Columbus Day, Indigenous People's Day, Onground Intensive Day

I am feeling a bit scattered this morning, so let me collect some fragments and see if they cohere into a whole.  Even if they don't, fragments are interesting in their own right.

--Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, where poor Harold was killed by an arrow.  Legend has it that the arrow hit him in the eye and went into his brain.  Why is this battle important?  Back in my teaching days, I talked about how the English language changed, with the French taking control of the island of Britain.  It's why English has so many adjectives, and also why the linguistics are much more complicated than a straight forward Romance language like French.

--Those days of teaching the Brit Lit Survey class seem so far away, and also, like it was just last year.

--Similarly, when I returned to preaching and presiding at Faith Lutheran yesterday, I thought about how it felt like years since I had been at the church, even though it had only been 3 weeks.  It was good to be back, even as I'm not sure about the future, less sure than I was 3 weeks ago.  I want to believe that roads will be rebuilt quickly, but until I 26 is rebuilt, it will still be a 3+ hour trip to Bristol.

--Today begins the first day of the onground intensive week of my 2 seminary classes that have an onground intensive.  It feels surreal to be here.  I'm not on campus; I asked for campus housing too late.  Word came back that they were full.  I'll be interested to see if my old building, Carroll Hall, is indeed full.  I'll understand if they're not using that building anymore; I was willing to have housing for this week in that building and willing to bring my own bedding and towels.

--So, I am staying in a Fairfield Inn near my sister.  I looked at possibilities slightly nearer to campus, but honestly, there's not lodging much closer to campus.  Being close to my sister has additional perks--we can have dinner together each day.

--Today will be less traffic during my commute because it's a federal holiday, the one that originally celebrated Columbus, but now may celebrate Indigenous people or explorers or colonization.  Most places I've ever lived never celebrated it at all, but federal workers have today off, as do many non-federal workers in this area.  I will still leave at 7 to give myself plenty of time.  There will be coffee on campus, and it will be a pleasant week for walking if I get there early.  The neighborhoods around seminary are gorgeous, after all.

--Yesterday's traffic here was dreadful, all along the way.  I found myself thinking, this is why people hate driving on vacations.