Now that the crisis of Hurricane Helene has settled into a daily routine (debris everywhere, no potable water), the crisis of my employment has reemerged as the primary source of anxiety. There was some small chance that I and my colleagues might be able to continue at the university, distributed to other departments, so that our content would continue even if our department and major did not. The hurricane interrupted that process, and it has not yet been resumed. I still haven't heard anything, a full six months after the chancellor told us she was proposing the elimination of our department and others. I've largely resigned myself to retirement; I just haven't signed the papers yet. As to what follows, I've not had much time or mental bandwidth to consider it with everything else.

That's a fairly grim report, Georgia, accurate but not complete. In most other ways, I'm fine. I'm sleeping, eating, exercising, and enjoying the company of others. I suppose it's the difference between living in the moment, where it's pretty good, and living toward a future, which is pretty unclear and unpromising.