Columbus

It feels strange to be back in Columbus, after living here for about seven years and not visiting for about 8 months. Buildings that used to be there are gone, solid brick reduced to a muddy field as if a giant hand had come along and snuffed them out. It's the kind of thing one takes in stride as one sees it happening, but to take in all at once can be disconcerting.

We had a rainstorm last night. Everything here is green. The leaves are just starting to get a tint of yellow on them. By the time I get back, same time next month (?), they'll probably be brilliant yellows and reds.

I think I got a lot done in the few days I've been back. I'm meeting with my dissertation advisor tomorrow, and the meetings with my other committee members went fairly well. I'm going to be pretty busy getting my other 1 1/2 chapters finished and submitted by the middle of the month, but I think that's a doable goal. I at least have models that are working and giving me what I reasonably expected them to give, which is a big improvement over the swamp of frustration it was before. *knocks on wood*

I should finally be able to upgrade my laptop from Win98 to XP, which I purchased through the university while I was here. That should quash the blue-screen-of-death errors I get when I've tried to run too many programs on it. It'll be a big improvement.