February chill

 

February arrived, in the wake of January, chilly and snowy, leading the dogs to regularly "enfort" themselves among the sofa's cushions in search of more warmth. So far, in Ohio, we've had more snow than all of last year's winter put together. Recently, we had several straight days of snow or rain so that a sunny day today is a real treat.

Also recently, a neighbor walked her dog Mikey over here and Lizzy and he had a great time chasing each other around the yard until he tried to sniff her butt and Lizzy objected, the snarly dog way, and then they went their separate ways in the yard. The neighbor said she'd bring Mikey back and since he's so good natured maybe she'll get a playmate (but no one will ever replace her best friend, the black lab Pepper, who's still back in the town near my small college on the hill).

Some nights the temperatures have dipped into the teens so we've been trying to help the wildbirds and other wildlife out there by placing half-oranges on our main backyard tree and it seems to be a hit. We didn't know that squirrels will actually eat the whole orange, peel and all!

My husband and I are both very glad that winter is winding down, though it's not letting up, and that February is only 28 days this year. After considering a trip to Puerto Rico in March, as usual, we've decided that we'll probably stay here for Spring Break to enjoy a staycation during better weather now that there's so much more we can do from our new old home.

At school, everything is marching well, thankfully. I have two good groups and the work is decidedly manageable as opposed to the feeling of being overwhelmed, which was the norm last semester. Really, whoever says that college professors don't work enough is an ignorant fool. There well may be universities and colleges that are paying professors to do little or no work but that's not the case at my small college on the hill.

For the junior faculty and even for those who are tenured sometimes it can feel like it's a 24/7 job with a break here and there, if you're lucky (and very disciplined). Because it's not just the time in class or in office hours, there's also all the grading (the students must produce work that can be assessed and returned to them so they do learn), the preparation time and the research/scholarship time, the department/college meetings and the preparing for meetings, the department/college events and activities, and all the additional meetings and communications with students. I heard that at my small college on the hill the tour guides will boast that professors offer 20 hours a week of office hours. I thought that was preposterous until I started thinking about my own contact time with students, including emails and Skyping when I'm not on campus, and it didn't seem too off mark, especially in the semester when I have nearly 50 students and 20 advisees. I cannot and don't complain, because I have the privilege to love what I do and do what I love, but anyone who says teachers are "spoiled" or "lazy" doesn't know what they're talking about.

This semester, thankfully, as I've already mentioned, I've rediscovered the pleasure of having (like when I used to have a 9-5 job) unscripted time and it's a great feeling. I'm making progress through Cloud Atlas as my bedtime reading and have even started, again, on War and Peace. My husband calculated that if I can read about one or two pages a night of the almost 1,000 pages of that novel, I may finish it in a year and a half. Here's to having 18 months of good reading. In any case, I definitely plan to enjoy the ability to read something other than class-related books while  it lasts.

(I have to say, however, that I'm loving the ability to re-read Hawthorne since I'm teaching my senior single-author seminar on his work this semester. Next week we start The Scarlet Letter and I can't wait! I know, I know. I'm a nerd.)