Now, I'll grant you that other areas of this fair state, buck up against one river and sliced across by another, have had a far worse time with Old Man Winter than these parts have, but, it's been bad enough. We had another cancelled school day on Wednesday, while all hands were brought to bear on the ice, chipping and treating, chopping and hauling. By today, the powers that be decided it was safe for us to return to school. Of course, when I turned into the relatively ice-covered teacher parking lot this morning at 6am, some dude in a front loader was still pushing chunks of ice around the circle drive that the busses use in the mornings. They finished just under the wire, it looked like.
The break was hardly inconvenient, since we just finished first semester, so today was a brand new day in so many ways. Of course, grades were supposed to be done by Tuesady morning, so that got pushed back a bit. After all, you can't go through life expecting no inconveniences. I mean, without an inconvenience or two every day, we forget to appreciate the conveniences we do have, like electric light and central heating (which we don't always seem to have at school--the heating...they do the electric lights alright).
So, it was good to be back after Winter Break II. If you add up all the days we have had school since December 19, you would come up with a grand total of seven. And three of those were exam days. Crazy. In a good sort of way, I guess.
At this point, we've used all of our built-in snow days, so another major storm will push our end date back. That's never fun. The hardest part, however, might be the fact that the poor kids have to suck it up with no days off until President's Day on February 19. Barring further winter weather, of course. What a travesty. I don't know how some of them are going to make it.
Oh, by the way, the beard is gone. I was getting to know my beard, and my beard me. It was a good beard: kind, warm, and given to engaging bits of contemplative fancy. Sometimes, we talked for hours about absolutely nothing. And, it was great, don't get me wrong. There was an undeniable connection between my beard and me, a connection that was a few millimeters more than skin deep. But, like many relationships begun on a whim, after awhile I just kind of got bored with it. Which begs the question: do I get bored with my regular face? And I guess the answer is yes, or I never would have felt the need to bring a beard into my life to begin with.
1 comment:
What, you think you people have it bad? Try living in what I will grudgingly admit to being the South when we're suffering a ferocious, mammoth winter storm! Today, it actually *snowed*. I mean, can you believe it? And, then there's the awesome substantiality of it all: I'd swear there's like a humongous *inch* of snow if ever there was an inch! You cannot begin to imagine the sheer, slick, blustery travesty of it all: flowers that were beginning to bloom in an otherwise balmy January now dying; a current temperature plummeting to *27 degrees* !!! for goodness' sake; snow- and ice-covered roads, pristine from the complete lack of plowage and smattered whimsically with cars careening every which way; and (related to that last one) drivers who somehow manage to drive *even worse than usual* in the blizzard that is an inch of snow here in the our nation's capital, the capital of the free world, this international city of intrigue and corruption and fabulous restaurants, that somehow suffers from a dearth of snow-coping planfulness and operation.
And me without my extra stock of milk, bread, and TP!
On another topic, didn't your beard also at times engage other bits too, like crumbs and pieces of pepperoni from Shakespeare's pizza, and dribbles of that beer (what was it, Stag?), etc.? Don't forget to include all those glam parts of your time with beard.
If you're seeking further novelty and freshness, go crazy and all out: Wear a goofy hat! Better yet, wear a funny hat and cross the double line!
It's all so out of control I can barely stand it.
Anon AMVB
Post a Comment