Thursday morning on the river [rowing]

Our rowing practices always start by sweeping the goose poop off the dock.



Sunrises often change so quickly I don't have a chance to capture the changes.



Further upriver:


Waiting to regroup near the Red Triangle, as we know it. When I showed this photo to R, and how she's giving the camera some major side-eye, she just laughed.



Trees along the river still haven't fully leafed out yet.


We made it just north of the Menands bridge.


The water looks calm here, but there were lots of fishing boats out, waking us as they raced to the next spot to look for fish.


As is true most mornings, I am grateful I was able to get out and row.

Sub/Conscious Rebellion [work, status]

It feels like my subconscious, or maybe consciousness, is rebelling today. I made a list of tasks for myself today, mostly grading, and finished all of them by around 1 pm. After that, I did a little bit of tidying in the Animal Physiology lab. But also, I was cold. We went from having no building chiller, to maybe having one that is set to be a little *too* effective on the ground floor. Not conducive to lingering around while thinking through the "what's next" list.

So I went home early.

In theory I should now continue to work on some informational signs for a science open house happening on Saturday.

In practice, I think I'm deep in the burnout phase of the end of the semester.

It always takes time to reorient, anyway.

That did mean that George and Martha have gotten some extra attention and outside time today.

And it meant that I finally went around to the side of the house to learn the identity of the plant I am constantly staring at through the back bedroom window while I work.

Japanese barberry.

There were several big bumblebees all skirmishing with each other and other insects, I suppose for access to all of the barberry flowers.

It sounds to me like Japanese barberry might be a plant best grown in a container, if I ever want to grow it sometime in the future. It does look rather attractive year-round.