Lee Hutch's Blog, page 7

Journal of a Pandemic Year: Part Thirteen

A week has now passed since my wife moved out. We talk on the phone every night, of course, and she stops by once a week to bring groceries, though when she gets here, I have to put on a mask and go outside while she brings them in (and she wears a mask and gloves), and then we can talk on the porch for a bit, while staying ten feet apart and wearing masks. This past week was a little busy. I had a Skype meeting at 0900 on Monday. My Summer 2 courses were also doing finals this week, and so ...

Journal of a Pandemic Year: Part Twelve

Elizabeth and I in happier days. Before I got hurt. And before The Rona forced us to live apart.

Dear Readers,

Today was D-Day. We spent the day getting my wife’s clothes and other teaching related items packed up. The biggest task was to go through the house and make sure everything I may need (water, food, etc) was on a counter or shelf at least waist high for me. Since I cannot bend at the waist, and I cannot lift anything heavier than a half-gallon of milk, we had to make things access...

Journal of a Pandemic Year: Part Eleven

Dear Readers,

Wow. When I wrote my first Journal of a Pandemic Year entry back in March, I had no idea that I’d still be doing it come August. It’s worse now than it was back then, at least in my area. At this point, I don’t even know what normal is anymore. My college has moved online for the fall semester, so assuming that I’m back on the campus come January, it will have been almost a year since I set foot in a classroom or in my office. It’s crazy to think about.

At least we have b...

The Return of Iron Mike

Dear Readers,

Don’t know a jab from a job? Don’t know the difference between a Philly shell and a Philly cheesesteak? Don’t worry! You too can enjoy the proposed return to the ring of Mike Tyson and Roy Jones, Jr. It’ll be a spectacle for sure. I’m not sure if the schedule exhibition match is truly an attempt to return to the ring, or if it is for money and publicity, though I expect that is the case. It matters not if you are a student of the sweet science of bruising or if you prefer mo...

What’s In A Dream?

Dear Readers,

Let’s talk about dreams. No, not the kind I have about Maria Nikolaevna, my history crush. I mean the dreams we have in life. Growing up as a kid in Port Arthur, Texas, I dreamed of a couple of things. First of all, I wanted to be a firefighter. Second, I wanted to write a book. Okay, to be completely honest, I also dreamed of playing the NFL. The Golden Triangle area (made of up Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange) is the football capital of the world with more NFL players pe...

“Opening Day”, 2020

Dear Readers,

Back in 2018, I was home on Opening Day and set out to watch/listen to as many games as I could. I wrote about that experience here. This year, we have a different sort of Opening Day. For starters, Opening Day was actually last night when we had two games played, one on the East Coast and one of the West Coast. And as far as today goes, there isn’t much “day” in Opening Day since there is only one afternoon game on the schedule. Still, it does mark a return to baseball. So ...

A Bloody and Treasonable Doctrine: Further Reading

Dear Readers (and Listeners)

As I mentioned during the four episode podcast series on the Draft Riots, I wanted to give you some sources for further reading in case any of you were interested in reading more about the incident. I will caution you, however, that not all sources are accurate and a lot of “urban legends” about the riots still get passed around on blogs, websites, etc. Just know that going in.

The Second Rebellion by James McCague is probably the most readable of the acco...

The End is Nigh!

No, I don’t mean the end of the world, though with the way things are going, that wouldn’t surprise me much. 13 months ago to be exact, I wrote the first words of what would become Molly’s Song. The heavy substantive edits are finished as of a few days ago. I have to make a couple of more passes over the manuscript to clean up a few things, but it’ll be off for the copyedit in September. So it is getting closer to being finished. From this point on, things move fairly quickly. Soon enough, i...

An Interview With All Bad Things!

Dear Readers,

I have a special treat for you today. I was able to conduct an interview with my favorite podcasters, Rachel and David from the All Bad Things podcast. If you like stories about disasters, both natural and man made, you HAVE to follow ABT. They have new episodes out every Monday and also have a lively Facebook Discussion group full of some really cool people.

So lets get to the interview!

(My comments in italics).

Tell us a little bit about yourselves and your feli...

Journal of a Pandemic Year: Part Ten

Dear Readers,

Though I have made posts over the past six weeks, I have not done an actual journal entry, so I figured I would get everyone caught up on the goings on over the past month. My state, Texas, is in the middle of a major outbreak of The Rona, and my county, Harris, is the epicenter of it, so there’s no going outside and doing anything for me, so I have time to write a little. (Not that I was going out or doing much before that. You can count on one hand the number of times I’ve...