Update, October into November

 Life continues to be rich and full here in Enoughsville.  We very happily celebrated Halloween in various ways this week.  Check us out!  

• OfSnough time-traveled back to his childhood (Kongo!) with his sister (a bear??); 
• Kinderling and family did theme dressing ("somehow, we tied it together. One more year of coordinating!! . . . Bchild wanted to be a police officer, so David is the robber and Achild is wondering woman and I'm poison ivy. Cchild is my ivy plant loooool "); 
• Inking took the day off of work to be ready as Ursula for her 535 (really! she counted) trick-or-treaters;
• Gosling's dogs were the best dressed on the block ("The dogs will add their bit, a fly, a lion,'and a superhero");
• Prewash rocked her cow costume; I offered kids pencils for themselves and cheerios to feed the dog, and so people and beasts alike had fun.

What about me?  I dressed as a cow, naturally, and loaned my second cow costume to a friend who was glad to accompany her animal-costumed son in thematic style. 

I don't know if/what Gosling dressed as, but I do know that the Covid Fairy has come to the end of her visit.  

"Negative!"

Nelson is doing well; he's involved in a new job-training program, similar to one he'd been involved in here in Enoughsville.  He's very much looking forward to the basketball season starting up again, too.  And per Nelson's request I'll share two pics from the "Little Farm Library", which has been active this week.

So many cows taken, all that's left is a leaf and 
a small sheet of halloween stickers.

Contributions arrive: a cow bracelet, one of the beanbags I made,
and a cow that arrived with a note saying
"[heart] I finally made it home -- moo moo! -- just love me [heart]"

I've loved all the different places that my research is taking me this week.  In addition to the two projects I'm doing with my two research students and an engineering-related project I'm working on with another colleague, I'm also doing loads and loads of reading to understand the background for a book I'm working on.  That last takes me in a bunch of wild directions: right now, for example, I'm reading a book on Indian film, which takes me into fascinating non-math detours of history and religion and colonialism, as well into the tidbits of geometry that I'll actually get to use as threads to weave a more colorful and rich tapestry for my own work.  

I also love how different parts of my life swirl into others.  I've always resisted the metaphor of "balancing" personal and professional, and instead tried to sustain a kind of integration.  Saturday, I went into the office to meet with a pair of former students.  We talked about math for a while, but when I said I had to go home to work on canning applesauce for the second time this fall, they had so many questions about what that meant and how that happened, that I invited them to come over and help -- and they enthusiastically accepted. So I had two former students and also OfSnough's former-army-buddy-turned-monk, Cliff, helping me chop apples, and canning went soooo  quickly and smoothly; I have 18 more quarts of applesauce put up (really, down, because they're in the basement).  I love that blurring of boundaries, I have to say.  Also, when Cliff teased me for being a bit like Tom Sawyer getting his friend to pay him for the privilege of doing his chores, I readily accepted the charge!

Different uniforms. 
(OfSnough is dressed to participate in our city's Honor Guard,
which presents flags to family members at funerals of veterans).

And that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.