All Teaching and no Writing makes Jack a dull boy.

[Wahoo Redux]

We may actually have the inklings of a writing group forming!  However, our first assignment together was the application materials of the founding member for a job far from our uni.  We were very insightful.   So we may have just hired our writing group out.

It is possible that a research-active colleague could take over, but I imagine any changes to expectations would come with howls of outrage.

A generation turnover might be just the thing-----but the administration is letting the lines die one by one whenever someone gets another job or retires. 

Here's hoping and thanks for the good ideas.

[larryc]

I had your job for a dozen years. I was happy, but then I usually am. My wife got a high school teaching job. We did epic road trips in the summer. We wrote grants that funded additional research/fun trips.

And I was oh so ready to leave. We'd talk about where we'd go when we retired and it sure was not there. Lightning struck and I landed a much better job in my favorite city.

But that was a fluke. My plan if we'd stayed was to teach more online, build relationships with better schools in the region to teach the odd grad seminar. We were about to buy a house with a big shop I would have turned into a woodworking workshop.

There are a lot of good things about your situation, and you're making a difference in the world. Few of us end up in the kinds of places we envisioned in grad school. Most of us find happiness anyway. Best of luck.