Tuesday, March 22

Alea
iacta est

The die is cast. I have submitted my request to retire
from MSU. June 10 should be my last day. Not quite as historic or glorious as
crossing the Rubicon, but hey, you gotta take what you can. I had planned on
working another couple years, until Molly was done with college. But, my group is
having some funding issues and I went to 80% time. I would not have minded
easing out with a slow reduction in time but it turns out that I am no longer
eligible for some benefits at 80%. Like Molly’s half price tuition. Which I can
get if I retire. And my health care costs go up at 80% but the costs will drop
or go to zero if I retire. I’m not a math wizard but even I can figure out that
it’s time to go. I assume I have to get some Bermuda shorts and a metal
detector to join the other bored retirees looking for loose change at the
beach. I may take up the bagpipes. I’m tone deaf and have zero musical talent,
but those minor details don’t matter with the bagpipes.

For now I am still working though, and this April I’ll be
doing some more bat work in the Upper Peninsula. We are going back to a cave
that my prior work indicated may be a hibernacula. I’ll be filming the cave
entrance with an infrared (IR) video camera during the time when the bats
should be emerging from hibernation. This is the same equipment all the nut
cases into paranormal activity use to look for ghosts and other apparitions. The
sales people thought I was the odd one. “You’re not doing paranormal? You want
to film bats at night? What, are you some kind of weirdo?”

My pool table in a completely dark room using infrared.

Other than that, we continue to live vicariously through our
daughter and her water polo.

Molly gets the ball under pressure.

The thugs are on her.

She finds an opening.

And gets the pass off.

We are quite proud of her latest academic achievement.
She applied for, and was accepted into, a summer internship program at Oklahoma
State University. This internship is funded by the National Science Foundation to
train undergraduates in graduate research work. It was advertised nationally
but only ten students were selected. The internship is free, she lives on
campus, they pay travel costs, and she gets a $500/week stipend. Not a bad gig.