Kelly in Kansas

We experienced some light snow and freezing rain yesterday - the bulk of the precipitation went north of us. Luckily, the timing is good and won't deter my travel progress the rest of the week.

This is always the time of the semester when it seems as if there is infinity left to deal with in regard to details. I wish the students knew that professors appreciate the endings (and beginnings) as much as they do.

Labels: semester, snow

Our first snow of the season is falling. It's light and won't stay around for long (the ground is probably still too warm) but it's beautiful as it's coming down. So, it's officially the season of winter here after having 80 degree weather only a few weeks ago.

Thanksgiving was a great holiday with the family and also in accomplishing numerous tasks around the farm that I needed help completing. Only the wet weather yesterday slowed us down because it wasn't conducive to getting out the chainsaw.

I have some grading to do before tomorrow as well as some writing but the end of the semester is in sight.

Two football games I watched this week were interesting and spoiled me for watching any the rest of the year - the Arkansas game and the KU/MU game.

Labels: football, snow, Thanksgiving

I headed to the farm and what I initially thought was pieces of hay and other stuff coming from the back of the truck in front of me (who was weaving and driving ten miles an hour under the speed limit - no surprise he was on his phone . . . )and it turned out to be snow. As I turned off the highway to the county gravel road to the farm, I saw a little bit of snow along the side of the road but was surprised as I unloaded some of the small logs I brought from town from the tree I took down there (still cleaning up ice storm damage now that we can get to it) and the snow just kept coming. It's still blowing around outside and looks like it might continue until dark. It will be gone by noon tomorrow. I had thought I wouldn't get to see any more snow this year - except possibly in Denver when we're there for a conference in late April.

I'm still behind on grading that needs to be done before I leave on Wednesday. An afternoon campus email reminds us that mid-term d and f grades are due the 17th so it will give students plenty of time to decide if they want to continue in class. Our students can drop quite late in the semester and many who aren't making As or Bs do.

The major accomplish this morning was going through numerous collections of "stuff" in my office - I can again see my desk and my CDs (data, not music) are primarily in one spot.

I read a recently published organizing book that says clutter means we are too tied to our past. I still like printing out "important stuff" but need to do more database cataloging - esp. so that I can find it again. I'm also in the process of weeding through my various briefcases and backpacks. I'm even going through the recipe books that take up a good third of my kitchen cabinet space - most recipes can be found online except for some longtime favorites from my junior high home ec class and from some high school students when I taught in Carthage.

This is definitely an example of one of my tangent posts . . . .

Labels: clutter, farm, grading, organizing, snow, tangents

Wahoo! It won't stick but it's the pretty flakes. Hopefully it will last more than a few minutes.

Labels: snow

If only all the rain were snow . .. . . . I was able to get some outside work done and also relieve some stress in the process yesterday and this morning . . . until it started sprinkling. I was hoping for one more good snow. What we're getting now is supposed to turn into a wintry mix tomorrow morning. We'll see what the roads are like. I decided to go ahead and stay at the farm and just enjoy the time. I was able to get quite a bit done on one project with only one slow-up before dinner when the internet was out for a little bit. (At least this connection is way more reliable than my Cox cable internet connection in town.)

I'm watching No Reservations on PPV. So far it's a good story. The main character is much like me but even more high strung . . . It would be nice to have a large storage cooler to walk into occasionally.

I changed out the wrong gas (with oil) from the 4 wheeler but still can't get it to start. I'll just have to keep trying and also do some internet searches to see what else I can do to work through the wrong gas. This is the time of year I use it most so it's frustrating - esp. when I'm trying to gather wood to burn - it's good exercise but takes a lot longer without the 4 wheeler.

I'm gradually conditioning myself to not be overwhelmed and the next step is to not let others demand so much of me - I already do that enough to myself. I'm trying to take one project at a time and instead of trying to get everything done every day to concentrate on one or two major tasks and consider anything else a bonus. Then, occasionally there are just catch-up days. I'm not going to volunteer to put together any more programs either. I have one I was asked to join, three I've put together and one at one of our big conferences I was asked to put together to be scholarly and teacher-friendly.

I'm really missing having a dog - esp. now that I'm learning to intersperse downtime as a more regular part of my life (ie not working every evening) but with two meetings so close together at the end of April, I will probably have to wait until then. That will give me a good amount of time to bond before my June meetings. If I don't find the right fit in early May, then I will wait until after I meet with teachers for the ten days in June when we do Kansas City and Chicago - esp. since I don't have someone who can dog sit anymore.

Labels: chicago, conferences, demands, Kansas City, meetings, rain, snow, work

At one point, they predicted an unusual 6-8 inches of snow for us on Thursday. Instead of arriving overnight, the snow really didn't get going until late in the afternoon. It was gorgeous while it lasted. There was just enough snow and melted snow turned into ice on the roads to cancel most schools Friday morning and then the rest of it melted yesterday. I was just thankful I wasn't driving long distances in it and it was beautiful.

I went to the eye doctor yesterday and was quite frustrated when the new tech dialated my eyes a) without telling me and b) when they weren't supposed to be dialated this year. So, the doctor graciously did some of the other tests they normally do when eyes are dialated so that I don't have to have them dialated for several years. However, it still meant I couldn't get much work done yesterday afternoon.

The good news is that the doctor has another option for my problem with the contact solution for soft contacts since using the gas permeable solution didn't work out so well. There are now daily disposable bifocal contacts and, although not cheap, beats having to wear reading glasses with plain contacts.

Now I need to find out where our caucus meetings are on Tuesday.

Labels: caucus, contacts, election, eyes, roads, snow

Some blowing snow was a great backdrop for working on the laptop late this morning and most of the afternoon. I spent some time outside in it rearranging the firewood so none of it was touching the ground anymore. Late this afternoon, I took a walk/jog all the way around the next section (4 miles) to get in just over an hour of exercise in the cold but bright sunshine.

Grading went well today and handling odds and ends seemed to take most of the day - some days are just like that but it all has to be done.

Labels: exercise, grading, snow, walk

I made it out to the farm just in time for it to start really snowing. There's about an inch on the ground and it's melting given the 35-40 degree temperatures. But . . there's more snow expected tonight!

Labels: farm, snow, winter

This puts my long drive on I-40 a couple of weeks ago into perspective. Apparently a pick-up was dodging in and out of traffic in the blowing snow and caused a semi to topple over, blocking 3 lanes. The lack of visibility, not the road conditions, accelerated the pile-up to 50 to 80 vehicles. Cars even crashed into emergency vehicles.

Labels: Amarillo, driving, snow

I arrived back from DC last night and ran into large snowflakes about 30 miles from home. Some folks were being too cautious given the semis that could come up behind us at any time but that was the only real challenge. Not having freezing rain coming down was a definite plus. I think the Tahoe made all the difference - it's heavier than my Explorers were. If I had been driving an Explorer, I'm thinking I probably would have slipped off the road.

I need to finish grading work from this semester. I finished up an OAH newsletter article this morning and then went to Joplin to pick up a Fed Ex package from Santa Fe that required a signature.

Also, a dear friend who is only 40 has been diagnosed with cancer. Luckily, it's small and early . . . . .

More later . . .

Labels: DC, Explorer, snow, Tahoe, weather