In Which A Commute To Nowhere Finds Spring

As I tried to enter the building, I noted that the afternoon sun has awoken the season's early insects--box elder bugs.

End of the line--tall new poles are going up beside the trail north of Hiawatha.

Spring flowers poking up near Warde Hall, MMU campus.

Well, I forgot the e-mail about power being off on campus for much of the day. I left home to commute to MMU, and decided to take the trail route, since it was such a nice afternoon. I went north, figuring I could not go far—not enough time—but I had not been that way yet this season.

The trip ended sooner than I thought, as utility work closed the trail beyond Robbins Road.

Well, that’s OK, I thought, I want to get several hours of work in anyway. Except 30 minutes later—after a close to 90-minute commute, I found that the card reader would not admit me to Warde Hall and campus was clearly shut down.

Oh well. There were box elder bugs creeping out of hiding on the warm west wall of Warde Hall, and some daffodils in the back garden are peeking above the cold soil. We are to get yet another round of March snow this weekend, but despite that, the sun is shining more brightly, the soil is warming up and spring is inexorably working its way into our corner of the worlds. It’s just doing it very, very slowly.