20150606.0808

As I have noted once or twice in the past, today is my parents' anniversary. Thirty-four years, now, they have been Mr. and Mrs., which is something I celebrate. Since they expect to be at Sherwood Cottage this time next week, my Mrs. and I will do something nice for them then. But I already told them this, so my noting it here should be no big surprise. It won't be so big a thing as it was a few years back, more's the pity, but it will be something. I can hope they will appreciate it.

Going forward, it today will not only be their anniversary (and the globally more important one of D-Day, which I have also addressed), but that of one of my wife's cousins. She and Ms. 8 are in Texas to attend the wedding today, in fact. I hear from her that the trip went reasonably well, although it seems to have been long--but travel with Ms. 8 does extend travel times. (It is one of the things I wish I had been told to expect from parenting. I knew getting ready would take longer; I did not know that the actual drive time would. But it does--usually by a quarter to a third again as much. Prospective parents, take note.) I can hope they will enjoy themselves today, as well, and over the next few days.

I put yesterday to good use. No new freelance work had come in, which is a bit of a let-down, but I was able to get several job applications sent off--four, I think. I also worked on reading the academic journals I receive, finding some good materials in them as I always do. It has been too long since I have gotten to sit and study, and I had forgotten how good it feels to drink in knowledge and understanding on its own terms and for its own sake, using it as building block or pushing-off point in the development of new knowledge not so much to meet some impending deadline for a paper or a piece of work, but simply to work towards a new imminent obsolescence. Not that what I am figuring out will not end up in a new paper of one sort or another. It simply will not quite yet.

There is more to do, of course. I still have a foot-tall (30cm to my metric readers) stack of reading through which to work, and various things around Sherwood Cottage could use some attention. (Cats are not kind to blinds, among others.) It is possible that more freelance work will come in, which will not annoy me in the least--I can use the money. And I can always work on one of those papers I mentioned as potentially growing from the readings I have done and am doing. It seems I am in for a productive Saturday, and that pleases me no end; I like to keep busy most of the time.