20150326.0742

While the weather was wild in the area around Sherwood Cottage, at the place itself, we saw only rain and wind. All is well here, and we hope that all is soon well for those for whom it is not well at present.

I have remarked on my relative lack of diligence in pursuing my writing in this webspace. Last year, I had at this point not missed a day of blogging, and I have to hope that the persistence of practice allowed me to improve my writing. That I have not been getting the same practice this time around, either in this webspace or in my pen-and-paper journal, therefore worries me; I have to consider that my skills will atrophy to some extent, much as they have in regards to the jiujutsu, judo, and aikido I have studied, or the music I once looked to to guide my future career. It is the same kind of foreboding I recall from a year ago today (and Happy Should-Have-Been-Birthday, Ms. 8!), the same kind of omen-reading that I have been chastised for indulging in before. I really ought to know better, but I retain something of the mindset that looks for portents in all things.

On the topic of Ms. 8: She is currently sitting in my lap, drinking her first milk of the day. I imagine that I will soon be giving her other food; a few ounces of milk is not enough for her, and it has not been for some time. She does watch with some interest as my fingers move over the keys, as funny marks are represented in pixel form on the screen we both stare at. I have seen her move her hands over the keyboard, as well, and I flatter myself that she is trying to mimic her father in doing so. I also worry that she is trying to mimic her father; there are behaviors of mine I would not see her repeat (and I am trying to excise them, but thirty-two years of habituation are not quickly undone), mistakes I have made that I would spare her. How successful I can be in such endeavors, I cannot know for some years yet, if at all. But I make the attempt, nonetheless.

In other news: Student evaluations are underway in my department. I shall be distributing mine tomorrow, and I am not certain if I am looking forward to reading the results as I have in the past expressed being. Some of the students are proving...difficult, and while I am doing what I know how to do to ease situations, I have reason to think the tactics are...ineffective, if not counterproductive. I am not sure how to proceed, really; I am inclined to withdraw to a cold professional civility, but I fear that that will also counter-conduce at this point. Perhaps I am in error.

I do not enjoy it.