I was pleasantly surprised today when I got to school: the old back gate was open!

This may not sound vastly important in the light of today's world events --- or maybe it is despite them. See, I was a student at the school where I now teach, and my classroom was practically the closest to the back gate;it was closer to duck out that way to get ice cream on a hot afternoon than to wallk all the way to the canteen. Also, it was the gate by which we left school to take the bus home. I have fond memories of waltzing in and out of that gate.

The gate's been closed for about two years now, while extensive construction was going on in the apartment buildings adjacent to it. Construction's been winding down for the past couple of months and I was hoping the gate would reopen before my last day at work here.

And now it has --- a lone bright spot on what is otherwise a dour - literally (it rained all night) and metaphorically --- day.

Damn. It took me 11 minutes to write that in my Palm. I am nowhere near note-taking celerity yet.