1. Met an amazing array of Mudcatters.

2. Created an innovative new course that started well, and then crashed and burned when my university went on strike.

3. Discovered open tunings, Bob Dylan's bootleg recordings, and continued to marvel at Rick Fielding's patience with inquiring students.

4. Wrote the first characters of mine that ever came to life and wouldn't let go, here, over the course of a month.

5. Read John Ehrmann's 3-volume Life of Pitt the Younger.

6. Failed dismally to influence my government's policies on global warming, nuclear proliferation, and biogenetic engineering.

7. Taught Oriental thought and Zen practice to a willing student who recently sent me an e-mail from a cafe/brothel in Budapest asking about a complex problem in Hua-Yen Buddhism that was bothering him during his first bumming trip around Europe.

yours, Peter T.