Winter? Is that you?

I feel my facial hair freeze and I’m only 50yards from the dorm: it’s that cold. For so long it was warm; a happy radiant warm. But that is radiance. Winter has come. An ever thickening layer of powder swirls around in the air. It’s a magical snow, the kind that draws you to sit by the windows for lunch. It sneaks from the sky when I’m in class, adding layers without my permission. When I hike in the woods it lies very still. I walk through the silence around a corner and it pounces. I hunch over to ward off its attack. But through all its rebellious violence we are still friends. We have an understanding. It is always welcome on campus, but not allowed in the dorm. It has tried a few times, but always been frightened off by Sir Heater.

Sir Heater is a relic and this campus thrives on technology. We all have laptops. I can find a high speed wireless internet connection anywhere on campus. Doors open when I scan my ID card. I can read the menu from my room, check my chapel attendance, or learn how to set up my individual voice mail box. But Sir Heater is from the 80s, and he doesn’t do such a great job. There have been maintenance requests, but he still sleeps cold at night. He complained to me this afternoon: “It’s so ironic, they can network and fix anything with a mother board, but they don’t fix my pipes.” Sad but true, the days of Sir Heater appear to be gone.