Charmion, will they have to build a plastic barrier between the bathroom and the rest of the house, to keep the mold out of the general air circulation? Will it involve connecting with the framework of the house, not just pulling out tile and sheet rock and redoing it? What will be the extent of that remodel?

This weekend a friend is coming over with some aluminum crutches, needing help trimming them down. She has Osteoporosis Imperfecta (brittle bone disease) and needs her crutches to be adult strength (versus lightweight child size) but very short. Her husband is deep into a form of dementia and is no longer able to help her, as he used to do. I'm glad she knows I'm here to help; I have my coping saw and my drill handy. She has remarked several times that it astonishes her that at this point in her life that she is considered the "able-bodied" of the two of them.

This is a friend who retired from the university, though she wasn't a victim of the awful dean as were many of us (she worked in the next building over from me). When I look at the array of friends both inside and outside my old workplace, clearly most of my friends now were met at work. I throw up my hands when the subject of where your friends should be made comes up (work or outside work); ages ago I understood that those people you met outside of work were organically the best friends (why?), but it has been my experience in an educational institution with thousands of employees that you meet people with whom you "click" because of your fields or because of similar interests. I see packs of librarians traveling and partying together; they met at work. If I return to the part of the country where I grew up, the people I know there are adults who were kids I went to high school with. Very few adults from my working life. Does this make sense? I'm questioning the validity of suggesting our friends should come from a particular part of our lives. I'm curious where each of us situates our friends in relation to our jobs or workplaces.

By way of explanation, I know why this has come up. It's in the front of my thoughts because of the departure of the almost-former dean. A psychologist friend today stated adamantly that I (all of us) need to leave the anger at her behavior behind. "Burn her in effigy. Buy a piñata in her shape and destroy it!" Good advice!

Lunch with my daughter and a trip to the gym tomorrow. Pleasant company and then a workout listening to an interesting book. That sounds like a good day.