Everything is coming due for my students, so my full time job is, this week, more than a full time job. One class submitted their finals yesterday. At midnight my other classes submitted some important work, a draft of their social media audits. The final is due next week. It’s a tight turnaround for some. If you’re on the right path, it’s just a few corrections or tweaks here or there. If you’re going the wrong way, there’s a fair amount of work to be done to get on the right track before next week’s final submission. I don’t envy them that, but the schedule is the schedule, and out of my hands.

What I can do, however, is get them feedback with time to spare. My goal is to get all of that in their hands by Thursday, because the final project is due next Monday night. Also, their final exam looms on the same schedule. A lot happens late in that course, and it’s an excellent primer for people headed into fast-paced working environments, but it can be a lot. So I am reading quickly, typing furiously, and then holding Zoom meetings about it with students who are interested.

Zoom meetings that students ask for, most of whom don’t turn on the video function of Zoom. So it is a phone call. How do I know? Because I’ve made phone calls before. (Haha, he’s old! — editor) Also, because they’re often doing that on their phone … except I’m on video … and that’s tiresome to contemplate.

Anyway, let’s quickly fill the space with the site’s most popular feature, our weekly check in on the kitties.

I invite you to take a moment to just look at this face. Fall into those deep swirling eyes and contemplate the vastness and the minuteness of the universe. And also the mischief he is dreaming up.

I tell him all the time, “It is a good thing you’re so charming, Poseidon. You should spend more time on that, as opposed to causing trouble.”

Because he can be one of those things, but he chooses to do the other.

Phoebe is, on the other hand, always charming.

So the cats are doing well. But they’re not doing any of this grading for me. So back to the salt mines I go.

It’s time for our weekly check on the kitties. And, this week, we’ll do a little comparison. Our cats, being bike cats, like to work on their aero technique. Here’s a recent effort of Phoebe’s.

Poseidon’s aero looks much more efficient … ears not withstanding.

We have a joke that when the cats are doing the same thing, or holding the same posture, my lovely bride says “You’re going to freak him out … ”

Then, I look at the cats, note the synchronicity and mock yell, “YOU’RE FREAKING ME OUT!”

The cats sometimes sit like this. Here’s Phoebe.

And here’s Poe.

To be sure, a lot of cats sit like this from time to time. But … still … they’re freaking me out!

Over the last week or so spring has sprung here, where the heavy land and the green sands meet. It takes too long to arrive, spring, but it does linger a nice long while. And it positively shows off when it wants to.

It’s an interesting idea, seasons having moods. Nature has her charms and her fury, why couldn’t there also be moods? And why can’t they all be as harmonious as this?

Of course, there is one category of drawbacks involved with spring and summer.

In an attempt to keep my knees liking me, and my enthusiasm for pulling these weeds higher than the weeds themselves, this year I am purchasing a rolling stool. Sit and scoot and don’t bend over. We’ll give that a try. Even if it only works on the driveway and not the stones out back, it’ll be worth it, because I’m sure I’ll find other uses for it.

You can have too many weeds, but you can never have too many flowers, or too many seats that roll.

Anyway, it might be light around here for the next few days or more. Playing catch-up and get-ahead simultaneously is time consuming.