Ever had one of those days? Of course you have. Mine was OK, but some things did not go as they would have gone if I were King of The World - or even king of my world.

The other day the sophomores and I were reading "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and today I was feeling kind of prufrockish, frustrated by circumstances and second guessing myself at every turn. Not so much "They will say 'How his hair is growing thin!'" as "am an attendant lord."

Enough of that. What went wrong? Oh. I was supposed to teach my colleagues in the English department about message boards. Literally five minutes before I'm to begin, I'm told "Oh, the man is here to fiddle with the server and will have to be shutting it down occasionally throughout the morning and maybe into the afternoon." Three hours of somewhat careful planning fly out the window to play with crows. We decide to flip-flop the day, and by noon the server-fiddling guy has fiddled all he cares to and the network is up and running .. but time is much shorter, so my co-conspirator Brian and I have to smush the necessaries in as we can. We had some fun and some laughs learning Brian's chat. And then it was my turn and ... but, let me spare you that. It didn't go well. Alas. But my colleagues were understanding and supportive nonetheless.

I came home to watch (by happenstance) a movie called RKO 281 about Welles filming Kane. Not half bad. Then I went for a walk and a jog for forty minutes to flush out the worst parts of the day and to remember the best. And on my first lap I notice Mr. Scott Allgood standing over by the tennis courts with his team from JCA. I divert my jog a bit to say hi and shake hands. Why was I surprised that he recognized me, "Br. Tom!" and off I ran. By the next lap he was deep in the matches.

Then just before dinner I heard that my old pal Br. Sean (he who helped me through some very rough weather) is in hospital somewhere down in Louisville with unspecified problems. On hearing this, the heart or some part of me leaps out thoughtless in a prayer for his well-being. Be well, Sean.

Tonight the school board is meeting to determine the fate of this building in which we live.

Tomorrow is Erin's birthday, or so says a little bird named Joy. If you are one of the very lucky ones to know Erin in person, take some time to celebrate the existence of this smart caring funny and seriously good good good spirit in our world.