Martin Luther King Day

Two words for the weather today: clear and cold. Here is the weather station when I got up at 5:00. Note the sad face which goes with the low humidity. Note also that it was chilly in the kitchen until the furnace got geared up for the day.

The weather station was sad today

Nothing to be done but make a nice bowl of hot oatmeal. I put in some dried apples that I made last fall along with raisins that came from a much warmer place.

Oatmeal for breakfast

I had Martin Luther King Day off for the first time since I was a Federal employee. Frankly, I think Dr. King would have wanted us to be in school. It is hard to argue with a 3-day weekend, but having this Monday off means that the class schedule will end with Monday right up to Finals week.

Classes start tomorrow. I am in my usual I-don’t-want-to-go-back-to-work funk. I love my job. I am one of the truly fortunate persons who can make a decent living pursuing my passion. I might even change a life or two in the next 16 weeks. What I don’t like is rushing around in the morning. I like to lie in bed for a little while before getting up. I like to sit down in my jammies and have a cup of tea before I start my day. I like wearing sweats instead of teacher clothes. I like doing my little writing projects, feeding the chickens in the daylight, putzing in the kitchen.

Tonight I will pack my lunch and lay out my clothes, hoping that the pants will still fit after 5 weeks on holiday. I’ll get right up when the alarm goes off tomorrow morning, unload the dishwasher, exercise, do the chicken chores in the dark, take a shower, eat breakfast, brush my teeth, and head out into the cold world with a pint of tea in a sippy cup. Rush, rush, rush.

Yet every semester goes faster than the one before it. In the blink on an eye, it will be May and time to plant potatoes. We’ll get though another winter somehow.