sawdust

Funniest moment from this past week: I walk into the front room of the house, and looking out the big windows facing due north, I see this really big cat on the front sidewalk. I'm familiar with most of our feline prowlers--there's a tuxedo cat, a ginger cat, and a white longhair--but this one was a grey tabby with white socks and a white patch on his chest. I say, "hey! look! There's a cat out front! He looks like he could be Simon!" *pause* "Oh, wait . . . that IS Simon." It's a bit odd to look at your own cat as if he were a stranger. As my wife often says, "stupid cat."

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This is where we are: we get two inches of snow & ice, and the University can't make up its mind about when or how to call classes. Our neighbor, bless her soul, suggests that we get gas logs for emergency heat. We have no chimney, nor a place to put a fireplace. Her response: "just stick it in a corner!" Ah, of course. Our other neighbors have orange "T" reflectors at the end of their driveway.

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The snow/ice and its attendant scheduling snafu helped make the week especially strange. You probably have felt like this too: you keep waiting for things to "settle down," for the chance to catch your breath and feel like you can prepare for what comes next rather than react to it. I know things will change one way or another, but it has been hard to stay afloat this week, at least work-wise.

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It doesn't help that I'm extremely distracted, scatterbrained, unfocused, scattered, smothered, and covered. I think it's a result of pharmaceuticals. Or hash browns.

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This is an extremely sad weekend in some ways. Superbowl Sunday represents the true, final end of football season, which means no more good tv sports until August. I know, I know, MARCH MADNESS. Sorry: never been a fan of college basketball on TV. In many circles, to say this is heresy, as is not participating in a pool. Don't care--none of that for me.

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Readings this week have included Chaucer, Donne, and More. The Donne, while in some ways most intellectually stimulating, proved the hardest to teach. I think the students felt he was pretty hard to read, too. Chaucer always gives me fits, because I never feel like I really "get" it entirely. I keep to a pretty well-worn path which, although fun, isn't particularly interesting or innovative. More is in some ways the easiest to teach, because Utopia so clearly sets up a number of issues and gains interest because of the memorable details.

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I'd love to have 3-4 hours to sit down and read.

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So much to think about, so much to think about.