Not The End, Really. Just a Long Break.

Friday's final contract day was a breeze, since I had all of my work done on Thursday afternoon. All I needed to do was eat some eggs, listen to some speakers, get a few signatures, and find a way to fill the time until noon. I managed to do that by going through my piles of "organized" paper work and filing things appropriately (mostly throwing crap away).

The day before, I managed to find a few moments to decorate my soon-to-be-retired cart. A colleague and I were supposed to have a last day cart race, but that never materialized. At any rate, I was proud of my push cart-cum-pirate ship, the SS Peeps Revenge (with a peep snowman captain and a full crew of nautical peeps). And, yes, once again, I did get all of my responsibilities handled before I did this.

At noon, a few of us were off to lunch. It really is a treat (aside from the nine weeks "vacation") to have more than 27 minutes to eat lunch, and to go off campus to dine. Granted, many students have 27 minutes and go off campus, but a) they usually hit a drive-thru, and b) they usually put their lives and the lives of others at risk to do so. We teachers are not really about to do that. So, it was nice to dine on my BLT and drink my beverage and not worry about having to be back in the classroom before most of my food actually entered my stomach.

After lunch, it was off to the links to enjoy the sunny day hacking at golf balls. After four shots, I was down four balls, three of them going into some form of aquatic obstacle and the fourth apparently blasting off for the lunar surface--nobody even saw where that one went. By the third hole I had settled down a bit and fell into my routine from last year: longest drive of our foursome from the tee, pathetically heavy-handed short game (I didn't actually make a putt all day). We still managed to keep our reputation, finishing with a 14-over 46, which was good enough for last place by four strokes.

All in all a good day, capped off with a visit to a local Mexican restaurant.