Teaching summer school in mechanical engineering is like having five weeks surgically removed from my life without benefit of anesthetic. Each day goes like this: prepare three hours of lecture, deliver the lectures, meet with students, grade papers, eat, sleep, repeat. No time for building airplanes or much of anything else. The last time I worked on the RV-12 was about five weeks ago and I can barely remember what I was working on. The sole reason for doing it, of course, is to be able to afford things like building airplanes. The pay is good but, at this stage of my life, time is my most precious commodity. The strange thing, however, is that with one week left, it seems that only about a week has elapsed. This leaves three weeks unaccounted for.
People who claim to have been abducted by aliens often speak of "lost time." Inexplicably, the clock has of its own accord sprung forward. That's how I feel.
The good news is that in about a week and a half I will, at least theoretically, have four uninterrupted weeks to work on the project. Oshkosh will then consume a week (the high point of my year), then I'll have a couple of weeks before Fall semester begins, which is like a vacation compared to summer school.
