This is something I think about all the time while living here. Usually it springs to mind when I'm behind the wheel and I get cut off by a pack of Nazi Youth Wisconsonites roaring around in their parents' SUV's or when I come to a screetching halt as some kid launches his or herself onto the road, serene in the (mistaken) belief that pedestrians have the right of way no matter where they decide to cross and that this arcane rule imparts some sort of invulnerability to them that will allow them to brush off the hungry fenders of balding, tired and more or less incompetent-behind-the-wheel chemistry grad students. This morning I didn't have those thoughts though. Britt was driving and is much, much better at it than I am. However the other drivers were still out and as we were almost dispatched by some guy blithely ignoring his stop sign (I think he was too preoccupied with flipping off my wife as drove her viscious little fist into the horn and stood on the brakes to preserve our lives) the thought came into my mind that while I may be too pretty for prison, I am definately too pretty for heaven. That and that I might need a new pair of underwear if this kept up.
So, sorry I haven't written on the new blog yet. Things here have been of a nature such that I didn't really feel like writing at all. Most of you know but I'm not sure that Chris knows that Britt did not get this French job that she was applying for so come the end of June she'll be unemployed. She's looking for more French teaching work. This is good because she really likes it and is excellent at it and it will give us enough cashation to put her through a distance doctorate degree through the University of Southampton. This is bad because there are no jobs anywhere closer than Milwaukee or OshKosh available and it's a pretty sure bet that Britt will get beaten out by people with PhD's for those two jobs, which leaves open a slew of community college positions, the best looking of which is is Edmonds Washington. So there's a really good chance that Britt and I will spend a year apart ( provided it only takes me a year from this summer to finish, an eventuality that is by no means guaranteed). I may sound whiny but I'm really unhappy about this. I like Britt. I like spending time around her. On the other hand, if she does get this job in Washington, that's a great reason to go looking for stuff in the NW which is pretty full of opportunities and is a place I've always wanted to live.
The good part about this is that it has lit a fire under my butt and I'm working pretty hard trying to get out of here. Right now that means finishing my Research Proposal, a paper and presentation of research that I would do if someone gave me the moolah to do it. I was working on this for a while on kind of a dead-end topic but now I've got a really good one going. I'm looking at new ways of combining carbon fibers and polymers to make really tough (100 x stronger than steel tough) composites. It should be pretty sweet and now that I have it laid out I should be able to get it done pretty quickly. And who knows, maybe one day I'll actually try to make the stuff. And yes, Chris, I will of course make you a skin tight suit of body armor from the material. I'll even make it glow under black lights by mixing in quantum dots along with carbon nanofibers. So that's the news here. Talk to y'all soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment