Yesterday was very nice for the first part. We drove 2 hours to Coon Creek, an offshoot of the Pink Palace Museum for the annual fossil dig. The site is part of a prehistoric sand bar that stretched for a couple hundred miles when the Gulf of Mexico extended north into Missouri. The fossils (which are 70 million years old) are in a layer of clay-soil that is "mined" by backhoe. The creek itself is nothing much, but it has undercut the hillside so you can see the layers, and the site is rich in biodiversity with hundreds of species represented. The only catch is, the shells and such have not been mineralized, so they are sometimes quite fragile.
It was a sunny and warm day, and we spend a couple of hours at the site, then hauled for lunch and drive home. Clouded up and started to spit rain before we got back, not a great thing since the river hasn't crested and flood warnings are a daily thing. That evening we had a family get-together for my wife's youngest aunt (her mom's baby sister) which was kind of nice. The family is huge, with many cousins who are grown, and their kids. One cousin-in-law may have some part-time work organizing his law office over the summer. The office is just him and a partner - if work picks up they might hire my wife part or full time as office help, which would really help make ends meet and take some pressure off me as the bread-winner.
Overnight the storms set in. Thunder at 4am, continued through the day until about 3pm when the sirens started again. But it didn't really rain that much, even, or get windy. Just dark. Cooked a nice supper for mother-in-law and aunt-in-law (and of course my wife and daughter) which was greatly appreciated. Just baked chicken (brined to keep it moist), pan-roasted cauliflower (with some Rogan Josh sprinkled), vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries (chopped, sugared with a dash of vanilla). Relaxing.
Yes, in all this I got papers graded, but not input. Motivation is severely lacking, even though I am not quite sure whether the "non-renewal" recommendation is a death sentence for my career. I suppose it is possible that HR could find me a spot at another school, but I am pretty sure this mark on my file is enough to keep any but the most desperate from taking me on. And since it is the most desperate cutting me loose, it doesn't look good.
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