The unexpected

It has been a very long time between posts. Work is taking me longer to complete than it used to, and there certainly is no less of it, since our department is down two entire faculty members. To be fair, enrollment is also down, and so is the number of class sections, but my four classes started out full--two of them, even oversubscribed--and are still reasonably so. Job security is a very good thing, but ninety students in writing-intensive classes--plus two student organizations, three committees, and a new task reorganizing the college's international offerings--take up a lot of one's time. At least the classes are full of interesting people with compelling stories to tell.

Winter Storm Jonas was not unexpected, having been all over the news for days, but I was not expecting the amount of shoveling required around our majorly downsized abode. Having lived for six years in a place with no sidewalks, I had forgotten how much walkway surrounds a corner lot.

This is just a tiny segment between the main sidewalk and Street #1. We had sixty feet in each direction plus a driveway still to do. But hey, it's cardio, right?

When the snow finally melted and I could get out for an actual walk by the river (which featured quite the skim of ice even then), I was surprised by a possum waddling through a yard at 3:00 in the afternoon. Our resident marsupials generally come out at night, but it turns out that they, like humans, take advantage of warmer temperatures for foraging. Our nights have been cold.

But today brought this sighting at the edge of the driveway.

 In the years that I have been documenting such things, this is the earliest crocus I remember: a welcome sight, but perhaps a sign of trouble to come?