{"id":573898609,"date":"2026-01-28T20:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/?p=573898609"},"modified":"2026-01-30T18:20:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:20:53","slug":"i-am-so-far-ahead-i-can-see-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/blog\/2026\/01\/28\/i-am-so-far-ahead-i-can-see-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"I am so far ahead I can see tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lovely day, if you like living at a pole, and the color white, and ice everywhere. I’ve been trying to count how many times I’ve experienced a snow that persisted — this snow came down Sunday and will be with us for at least another week. It is a small number of experiences. And now there’s talk of another snow system this weekend. <\/p>\n

I’d like to just … not. I still have shovel shoulders from Sunday and Monday. <\/p>\n

Productive day, today. Emails were fired off with abandon. I prepared two lectures. This was made all the trickier because we did not have classes on Tuesday, and because we are right at the beginning of the term, where I am trying to set up the definitions and paradigms we’ll be using throughout the semester. <\/p>\n

For my Criticism class, where I told them I would lecture this week and they would see why the rest of the semester is conversation-based, I’ll have 75 minutes to try to make the points that should take up about two hours worth of material. Also, I am Frankensteining two lectures to do that. Duct tape and PowerPoint presentations will see me through. What could go wrong? In my Rituals and Traditions class I will combine a brief guest appearance with some further elaboration on the slides I sent them online on Tuesday. Again, two days in one, just to set the tone for the entire class. What could go wrong? <\/p>\n

Students in my online class received the second of three notes they’ll get from me this week. This one was a 791-word, tightly written, well-edited walkthrough of a sequence of the course that amounts to 20 percent of their grade. I put a lot of time into that letter because I know how much students are inclined to read these days. And I’ve been working on it over the course of three semesters now. (Given my process for these messages, that means it’s gone through at least nine editing passes at this point.) It is a good letter. Helpful, expressive, detailed, precisely to the point at hand. I send it to their inbox and post it on our class CMS. Now I just have to hope they’ll give it a look. <\/p>\n

Perhaps the most productive thing I did today, though, was lay out the rest of my week. The least productive thing I’ll do the rest of the week is ignore most of that plan. <\/p>\n

The best thing I’ll do is highlight the kitties, because they’re famous and popular, just ask them. So let’s do that. <\/p>\n

If you like belly rubs, raise your paw. <\/p>\n

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Phoebe really likes belly rubs. She held her paw up for a good long while … just so long as the belly rubs continued. <\/p>\n

The birds are feasting at the feeder, because, I think, several of their food sources are under a lot of snow and ice.
\nAnd so BirbTV has been a big hit around here. So much so that Poseidon doesn’t even care what he’s standing on, so long as he gets a closer look. <\/p>\n

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The cats are doing just fine. Though they would also like it to be just a bit warmer. <\/p>\n

I wonder how it registers when they look out of the windows and see how different things are with so much white stuff on the ground. Lately, though, I’ve noticed they’re not as keen on trying to get outside as normal. It feels like four below out as I write this. <\/p>\n

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This evening I got away from the cold and went to Torano, Italy, where it is somehow 30 degrees warmer than here. I’m not saying we’re packing up and moving, but this was a delightful little valley ride. You can see it here. <\/p>\n