Working at home

More writing today. Gymnastics morning for #1, so I watch both boys in the a.m. The wife decided this would not be another 50 hour week. So, she came with to watch the gymnastics class. That was nice. And I'll be picking her up early too. Yeah!

Brought the boys home around 11:00, then went to work at my laptop. I'm still writing this "dissertation distillation" article, though it may wind up becoming two or three articles. For now, I'm writing, and revising, but not editing, all the while reading new materials, translating as needed, and digging up old references. What remains is well-written, but not necessarily all pieced together. I can pull out sections later, if they go off too far on a tangent, and make them into the seeds of another article. It's good to be writing again, though at times it feels like a mulligan for all that's missing in the dissertation.

I've decided that I really prefer (most days) to work at home. I don't have a proper office on campus, so I have no privacy (read "quiet") there. Since I do most of my work on campus in a shared computer lab in my department, that means I am subject to the whims of conversations within the lab. I confess, I'm sometimes the culprit. But it's difficult to work when others are talking about god-knows-what, which is in no way related to the thesis of the article I'm writing, or the topic of the book or article I'm trying to read, or what have you.

Sure, at home, the boys interrupt me quite a bit, but I'd venture it's no more than the interruptions that occur in the computer lab, at least while the au pair is around to rescue me when I need it. And at least half the time, I enjoy their interruptions more than overhearing the dating rituals or professor woes of the new grad students.

Besides, all of my books and file cabinets full of articles are here. If I wish to find something that I know is there, but haven't taken notes on, it's nice to have them handy. I have such a backlog of reading that I'm rather infrequently visiting the library these days, especially in light of the fact that my "visiting faculty" library priveleges are pathetic in comparison to my former "PhD candidate" borrowing priveleges.

So, here I sit (still in the living room, because the garage clean up is going to take another few days of diligence). That's all for now.