as certain that I am not alone among fathers in feeling thusly. And I do not think I am alone in feeling the need to work more to make that doing more possible.