Mundane March

The blog heading says this is about both mundane and wonderful things. Mostly the last week has been mundane. One thing stands out. I had a meeting of theGlobal Health class on Monday evening. The students were assigned to bring something to illustrate the connection between culture and health. It was a wonderful evening - they were so creative. Their "somethings" ranged from a popular Central America song illustrating the infidelity of men  in one country with the consequent health problems to how firecrackers in the Philippines for a Christmas celebration become a public health problem for people lose their fingers shooting them off to a root used in Africa that is supposed to be a s good as Viagra. Every student was fascinated with their other colleagues' presentation.

Earlier that day I went to sign all the papers associated with my retirement benefits. On Wednesday I went to another sales meetings for supplemental insurance associated with transitioning over to Medicare. Tuesday included a meeting related to planning services for my daughter who has disabilities. That afternoon my CPA office called and said my taxes were done. Not to my surprise the packet came with instructions about how to pay additional federal and state taxes. Only thing I can say is that it's nice to get all this stuff done in one week, and not have these sort of activities messing up other weeks.

On Wednesday morning I looked out the window while eating breakfast and saw something that was a bit of a surprise.

It was a flock of wild turkeys making their way between the buildings and the highway.
Flocks of geese are quite common to see, but wild turkeys in the city are still a bit of an oddity.

The rest of the week was full of meetings and other mundane things, including attending a workshop on Saturday about tools to enhance online courses. That means I missed St. Patrick's Day in Saint Paul -- which is a great big deal.

Went out walking about 6:30 PM and observed the celebrations were continuing.

Above are some young adult playing what I guessed might be a modified game of Bocce Ball -- nothing like an Italian game to celebrate an Irish holiday!

This walk was the first I had done along the river in a couple of weeks, and I was startled to see how low the river is.

Above is one of my favorite scenes, a reflection of the High Bridge arch in the river. This is the area where I monitored the river level last year during the flood. The river is 25 feet lower than the high flood stage of last March; it is about 10 feet below normal.

As I write there is no snow, the first tow boat and barges have arrived for the Mississippi River shipping season, there is no sap coming from the maple trees because the weather is so warm -- the price of maple syrup will be dear this coming year -- and I'm  wearing shorts as I write, for the temperature in my apartment is 83 (28C). Maybe will have to run the air conditioner later so I can sleep!