It’s been six months since my last post. Though in some ways I had tried to make an effort to write more, on a personal level, things have deteriorated rather badly. Though I had received permission to write-up last summer, the months ground on as I sought to bleed the various stones that comprise my thesis. If nothing, I think many folks will acknowledge that grad school can be a frustrating, unfulfilling and thoroughly demoralizing. The effect can be a sort of perpetum mobile of despair and lowered productivity, leading to more despair. The death of one of our beloved cats in late August only aggravated this.
RIP Erbie
Other than a brief dalliance with a couple of SSRIs over the last few months, my only solace of late has been my new interest in freediving. After a renewed and reinvigorated interest in scuba these last few years, the better half and I joined our local freedive club on a whim and have been hooked the last three months. We’ve only done pool training so far but we’ve already seen a two-three fold improvement in our breath holds. We look forward to trying out our skills in open water soon. We’ll be going down south early January to blow off some steam, do some scuba and hopefully some freediving, conditions allowing.
Last, and I have no words for this, the mighty Hitch is dead. His acerbic wit, cutting intellect and eloquence will be missed. He died as he lived, an avowed atheist. I hope I will have the resolve to stare death in the face the way he did – unwavering and defiant.
13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011
So put your antlers on, dance defiantly around the Yule tree and get with the merry-making. Happy Solstice all.
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