Wet it and forget it

After one week spent in a moist environment, the peach seeds softened enough that it was easy for me to peel off their protective layers. (No, there are no peaches yet).

These bits of seed-skin are resting on the top layer of damp paper towel. I covered the “naked” seeds with a freshly dampened piece of paper towel and tucked them back inside their plastic container. I’ll check on them again in another week, and I’ll be looking for tender little roots that should start growing from the seeds’ pointy ends.

We won’t have peach trees or peaches any time soon, but this is about as relaxing a gardening process as I can possibly think of. Any other plant I ignore for a week at a time is likely to be crispy when I finally remember it, and its only fruits are guilt and shame.

The peach seeds are developing in the background of quite a few other things I have going on. Let’s make a list, shall we?

1. Work. New office, new supervisor, new semester in about 36 hours as I write this. (To my colleagues: no pressure!) I’ve been doing the daily tasks of monitoring enrollment numbers for the fall semester, combined with helping those last-minute enrollees get into the classes they need to take, helping instructors get everything they need to be ready to teach on Tuesday morning, and getting next spring’s classes entered into the system. I’m also on University Staff Council and an Audit and Review committee, so there are meetings to attend in addition to department meetings. On the plus side, there is good coffee every day.
2. Home. This weekend, a major clean of the bathroom was an absolute must. We took down some loose shelves, tossed the old shower curtain rod and rings and bought new ones, and threw away many expired items from the family first-aid kit. Nobody wants corn remover tables from 2009 or Oragel from 2015. I also bought a couple of new shelves that won’t quite work, and I’ll return those while we think about how we’ll now fill the wall space above the toilet (Eldest and Youngest have some pretty strong feelings about what they *don’t* want to see there). I’m also washing off a collection of dubber duckies that I had not remembered was so extensive. They’re destined for Goodwill unless someone else wants to adopt them.
3. Health. I’m making a very slow recovery from my misstep on the stairs a few weeks ago, and last Friday I also banged up a finger. Everything is sore, all my leg muscles are tight, and I can’t climb stairs. Please pass the ibuprofen. I’ll need to check in with my doctor soon, and the best-case scenario would be to get referrals to a physical therapist and a good foot doctor.
4. Graduate school. That will start next week Monday. I know the instructor and I already have the textbooks. The deadline of my first paper is September 26, and now that I have double-checked my syllabus I see that I need to read 50 pages in Student Development in College: Theory, Research, and Practice and another article on our Canvas module before the first class session. I also need to customize my Canvas profile. I hope that I get access to the Canvas module soon.
5. Research project. With the start of school imminent, I’ve run out of “spare” time to research the UWW Math Department’s personnel history. However, I’m continuing to make gradual progress on reading through a key work of the author I’m studying. Last week I finally received a copy of the first edition of one of his works. Oddly enough, the first two times I ordered it via Amazon sellers, each one substituted another title — the one I’m currently reading. Now the library can have their copy of Men of Mathematics back, because I now own it in hardcover and paperback. But now I own a gorgeous, almost-never-touched first edition of Development of Mathematics. (When I tell people this, they say, kindly, “That’s interesting.” I always reply, “It really isn’t.” What’s interesting is that nobody ever asks me about this project twice. HMM.)
6. Jewish holidays. The coming months will have several major holidays, each of which calls for reading, introspection, and communal activities. I’ll also be working on the October issue of my congregation’s newsletter. Last month I hit a distribution-related snag when Microsoft flagged my newsletter’s email address as a spammer after I had sent out only one-third of the newsletters. Obviously we’ll have to do some things differently, so I’ll work with our temple’s tech guru and hope that doesn’t happen again.
7. Senior year. While SecondSon and ThirdSon are off at college, Youngest has already started his senior year of high school. One more year of the drop-off line, just one more year of the drop-off line….
8. Other reading. Shoot, it’s a new month and I need to update the reading journal again before it gets completely away from me. Just before September began, I started reading a book on trauma that a friend recommended highly. I’m going in small segments so I have time to think about what I’m reading. I probably have a dozen texts that I would say I’m reading right now, but there’s not a single book that’s going to command my full attention — at least, not until I start doing the readings for my graduate course. Every other book will have to be read in tiny increments of free time.
9. There’s probably some other thing that I’m forgetting to mention. Keeping up with the Formula One season? Triaging all my surplus belongings and getting them out of my house? Learning Ladino? Getting back to exercise and yoga? Fixing up old typewriters? Worrying about my aging dog? Learning how to play (or just practicing) the accordion, guitar, keyboard, piano, or saxophone? Writing fiction or poetry? I’ll let you know when I remember what it is.

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Knitwise, I made good on last week’s promise and started a project bag for the scarf for SecondSon and I added a circular needle of the right size. I’m really on a roll here and maybe I should take a short break before my productivity gets completely out of hand. I mean, nobody needs a warm scarf while it’s hot outside, right? I’d better pace myself.

I don’t remember if I mentioned here that someone had written a book of patterns for crocheted succulents. Well, now there is a book on crocheted houseplants. There is also this book if you insist on trying to raise real plants. If the peach seeds never develop into fruit-bearing trees, I may seriously consider turning to crochet to decorate my home and office. Maybe I could even craft something to fill that wall space in the bathroom.