This picture shows what we see out our window this morning. Our grass is actually turning green under the snow, which fell last night. We expect a high of 61°F tomorrow and the snow will melt.
Sure, you can say we are idiots to live at this latitude when there are much warmer temperatures at lots of places right here in our country. We have spent time in Alabama, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California and we have friends in those places who tell us how to be smarter weather-wise. We did get to central California in January and we were in southern and central Florida for a few days in the January before that.
We moved here about 45 years ago purposely. It is a small city in a good state with an excellent heritage in education. My subject is education and educational research and I was able to teach that and other subjects of interest. Over time, our family has grown here, and we have many friends here. We know the people, the services, the locations. You may remember that when Lynn completed her PhD at UW-Madison, we tried moving to another community about 120 miles away. But we missed the upbeat atmosphere and the attitudes on the UW- Stevens Point campus and moved back.
I did come here years ago in April to look the campus and the town over and was very taken with it. It is not unusual for academics to keep an eye on other possibilities for better weather, higher salary or more fame and opportunity. The book by David Lodge called "Small World" gives a good picture of the life of an academic god, held in very high esteem by a small number of experts who treasure you and your work while the rest of the world has no clue as to anything special about you. The series by Alexander McCall Smith relates the misadventures of Herr Prof. Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, author of the highly respected text (by a few who care) of "Portuguese Irregular Verbs." But every other time, we had reason to think about moving, we considered and stayed.
My visit must have been late April since the weather was uplifting, warm, sunny - picture perfect. I adored the weather but never thought to ask how much of the year is like that.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
