Just kill me now. I didn’t want to come to work this ayem. The county roads were icy and, even if I weren’t worried about sliding off the road, I would’ve been worried about random asswagons committing random acts of asswagonry. I was not disappointed. When I turned off HWY 46 onto Arlington Road (from 4-lane highway to 2-lane road), some jerk decided to try turning left at the same time. I looked up and saw that there was a car to my right. Now, I’m not a brilliant physicist, but I do recall that there is a law stating that two masses cannot occupy the same space at the same time. I braked and let the Mr. Asshat get in front of me. I’m not in a big enough hurry to get to work that I’m willing to get involved in a game of dueling sub-compacts with an uberasshole.
Then, because a 45 minute white knuckle drive wasn’t exciting enough, I got to work and the network was down. God clearly hates me. Because the network is down, everyone is milling about and chit-chatting. There isn’t really any work we can do, and staring at the ceiling is boring, so that leaves talking. One woman has been on the phone for over an hour, whinging about her family problems. The phone is rightbehindmydesk. I’m stuck eavesdropping on what is turning out to be a very private converstation. I am not amused. I resent having to listen to her tale of woe. And, so much for anyone else who needs to use the phone or any incoming calls. Sheesh! On the bright side, I stayed home yesterday and got a lot done. I thought briefly about going back to bed, but decided I should make the most of my unplanned day off. I did a little arting and scanned and uploaded what I’d done, I worked for awhile on the Dada Book, and I transcribed some more letters.
About those letters. Oh my. When I first started this project, I didn’t realize there were so many rough drafts of Esther’s replies (so far exclusively to Richard) included in the envelopes. I’m grateful that she was so organized. However, the replies themselves are difficult to read. Because they are rough drafts, there are numerous cross-outs and insertions. The punctuation and spelling are not as careful as they likely would’ve been in the finished drafts. They were written in pencil on cheap, pulpy tablet paper, often on the backs of school lessons. The pencil has faded and the paper has darkened. The paper is also extremely brittle, so unfolding and refolding it is tricky. All this makes for slow going in the transcription department.
I did a little more digging and came up with an old post to a geneology group from someone looking for information on Esther’s brother, Clark Munro. The poster’s e-mail address is no longer active, so I can’t contact her directly, but I left a reply. Hopefully she’ll check back.
The pièce de résistance was finally locating a bundle of letters written after Esther married. I now have her husband’s name: Robert H. Cooper. I did some quick Googling and found that he taught at Ball State University. The Cooper Science Building was named for him. I’ve spent an awful lot of time in that building. It’s funny how the threads of different lives become interwoven.
Dr. Cooper was a conservationist. The regional chapter of the Audubon Society was named after him and one of it’s most prestigious awards after him and his wife. Ball State University has also named an award in honor of the couple, as well as one of the its field sciences study areas.
red paper boat 
