Snowman in Relief

The past couple of days have been much warmer than the frigid temperatures we had been experiencing. I went out this afternoon, and when I got home it felt almost balmy at -4°C/25°F. The sun also broke through the clouds that have been predominating, and I decided that it was the perfect day to try to build a snowman.

Out in the backyard, preparing the perfect spot.

However, I discovered that even on a warm day like today, the snow is much too dry to stick together. It's just powder.

On my knees, sunken into the snow.

I was still determined to build a snowman, so I came up with a solution: I found the biggest mound of snow in the backyard, and carved a snowman into it. When I told Jeff about my plan, he asked "like Mount Rushmore?," and on a much less grand scale, that was my intention.

Snowman in Relief

In other exciting news, I got a Segway! I was a bit ambivalent about it, but Jeff argued that if it improved my quality of life even a little bit, we should get it. I got it in time for the start of teaching, and have been riding it to and from classes. It feels a little strange, and I do get a fair number of comments and people asking about it, but so far it also has been helping me save a lot of energy that before was wasted on walking around campus. Last week I was able to come home and use the treadmill after work, or do some Pilates, when before I would have been so tired that I would just sit on the couch. I think the pros clearly outweigh the cons, and I'm sure that people on campus will eventually get used to seeing me on a Segway, so that I won't feel so much like the center of attention wherever I go. I keep forgetting to get a video of me riding, but hopefully I will have something to post here soon!