Another long hiatus

It has been a long time since my last post. Healthwise, this is a "no news is good news" thing. I am feeling great and looking forward to another check-up in April. We had an enjoyable holiday season but tainted once again by cancer -- Lenore's brother was diagnosed in late December with colon cancer and underwent surgery in early January. He is doing well and the prognosis is good but such events take some of the sparkle out of the season. Still doing an immense quantity of dissertation reading but am starting (finally) to feel pretty comfortable with my grasp of all the relevant literature. My spring semester teaching load is much lighter (three courses, only one seminar course that I haven't taught before) so I am even finding some time time to curl (as a sub) and to get in a weekly game of basketball. Mike and Lars Olson were here last weekend and we went crappie fishing on Upper Red. Wow! It is an amazing fishery (see P1010053.JPG) and definitely a trip worth making again. We caught 16 crappies all over 14" long and at curling last night a 'reliable source' reported a twenty-incher! We all caught a few walleyes and some northern pike. The walleye fishery is still closed but we had northern pike for lunch.

My thoughts on the biological underpinnings of worldviews and worldview constraints continue to develop in rather unexpected ways. My data are revealing a very interesting and complex picture of how differences in what Dobzhansky called "ultimate concerns" influence student attitudes and behaviors related to the environment. Should make for a good story in the end. All for now...time to get back to work. /dps