Returning from orbit

It hasn't been my intention to let the Hill devolve into desuetude, or to once-a-week posting. Unfortunately, working until 9 or 9:30 p.m. two or three times a week, and then having to get up and moving by 8:00 a.m., has severely diminished my supply of that most basic raw material of blogging, idle time. Perhaps matters will change as I get re-accustomed to life as a wageslave.

It certainly appears that social life will not interfere with blogging. Other than work acquaintances, with whom any personal interaction must be limited due to the ephemeral nature of the job and the common-sense admonition "don't sh*t where you eat", I know only one person in the entire southeastern portion of the state, and she lives about an hour's drive away. There's a group of people from the library who meet weekly for dinner at various local restaurants, which is a pleasant way to sample the many nearby culinary offerings, and there is a modular model railroad club which I will probably join. Other than that, so far, zilch. (Although there are plenty of young and attractive undergraduates of the opposite sex around, such are verboten fruit to faculty members, especially lowly untenured ones!)

In some ways, the town I've moved to resembles what Walker Percy called a "non-place". That is to say, like Covington, Louisiana, where Percy made his home, it has little dramatic local history, no flamboyant eccentricities, no unusually beautiful or hideous natural surroundings or any other characteristics that demand attention. Perhaps this will have the salubrious effect of encouraging me to concentrate my efforts on career advancement and/or personal development. Perhaps.