I have certainly settled back in to living in the hollow. I had the guy from Lowe’s come out and replace the ceiling fan, I scraped the road three times and it is in good shape, I fixed the water bars, cut the grass, I finished the gate (though working with barbed wire is never fun), checked the tractor battery water, fueled the tractor, and cleaned up the house pretty good. I am back playing my sax every day and I am back to bike riding almost every day (mainly along the new river in Radford). I finished reading Cathy Gallo’s novel and it is very, very good. I hope I can help her get it published. I volunteered for Friday’s Move Students In day and I helped quite a bit. I delofted several beds and made at least ten trips up into Muse with students stuff. The parents and the student workers seemed to appreciate my efforts. Things with Maria didn’t work out: she never called me back but that doesn’t hurt me too much. I think I may be better off alone with all my friends. I played golf today and shot a 47 on the back nine from the white tees, which is a pretty good accomplishment.
I don’t think I am going to get my increase in my equity line (I was going to increase it from 120K to 160K but Stellar One wants me to do the conservation easement appraisal again at a cost of 3-4K and that is ridiculous. I wanted the increase so I could pay off my truck loan and my axa equitable loan (total of 22K) and then have them at a lower rate and deductible but I can survive without and increase. I may have to take out 6K in December from the 403B but I will stilI have almost 100K in the account and 260K in the TIAA one (which is almost 5K ahead of my plan) so I will be fine.

This will be a catch up entry since so much time has passed since my last one. I drove straight home from Richmond and things at the house were fine. The water was clear and at full pressure. I had to use the trimmer around the house but the grass has stopped growing because of the heat and the drought.
Gloria was supposed to arrive last Thursday at 7:30 pm, but she didn’t arrive till 3:00 am. It was a real ordeal for her and for me. I ended up sleeping at the exit 128 truckstop and then at the airport. We finally got home around 4:00 am, both of us exhausted.
Gloria’s visit was very good and we had a lot of fun drinking coffee in the morning when she got up and then having a late breakfast. Rob liked her a lot and cooked an excellent dinner for us. I took Jeff, Rachel and Benjamin out to the Indian restaurant in Roanoke and they also liked Gloria. I took her up to the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Peaks of Otter and the views were very good because there was little haze. She was supposed to leave Sunday but with Hurricane Irene coming in, we both thought it best—especially considering her flight out—that she go back Friday, which she did and got home that evening.
On Thursday I went to the meetings and after Kate mentioned me to the new Provost Sam Minner, I was invited to read a poem at the convocation. I was pretty nervous but I did a pretty good job of reading “Directive” and I am so glad that’s over.
I will start teaching on Monday so I have one day of summer left and I am ready to get back to work. I am still a little more tired than I would like to be, but I am getting things done. I will have bloodwork done now that Gloria has returned to California. I think teaching three courses in a row is going to be tough.
David King came out on Friday and cleaned out the septic tank (and said I should be good for five years), raked the peat moss tank, and checked the controls for the drip irrigation. When I got back I got Mike to come up with his co-worker and they got the dryer out and the vent cleaned so that is done. I dug out the cattle guard this morning and I am rebuilding the generator box and that should be done by Monday.
I saw one of the waitresses I know at Gillies and I asked her to mention to Justin Craig that if he calls me I will be glad to play with him again. No word from him today.