On Sunday, I drove down to Tennessee from Lansing, MI. I drove to Oak Ridge, TN, through the fields of Ohio and the hills of Kentucky. I passed over I-75 gently in the slow lane. I leaned back in my seat and watched the terrain change around me. I thought about the podcasts playing on my stereo system and my thoughts drifted back and forth like the traffic in which I participated. When I entered TN, the highway rose to a ridgeline and I caught a glimpse of mountains and valleys.
I will be here for just over three months to facilitate an internship on auxetic structure fabrication. This is pertinent to my graduate studies. Auxetic materials are special because they have a negative poisson's ratio. That will occupy my mind during the work days to come. Outside of working hours, I will explore the beautiful and storied Great Smoky Mountains. When time allows, I will do a bit of traveling and enjoy the breadth of the region.
Last Saturday, before I started this trip, I attended a wedding. My old friend Eric married his partner and it was a nice ceremony. The weather was perfect. People smiled, cheered, drank, and danced the night away. I had a good time in MI with family. I wish I could stay long enough to clean up all the little messes and fix all the slightly ajar things, but life and career get in the way. so it goes
