Second last day of classes this term! I am very excited. Even though for me, classes ended last week, there’s something about the last week of classes that I just love. I think maybe it is because we are coming up on one of my favourite times of work. Winter break and summer break are the best. There are no students around (I don’t begrudge them their time during the year, at all, but it’s so nice to just be able to work and have the hallways and email quiet).
Winter break is when the university turns into a tomb. Most profs have tons of marking to do, and if they have their druthers, they do it at home (possibly with the addition of sherry or whiskey or rum of some kind). I love it because I get so much work done, and there’s a kind of timelessness about it. The normal rhythms of the teaching day have disappeared, leaving this huge expanse of time that is yours to gobble up or dole out however you like.
I almost had my second bike crash this year as I was biking home tonight, I took the route through downtown, as it is a safer bet when roads are kind of greasy. That part was uneventful, but after I struck across the bridge to East City and wove my way down to Roger’s Cove, I had to cross a set of train tracks. I am always a bit leery about crossing tracks, because I have seen at three separate occasions cyclists wiping out on train tracks. Tonight was almost my turn. As I crossed, they must have been slick or something because I got stuck sideways on (around?) one track and caught just enough that I almost slingshotted myself off the bike. Kind of scary at the time but also kind of exhilarating to pull it out without piling.
It was much nicer riding home today than the ride in this morning. The ride in was nice, but boy was it ever cold (-20C or so). I had the worst cold headache from the wind blowing on my face. When I got in to work I noticed my balaclava and the whole front of my jacket were all rimed in frost. Going home was about -11C, with very little wind so it was quite pleasant.
Today was a much better day overall than yesterday. I got a lot of marking done, and had a nice game of magic at lunch with James. I got a lot of things organised off my desk and I am really excited to enter winter break time. I work until the 23rd, so that’s 10 days of glorious productivity there. I have lots on my plate – two articles to work on and send out for publication, some simulation programming models I have to get sorted out, and of course the ever-present marking, and 2 websites to design and implement.