Inspired by Dame Eleanor and xykademiqz, a 5-minute post.
- Let's see--what's positive? My campus wants people to get vaccinated. I bought more masks and am practicing my death glare for people not wearing them on campus.
- Once in a while the temperature goes below 90-100 degrees, although the air quality index hovers somewhere between very unhealthy and "Judas Priest, don't go out there if you don't want to kill your lungs." I really miss walking, not to mention breathable air.
- I've stayed off Twitter for the week, and in addition to shedding its negativity, I've found more time to read actual books and even some contemporary short stories.
- My remaining sweet cat is trying to make up for the absence of her sister and brother by being affectionate and demanding enough for three cats. I also have an elderly cat, whom I love but who spends 16 hours a day within three feet on either side of the back door, either braying to go out or braying to come in.
- I am successfully keeping my mouth shut when people say "hooray, no more Zoom teaching!" because that's not our option this year and I want to be perceived as being on "Team In-Person."
- No Zoom got me thinking about this: did your campus have you designate a teacher who could take over your classes last year? Basically a pedagogical next-of-kin in case, as they delicately put it, you were "unable to complete the course for some reason"? We had to do this last year, but nobody's asked about it so far this year.
2 comments:
Your cat situation sounds a little trying.
Reducing time online helps my concentration marvelously. Am not quite to the point of trying to go back to writing everything longhand (what, and lose my spreadsheets for research??), but I do contemplate it.
I am now the only medievalist in my department. Before the other one retired, we used to organize our schedules to be disjoint so one of us could fill in for the other in case of Aged Parent emergencies. Now the department is just going to have to fend for itself if I can't teach, whether than means a colleague coping, or hiring someone at a moment's notice.
Dame Eleanor--the cat situation is indeed trying! We love our old cat, poor thing, but she is kind of exhausting right now.
Write more about your spreadsheets for research--I'm all ears (all eyes?).
Your department sounds like ours--one medievalist and no one to trade off if ze can't teach for some reason.
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