Thursday, September 24, 2015

This excuse is for the birds

As I set off on my 22-minute drive to campus 10 minutes before I was due to begin office hours, I prepared the perfect excuse for my lateness: I was unavoidably detained. It's vague enough to cover a variety of delays--speeding ticket, wardrobe malfunction, car breakdown, intestinal distress--but dire enough to deter questioning.

Which is a good thing because I wouldn't want word to get out that what unavoidably detained me was a kingfisher.


I heard him chattering down by the creek this morning and welcomed the sound. Kingfishers have been pretty scarce this season, so I checked the weather and the clock and calculated that I had just enough time to walk the one-hour loop, shower, change, and get to campus in time for my 9:30 office hours (that no one ever attends). But the kingfisher proved flighty so he demanded more time than expected, and then of course I was delayed by a chat with some donkeys, a search for some woodpeckers, and a futile attempt to capture on film the morning sun's rays raising feathers of mist from the neighbor's meadow.

So I was late getting to campus, but I came equipped to work. This is the result of an early-morning walk: some decent photos, a refreshing workout, and a mind brimming with ideas for my stalled writing project. Why don't I do this every day?  

3 comments:

Bardiac said...

Nice pics! Kingfishers are notoriously busy and uncooperative about posing for very long!

Stop all the Complaining said...

Love the bird pictures. Why is it that students don't take advantage of office hours- it cannot be that hard to understand what a great benefit they are and I have to imagine most students can use some advice or guidance on some part of the class. Are students that intimidated/worried they might look stupid- or is merely a matter of laziness? Have you ever given consideration to a policy mandating attendance at office hours at least twice a semester?

Bev said...

Well, I may have engaged in hyperbole when I said no one comes to office hours, but it's true that not many take advantage of the opportunity. I do have required conferences linked to some assignments, which is why I'll have a parade of students in and out of my office next Monday. But nothing like that this week.