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Because of the snowstorm that began pouring down the night before last, the whole world was buried in snow, and yesterday I thought I would collapse from shoveling the front of the house and the driveway twice. Last night, my whole body ached so badly that I groaned through my sleep, and when I woke up this morning, the soreness was still there. My lower back, in particular, has been giving me a lot of trouble.

Mondays are always busy for an online professor, since it’s the day to grade all the assignments that came in over the weekend. On top of that, I had to finish my overdue annual self‑evaluation, so the entire morning was spent on work. Then, before lunch, I grabbed the shovel again, thinking I should clear the snow once more. Overnight, another layer had settled, and the cold had frozen it slightly, making it hard to scrape off even with the snow shovel. Still, I kept at it, and after about an hour of steady work, I finally finished—only to realize it was already well past 1 p.m.

A sudden thought crossed my mind: “How many more years will I be able to keep shoveling snow like this?”