I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but it’s pretty cold outside.

Schools have been closed for two days just because of the frigid temperatures. Today we got a couple of inches of snow dumped on us, and it was the kind of snow that was impossible to get rid of: every time I cleared our sidewalks, within minutes the strong wind would blow all of the snow right back into place, in these long, elegant, sloping drifts. I was Sisyphus with a shovel.

Roo loves the snow, but she hates the cold. It might have to do with the fact that when it’s this cold out, I make her wear her jacket and little booties. Otherwise she gets salt all up in her paws and limps around. She’s only got three legs to begin with, so I don’t want to give her any extra trouble. Even though I explain this to her, she is still unhappy with me.

Why do you do this to me?

I will show you my dissatisfaction by running. Ready…set…

GO!

And…she’s outta here

Other than hating the cold, Roo and I have been doing a lot of nothing. After the semester ended in December, I scheduled a couple of “do-nothing” days for myself, and on these two days Roo and I took walks, watched an absurd amount of Doctor Who, and took more naps than is necessary for someone whose days consist of watching Doctor Who and talking to her dog about why there are still so many geese hanging around (thank you to my friend Lisa C., for first bringing this to my attention).

Thankfully, the holidays took me out of that amazingly brain-dead routine and gave me something to do. T. took the week off between Christmas and New Years, and we had some really nice celebrations–we saw both families, exchanged gifts (we both got a lot of books!), watched movies, played Call of Duty (Trevor), and started to knit a purple blanket (Roo [j.k. that was Trevor (j.k. that was me)]).

And now, with a mere nine days until classes start up again for the spring semester, I’ve started to use my brain more, bit by bit. I’ve finished my syllabus, worked on a presentation that I gave this morning for the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce, and read some books. Come Monday I’ll be back on campus to get everything else ready for my back-to-school trainings with our three new faculty members on Wednesday. And hopefully I’ll have time to watch a few more episodes of the Doctor.

Stay warm, people. Get some booties on your feet.