Winter has arrived

In the last week, we have made the sudden transition from fall to winter. The temperature is very unlikely to get above freezing until March or April, and we've had a bit of snow in the past week to make the transition completely unambiguous. We are having to remember rituals like wearing boots and bringing shoes to work, stripping off snowy outerwear by the front door, and parking in the garage. It takes a bit of effort to resurrect those patterns that were completely automatic only a few months ago, but which we happily forgot as soon as the snow melted.

It is very busy with the approaching end of semester, and my first time writing letters for students applying to graduate school. It is an incredibly involved and complicated process, and I feel like I need to go back and give my graduate school letter writers some kind of seriously nice gift. In addition, there are plenty of scholarship and grant applications that students need letters for. I am realizing that this letter writing business will only get worse every year, as I have more undergraduate and graduate students pass through my lab, sit on more committees, and accumulate a trail of former students who will need letters for many years to come for various things. I always knew that this was a thing that academics had to budget time for, but I am only now beginning to understand the extent to which it is a part of this job. I am certain that next semester will be less busy, at least at the end of the term, because no one will need letters.

Yesterday was exciting in that we nabbed a free recumbent exercise bike that a retiring professor was giving away. Jeff happened to be checking his email right when the email was sent with the free offer, so we talked about it for about thirty seconds and then called the owner, found a guy with a truck who could go get it, and within half an hour we were the new owners of a pretty nice exercise bike.

Last winter we purchased a used treadmill, and it has turned out to be not as great a purchase as I had hoped. I had expectations of being able to run on the treadmill, or at least walk on the treadmill, with relative ease by the time summer hit. Unfortunately this did not happen, and the treadmill has largely languished in the basement. Whenever I go to the gym I usually do a stint on a stationary recumbent bike for cardio exercise, but getting to the gym can be kind of hassle. So now we have a bike in the basement, and it's no big deal if I only have half an hour, because that's enough time to get a twenty minute cardio workout and do a bit of stretching. It might be better to work out for longer, but it's definitely better to work out a little than not at all, and my trips to the gym have been relatively few and far between lately (besides my yoga class, which I attend every week).

So the treadmill is going. I still can't keep an even pace, and I still need to stagger a little bit from side to side when I walk. Running is still very experimental, and I need to be in control of pacing, timing, and space. With all those constraints, solid ground is much more appropriate. So if you happen to know someone in Regina who needs a used treadmill, give them our number :-)