Summer plans and a couple of whines

So, like Heu Mihi, I've made summer plans. Only I'm trying to ramp up gradually. The most important element is keeping office hours: 9-1, every day. The afternoons are then free for the gym, tending to household chores and projects (of which there are any number), fun reading, gardening, or (if I'm on a roll) more work. This week, for instance, I've had a couple of afternoon dates with my writing buddy: one was extra, and one was partially extra because I got a slow start yesterday. I've been keeping track of what I get done, in how much time, so that instead of making ambitious plans at the outset, I can make realistic plans a week or two into this regimen.

The first four days went really well. But I woke in the middle of the night with a painfully stiff neck and was awake for a long time; after icing the sore spots and taking lots of ibuprofen, I finally got back to sleep, and woke right about 9:00, when the phone rang, followed immediately by a chorus of cat calls (because cat breakfast is my job).

(I was glad to wake up, actually. I was dreaming that I was conducting a review session for a math class, when I had no idea what was supposed to be on the exam and had forgotten to make up a review sheet. I had to ask the students to tell me what they wanted help with. It was a very low-level class, so my problem was purely lack of preparation, not lack of knowledge. I had a vague notion that I should explain quadratic equations, but all their questions involved very basic things like figuring out rates of speed. And my dancer friend was in the class and gave me a really hard time when I used a whiteboard marker on a chalkboard.)

So I'm still really groggy and slow, and not getting anything done though I am dutifully sitting at my desk. I think I may have to go to something really low-level, like coordinating the various folders on my laptop and those on my flash drive (I try to be good about backing up, but sometimes I need to go through and copy from one to the other). Or I could, figuratively, call in sick and take the day off.

I am also distracted by news from the cycling world. Four years ago, though I certainly had doubts, I was prepared to believe that mix-ups at the testing lab (accidental or deliberate) could have led to Floyd Landis's test results. Now the man has proven he's a liar. And that just makes me mad.

Actually, I think drugs and doping should be allowed, as long as everybody declares exactly what they're doing. Then it could be part of the commentary: Team X is relying on EPO, Team Y prefers blood doping, Team Z has some very interesting results from gene therapies.

Just, you know, don't lie about it.