2024 Session 2: TLQuest week 12

Wow, it's really been a week of challenging news and challenging weather.  This is not good for my motivation!  And August to me is always an odd month - it is clearly still summer, but it's also a season of fading and change, as the leaves go dusty then start to turn, nuts swell and berries form, harvests come in and back to school signs flourish.  Even in England, where children have barely started their summer holidays & don't go back until September, and university years start around the equinox, August has a weary-of-this, drifting towards change feel to it.  And this session of TLQ has only two more weeks left to run!

So before the new academic year gets too attention-demanding, let's think about ways to make the most of the summer that we still have - are there a couple of summer bucket list items that you want to prioritise in August?  Things you do to capture a taste of summer for later in the year?  My mum, despite her age and arthritis, always spends a good chunk of time in August jam-making and bottling (canning in US speak) tomato sauce, because home-made strawberry, raspberry or blackcurrant jam or sauce made from the garden is summer whatever the time of year.  Or one or two work things which are also summer treats, and carry the pleasures of the season into the rest of the year?

THIS WEEK'S GAMEPLAY

Last week you extracted the fish from the pond and had it wrapped in blankets in the stream, and then the Ladies of the Wood arrived.  You all tried to show appropriately respectful attitudes whilst one of the Sprites gave a report (you assume - you don't know the language they used).  When the sprites finished talking, the party felt the Ladies' attention fall on them. Cornelius responded to the sense of pressure with a dorky little wave and a "hi, um, we thought this would work? To get the fish out? Because it, um, wasn't in the right place?"  

"Indeed it was not, monk, and not there by any natural or well-intentioned means.  To kill it here might foul the stream further" It's not clear which Lady is speaking to you, or which is also talking to the Sprite in that other language - a small detachment of Sprites dart away purposefully as they finish speaking.  One of the Ladies drifts over to view the state of the dam, another gives the fish a firm kick that shudders the whole wrapped package, and a third crouches down by the pond, making chirping sounds as several small and bedraggled fey creatures cautiously creep out of the water onto the muddy slabs exposed by the lower water or cling to the stems of the irises and cheep or speak back at the high edge of hearing.  You will also be uncomfortably aware that one of the cats is eyeing up the sprites with interest and the occasional wiggle.

After a few minutes, the Ladies will reconvene, stare at each other for a few moments, then turn to you and speak.  "We accept that you intended to do us a service, and you have certainly drawn our attention.  We had noted the lateness of the herb collector, and see you are his agents, and not yourselves ill-intentioned.  But you have wielded the iron world's foulness against our wood, the black-of-heart powder, and that colours our considerations".

At this point, the Talking Cats suddenly freeze, then start to look Very Nonchalent.  The Ladies are looking at something behind you, and if you follow their gaze you will see three great cat-like creatures, sleekly black although the sun dapples call out a starlings-wing corruscation of colour from their pelts, with fine tentacles shifting in an almost prehensile way where the Talking Cats have whiskers, stepping out of the woods to position themselves around the wrapped fish.  Their air of competent lethality makes all of you instinctively freeze, but they ignore you.  As soon as they have dragged the fish a few feet away from the stream the wood seems to wrap itself around them and they and the fish fade from view in what magic users will recognise as localised teleportation magic.

The Ladies continue to talk.  "To restore balance between us, restoring the level of the pond would level the scales for one thing, and we will send a guide with you to collect all the plants you asked for in reasonable measure for the other.  Is this acceptable, or is there some other boon you would have of us or offer to us?"

How do you respond?

LAST WEEK'S GOALS

DAISY
Field work with students
Proofread and submit difficult paper
Book two short camping trips for me and kid
Read and edit thesis proposal
Read and edit new thesis chapters
Real summer: two outdoor theater shows, yay!

DAME ELEANOR HULL (and New Cat, welcome New Cat!)
- swim x3, weights x2, yoga x4
- finish Alms!
- create syllabus for new class
- create syllabus for other class
- Greek 1 unit
- defrack habitat as energy permits
- dentist (again!)
- vet appt for New(?) Cat

HEU MIHI (may have departed for beach?)
1. Many, many tasks to get ready for the week at the beach (defrost freezer! set up cat sitting! clean the house! pack! shop! cook!)
2. Finish reading book and draft review
3. Draft prologue??
4. (Siiighhh) Help pack up retired colleague's office--it's not clear to me why this is my job, but there's no one else to do it, really, because the colleague (who retired about 3 years ago) has dementia and apparently our facilities people don't do this kind of work....
5. A couple of fun things with friends (lunch on Tuesday, a drink with my erstwhile Italian professor/colleague/hopefully new friend on Wednesday).

JANEB
1. self-care: 75%+ of regular chores list, additional intentional movement three days, do physio recommended stretches with great caution at least once, practice rest as needed. reschedule electrical work done, try to schedule gardening tasks, call dentist, reschedule hospital appointment, go to physiotherapy intake appointment. (Clothes Pile of Doom gets a reprieve this week).
2. fun: play D&D, crochet or knit some, draw something, read something, do some paintgemming, find a corner to read the new Penric & Desdemona story. (Writing is not going to happen outside of work and some ranty journalling)
3. teaching and administration: survive away day. Go over plans for the rest of the summer. Do at least one teaching block.
4. research: do homework for stupid training. Attend stupid training. Attend meeting for Slowly Developing paper (aka venting/support session as all three of us have jobs at risk), spend an hour writing notes about what my project idea might look like for the grant application that opens in September and an hour on my "pre-grant documents chore list", chase up application for that masters by research student (which local academic is in charge of graduate recruitment changed lately and this was NOT a change for the better).

JULIE - no check in last week, on holiday!  Goals from week 10:
I have four days, then we leave for a break on Friday. Away the following week, so no check-in this coming Sunday.
1. Finish working through archive material.
2. Finish reading book.
3. Send comments on dissertation proposal to student.
4. If time, read draft article for post-doc (not urgent).
5. Shopping, packing etc for trip on Friday, and for daughter's longer trip (taking her to the airport on the way back for her first solo flight)
6. Bathroom project - two meetings with plumbers.
7. Exercise

SUSAN (leaving for a trip on Sunday)
1. Do final revisions on Famous Author, get as much of Further Reading set up as possible, as many details...
2. Start identifying sources for new project (at least one day)
3. Have some fun, get in touch with people I need to contact
4. Eat/ sleep/ keep walking 

SUMMARY

TLQuest: how do you respond to the Ladies (and the Talking Cats)

Real life TLQ: what are your top priorities for the last weeks/month of summer, now we're in August? And check ins.