Day 9 - CDC recommends all J&J patients get a booster after 2 months
Class schedule cluster-f—k…
10/29/21. Friday
8:30 -9:00 – I put my class on “set it and forget it” mode so I get to sleep in slightly today. The dog is still asleep so I sit next to her and she climbs onto my lap for kisses and cuddles. I cue her to go outside but she won’t budge so we sit together for awhile. Finally, I hand her the tennis ball and we head to the backyard so she can go potty. I see that she already pooped on the cement near the trash cans (sigh) so I clean it up. Back inside we go; cheese for her, coffee for me. I go to work.
9:00-9:30 – Today the students have audio lecture and now it’s time for this bunch to submit their extra credit assignments. College No. 1 and College No. 2 have different semester start dates, about a month apart, so assignments for the College No. 2 students are delayed in that just when I’ve finished grading one set of papers from College No. 1, a second set of papers comes in from the College No. 2 group. I print out as many assignments as I can before leaving my office to get dressed. The contractor for my Home Security Alarm System and “Gil, the plumber, are both coming at 10:00.
9:30-10:00 – Wash face. Put in contacts. Brush teeth. Covid-19 uniform. Light make-up. Ready.
10:00-10:30 – I sit at my counter and read Lady Parts while I wait for them to show up. I check my phone and see that the Alarm vendor tried to call earlier so I call him back. He tells me he couldn’t get the part and will come on Monday. great. More days without an alarm system.
-At the same time, Gil calls and says he will be at my house around 11:00.
10:30-11:00-I return to my office and continue printing out extra credit essay assignments.
11:00-11:30 – I switch to Life Administration and live chat with Tablecloths.com, the place where I ordered the wrong model of ivy for the wall in the garage. I order the correct make and model of ivy this time and make arrangements to return the wrong box, but learn that I’m responsible for the return and it will cost me between $40 and $50 to send it back. Only then will they credit my account for $230, the cost of the wrong product. great.
11:30-1:00 – Gil arrives and starts working on the backyard faucet. As mentioned at length in yesterday’s blog post, he has to knock out the stucco in order to access the entire faucet. When he finishes making the repair, he doesn’t have a washer and the faucet still leaks so I have no idea if he’s actually fixed it. Gil assures me it will no longer leak once I insert a washer…but I don’t have any washers…
Gil moves to my bedroom and repairs that faucet without incident.
When I spoke with Gil on Thursday, I asked him about installing an actual sink in the garage. I saw L. washing her paint brushes in my kitchen sink the other day and almost vomited. When I casually said, “I think you might need a sink in the garage”, L. replied, “Oh, this is fine.” No. A sink needs to be installed ASAP. I showed Gil where I would like a sink installed and he said he could do it…but a job like that would cost between $3000 and $5000. He couldn’t give me an actual quote because of the “supply chain” AND “inflation.” In other words, 1) am I able to get the product?; 2) if yes, how much will the price have skyrocketed by the time I’m able to purchase?
Even $3000 is too much for me so I abort this project and while Gil is making the repairs, I check Amazon for sinks and am shocked…shocked…to see that something called a “portable sink” exists! Incredible! The sink I’m eyeing is black, on wheels, and comes with a standard faucet and soap dispenser. It also features hot and cold running water! I hate Amazon but note that the portable sink is sold by Wayfair. How complicated is it to set up a portable sink?, I wonder.
Gil is finished with my repairs so I show him a picture of the portable sink and ask his opinion. He says it’s a good option for the space and he can assemble it once the sink arrives. Of course, I will have to schedule an appointment and pay his hourly fee, but at least I know someone who can put it together. I pull the trigger and order the sink from Wayfair. It costs $1500 and I am officially over the $10,000 budget I set for my “garage conversion project.” great.
1:00-2:00 – I make a spinach salad with tomatoes, carrots, and cheese and read Lady Parts; then
2:00-5:30 – I take a nap.
5:30-6:00 – Up, and I take the dog for a walk and listen to Film Week on Air Talk.
6:00-8:30 – I clean the kitchen, ready my coffee, fill the dog food dispenser, sweep the downstairs, and turn on the Halloween lights, inside and out. I listen to the Political Gabfest and the Pop Culture Happy Hour.
-L.’s Dad (my ex) is visiting from South Carolina and they went out for dinner at Umaichi Ramen.
8:30-9:30 – L. and her Dad (M.) return and the three of us spend time catching up. It’s really nice to see M.!
9:30-11:30 – M. graciously agrees to assemble L.’s drafting table – when she unpacked it, there appeared to be around 50 pieces and I was overwhelmed – AND a leaf blower that he bought for me last Xmas that I was too intimidated to assemble because I’ve told myself, my entire life, that I’m not mechanically inclined. The leaf blower is still in the box. Although I’ve gone a year without using it, I’ve noticed that leaves have a tendency to blow into the garage, as L. and I are still using the main garage door for ingress and egress. Rather than sweeping the garage/art studio constantly, I think it will be faster and easier to use the leaf blower instead so I ask M. to put it together.
L. stays in the garage with her Dad so she can help…even though she never helps me.
I read Lady Parts.
11:30-12:00 – M. finishes assembling the drafting table and the leaf blower. The drafting table is a thing of beauty! – it even has a drawer – and there is no way I could have ever assembled it myself. Seeing it there, in the middle of the room, I am finally able to visualize the garage-to-art studio transformation. I think this project is going to work…?? Maybe?? Spoiler Alert: Although the drafting table is the centerpiece of the “art studio” I have yet to see L. use it even once. Out of all the items purchased, it cost the least so there’s that…
The leaf blower is also assembled and M. shows me how the charger works and how to insert the charger into the blower. He turns it on and blows it right in our [L. and I] faces. Did I mention M.’s a jokester? That’s why we’re divorced (j/k). The leaf blower works and I love my new toy! I start blowing everything in the garage. This is so cool!
We say our goodbyes and L. drives her Dad back to his hotel room. I’m going to miss M – it was great seeing him.
12:00-12:45 – I do a 20-minute Insanity Max-Pulse workout; then
1:00-2:30 – Time for more Life Administration.
-I register my vaccination card at College No. 2 (we can’t teach unless we’re vaxxed – does having one dose of J&J even count anymore?);
-update my receipts for October’s budget; and
-check the tentative Spring Semester 2022 schedule at College Nos. 1 and 2 (I’m scheduled to teach 4 classes [one at College No. 2 and three at College No. 1], but enrollment is so low at College No. 1 because our president, who is retiring in a mere few months, refuses to let our departments offer Asynchronous (completely online) classes, that it’s possible none of my proposed classes will run, especially since my former Dean [RIP Dr. Gatt] changed the required minimum enrollment from 12 to 20 students.
Students have had a taste of online instruction and most no longer want to report to a brick-and-mortar classroom AND they sure don’t want to attend a class via Zoom, sitting in front of a square for hours on a set day and set time. I think the majority want to take an online course, with loose deadlines, where they can study at their own pace. But, College No. 1 won’t offer those…
To add insult to injury, adjuncts are typically told two to three days before the semester whether or not their class will run. So, if you like to prepare your Canvas shell in advance, which most instructors do, you will have spent hours upon UNPAID hours setting up your class in anticipation of the new semester only to be informed by Administration that, based on the new sliding scale [created by who?], the 17 students you currently have do NOT fulfill the NEW minimum requirement of 20, even though 20 has been the gold standard for 15 years. We regret to inform you that your class is CANCELED.
On the other hand, you can take a wait-and-see approach and do nothing to prepare for the semester [who wants to perform UNPAID work?], absolutely certain the class will be removed from calendar, only to see it fill up at the last minute as desperate students search for courses to add to their schedule. When that happens, it’s a mad scramble for adjuncts to get the Canvas shell together and you typically only have a couple of days to do it. But, hey, at least you know you’ll be paid for those hours because the class will run and you’ll receive a monthly paycheck until the semester ends.
-I ‘calendar’ my tentative classes to avoid potential conflicts in the future, but I’m largely in limbo because I don’t know which classes will remain on schedule and which classes won’t until the first week of January 2022.
-Lastly, my Dean committed a scheduling error. He allowed me to teach a Synchronous class, every Monday, from 6:00-9:00. This means the class is online but the students have to log in on that exact day and time, for a Zoom meeting. If you’ve been reading this blog, you know I don’t do Zoom…I teach via the “Poli Sci Podcast”, but because the students MUST log in on that date and time, I need to log in with them so I’m available for the class. So far so good.
Unfortunately, right before the online class, I’m scheduled to teach from 2:30-5:30 in a brick-and-mortar classroom. The class ends at 5:30 and I’m supposed to log in at 6:00 for my Synchronous class; HOWEVER, my Dean didn’t assign me to a classroom because the 6:00 class is online.
It takes an hour to drive home so I’ll be on the 14 freeway just as the 6:00 class is starting. Due to the logistics, this necessitates that I hang around for 30 minutes after my 5:30 class ends, in my car, in the parking lot, because my classroom is assigned to another F2F teacher at 6:00. Then, while still in my car, in the parking lot, I will queue up the class on the high-powered lap top that I do NOT own, and start teaching from my car, which defeats the entire purpose of an online class. I’m not in the comfort of my own home…I’m in my car. Have I said it enough times?
Maybe none of these classes will run and all of the above is a moot point…
2:30-3:00 – Bullet journal.
3:00-3:30 – Nighttime routine. Bed.