And while I'm at it....

I really should be getting back to the coast. Despite the hurricanes, my business lies there...let the storms rage. The entire Ph.D. business requires my attention. Here I feel sapped of creativity and purpose. My green prison, walled in on all sides by remorseless hills of faraway blue...now that reminds me of a poem I heard once. Where are all of my friends? Some of them seem to have disappeared completely. We make some bitter choices in this life. But, as Ernest once wrote, ...it is a beautiful world, and worth the fighting for, and I hate to leave it. In other words, it may not be all cheese crackers and free beer, but I like it enough to stick around and make the best of it.