Craziness
Well, the last almost dozen days have been crazy and hectic in ways I never expected:
1. Just as I was wrapping up trying to work through compiling and computing final grades for the semester, Internet issues befell upon my abode.
2. I had to make a decision to leave and go to the U (not supposed to unless an "essential" employee for maintenance due to Covid-19) so that I could have Internet to finish out things.
3. While finishing out grading and grades, I also had bubble up into my consciousness that the time between the close of last semester and the start of Summer Semester did NOT have the typical, usual one week break that is the norm before Summer Semester starts. Because of aspects of how this calendar year shook out by the administrative planners, this year was one of the fortunately infrequent years where Summer Session started IMMEDIATELY the next week.
4. This realization as it percolated up into my awareness, lead my mind to internally scream.... "Sh*t!!!" I didn't have a damn thing planned or ready (in an electronic format... because of Covid-19). I had much of the Summer Session mapped out in a general way back in early March when I had no idea of it being online. But, I had paid scant attention to it since the onset of online became a necessity.
5. So, the unfortunate reality is.... without serviceable Internet at home, I had to keep "sneaking" to the U and hiding out in the back office in my Research Lab so that I could get Internet to play catch-up. I had to work feverishly pretty much every day until around 8 or 9pm to just get things into an appropriate electronic form in the short time frame I had to the start of Summer Semester. Remember, I *had* mistakenly been planning to use the whole week I THOUGHT I had off between last semester and Summer Semester to work through getting things situated. And, fortunately due to my enormously rushed effort I was able to get the electronic version of my class started on time, but unfortunately due to the need for this rushed effort, I had to continue sneaking onto the U campus every day while my Internet was down just to stay tolerably in front of the student's needs in the class. The late evenings continued all through the week and into the weekend just to stay a bit ahead.
6. And with Covid-19, repair of home Internet understandably was not a top priority, and it took until late yesterday evening before home Internet was again functional. I have been sneaking to the U every day during this time wearing gloves and a mask and trying to not touch anything other than stuff in my office. Fortunately I only saw one person (in another room on campus) the entire time.
I felt guilty as hell about it, but I was truly between a rock and hard place. I practiced as safe distancing tactics as I could, so I feel that *hopefully* was adequate too and I didn't bring Covid-19 home. I showered mightily every evening when I came home.
It is nice to be able to work again from home. It feels much better. And, I am feeling I am finally getting into a timing "workspace" that is again more typical. I feel *almost* to the point where I am prepared with the essentials I need WITH adequate time to grow, adjust, and fix things as I work along at a NORMAL pace again.
The lack of Internet also kept me away from here, and it resulted in my missing my goal of writing every day this year. I AM back now. I am not sure if I will count this lapse as a failure of my goal, or if I can accept the caveat of my lack of Internet as a reasonable "catastrophe" to allow me to pick up and continue with the internal notion that my goal is still intact. I do not know if I will be able to decide one way or the other until I have reasoned through it for a few days.
PipeTobacco
8 Comments:
E-gads. I think my blood pressure went up reading this account. It is a very telling "anatomy" of how educators have scrambled to respond to the Covid-19 crisis. The medical teams are truly heroes and deserve the salutes they get, but I'm who thinks those who are about education have also been heroic. Glad you are back in your own confines. As for your noble goal of writing each day, I'm here to lobby your conscience to interpret academic work as creative effort. In my mind your goal is intact, but like many things this year, carries a Covid-19 asterisk.
Dear Prof., Since internet service has become an essential tool in your job, nobody could argue its absence as less than a qualified catastrophe. Even in strange and difficult times, logic must obtain.
I vote "catastrophe" - no less so than a flood, fire or hurricane would be. This virus is a force of nature just as the others are.
Consider getting a wifi "hotspot" for your home. These allow internet access over cell phone frequencies much as your cell phone does . ( in fact some cell phones can be "tethered" and used for this function too.) Anyway this can be handy when you need internet access but your regular service provider is down.
Schrodinger's Dog has it right. These days, if you own a smartphone, you likely already are paying for some kind of Internet access, likely including some "hotspot" coverage -- maybe not at the fastest speeds on the simpler phone plans, but likely enough to tide you over in an emergency. And if you want to have the freedom of knowing you aren't chained to your home's Internet provider, both AT&T and Verizon, along with the smaller carriers, have plans that give you significant quantities of mobile hotspot access from your smartphone.
Don't beat yourself up over letting COVID-19 and Internet downtime disrupt your daily posting plan. I'm just glad to hear from you at all... and now I'll know not to worry if you decide to relax and take an occasional few days off to tend to the many other projects filling your days.
I have this visual of you sneaking around campus hiding from everyone..you're wearing a mask..haha.wear a floppy had and a tshit..you'll never be spotted.
I was wondering where you were but figured I had just forgotten that you had said you’d be absent for awhile.
As for your goal, I think it is intact. You didn’t fail, but circumstances prevailed.
I guess all those who work is having issue. There no U were I live. But since more at home our area is having internet issues as well
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