I woke up this morning and did exactly the same thing I did the previous morning: think about how cold it was going to be running from my bed to the bathroom to take a shower.  I think I read several Atlantic articles before I finally made the dash to the bathroom, where there is a small heat vent.  Afterward I made a quick breakfast and started a fire before inviting students to a Google Meet where we would hold class.  Every once in a while I had to ask for a moment and go put another log on the fire, blow on it for a few seconds, and then return to my electric blanket.  The temperature outside was 23 degrees the 1st morning here, and 40 degrees inside, thanks to fires the night before.  Today it was freezing when I woke up, but eventually got up to low 50's.  I never thought I'd teach with a hat and a blanket.

After the exhaustion of packing up my possessions accumulated over 6 years in NYC in just a few days, riding 6 hours and unloading until 3 am my first night here, and then teaching at 9 am the next morning, I'm looking forward to sleeping in.  Having said that, it's great to see the students' smiling faces, to communicate with other isolated humans, to feel useful, to have people to laugh at my jokes, to cheer each other up.  The topic in the book was "Working Together," about team problem solving.  After that, I made a point of teaching about my favorite teacher, Professor Joseph Campbell, the expert on mythology I've mentioned so many times as an inspiration for my travels and large parts of my world view.

We discussed our various ideas of "bliss" and what it means to us, but I think the most important quote of his which resonates with these strange times is, "Where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world."  We may be apart, but we still need one another