Hooray!   I have not only finished grading, but have also gotten midterm grades calculated and submitted to the university.  It’s an enormous relief to have completed both tasks.  I feel like fiddling on the roof, “Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles. . . .”   I’m not kidding!  I still have a hell of a lot more to do before the end of Spring Break, but it does  indeed feel miraculous to have accomplished this much.

On the Asian front, S. reports having arrived safely in the far south of Vietnam in the Mekong Delta.  She’s exhausted, having slept little the night before she left, fearful that she would not wake up and miss her flight.  She returns to Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday, moves into our new apartment on Monday, leaves for several days in Hanoi on Wednesday, and then spends the following work week in Bangkok.   She may feel tired now, but I fear these back to back trips will only exacerbate her exhaustion.  I suspect  the lingering effects of her bronchitis might still be depleting her energy.

In addition to this marathon of back to back trips, S. needs to help me decide if Ralph will undergo surgery on Monday to have his ruptured ACL repaired.  The timing couldn’t be worse for my schedule, as I have to begin the final leg of my semester that morning.  However, in light of  our vet’s not being able to operate over Spring Break and my needing  to leave for Vietnam the first week of May, there may be no better time  in the foreseeable future.  So it’s now or never.

Wait–whether  it’s the Elvis song or the one from “Fiddler on the Roof,” this post includes more music than I know how to handle.  I may not be the most well-informed when it comes to popular culture,  but I do know one thing for certain–that  I don’t know how to end this without digging myself deeper and deeper into cliche, so I’ll not fiddle any more with revision.  Good God!  Could it get any worse!