Day 4 - 79 -- The Transition Begins

Spring officially arrived this morning just when the snow seemed to change to misty rain. I shoveled for an hour to move the 6-8 inches of snow to form a walkway to the street and clear off the porches and stairs. The day remained gray until after 5 PM when the sun came out for a short while before setting. By then I was pushing back and removing the last piles of snow from behind the car once a kind soul with a truck and plow blade did the heavy lifting for me. This morning the sidewalk and street plows had left piles above my knees filled with chunks of ice. I'd decided it would be way to heavy to move it myself so had left it behind me.

The campus had a delayed start today, opening at noon. One of my three classes was at noon and seminar was after that, so half of the class gatherings were able to occur. The other two courses are short yet another day. When there are only 9 lectures left every minute counts. For the two this morning, one will work reasonably, while the other will be difficult to hit on all the points planned and expected. There will need to be some judicious editing of content given that 3 lectures --a full week of content time -- have been missed due to weather closings. It is like dancing a tightrope at this point in the term. Even without missing lecture days, material doesn't always fit the time as planned. Very intricate steps are involved to massage things into the remaining time. I have refused to be 'that' professor who notes that time won't allow lectures on a chapter or topic, but then tells students that they are responsible for the material for the final exam -- leaving them with readings to teach themselves -- just not where I feel anyone should go with a course. So - I try to choose the key points from that chapter and spend at least part of a lecture on it. All I can say is that for this one course that will be very challenging <smile>.

Feeling a bit anxious about the disappearing time, I felt a soothing song was in order today. This one is a wonderful instrumental with an acoustic guitar. It is one of the 'close your eyes and relax' songs sometimes featured here. Enjoy!

Late Winter Early Spring -- John Denver