Fragments From Floyd

* I'm looking forward to the Boston trip next weekend, especially since I won't be obliged to make my own entertainment, totally, while Ann is busy with her conference on Sunday and Monday. Two bloggers have offered to show me the town and country, and I am most appreciative of their company! More about that next week.

* I met on Wednesday with a young lady who approached me after the guest lecture I did at Virginia Tech a month ago. She is a future healthcare professional (type undecided) who is especially interested in working in a rural community. Her enthusiasm, hope and energy was infectious and I'm so happy I had a chance to meet with her and tell her some of my stories--not of injuries, not of treatments, but of people that have made my experience so rich and full of good memories.

* Yesterday I received the desk copy I'd requested. I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I've agreed to teach again next semester (snowy roads notwithstanding). The Anatomy and Physiology text we'll be using is over 1200 pages long, and complete with lab manual, study guide, anatomy atlas, and multimedia CD and instructors guide. So here we go again. All new preparations until May. Overwhelming. Baby steps. Baby steps.

* Tomorrow I'll be attending the Appalachian Teachers Conference at Radford. I will be among the very small minority of attendees who does not teach in an Appalachian Studies program somewhere in the southeast. I was invited to participate, and I'm sure I'll be glad I did, when it's all over. But I anticipate a lot of what I do poorly and reluctantly: standing around in a crowd of strangers, balancing a cup of coffee in one hand and some crumpets in the other, dreading the awkward juggling act required to shake hands with someone whose eye I have caught quite by accident. I can be gregarious in this kind of social situation. But it does not come naturally and is usually draining.

* It's black powder deer season already. Yesterday before I got home, our neighbor asked if he could hunt on our place again this year. He told Ann he was putting some kind of deer detector somewhere down the valley (motion sensor? camera?) so maybe I'll come back soon with a tall tale about that.

* As for the image, here's surprising dash of color--the odd late-autumn flower that radiates the glory we've missed in our recent drismal weather.