Big Snow

 

Not long after I wrote yesterday, I went home to take my dog to her Veterinary appointment.   Her appointment was successful. As she is a terrier breed, she displays unbounded energy and excitement in "new to her" venues.  And, since she had not been to the Veterinarian's Office in a while.... it was a definite "new to her" experience.  She acted completely crazy and barked and sniffed around like usual at these visits.  I always apologize to the Veterinarians because of her intensity while there, explaining that she is very much more well-behaved at home.  They usually laugh and say it is just the nature of her breed.  At the Veterinarian's office, she unfortunately had to receive FOUR shots and also had a single blood draw as well.  Today, because my wife did not have to work, our dog is resting with my wife who is monitoring her responses today. 

Now that classwork is done, I am going to spend the latter part of the day immersed in my computer, trying to get all sorts of things ready for upcoming exams, writing some abstracts for talks I propose to give at future research meetings, some grading, and some classroom development of my lectures in my upper division class.  I am hoping for a very productive afternoon.   

It is just starting to snow as I look out the window of my office.  I am in my "back office" where folks cannot usually disturb me, surrounded by an array of comfortable items.  I have my office pipe rack with its dozen or so pipes to glance at, and I have already opened a pouch of one of my aromatic pipe tobaccos, one with an ESPECIALLY pleasant aroma.  Since I already ate all my food and drank my huge iced coffee before heading to lecture this morning, I splurged on the way back to my office and bought a large fountain drink from the cafeteria I passed by as I traveled across campus.  I filled the cup with ice and diet Dr. Pepper.   

* * * * *

• I had a bit of extra time this morning as my earliest class did not meet due to a large percentage of students needing to attend a "special session" of some sort related to their major.... so I cancelled the class for the others to keep everyone on track.  
• With my extra time, I was able to hoof out 15 miles (~24 km) on the track this morning.  I did this purposefully.
• We are still anticipated to have a quite significant ice/snow storm from this afternoon through tomorrow.  Newest estimates suggest a potential of ~12 inches (~30cm) of snow.  If that prediction proves accurate, there is also a potential that the U may close on Thursday.  When I leave for the day today, I will be carting home a big knapsack of work I can potentially do at home if this does occur.  However, truth-be-told, I often DOUBT the predictions by many of the local meteorologists who seem to relish predicting worse case scenarios that usually do not occur. 
• The extra miles I ran help keep me relatively on track with my weekly mileage goal IN CASE I am unable to figure out a way to get to the community track tomorrow morning.... or even more worrisome... if it closes for the day.  
• I am currently soaking two pounds of dry beans at home (this time it is a mix of black beans and pinto beans).  Tonight I will divide these soaked beans into two crock pots, add my "secret" blend of spices (including curry, pepper, ginger, allspice, paprika, and an array of others I cannot think of at the moment) and throw in a can of either diced peaches or diced mango and let it cook overnight and through much of the day tomorrow.  Some of these beans will be used for nachos we will have for dinner on Thursday... the rest I will store and freeze in single serving sizes for when I may want a quick serving of these wonderful beans in the future.  
• PCS = 8 (again).  But, the beautiful aroma of the pouch of pipe tobacco is helping to reduce slightly my cravings.  It used to be so wonderful to not have to think/reason through/contemplate my pipes as I do now.  It used to be so wonderful to just "at a moment's notice" simply pick up a pipe, fill the bowl, ignite the leaf with  my trusty Zippo.... and enjoy.   
• Today, being Ash Wednesday, my wife and I plan to attend the evening service to receive ashes.  During  my run today, I was listening to a Capuchin homily about how to better think about and live a life of humility.  The homily helped me to recognize another set of my own personal failings and short-comings.  It has given me a lot of food for thought today.

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