The Elements

When the days grow shorter and colder, it is so easy to burrow in, snuggle up, and hunker down. Working from home? There is very little reason to leave the comfort of my warm house, and quickly those instincts start to become habit. Fortunately, we have to get Lucy from her dog walker every afternoon, and at 3 miles round trip, walking over there and back offers a modicum of activity. 

Even so, when temperatures hit the low 60s over the weekend and sunny, springlike days beckoned me out of my lair, without necessity, I resisted and stayed in baking cookies and decorating my tree. Often the contrarian, this morning I woke with conviction to exercise outside, and the cold driving rain would not dissuade me. 

In need of a shower anyway, I dressed in some tights and a pullover and, leaving my phone behind so it would not get drenched, I shoved a cap on my head and ventured out. We were under a flood watch at the time, and at first I tried to avoid the wide puddles and gushing gutters, but as I got going, it was kind of exhilarating to plunge my feet into icy water even as I was sweating beneath my dripping clothes. 

And half an hour later when I returned home, breathless and sodden, I did not feel like curling up or nestling in. I did eat a cookie, though!

No More Gnomes

When we were shopping for new furniture a year or so ago, Heidi told me in no uncertain terms that we could not buy a white leather couch, no matter how much we liked it in the showroom. "Babe!" she said. "White couches are for old ladies. That's not us."

I thought of that conversation today when we purchased a stuffed winter gnome to join the two I inherited from my mother. Those holiday fellows were just a little too appealing to me to leave to the consignment, and when we opened their box with my mom's handwriting on it a couple of weeks ago, I knew the perfect place for them. Currently, they survey the living room from atop the bookshelf. The new gnome in his gray flannel and buffalo checks is a perfect compatriot for them; he fills the gap up there we never knew we had, and three is a pleasing arrangement. 

While shopping, I was appalled to see Valentine's Day decor liberally included in the already clearance-priced Christmasware, but Heidi was transfixed by the pink Valentine gnome and his leftover autumn gnome brother. "We should get a gnome for every season!" she said, a proposal I immediately vetoed.

"You sound like an old lady!" I told her. 

"Maybe," she shrugged, "but I don't even care!"

"You must see our gnome collection!" I added in a warbly fake elder voice. "It's adorable."

She shrugged again. "It would be!"

In Sight

I misplaced my reading glasses earlier in the week, which is strange, because my world is so very small-- I haven't been anywhere recently besides over to the dog walker to pick up Lucy each evening. Even so, they were gone, disappeared, nowhere to be found in this little condo despite an exhaustive search of the few possibilities. 

Oh, I muddled through, most people of my age have learned to strew their cheaters about, placing a pair of spectacles within easy reach of any location where they may be required. So, yeah, I have extra reading glasses in the kitchen, by my favorite seats in the living room, in the bedside table, and, of course, in the bathrooms. Even so, I missed my Peepers, the ones I purchased because Oprah recommended them, and whose heavy blue frames provided just the right balance of gravitas and levity to my on-camera teaching persona.

So you can imagine how happy I was to hear Heidi call down to me this morning: "I found your glasses!"

"Where were they?" I asked joyfully.

"In the washing machine," she reported.

Now, there's a place I don't usually keep reading glasses, but? Maybe?

Oh Snap

MS Teams recently rolled out an update that allows the meeting organizer, aka the teacher, to open breakout rooms and automatically send participants to work there. It's kind of a nifty feature, you can quickly organize and supervise group work, almost like being in a classroom. There is also a general broadcast that posts messages to all the chats, which is also very handy. 

Of course, I immediately integrated the new feature into my lesson-- I feel certain that many kids really miss the self-direction and interaction that cooperative work offers. Popping in and out of the breakout groups validated my sense, most groups quickly overcame their initial shyness and got to work on the task at hand. 

Perhaps the coolest thing about the breakout room, though, is the ability to close all the rooms with a single tap, bringing your participants right back to the main meeting in an instant. Today as all the little glowing circles rematerialized on my screen, there was almost a collective gasp as several kids unmuted at once. "Wow!" one student said. "That was so weird! I felt like I actually went some place else!"

"I know! Cool right?" I answered.

"It was like the Avengers," another student added. "You have the Thanos snap!" 

"But I brought you back!" I said. "I am Iron Teacher!"

Dynamic Group

My homeroom was very engaged in the library scavenger hunt activity that was scheduled for today. Once I made sure they had the right app downloaded and opened, I shared my screen and we used the chat for them to post the answers they found to the 7 questions so I could type them into the challenge.

We had to use the chat because so many were excitedly yelling answers that I couldn't hear them. When we had successfully unlocked the final padlock and our finish time was displayed, I entered it into a google form to see how we stacked up to the other homeroom groups. "I did it!" I reported as I clicked submit.

"You didn't do anything!" one student said indignantly. "You just typed! We did all the work!"

"I know," I agreed, "I meant I submitted the form."

"Ohhh," he said without apology.

"What do we win if we got the best time?" asked another student.

"Um, bragging rights?" I answered. "They'll say our homeroom on the announcements."

"That's your name!" said the first kid.

I shrugged. "The gift of knowledge, then? A skill you need to be a good student?" I suggested, but they were jokingly grumbling and playing up their disgruntlement.

"Well," I finally said, "how about the gift of lunch 5 minutes early?"

With a cheer, their circles blinked out one by one, and I chuckled as I ended the call. 

*

Tonight, with my lessons planned for the next 2 days, I am within just a couple of plans of winter break, which begins at the end of classes a week from Friday. As much as I am looking forward to rest and relaxation and time away from the screens that comprise my professional life right now, I wonder what this holiday will be like. 

All my life I have enjoyed Christmas with the family I was born to; in fact, over the years I have traveled many miles, even on Christmas Day, to do so. When I was in high school, I flew home to Saudi Arabia from Switzerland, in college it was an even longer trip from Hamilton, NY. In recent years, I have driven or flown from Buffalo, NY to Washington or Atlanta. But every hour in the air or on the road has been worth the comfort and joy of the company of my parents, while they were alive, and my brother and sister. We've never missed Christmas together.

But this year?

Nope.

It makes me so sad, but we have promised each other that we will gather again as soon as it is safe, and in fact we are even holding our gift exchange until then. So, Christmas will come, and then perhaps? It will come again.

After all, 58 years is a good streak! And I plan to continue it, with an asterisk by 2020, of course.

Getting Warmer

For the attendance chat snap today I asked my students if they would rather be too hot or too cold. With only about 60% reporting (block scheduling!) the results are 32 cold to 15 hot. It was not what I would have predicted; in the past, most of my students have been heat seekers. "Maybe since it's just the beginning of winter, people are feeling kindly about the cold?" I suggested to my co-teacher. "If we ask again in March, will they be wishing for warmer days?"

But on this cold night, we are having a warm and homey dish of lentils, rice, and smoked sausage along with some homemade sourdough bread and a salad for dinner tonight. It's the salad that takes a star turn here, but mostly because of a supporting member. The tomato wedges that accompany the arugula, watermelon radish and olives are among the last from our garden. That's right! On December 8, we still have a couple quarts of homegrown tomatoes.

And just the other night on a FaceTime call with my brother and sister, Bill filled us in on a few of the many wonders he and Emily have observed in their Covid quest to walk every single street of our fair county. Among the unexpected charms, they have also lately seen daffodils, forsythia blooming, and cherry blossoms. "It's disturbing," my brother shook his head. "It's hard to shake the feeling that something is very wrong with the planet."