Only Wednesday? How can this be?!
The end of classes means the end of time, or the end of my constant awareness of time. I spent an hour in the cool of the morning wrasslin' with the weed-whacker and came inside feeling like I'd done a day's work, but here I have the whole rest of a Wednesday to fill up however I like. Think of the possibilities! I could buy paint for the living room, clean the hall closets, read a good book--or, more likely, catch up on email and read a bunch of files to prepare for tomorrow's assessment meeting.
The weed-whacking was a pain, literally--I had to work around flood debris and lingering muddy spots and ended up with a massive blister that burst as I was carrying the weed-whacker back up the hill. Another sign of the end of time: a yard-work-related injury. It'll heal. So will the lawn, eventually. A little flood damage is not the end of the world.
Yesterday I applauded another kind of ending: celebrating some retirements. One long-time colleague spoke of her delight in seeking new adventures, and she's just the type to keep adventuring until there are no more adventures left. This, I think, is the reason I have trouble seeing beyond retirement: I can't envision what new adventures might be out there beyond the classroom. I realize that this is a failure of imagination, so I'd better get the imagination cranked up before it gets too decrepit to do the work.
But first, I'll start by imagining my summer break. Surely I'll do something more significant than weed-whacking and wildflower walks and forgetting that it's Wednesday, but at the moment, that's about all I can manage.
Here are some pictures from yesterday's walk.
Eight or ten turkey vultures were hovering overhead along the creek.
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| Brand-new oak leaves emerging. |
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| Buckeye blossoms! |
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| Our creek looks so harmless when it's not in flood stage. |
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| Blue-eyed Mary. |
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| Green valerian, maybe? |
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| Stonecrop. |
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| Perfoliate bellwort. |
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| My first rhododendron blossom! |
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