My lunch time walk in the snow

I like to take a walk around the OSU campus on my lunch break. It's hard to get motivated to do this every day when the temperatures start to go down into the 20's and teens, but when the wind isn't blowing hard I try to get out for a bit. My usual route is to go up to Neil Avenue along the north side of the B&Z building, north on Neil to the Oval, around the Oval a couple of times, and then along Mirror Lake and back to my building.

Thursday's snow made the walk a little more charming than on most winter days. I broke in a new pair of snow boots, which made my ankles a little unhappy toward the end of my walk. A few more excursions through the snow should about do it for breaking them in the rest of the way.



I snapped this picture of the B&Z demolition. The contractors are using a jackhammer to break through the wall to separate the Coolidge era wing from the Kennedy era wing. There's a big machine parked on one side of the building that will do the brunt of the demolition. It has a motto painted on that says, "No job too big or too small -- we wreck them all." Pretty corny, eh?



This is a view of mirror lake from Neil Avenue. It's one of my favorite places on the OSU campus.



A view from College Avenue looking back toward the main library building.



My absolute favorite building on campus is Orton Hall. This is the home of the Geology Department. The building was built in the late 1800's and the layers of stone reflect the geology of Ohio. The bottom most layers of stone are from the earliest ones found in Ohio - from the Devonian. All the other layers that you can see on the facade of the building are from more recent strata. The tower houses a carillon. I like being on the oval at noon when the bells ring. I've not heard any Christmas carols played this year, but in past years I always tried to be on the oval when they were played from the carillon. I wonder if political correctness has gone too far if that's the reason there aren't any carols being played this year.



This is the view from the other side of Mirror Lake. I always feel sorry for the ducks when the pond freezes over, but they don't seem to mind walking around on the ice. There's always some unfrozen water in the pond, even in the coldest part of winter.