The last couple of weeks have been filled with a stew of cognitive dissonance here: mornings spent in classes where I’m fumbling with basics, followed by afternoons spent in Expert Engineer mode; one day proving to my mentors that I may be qualified to pursue a degree in my chosen field, the next day at an invitation-only workshop catching up with luminary friends and old colleagues who do scientific and engineering work my previous day’s mentors [apparently] can’t imagine.

But, qualified or not, expert or not, friend-of-cool or not, it is summer. Nobody pays me now, and I can get back to the writing, the button-pushing, the Actual Work, and above all else the thankless task of thinking out loud.

Hell, thinking will be a welcome change.