My Background - Part 6

 2014 - Present

Inspirations, Recent-Past, and Present

In various posts on Itinerant Geologist and geosciblog, I believe I have made references to the life changes I went through in 2015 and how those changes led to my 2015 and 2016 travels.  Those life changes included some before 2015 and some after 2015.  Some I will touch on and some I may not (as the spirit moves me).

Basically, it was a time following the winding-down of my "career" as a junior college adjunct instructor of Geology, Environmental Science, and related courses in the greater Atlanta area and the decline of my first wife's health during that time.  

With the arrival of 2014, I became keenly aware of the nostalgic angst that accompanies the 60th birthday and decadal anniversaries, e.g., 20th, 30th, 40th, ... , including the 40th anniversary of my 1974 Western road trip with my then college-roommate, Dave. 

After rereading William Least Heat-Moon's excellent "Blue Highways" in 2014 (praised by some as the best American nonfiction travel book), I decided that a 40th-anniversary road trip just wasn't in the cards.  After that realization, I became inspired to write down "something" about that 8,800-mile, 4-week journey in 1974, in case my kids ever wondered about events leading up to my moving from Georgia to El Paso in early-1977 for Geology grad school and eventually "meeting their Mom" in April 1983 (and getting married in 1984).

After roughing out a Table of Contents and a couple of chapters, other life changes intervened and the project was placed on the "back burner".  Despite having both knees replaced simultaneously in 2013, my first wife's health continued to decline due to worsening cervical spinal stenosis and other health problems.  It was about that time that my perceived junior college teaching "career" was winding down.

I did teach a single course of Integrated Earth and Life Science, at a different college during the Spring Semester 2014.  It was a hybrid lecture/lab course intended to teach or refresh public school teachers a mixture of Geology and Biology.  I enjoyed being at a different campus, that had nature trails behind the campus and gold in the creek.  It was a good setting for occasional on-campus field trips.  But the Geologists in the Science Department never seemed to be willing to make a new adjunct "feel at home".  I just didn't fit in.

In the Fall of 2014, I did get a pretty good hourly job as a Land Survey Assistant with a local Engineering firm.  [I enjoy outdoor jobs.]  Though it wasn't a terribly good "fit" for a Geologist, my Supervisor liked me, as; 1) I showed up early for work, unlike the 20-somethings; 2) I only took 20 minutes for lunch, and 3) I didn't have to stop every 20 minutes for a smoke break.  

This job continued until March 2015, until I hurt my back at home splitting firewood and I had to resign.  After a Chiropractor friend in our church helped me recover, I came to the realization that this job was better suited for someone 25 - 30 years old, instead of 61 (by that time).

Perhaps it was a "higher power's" way of telling me that I needed to spend more time at home with my first wife, Marla.  The residual pain from the double knee replacement, the pain and tingling from the cervical spinal stenosis, and osteoarthritis in her hips and shoulders, plus issues with the powerful pain-killers caused her to lose interest in living.  

To be continued: