Brrr.
We had sunshine on Sunday, and the temperature rose above freezing for the first time in a while. Snow was melting all over the place. But when it got dark on Sunday evening and the temperatures fell below freezing, the snowmelt froze. I took the dog out for a walk and was unpleasantly surprised by the icy patches lurking on sloping driveways.
More snow fell overnight, just enough to make the ice invisible. But it's still there, and still treacherous.
I am committed to commuting on foot but this is not the easiest time of year for it. It may or may not be above zero (Fahrenheit) when I walk to work tomorrow. I may or may not think about moving to New Zealand.
The dog thinks this is a ridiculous state of affairs. Purely preposterous, she says. She does this frenetic Snoopy dance when I try to take her outside in the coldest temperatures, leaping up on her hind legs in an attempt to yank us back inside where it is warm. She will walk with Elwood, but Elwood does not especially want to be the person in charge of dog-walking every time the temperatures dip below 20.
ANYWAY, it is perhaps a little sad that I have turned into a person who writes hundreds of words about the fact that it is cold in winter, but also: brrr.
The temperatures are cold but the bananas are hot this week, very hot indeed. I am back on a three-days-a-week teaching schedule, which is probably my preference. But I am thinking anew about teaching and energy outlay.
I am a high-energy instructor; my students generally describe me as enthusiastic and funny. My watch records most of my time in the classroom as exercise minutes. Yesterday I returned to my office after class and thought, "Huh, I am physically tired." Some of it might be that I just had a deliciously quiet winter break, in which I read a whole slew of books while curled up on the couch with the dog. Some of it might also be that I could reasonably approach the classroom with less intensity. Would it make a difference, either for my students or for me? Hard to say.
For years now I have said that I need some kind of structured transition out of teaching mode and into office mode, because it's [first world problem alert] difficult for me to shift my focus that way. I think I need some kind of signal to myself that says "all done teaching; let it all go" and some kind of task planning strategy that lets me tackle something easy and pleasant as a way back into sitting at my desk and being productive.
This semester I'm doing something I've thought about for a while: I'm trying a free service from the university's wellness office. I'm meeting with a coach on Thursday to talk about my life and my habits and things I might like to change. I had initially thought it would be focused on physical well-being -- food and exercise -- but the intake questionnaires make it seem like she's going to be perfectly happy to talk about workplace habits too. We shall see, I guess.
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