Back to work

* I remembered how long it takes the old computer to warm back up after being shut down for a while (normally, I just leave it on, but for extended absences, I shut it down). So I went and set up my afternoon lab while it was warming up. So that's done. I have two other things I must do this morning before class (updating the slides for the new book in one class; an exam for the other for later this week)

* I am on the schedule for the plumbers after my lab today. These guys are super-professional which is why I continue to use them even though they are more expensive than some local plumbers. They schedule a 2-hour window and call you when they are on their way out - none of this "We'll be out some time between 8 and 4, unless there's an emergency" business. I'm glad I can afford* the more expensive guys; it's really a drag dealing with people who either don't have their stuff totally together or who schedule "opportunistically" (putting off a non-emergency client who is likely to be a less-expensive call in favor of a more-expensive call).

They also understand that I work at a job where I can't just take a random day off and will work with my schedule, and that's worth a lot to me, not to have to explain that every time I need someone to come out.

(*despite my nattering about being broke, I can certainly afford a service call, and given that I get paid Friday I should be able to afford a water-heater replacement if it comes to that)

So here's hoping that by this evening, I have hot water again. I can manage if I have to; it's not the dead of winter, but it's a tiny bit more effort to heat washing water on the stove and it is nice to just be able to jump in the shower and have warm water.

If worse comes to worse, I can weather a few days of heating water to bathe/wash my hair (washing my hair is the harder task; I have long hair and while it's not as thick as it once was, it's still pretty thick, and it takes a lot of water to wet it and a lot of water to rinse it. But if I have to, I will fill up my stockpot, heat it, and just dipper out water in the tub to wet/rinse out shampoo/rinse out conditioner). I have Friday totally off (Good Friday) and if I need the heater replaced, I can get the plumber out then (provided THEY work Good Friday....)

The guy did ask how large of a tank I had which makes me wonder if he's going to bring one just in case. I don't know how long just swapping out a hot-water tank takes - the last time I did this rodeo it took many hours, but most of that was code-updates and also dealing with Lowe's pet plumber who kept getting sent out on other jobs.

I will say if I had to live without a water heater - if I were doing the "back to the land" thing? I'd cut my hair short again. On balance, though, I'd rather have long hair and accessible hot water.

* I got an e-mail back from the science fair guy. He is going to check around but said he thought the fair would come off pretty much as normal even if a strike were going on. (So I guess I was correct in the "it's on the parents and kids to get transportation" and all that).

But yeah, it's still more uncertainty than I like.

* I have duties both Thursday night and Sunday - the pastor tapped me to do readings. (Presumably because I have a clear voice and am not afraid of public speaking). I do the "First Passover" reading (the account of same) for the Maundy Thursday service. (We do the whole Triduum rolled into one in a single service; we don't do a separate Good Friday service). He did note, "I need someone to read the part about Jesus' death on the cross, but I want someone who won't blubber through it" and given some of my past experiences (I cried once during the prayer at the table on Maundy Thursday, but that was partly a case of being extremely overtired and also dealing with a sudden loss of a colleague's spouse, and a couple years ago, I had a hard time making it through one of the more somber readings for the day) I decided not to volunteer. I could PROBABLY do it if I steeled myself but the Exodus bit will be easier.

Sunday, it's something from one of Paul's letters, which will not be difficult, and anyway, Sunday is Easter, which means we've made it out (by going through) and it's a joyful time.

(And yes, I think one of the lessons for Christians about Holy Week - I mean, if you really observe it, if you don't blip from Palm Sunday to Easter - is that "the only way out is through" and I think that's an important life lesson: sometimes hard things are just hard and you have to hang on and trust you'll make it through to the other side)

* I have a mystery on my hands. A student e-mailed me over break, saying "I'm enrolled in your section (the correct section number) of intro bio but the Blackboard stuff has all the wrong dates" and I don't know what's up. She is NOT on my roster for this spring* and I wonder if she enrolled for fall and mistakenly got linked to my section. (I e-mailed her this morning asking that - I wanted to wait until I was back to check the roster to be sure).

(*And wow, would it be unconscionably late for someone somewhere to override someone into the class now)

Confession: part of me is hoping this is somehow a screwup on the part of that "partnership" group we have "partnered" with and it's the first crack showing their incompetence and why they should be fired and we should go back to doing things the old way. But I suspect it's more likely someone punched a wrong key somewhere.

I've e-mailed both my chair and the CMS guru so hopefully it gets tracked down. I can't see that there's anything I have to do; my best guess is someone punched a wrong button and she wound up with access to my old pages or the one for this semester when she's actually enrolled for fall. (Fall enrollment just started, which is another data point in favor of that being the reason)

(My chair e-mailed me back: the student in question was in HER section in the fall, failed, has all kinds of account-holds, so it's not clear why she's trying to gain access to class materials. Well, who knows. Life is funny and people are weird.)

* I didn't get as much knitting done over break as I hoped. I finished two socks, but they were each the first of a pair (I do have the one pair of simple socks nearly done, though) and I knitted a stuffed pony (pictures to come later).

What I DIDN'T finish was the hippo kit. Because, boo, once again Knit Now issued a kit with too little yarn in it (the cat kit - the one I made Fireball from - was the same). Also, the pattern was wrong somehow and the head was too small for either the snout or the body. So I just abandoned it unfinished but was irritated to have spent nearly a full day of my break knitting on it for nothing. (Also, I think "Knit Now" is actually a magazine for more-beginner knitters, which, having a messed-up kit is not a good way to encourage new learners. And I don't think it's me because every kit I made from "Simply Knitting" or "Simply Crochet" has come out with a little yarn leftover, and the directions have been right.)

I did also start the "Paddington's Garden" shawl and I want to work more on that.

(I have decreed this spring and summer - and probably into the fall - to be an almost-entirely-knit-from-stash time. Partly to work down my gigantic stash a little but also to save up money. I will exempt one or two trips with Laura if she wants to do a meet-up some time.)