Friday, March 6, 2015

Friday Letters

I've written a few Friday Letters to recap my week, say what's on my mind, and take the opportunity to offer a thank you or two. Let's open the mail...


Dear Next Door Neighbor,

I can hardly thank you enough for snow blowing our sidewalk last night. When I finished shoveling the driveway and trudged up front to start the sidewalk, sadly and exhaustedly dragging my shovel behind me, I almost cried tears of joy when I saw that you had already done it (except my tears would have frozen since it was -8°). The sounds of you rescuing us with your kindness and working snow blower had been drowned out by John cursing repeatedly when our snow blower broke after blowing snow for about 25 feet. I have already ordered the $60 part and hopefully we won't need it again this season. Your thank you muffins will be baked and delivered this morning.

Dear Ryan,

You know we are happy to support your educational pursuits, both emotionally and financially, but you'll have to forgive me if my support seems to be wavering just a tiny bit. When you called to ask if you could use the credit card to book a flight to Tuscon for the Arizona Winter School, we said yes immediately. Graduate students don't have extra money for spring break trips, and this one is more like "Mathematicians Gone Wild" than the usual sun, fun, and alcohol-soaked Spring Break. It's just that I've been thinking about you "letting X be a smooth projective variety over a global field k and focusing on obstructions to existence of rational points on X" in sunny 80° weather and envy got the better of me. I will be basking in our 40° and maybe even go wild by going outside without my coat!

Dear Daylight Saving Time,

Welcome back; I'm greatly looking forward to your return on Sunday! I'll be the one sitting in the sun on the patio at 7:00 pm Sunday evening.


7 comments:

  1. I can never remember which time saving messes me up. If it is the spring forward or the fall back. Guess I'll find out next week - LOL!

    Linda in VA

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  2. I'm not a fan of losing that hour of sleep but the light at the end of the day will be welcome. It would be more welcome if it were warm enough to sit outside and drink a beer, though.

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  3. You have some good things in your letters this week. 40 degrees, a son in the sun, and great neighbors. The only thing better would be welcoming spring!

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  4. losing an hour of sleep has been brutal but worth the daylight.

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  5. I hope you were able to get a lovely sit on the patio last night!

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  6. I always whine about the time change, but this one is a fairly easy adjustment for me. . . and I LOVE having daylight in the evening again! (What a GREAT neighbor.)

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  7. your letters always make me smile! what kind of muffins did you bake? and I hope there's a future post "Mathematicians Gone Wild" :-)

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