Home repairs, teaching, and more!

I must apologize for not posting on here more often (especially now that I know I have at least one reader, hah!). The second week of March, I was on a one-week spring break from the community college where I work. For the most part, my break was restorative, rejuvenating. But my week of relaxation faded into some hellish bathroom repairs on my girlfriend's grandfather's nearly 100-year old house, where we live now.

What we thought would be a simple toilet installation at the start of the week, eventually brought me from the floor joists and bowels of the house, repairs to the subfloor, and all the way back up to the new vinyl floor we put down. In the process, the learned I am not much of a handy man, so over the course of the week, I learned how to use like every power tool. Ever. The repairs would not have even been possible without the gracious support of my neighbor and friend, Pat, and my housemate's dad, both of who worked tirelessly to help me.

All the while, I was starting to teach my second 8-week English 101 course. I had good materials ready to go, I was more than ready to get back to teaching, but for most of the week, I just felt like I was hanging on, and trying to survive the week. At the same time, my cc-sponsored online class on how to teach online is winding down (just a couple of weeks to go), and I had homework in there during the week. That is why I just tied a knot at the end of my rope and just held on. It wasn't easy to be working on home repairs until midnight one day, and then be back up at 7:30 a.m. the next morning to get to work to do some planning and finally teach my class.

I'm not making excuses, but needless to say, all of the aforementioned left me feeling drained creatively, not to mention physically. Ergo, no blog posts.

My stint in carpentry/plumbing this past week further instilled my deep respect for anyone that does manual labor on a daily basis. You guys/gals are fighting the good fight. You are the doers and makers. Most days, I am lucky to get by on simply using my brain to make my living. My brain is still my strongest muscle, so teaching/learning suits me. I know this is NOT mining work, construction, etc. I know more about the Mines of Moria, than I do about any actual mines (Tolkien reference)!

I'll hope for now that my home repairs will give me a rest for awhile, so I can get back to following my creative passions and pursuits, which includes posting more here.