We can go out shooting on the way home, if it's not too slippery out, my exceptional brother said as we left the house. Because we took his car, I went shooting on the way home--from the downtown camera store; from the old bank that became a Borders; from the lunchtime brewery--even though we didn't stop.

My days are filled with finishing up the semester's grading; with eleven more final papers graded and final grades calculated, I will be done, able to move on to the stack of recommendation and evaluation letters I've brought home with me. But my days are also filled with reading, and sitting by fires with my family, and making dinner, and taking naps when necessary, and going to Indianapolis.

I am resting, in other words, because what's coming next will be a doozy, in the best of senses.