Another summer is almost gone, although you’d never know it from the weather. Still hot as a sauna. We had a nice break from it this past weekend during our trip to New England where it was drier with temps in the low 70’s. And with the end of summer comes the horde of students descending on both Champaign-Urbana, where I work, and Charleston, where we live. It’s the dichotomy of academia that students, without whom it would not exist, are the primary complaint of those who work there. It’s the old “can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em” issue. It seems those relationships always offer enough benefits to make them worthwhile.   😎

I am myself a student again. I started the Master of Science in Technology program at Eastern Illinois University this summer and I have one class this fall. I had planned on taking three, but I have quite a few major projects at work planned for this fall, so I decided to cut back to one course. The two courses I took this summer were no-brainers, but they did require a lot of reading and that took up more time than I’d expected. I still hope to be able to take at least two courses in the coming semesters so I can finish up this program in less than three years. We’ll see.