"Silly Season" is upon us, a term I picked up from watching F1, though it's a term with more antiquated origins. From what I can find, it has never been used to mean "a period of time filled with a lot of shit going on", but it should.
During my undergraduate years, I took a Java Programming class. I had heard of the professor I signed up with long before I decided to take his class, and I don't remember why I signed up for him specifically. Maybe there wasn't any other options on the table, I don't know—maybe it was destiny, because it forked the timeline of my life.
Dave came into class, in a way that I can only describe as "beep-bopping in", and announce to the 16-20 of us how class was going to work. After he explained that every week, someone will be chosen to stand up in front of the room and teach the chapter, the air fled the room. When I came back on Wednesday, I counted four of us.
Long-story short, I tried to drop his class after the midterm. He talked me out of it, explained that I had the best grade in the class after the numbers were crunched, and then we talked about politics and traveling. He asked me what I liked to do for fun and I said "writing poetry". And then David went on to share with me how everything in the world is shit except for art and music.
We've been close ever since. And I owe a large part of my life to David. He's in his 80s now, but almost ageless. I want him to live forever. I call him instead of my Dad when I need house advice. I email him when I'm really going through it just to say thank you again. Looking back, when he would sit in the front row of class, asking questions to me or some classmate about the material we were presenting—I realize years later that it wasn't Java he was teaching, it was more than that. It was how to think about any programming language. A valuable lesson I'm thankful to have learned.
David and his wife are visiting Friday. Every moment with them is a gift.
Towards the end of their time here, I head to Bread Loaf for 10 days. And I need to figure out how much work I can do because I've got a lot going on at work. And Vida is about to head out for two months to do independent business owner stuff. And then we'll be bumping up to the start of holiday season. France in December. See? Silly Season.
