Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Not Spring Yet

Today was bitterly cold. The high was three, and it was negative one when I drove to campus. And with the windchill it was about negative 3000. Today I had multiple meetings, all in different buildings. So I had to venture outside more than is ideal. There is a slightly cranky mood on campus because it's almost absolute zero outside and it's the last week of the term. But given this, people are holding up pretty well. The two-week break will be a good thing.

In other news, I was talking on the phone today in my office and out of my window I saw a bald eagle fly by. I've seen eagles from campus before, be never one from my window. The eagle was definitely one of the day's highlights.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

maybe my favorite winter term memory of all time was doing some physics homework in TAB early one morning with coffee and a fresh pumpkin chocolate chip muffin, then looking up out toward the snowy ocean and seeing a couple baldies perched in the bare trees. i was stricken; that moment was one of the first in which the specialness of the college experience i was having hit me over the head hard enough that my eyes were opened to it.

heres a pic of a Santa Barbara baldie i took last fall. not great or anything but thought i'd share. http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/2365/p1010228dd4.jpg
hope it warms up! i won't gloat about our current weather or the floral aromas that are permeating our atmosphere.

Dave said...

I think I know the feeling you're talking about. Every now and again the beauty of MDI sneaks up on my and strikes me so powerfully I can almost physically feel it. Seeing an eagle often does it. I used to feel a little weird getting excited about eagles, since they're the US national bird and are associated with nationalism and the ugly side of patriotism--e.g., the department of homeland security's logo. But eagles were seen as speical long before the US came on the scene. And I imagine people will find them inspirational after the US is gone.