On the mat

Taught beginner class tonight, moving slowly and carefully, about half and half on one crutch or none.

Working hard on being able to walk without a bobble (no, Peter, you may NOT make a LOEP bobble-head).

If I walk very consciously, I can minimize the bobble, but the easy, thought-free loping gait I enjoyed before the hip went to hell is gonna take a while. HW has some ideas, and I pinged the PTs for specific help the next session. See what they all come up with.

On the job front, now that the hip's not the huge issue it was, I'm pretty much resolved to move on. I find myself -- dreading isn't the right word -- rueing the morning drive to the office these days.

Time for something new. Preferably, here in Europe. We'll see ... I've got some nibbles. See wha' hoppens. The Navy/Wallops Island and NASA/DC possibilities are still floating, too.

Over at TexPat, HW has talked about our discussions about staying here. I suspect she's worried more about the safety net than I am, although the hippy bizness has made me become more aware of that very net.

I'm really in love with Europe, and would hate to leave, but if we need to spend a few years in the US again ... whatever. We can have fun wherever we go, but I'll really miss the easy lifestyle, the exuberant European hedonism, the truly groovy attitudes of most folks over here, the cafe culture, the much wider dispersion of intellectualism and atheism.

However, some recent studies in the US indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans self identify as atheist, agnostic or unbeliever. If so, things are looking up back home for us godless heathens.