It is past one p.m. this Tuesday May 7 and I find myself at the keyboard after trying to write an essay on a Bellsouth internet page.  I only found the facility (not having the facility to understand all the offerings on Bellsouth’s home page) to write an e-mail.  I looked for a familiar open space with the heading already fixed at the top just needing an adjustment as to the date and the title.  So, I came back to Microsoft Word and am using the heading that is already inscribed on it for the next essay in THINKING ALLOWED.

This is a lazy Tuesday because we no longer are rehearsing for the Correspondents Choir which has a short life of rehearsals on Tuesday mornings and as many gigs as we can scout up for a season.  Since there was no rehearsal, I slept in which meant that I accessed my e-mails and answered some, deleted others and thought it might be nice to take a nap.  I did just that and, for those of you not retired and usefully occupied (I no longer am President of my Condominium) you can go back and take a nap.  In fact, I took several after trying to read and finish off for the third or fourth time, Shelters of Stone by Jane Auel.  I go through her Earth’s Children series when I want to revisit old friends.  But, each time I picked up Shelters of Stone this morning I found that I had slept away the morning.

I remember quite clearly the advice I gave to countless classes of under-graduates and graduate students at Monmouth.  It was that one should take care of oneself and take naps whenever possible and not to overwork the nose to the grindstone thing.  This was easy advice for me to give after being awarded full professorship (mostly because of longevity) and I retired early while still teaching full time.  How I managed that is explained by scheduling classes in such a way that I could go home (three houses away from the campus), take a nap and go to the next class fully recharged.  I didn’t abuse this privilege too often, but when the inspiration of a nap struck me, I usually succumbed to it and took that nap.

My nap (s) this Tuesday were inspired because I wanted to finish Shelters of Stone and there were some tasks awaiting that would enable me to erase the mistakes I made in making my 13 year old head by wrapping it in cheese-cloth and soaking it in watered down Elmer’s Glue.  I have to get around to sanding them down and eventually work on his (my) skeleton that will fit into the Bar Mitzvah clothing we purchased in Good Will.  Our in-house wig expert has looked at what I have done so far and thinks that what I envisage will be possible.  Thinking about all the little jobs involved make me think I should go and take another nap.  But Carol has scheduled a trip to the doctor this afternoon and I have to go and get ready.