Rain, work, walk

I had intended to drop by my office for just a few minutes, long enough to water my plants and pick up a book or two, but the moment I stepped out the building to head back home, rain started pouring down. Of course I brought an umbrella with me! It's in my car. In fact I think there are two or three umbrellas in my car, which is where I need to be, but I don't care to run out there through the pouring rain with books and a computer in my arms, so I think I'll just sit here for a while and ramble on about what I've been doing.

Not enough is the answer. I haven't been doing enough writing, mowing, walking, cleaning, or anything else of substance for weeks on end. I've finished two and a half syllabi (out of four), and I've organized my dad's upcoming 85th birthday party, and I've mostly finished another annoying little project, but the big things are still looming: revising my journal article and laying some groundwork for my spring 2019 sabbatical. Can't do anything about all that while I'm sitting here waiting for the rain to stop, though, so I may as well think about happier things.

Like the pollinator habitat! This morning I went out to Luke Chute Conservation Area and walked around the pollinator habitat, where the trails wind through tall flowering plants stretching way overhead. I heard a bunch of common yellowthroats and a hawk, saw two hummingbird moths but couldn't get the camera to my face fast enough to take photos, and walked face-first through enough spider webs to make my hair feel shellacked with spider silk. But mostly I enjoyed watching the pollinator habitat do its valuable work: attracting pollinators of all types. I can't identify all the different types of bees I saw but there were bunches of 'em.

Now I hear wet squeaky shoes trekking through the hallways as a bunch of incoming students head for a meeting, and it looks like rain has stopped for now. Time to make a dash for it before it starts up again. I could gripe about having to wait, but at least it gave us a chance to have this little chat. Let's do it again soon.