it’s the most wonderful time of the year

You’ll notice the light posting over the past week. The two weeks or so before the semester begins are some of my busiest ones of the year. I’ve been working long days and on my days off to get everything done in time. Oh, did I mention the semester starts on Tuesday? Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which is this Monday, is a holiday for everyone at the university. All the offices are closed. I’ll have a day to rest and recoup before it really gets busy.

Anyway, enough about business. I’m here in my office looking out the window, enjoying the clear sky and the sunshine. Clear skies are rare this time of year, so it’s a wonderful thing to see the sun. It hit 40 degrees yesterday or nearly so, and we’ve lost most of our snow.

This is Iowa, of course, and the important thing about Monday besides being MLK Day is that it’s the Iowa Caucuses, where we get to decide who we like best among the Democractic presidential candidates and set the tone for the rest of the election. I was driving up highway 6 last night and passed John Kerry’s bus on the road. The candidates (except for Wesley Clark and Lieberman) have been criss-crossing the state, making their message(s) known. My friend J. says she’s voting for Kerry, and he may be a good choice. But I’m partial to [***], and of course I don’t tell strangers who I vote for. People around here would call that Midwestern modesty. To me it’s called “it’s-none-of-your-business.” At any rate, the only thing I do say publicly is I definitely did not vote for the guy who’s in office now. Update: As I’ve revealed in a later post, I did support Kerry in the caucus tonight. But given the choices available, I’m comfortable with that.