Day 13 of LAUSD vaccine mandate

At Harbor Cove Beach today…

9/22/21. Wednesday

 5:00 – L. leaves for her 20-hour day at Otis.

 8:00-9:00 – My high school class starts at 8:30, but the content is already published and ready to deploy from 8:15-8:45, so I have time. Downstairs and I say good morning to the dog. I’m sure she woke up when L. left, but must have went back to sleep shortly thereafter.  I rub her tummy until she reluctantly gets up and grabs her toy.  Outside we go and I water a few of my potted plants while she goes potty. Return inside and cheese for her; coffee for me. I go to work which means I enter my home office. 

I check email at College No. 2 and a few of the students are notifying me that they’re going to be late and will miss the Discussion Board.  Today’s content is a 90-minute lecture so it’s an easy day.  I’m able to “set it and forget it”, so I step away for a few minutes and jump in the shower.

9:00 – 10:00 – Shower. Spa day. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform.  Light make-up. 

10:00 – 11:00 – “John”, yet another door vendor, arrives to take measurements for my two interior garage doors. I gave up on Home Depot – their customer service is abysmal and the “Doors” section doesn’t seem remotely interested in helping me make a selection or going over options with me. John takes measurements and texts them to me while he’s in the garage so I have a record. Compare this to the Home Depot employee who told me door measurements are confidential and staff are forbidden from giving them to the customer.  This, after I paid $40 for the measurements.  If I paid for the measurements, why am I not entitled to them? 

John refers me to Elite Building Materials, in Simi Valley, where I can go through the catalogs with one of their employees and order a door that I like because John says he’s just an installer. Once I select and order the doors that I want, John will pick them up from Elite and transport them to my house for installation. In other words, this project is going to take months.  

John leaves and I return to my high school class, field emails, and take Attendance. 

11:00-12:00 – Class dismissed.  I put my bathing suit on under my yoga pants and shirt, then load my beach bag, beach blanket, and lunch bag in my car.  I leave and get gas. 

12:00-1:00 – Driving.  I listen to Hurry Slowly.

 1:00-3:00 – Arrive at Harbor Cove Beach and almost nobody is here. It’s a bright, sunny day – no clouds – but, unfortunately, it’s windy and cold. I’m still glad I was able to get out of the house, though, and I packed warmer clothes in my beach bag.  I add a sweatshirt to my ensemble because it’s too cold to lay out, then sit on my beach blanket, read a Money Diary, and eat some of L.’s Asian Pear and Brie Pizza leftovers from last night. I listen to Martinis and Your Money and Citations Needed while I’m here. After 2 hours, I take off. 

3:00-4:00 – Driving. More Hurry Slowly. 

5:00-12:00 --Home and I get started on tomorrow’s lecture for my Core Class. My evaluator returns tomorrow, but it’s unclear when he’ll arrive. Tomorrow’s Module is a “combo” class, involving Chapters 6 and 7. Since I’m not sure when he’s coming, I need to make sure BOTH lectures are current and perfect.  I listen to 2-hours worth of lecture in conjunction with the Google slides that L. previously designed and make a few edits to the slides, although one of the slides has to be completely re-vamped. Unfortunately, similar to Monday’s lecture, there are some references to “sheltering in place” and “quarantining”, that are outdated because my the Chapter 6 and 7 lectures were some of the first lectures I recorded when the pandemic hit. The overall content is sound, but L. will need to splice the audio at the beginning and ending of each lecture to erase my outdated comments.

-There are two factoids in the Chapter 7 lecture that have since changed, so I record a 2-minute PSA for the students wherein I note the changes.

-I break to handle some personal Admin.  There’s a shortage in my mortgage escrow account and I call my lender to get to the bottom of it, then write a check to cover the difference.

-I pay two bills online.

-8:00-8:40 – I break and take the dog for a walk.

-Return and continue working. In general, my Chapter 6 and 7 lectures are some of my oldest and haven’t been updated for years, even before Covid-19. Since I’m being evaluated and my notes are all over the place, I make the executive decision to transcribe my pre-recorded lectures. Listening to 2 hours of lecture and making adjustments and transcribing for my F2F class takes an unbelievable amount of time…muuucchhh longer than I anticipated.

Once I’m done transcribing, I print my lectures in size 14 font because I’m blind and at least I won’t be squinting when I’m looking at my notes. Lecture is ready.

I turn my attention to the Discussion Board, make a few changes to the prompt, and add a 15-minute video clip that L. forwarded to me a few months ago.  This clip is current and perfect for tomorrow’s lecture.

12:00-1:00 – L. returns from Otis. She had two classes and then she and her friends worked on an art project from their painting class at one of Otis’ studios. We talk about her day, then L. splices my lectures and airdrops them into Canvas for both colleges. She also airdrops the PSA I just recorded and changes the one Google slide.

-I post an Announcement to the Home Page reminding the students that the Midterm is next week.

1:30-2:30 – I check emails at College No. 1 and there is shockingly good news from my Assistant Dean! All Departments have received authorization to convert 20% of their Hyflex classes to ONLINE-only for next semester. I’m sure this is directly related to the numerous complaints the Deans have received from the Instructors. But, this next part is shocking… Instructors with seniority have first dibs on online classes! Although I’ve been teaching at this college for 21 years, my seniority has NEVER counted for anything before. My contract has to be renewed every semester and, as an Adjunct, I have virtually no protection – I can be cut at any time, which is a somewhat tenuous position to be in.

I email my Assistant Dean immediately and tell him I prefer online classes. I add that I’ve been employed at College No. 1 for 21 years, but am not sure if my seniority will count since I’m an Adjunct. I throw in that I also completed the DE training a couple months ago. This is so exciting! Leaving Hyflex and F2F behind would be wonderful.

Kitchen duty and I ready my coffee for tomorrow.

2:30-3:30 – I absolutely have to get a workout in because I didn’t work out yesterday and I won’t be able to work out on Thursday, so I do a 45-minute Insanity-Pylo workout, followed by a 15-minute Kathy Smith Ab workout.

3:30-4:30 – I do a bullet journal to track my time over the past couple of days.

4:30-5:30 – Nighttime routine. Bed.