I had my last swim of the summer. I teach one more water aerobics class tomorrow and then the pool closes until next year. I�m sad for two reasons. First, I won�t be able to swim again for nine months. And second, that means I have to start running.

If I have to run, this is definitely the place to do it. I love being outside and there are many fantastic trails around here, many within walking (or running) distance from my house. I can almost always run off-road and on unpaved surfaces, which are a lot easier on my aging joints. But I do not like to run and I�m coming to accept the fact that I probably never will. Still, I like the results I get from it, so I press on. And a new yoga studio has opened up not far from here, which I�m hoping will enable me to mix things up a bit, at least until skiing/skating season comes along.

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My teaching evaluations have finally been partially posted � the numerical evaluation part is up. I am fairly happy with them. They are about what I expected � mostly good (4-5 on a 5 point scale) and the greatest weakness being the running of discussion (about a 3). If I�d had to rate myself on the same scale, I would have probably come up with something similar, if not a little worse. Still, these numbers don�t tell you much and if you look at the evaluations across the board in my department, they all look pretty much the same. There are a couple who turn out at the bottom or the top of the scale but most look like mine and it appears that I�m slightly on the high side for a student instructor. There should be written comments from the students posted soon, and I hope those will be more informative.

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Yesterday was my mother�s birthday. I called her in the morning and we had a long talk about the hurricane and how glad we were it wasn�t them. My parents had planned a trip for later this week to celebrate their wedding anniversary and her birthday, both important ones this year, but it looks like it will be cancelled because the gas shortages in their part of the South are so dire. Still, it�s hard to feel too bad when they were so lucky. I spoke with her again later after she�d spent the afternoon with her mother, with whom she shared her birthday cake. Her mother showed her a newspaper clipping from the mid 19th c. about my great, great, great, great grandfather that my great uncle had tracked down (he�s the family geneologist). It turns out that he wasn�t from England like we all thought, but from Ireland, and he was a champion fiddle player. I play violin and Irish fiddle and we have never known of any other musicians in our family, so this was a fun discovery. But it actually gets weirder. We always thought the family was from California, but it turns out they were from Illinois. Not only that, but the family farm was in the same county I�m living in now, within 25-30 miles of here. My mom�s hoping to make me a copy of the article, which apparently has the address of the family farm. I may have to drive out there and take some pictures of whatever it�s become.

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I won an e-bay auction today of a letter written and signed by one of the key musicians on which my dissertation is based. It is the first real artifact related to my project that I will own myself. While it has no great value, I am sure, I�m nevertheless happy to have a piece of the legacy. It also makes me grateful that most of this stuff is in archives where I was able to find it. Still, e-bay has been a surprisingly good research tool.

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And now I must finish readying the house for our Labor Day guests, who should be arriving shortly!

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