Deep breath before the onslaught

With piles of papers to grade and final exams coming in next week, the most productive use of my time this morning would be to pick up the metaphorical red pen and start grading, but instead I think I'll sip tea while looking out the window at birds visiting the feeders. The papers can wait; the birds can't, and neither can the tea.

It's ginger peach tea this morning, mainly because I ran out of my usual chai blend. Every morning I take the chai test--if I can smell my tea, then I don't have Covid--but it works just as well with ginger peach. I'd like to go outside with the camera and see what I can see, but the camera bag is locked in my car and my son has the key (because his car is in the shop and I'm not going anywhere this weekend anyway, so why not?), but he worked late so I doubt that I'll see him or my keys before noon. Meanwhile, I'll sit here and watch. Maybe that hairy woodpecker will come back! And there it is.

Frost on the windows and still some yellow and orange leaves hanging on, especially on the sweet gum. Our little sweet gum is showing signs of splendor but it does not approach the gorgeousness of the tall sweet gum tree in front of my building on campus. Positively awe-inspiring. One of these days mine will be that big and impressive and I only hope I'll still be around to see it. Stayin' alive: it's our new national pastime.

The surge in Covid cases has everyone spooked, so no one complained when I moved all my classes to Zoom yesterday. I'd been struggling half the night with a fall allergy attack that caused sudden bouts of sneezing and coughing, kind of a bad look in the middle of a pandemic. Students seemed relieved to be able to hide behind the mute button, and I don't blame them. This semester has taken a lot out of all of us, and we're all nervous about what campus conditions will be like come January. 

(No coughing at all today, which is a relief. Stayin' alive, stayin' alive...)

Meanwhile, my classes meet one more time on Monday (on Zoom--all on Zoom) and then it's just final exams, one after another for the rest of the week. Monday's classes are all review sessions, and I've already prepared study guides and sample questions; if there's one thing I can do blindfolded with both hands tied behind my back, it's help students review for an exam. So no class-prep stress this weekend.

And then all my finals are being administered online, so technically, I don't even have to set foot on campus next week. As long as I'm available to release the exams and monitor my email in case problems arise, I can spend the rest of the semester sipping tea and watching birds.

An grading papers. At some point I will need to begin the excruciating process of grading (let's count!) 8 presentations, 52 researched essays, and 52 final exams. I'll be walking around blurry-eyed all week, so if I want to see some birds, I'd better do it now. And that woodpecker is back again--stayin' alive, stayin' alive....