Out the Window

01/16/2013

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On the first day of class, I had the Young Scholars give me written questions—about the class, about writing, about literature.

One student asked, “When we were working in small groups, you were looking out the window. What were you looking at?”

A good question! Our classroom is on the third floor of Grubbs Hall, at the back of the building, looking out over a parking lot. And I was indeed looking out the window while the students worked.

  • I noticed that in the cool shadow of the building there was still a lot of ice and snow. Over in the sunny parts of the parking lot, all the snow and ice had melted.
  • I watched a young man go skidding sliding across the ice on his heels. I remembered doing similar sliding in the days of my more-energetic youth.
  • I saw Dr. M. crossing the parking lot. I wondered where he was going.
  • I saw Dr. W. get out of her car and head toward the building. She was carrying something red in her hand. It looked plastic. A spaghetti strainer? A hat? I wondered what she was carrying.
  • I watched a big pickup truck trying to park next to my car. I thought, You’d better not hit me!

It’s a big world out there! You can see a lot of things if you look out the right window….

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And then it Finally Rained....

08/25/2011

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I was as at the prison and we were writing about lying— about liars and lies told —when an instructor came by the classroom and said that the education building was being shut down, and the inmates needed to return to the units. So I gave everyone a homework assignment and the students left and I began packing up, when one of the students stuck her head back in the classroom and said, “It’s raining! You’ve got to see this!”

We’ve been in a hard, hard drought this year, and then, as of today, 23 straight days of over 100 degrees. It’s been rough.

I went out into the hallway and the instructor said, “Well, it’s trying to rain. Been a long time!”

One of the rules of the institution is that in times of thunder and lightning, inmates are restricted to the units, and so my students went all excited back to the barracks. I closed up my briefcase and went outside—and was half-blinded by dust. We’ve been so dry there’s not much but dirt and dust in this area, and the storm winds were picking up the dirt and blowing it around. I signed out at the security station and went to my car.  A few drops of mud came from the sky. There were sudden blasts of cool air—cool!—from downdrafts, followed by the buffets of hot air. I could smell rain.

I drove back through the neighborhood—the sky was sort of open to the north, and stormy in the east and south.  In this photo, looking north, you can see a field of dead grass. Texas right now is a sad, khaki-colored state….
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Then it really started to rain!  Amazing. I made a video of my drive home….
(Remember, I was a professional driver for six years—don’t try this at home!)

I stopped by the grocery store to get some supplies, and people were lined up under the awning gazing heavenward with looks of wonder on their faces.

Readers in damp climates, don’t take for granted the miracle of water from the sky.

And—why not?—some rock and roll….

Just hope I don't have to wait a long time to play this again.....
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