Spring!?

Today the sky was nearly clear, and not only are daffodils blooming all over the place, but the plum trees were at it as well, cheerfully pink against the blue sky. I went down to the office for a bit, and at the end, J. and I went on a walk to the river. The path was almost crowded, with lots of students, a few of our co-workers, and even an old lady – I wondered if she’d found a parking lot among the art studio buildings, but even if she did, she had a long, slow walk back in store for her.

The sky stayed clear until evening, too, and after dinner we went to the monthly star party, so D. could see the trackball telescope built by novelist #6, Jerry Oltion. We used it to see Jupiter, with Io closely adjacent and the other three Galilean moons all visible in the same plane, though one was so far out it seemed more like a star. We also looked through a few other telescopes, viewing the Orion Nebula, Betelgeuse, and some craters of the moon.

Hm, which icon to use? Daffodils, plum blossoms, Jupiter, Orion, moon... Okay, die roll time. Winner... Orion!

Oh, also, in other news, I found out from my more senior colleagues that a relatively new rule lets me resubmit grant proposals once it’s three years from the first time I tried it. That means I could use the short-term mechanism in August, and if that doesn’t work, I can try the one I just did in February. Inspired by solri, though, I’m going to see if I can make some more efficient and less costly progress in the meanwhile.