TITLE: Time for a Little Slack
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: May 27, 2005 10:21 AM
DESC: After a while, a person just needs a rest...
-----
BODY:
I feel a strong desire to write a substantive essay on
something of great import, but at the same time I feel
that I have nothing of great value to say today.  I
suspect that this is my mind and brain telling me to
take a break, after a busy spring semester and
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2005-05.html#e2005-05-18T14_36_09.htm">
   all of the busy-ness</A>
that has followed.  I'm due for some time away from
the office.  Fortunately, that is what's about to
happen.

In the US, this is
<A HREF="http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html">
   Memorial Day weekend</A>.
My family and I will be using the long weekend to
tour the caves at
<A HREF="http://www.nps.gov/maca/">
   Mammoth Cave National Park</A>
in Kentucky.  Mammoth Cave and its neighbors are the
longest known system of caves in the world.  I lived
the first half of my life only a couple hours drive
from this park but have never visited.  My 12- and
9-year-old daughters will be able to say that they
spelunked there, though we'll have to drive 9-10
hours to do it.

This won't be my first spelunking adventure.  While
in Arizona the week before
<A HREF="http://hillside.net/chiliplop/2005/">
   ChiliPLoP</A>,
I went with a few friends for a short cave tour just
outside of Tucson.  We were all in town to watch NCAA
tournament games.  By the time we reached the cave,
I had already run 9 miles and played 90 minutes of
basketball that morning.  At least I should be better
rested for Mammoth Cave, which will entail some more
strenuous climbing.

My mind can use a break.  It's time for a little
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767907698/002-3296914-5184820">
   slack</A>.
(Or should I link to
<A HREF="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extremeprogramming/message/106142">
   one of the long-running threads</A>
on the XP discussion list instead?)
-----