After a week of traveling and reading and generally reminding myself of the joy of the world outside of SLAC, it’s time to return to my research. I set guidelines for this past week. No work-related e-mail. This was helped along by the fact that the place to which I traveled had very poor or no internet access. In addition, my mobile phone (and Jodi’s) got zero reception. I was returned to a happy time when it was simply not possible to contact anybody at anytime. I am sure this annoyed many people (as I said it could several weeks ago [1]), but I also know that without the separation from physics I cannot do physics.
What did I do in my travels and my time away? I slept about 7-8 hours a night. That felt really good. I avoided physics. That felt good, though I missed the puzzles and the problem solving. I went through the three stages of workaholic withdrawal: denial (I can stop working any time I want, I don’t have a problem), guilt (I’m letting so many people down by not working and e-mailing), and acceptance (Wow, so that’s what the sky and the ocean look like – work, SCHMERK). I played some guitar, tried to write some songs (still going), hiked a gully to a cool little waterfall, helped Jodi get over poisoning from some nettles (not too bad, apart from the numbness, itching, and hives), did some reading (theory of spinoffs, coming soon!), and even thought a little about the future.
It will be good to get back to my research. I am less happy to have to start by catching up on my e-mail. I have a system, though – I filter my mail into folders, look at the most important ones, try to follow the discussions, and copy e-mails that need replying to a “To Do” folder. That whittles 400 e-mails down to 20 important ones right away. The rest is either news, or chaff, especially after a week of not reading it. Most peoples’ problems are likely solved by now.
If you’ve been waiting for me, wait no longer! If you’re annoyed that I didn’t reply to your e-mail – sit down, take a breath, maybe learn the guitar and write a song or read by the ocean. After all, I got to do that this past week after one-and-a-half years of work, work, work. You at least deserve that much. Let me know when you get back; I won’t bug you in e-mail until you return, I promise!
