Snow falling on cypress

Some people love to work out. I'm not one of them. I loathe the physical exertion. But when your belly is so big you have to start worrying about being harpooned by Norwegian whalers, you gotta do something. Even if you would rather be doing something, anything else.

The good thing about it is that working out allows me to get out of the office and see the other side of campus. One thing today’s trip confirmed is that the students are indeed back from spring break. All 26,000 of them, significantly more tanned and presumably more sober than this time a week ago. And I’m glad they’re back. Seriously. Sure, parking and traffic are abysmal now, but last week was downright spooky on campus. The quad was deserted and silent, not a soul in sight. Eerily reminiscent of one of those ’80s end-of-the-world zombie flicks.

Going across campus also reaffirms that Texas State is blessed with an abundance of natural beauty. Spring has sprung with a vengeance. Redbud trees are showing off their neon-pink blossoms everywhere. The mountain laurels, with their frosted-violet flowers, are coming down off their peak, but are still eye-catching. Oaks are leafing out, adding fresh green to the toasted-gold of the pollen tassels they sprouted last week. And even the bare-branched cypress trees are sprouting green sprigs like whiskers along their limbs.

The tower my office is in straddles the edge of the Balcones uplift. Because of its height and design, it catches any breeze coming in from the hill country and funnels it down to the ground, where it can swirl very strongly indeed. Ringing the building are a bunch of pear trees that up until a day or so ago looked for all the world like giant popcorn balls. White blossoms everywhere. Bees, too. Very pretty. Today, however, the pear trees are leafing out and looking much greener. And the blossoms are shedding their white petals. When these petals fall, they’re caught up by the building’s wind tunnel effect, and swirled around in the air for quite some time. The effect looks, for all the world, like fat, fluffy snowflakes. They’re even piling up in little drifts near the entrances. Fascinating.

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