Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Dad Loves His Work

Snow overnight but a beautiful spring melt morning and a near-perfect clarity by noon. The meadows were robin-filled on the way to work; the wide river under the bridge was thick and spotted with layover geese. Sun and sparkle and meeting after meeting: things accomplished and good impressions made all day.

It's good to be back, and good, too, to not be teaching any major classes this term, though it was wonderful while it lasted. I've a lot on my proverbial plate and it's stuff I'm hungry for: building the department web page; joining the library leadership team at last; planning and pushing for a schoolwide curriculum in virtual citizenship, directed as faculty as much as the students, so that we might meet in the middle, and evolve, quietly, towards our cultural reality. I'm building group blogs for classes right and left, made a great impression on two deans in less than an hour, and have more instructional classes lined up in the next weeks than I did all last term. So few folks have stepped forward for the upcoming faculty governance elections that I seem to be a shoo-in for reelection, and a subsequent reelection to the committee chairship.

Farm with Willow and Darcie between work and a shake-and-bake dining hall supper. The calf, tied outside the padture fence, lows back at her mother in a deep new tenor. A barn cat rubbed its scarred cheek against my leg before I even heard it mew. The horses bucked at us from behind their wooden slats and startled the baby into short-lived tears, but even manure on my coat and scarf from Willow's babyshoes couldn't spoil the mood.

A week's laundry while the let-lagged Korean kids slept through study hall; later, while I read a tinyprint Sherlock Holmes collection at the duty desk, the house director found more pot and beer bottles in some kid's room than either of us had ever seen in one place. South Park was new and I watched it with the kids, deconstructing out loud to keep it vocational, before sending them off to their rooms for bedprep by eleven.

The slivermoon set by the time I emerged from duty, but the night remained warm enough to walk the dog in my shirtsleeves. In the distant treeline, coyotes barked in mating frenzies. Ten more weeks to summer vacation. Looks like it's gonna be a good stretch for a while.

posted by boyhowdy | 11:59 PM |

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