Marquette, deferred

So, today I wd have started my next two-week research session working with the manuscripts at Marquette. Unfortunately, as with so many things these days, my plans came up against the measures being put in place by universities to protect students, faculty, and staff. In this case, the requirement put in place the day before I was to fly out wd have meant that, coming as I do from a state with confirmed cases of The Virus, I wd need to self-quarantine myself for fourteen days once I arrived. Which wd have eaten up so much of a seventeen day trip that it seemed better to cancel and reschedule when things have reset to normal, whenever that may be, and whatever the new definition of normal.

The good news is that this means I have more time to work on the Kalamazoo piece* -- although at this point it's uncertain whether the Medieval Congress in May will proceed as planned or be conducted remotely or deferred for a year.

As for the big Egypt trip, this definitely won't be going forward as planned, though there are hopeful signs that it has a good chance of being delayed (possibly by as much as a year) but not cancelled.

And the best news at all is that not only are we both well so far but so are friends and family, both here in Washington state and afar (Arkansas, Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Sapporo, England). Since I fit into two of the three at-risk groups I'm staying in as much as possible and catching up on a lot of my reading. I can already tell I'm going to miss my once or twice a week visits to Starbucks, which I use when I need a change of pace. But that's a small price to pay if it reduces my chance of getting sick.

And now, back to work.

--John R.

current reading; the latest in Martha Wells' MURDERBOT series


*"Valinor in America: Faerian Drama and the Disenchantment of Middle-earth"