now that it's break, i've got to get that ugly-looking pile (post below) out of sight. i'm done with it. i've got other things going on.

first, i had a colonoscopy- if you'd like to know more, read dave barry's version- believe me it wasn't quite that humorous, but humor is a good way to take it. once again it reminds me of my fallibility, my mortality- makes me hug the boys a few extra times, and be grateful i have health insurance. got out of the hospital, hung around the house moping a little, got the young ones worried that i didn't follow them around fast enough, and now, back on my feet, ready to think about business, which, if i really were to slog through it, would be incredibly dull. but i have become driven to really get to what counts.

it might be that, on my way to work, i choose between two different routes through pulliam, the large old building with the clocktower that dominates siu and blocks my path, from the parking lot in its shadow, to my office building. the walk is short, but there are two possibilities, and either way leads up past a japanese garden, carefully attended, but across from which is construction land, with overgrown grasses, piles of construction junk with snakes coming out from under it, etc. my choices are: go directly under the 12 o'clock tower: up the stairs, and past the inscription, and then down the long hill to the japanese garden. or: go around, through the metalworkers' patio, with the kiln, back by the swimmer's entrance, up the back steps past the iron stars in the metal window casings, and then down the long hill, this time cutting across the grass, to the japanese garden.

the inscription says: so enter- that daily thou mayest become more learned and thoughtful- so depart- that daily thou mayest become more useful to thy country and to mankind (from inscription found at padua university)(dashes inserted by me, but naturally placed according to placement of words)...what is interesting about this inscription is this. working for a large institution, i am often confronted with varying commands- i have so many superiors, and all with different motives. not to say they are always opposing, but sometimes, they have different directions. i owe my life, my living, my dinner to the university- my paycheck comes from it- so it's a matter of some importance which i should follow. and this is particularly of interest to me since i have about seventy hours of work to cram into only about forty five or fifty hours, in a given week. in the end, i make my own priorities, i judge, what can be done, and what can't. and a lot of it can't.

back around the swimmer's courtyard, i mention the metal stars, because once, at a coffeehouse with similar metal stars mounted or stuck onto a brick facade, i was told by some coffeehouse denizen that those five-pointed metal stars represented the fact that the given building was a place where horses could be boarded and fed. ??? the pulliam pool??? this particular grass spot is in the shadow of pine trees, smells very good in the rain, but quite treacherous, as a forgotten set of stairs, in a good ice storm...being in the back, the forgotten area of the building. though the metalworkers, the potters, the kiln-firers, and the swimmers are well familiar with the little place, it's the kind of place where a window can be broken, and the glass will sit there for a while until someone notices it, comes along and cleans it up. it's not a high priority. yet it's peaceful, a more gradual ascent than the inscription stairway, more of my time outdoors, and often i favor it for those reasons. my question is: did they ever board horses at pulliam? that would be a story...