A transcript of a conversation with my secretary, when I came in today. (Skipping the prior discussion of a fish tank we "inherited" from a prof in another department and the benefits of having a tank with tropical fish down in the office-hall where students could watch them while they waited for appointments with faculty)

Me: "So....is the temperature in here an indication that the air conditioning is turned off?" (It was a good 80 degrees in her office).

Her: "Oh, you weren't here on last Tuesday. We had a major power outage and the air conditioning was trying to turn on just as it happened. Apparently it fried something in the system, or that's what Physical Plant is telling us."

Me: "So you're stuck here until 5 today [offices are expected to be open 8 to 5, M through Th] with no air conditioning?"

Her: "Yes, and I suggest you get anything you need to do done this morning because it's also hot up in the faculty offices."

Me (feeling a sense of increasing concern): "Are they going to fix it soon?"

Her: "They say the part is on order." (The equivalent of "the check's in the mail," or so we've learned). "At least the classroom part of the building still has air conditioning."

(Thank God for small favors. I start teaching Monday and it's supposed to be 102 outside.)

I did suggest if Physical Plant seemed to be dragging their feet, perhaps we could call the Dean and let her know of the sweatshop like conditions. Particularly for the secretary and custodian - faculty are not required to be here right now, so we can bug out if it's too hot, but they're expected to be on duty. Which seems unfair given the circumstances.

It's 30 degrees Celsius - which, if I remember correctly, is like 86 F - in my office right now.

I was really planning on doing massive updating to some of my teaching stuff for the summer (my home computer is sufficiently slow that I don't want to just take it home and do it there - it's mainly an Internet-dedicated machine). But I guess I'll do a little, then go home and read. Or maybe print out the S.F.D. of my soil invertebrates paper and try to work on that at home.