An Afternoon Ride…

Posted Sat Sep 7, 2002 in Motorcycling

I spent my morning reading and editing a master’s thesis. It was one of those times when I awoke early, fought the bed for a few minutes, then, with my wife’s encouragement, grabbed the notebook and started reading. After an hour or so, I settled down again, set the notebook aside, and got another hour of sleep.

The writing of a thesis is a significant task. Students rarely understand exactly how much effort it takes to produce a scholarly document. It requires knowledge, discipline, and perseverance. Depending on the student, the first draft often draws only general comments from me because they are so weak that it is not possible for me to write anything significant. But after a couple of iterations, the documents are shaping up and it’s possible for me to really work on them. That’s where I am right now with two of my students. They are approaching completion of their theses.

That’s very good for me because it takes a lot of effort to read and edit one. I’ve spent a lot of hours working on this pair and have two more that are working toward the intense phase. I finally finished working on three chapters about noon. I had promised young son a motorcycle ride and I really needed to get outside myself. We got ready and headed out to the bike.

We rode over to the Honda shop and looked at their jackets. They had a small men’s size, but it’s still pretty big on young son. So, we climbed back aboard Jezebel and rode over to the Suzuki house. Their inventory is already reduced in preparation for the cold season. Hmmm… nothing. So, we remounted and rode over to the Dairy Queen for a sandwich and a drink, refueled, and rode east from Lubbock on SH 40 toward White River Lake.

The day was bright and warm, but not too hot. I would guess that the temperature was in the mid-80’s and the sky was just a bit hazy. As we rode east, a bug hit my sunglasses. Blech! We turned south on FM 651 and dropped off the caprock onto the rolling hills, headed for Post. At least FM 651 has a few curves and some hills. It was a fun ride into Post, where we stopped for a few minutes to drink some water and rest. Young son is not an iron butt, at least not yet.

The short ride home from Post was quiet and steady. At one point, I noticed a change in the way young son felt. I turned around and jostled his leg. He wasn’t asleep, but very drowsy. That’s not a good thing, especially on the back seat of a motorcycle! I asked him if he was asleep and he said “No, but I was close.”

This afternoon, I realized that 20 years ago we lived in Denver, Colorado. We moved there with my two older kids so that I could work. I was working for a consulting firm there and finishing up my master’s thesis. I made the mistake of leaving the university before defending and it took me nine more months to finish up, and I had a good draft before leaving. After working 60 hours each week, it was very difficult to muster the energy to work on my thesis.

Denver was an interesting place. It took us months to find a church where we felt like we fit in. When we did, it did Wife a lot of good. It was the first time she had really lived away from her family and it was something of a struggle for her. We made some excellent friends there, but my job was nothing like I expected. After 16 months, my advisor called and asked “Thompson, are you interested in pursuing a Ph.D.?”

“I’ll have to think about it, talk to my wife. I’ll call you back.”

I had been looking for another job. It was 1982 and the job market was absolutely dead. Inflation was running 20 percent per year and money was devaluing rapidly. After a few days, I called him back and said “I’m willing to come back to UMR and work on a Ph.D. if some things can be brought together. First, I’ll need some kind of teaching or research assistantship. Second, I’ll need my Chancellor’s Fellowship to be reinstated.”

I called the UMR Mathematics Department and they were willing to give me a teaching assistantship. My advisor called me and said that the Chancellor’s Fellowship was a done deal. So, we were bound for Rolla, Missouri again to go back to school. The decision felt good.

I made one mistake, however. I told my supervisor about my plans two months before they were to come to pass. It’s that integrity thing that I have and I wanted them to have plenty of time to replace me. The rewarded my loyalty by cancelling the only raise I was to get from the firm. What cheapskates. To top that, my branch manager asked me to complete a project I had active (which made sense), but he offered to pay me a student wage. Fortunately, he was transferred and his replacement paid me a reasonable fee for my work.

I was happy to be away from that job. I have kept in touch now and again with some of the people I worked with, though. They were good people.

A few years ago I returned to Denver for a professional meeting. I rented a car and spent a little time driving around the city. I was astounded at the rush of emotions that rose up in my throat when I passed through the area of the city where we had lived and worked.

I couldn’t go back. I think you can never go back.