Well, it’s not hard to see what retirement will be like: every living, breathing minute occupied with something! SDXB used to say he was never so busy before he retired as after. He certainly doesn’t let any proverbial grass grow under his proverbial feet.
Choir and choir practice are great, wonderfully enjoyable—mostly because of the director’s extraordinary talent and depth of knowledge. That and the general charm of the members and the beauty of the Anglican array of music. It does, though, add an extra layer of busyness.
The pool is functioning OK now, though it must be allowed that Harvey the Hayward pool cleaner isn’t running the way he should. Toted him up to the pool place again. They advised me to test the system’s suction with a gadget that came with Harvey (so that’s what it’s for!). Far as I can tell, the system is working all right. Too busy to fiddle with it any more.
Naturally, as two rafts of student papers came in, we got a long paper from one of our client journals, three math papers from another, and a passel of abstracts from a third. Foisted the math onto my underlings but still was kept busy for many hours with the rest of the stuff. Then a new client surfaced with a dissertation prospectus: 36 pages of arcane statistical research and a zillion references—author is unsure whether he’s doing them according to the new sixth edition of APA. Almost every one of those had to be tracked down and checked, as well as regularized in the new format. He sent it Monday or Tuesday; needed it Thursday. Then a friend/client sent over a paper, part of her ongoing research agenda: 21 pages of sociology, needs it right away.
Meanwhile, for reasons I don’t understand I had the Carnival of Personal Finance on my calendar, scheduled for next Monday. Thank goodness, when I went in there to find out how to access the system again, I discovered that Taking Charge will be taking charge this weekend, not me. Why the phantom entry in the calendar remains unexplained. At any rate, I’m mighty relieved not to have to do that big job this weekend. Be sure to visit Taking Charge next Monday, and before then to submit your posts to the carnival.
One of the choir members is finishing an interesting-sounding book. I said I’d advise her on finding a publisher…so she just sent a bunch of stuff to review. It being past dinnertime as I scribble and me being too whipped to get up from in front of the computer, I guess that’ll have to wait till tomorrow.
Complicating things further, one of Paradise Valley’s young athletes, a cross-country runner, got himself registered in my Friday afternoon class only to discover that it conflicts mightily with the team’s schedule, which will take him out of town about half of the class meetings. At this point, no other sections will fit into his schedule, and it’s too late to transfer him anyway. He’s such a bright and engaging young man, I decided to bestir myself to keep him in the class. That is going to entail a lot of work: basically, I’ll have to write a whole new online course for this character.
Friday morning: occupied with the substitute class. Thank heavens that one ends today.
Friday afternoon: occupied with a Paradise Valley class.
Between morning and afternoon: track down an errant paycheck at the college cashier’s office; check to see if I left some stoont papers in the library, since several people who were present didn’t turn in work.
Saturday morning: 8 to noon substituting for another Phoenix College class. $50 an hour!! 🙂
Saturday afternoon: figure out how to accommodate the cross-country runner, write a parallel syllabus and worksheets for him (this will run into Sunday and probably Monday).
Sunday: choir, 9 to noon.
Sunday afternoon: Got to clean house!
Paper settles on all the surfaces in my house as dust settles out of the air. My house is a pigpen. I simply must stop long enough to do the laundry, pick up the litter, clean the furniture, floors, kitchen, and bathroom, and reconcile the bank accounts. Those chores represent more than half a day of work.
Gasp!
😯
Image: Wake Vortex Study at Wallops Island, NASA-Langley Research Center
Wikipedia Commons
Thanks for this post! I didn’t even realize the 6th edition of APA had come out. Though I about had a heart attack since I just turned in my final paper. But they wanted it by 5th edition rules. However, now I know to keep an eye out for when I need to purchase the manual.
Thanks for saving a graduate’s student future grades! 🙂
Good luck with choir and keep blogging, this is great fun to read! (Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure I’m not one of your students)
Purdue’s OWL claims to have updated its site to take in the 6th edition. Unclear, however, how thorough a job they’ve done. Client says he talked to a woman in APA’s journals office who took issue with a number of Purdue examples. Best bet is to buy the new manual itself. Compare prices between your campus bookstore and Amazon — apparently some bookstores are now underpricing or matching Amazon.
LOL! My graduate students all know who FaM is. And as for the young thangs…just now they’re so stunned by the whole MLA conundrum that turning in a final paper in APA style would be comparable to…oh, say, serving gin and tonics to their friends on Mars.
Thanks for that info! I only use OWL if I don’t have the book on me or just need to check something. But I’m in psychology so I use APA format for EVERYTHING. So I’ll definitely be buying the new version. Thanks for the advice on the bookstore underpricing Amazon.
I’m glad your students know about your blog. That’s great and probably gives them a better sense of you. Just didn’t want you to think I was stalker :).
Lol and I think the MLA is from Mars. Never could understand it. APA’s so much more specific.