I had plans of either trying to change clothes into something that would work with Harvest and photograph it, or put on the socks I finished over break and photograph them.
But that's not gonna happen just yet.
Today wasn't a good day. And this evening may not be good, either.
Late in the day, yesterday, the e-mail came in: there's a fair amount of supply money left before the fiscal year closes, get your requests in now. So I thought, cool, cool, when I get in Wednesday morning, I'll arrange to get the replacement chemicals for Soils class for next spring.
I'm not gonna give you the whole long sad stupid story but: apparently the kit I've been using is no longer supported, and it needs to be upgraded, and the upgrade costs just like $50 over the amount that is "easily" encumbered without some kind of Act of God, and I spent a couple hours trying to either talk with someone at the manufacturer to see if they could send it in two lots (and have it paid in two lots)....that was a no go, I almost got laughed at for asking that*
(*THIS is why I hate asking for stuff. Because sometimes you don't just hear "no," you hear "no" with the undercurrent of "you're an idiot for asking, and you have greatly imposed on me")
So they suggested: try our distributors, they might have it cheaper. (Ha. I knew that wouldn't be the case but obediently went and looked. I was right, the two places that sell it sell it for more than the main company).
I found a place, but they're a grower's-supply (not sure whether it's grower like "truck farmer who sells organic tomatoes at the farmer's market" or "MJ grow-house supplier," though with the increasing legality of that second crop, you'd expect companies to be less-squirrely about things than they once were). The grower's-supply listed a price just below the cutoff, and I was SO hopeful, and passed the information on to the person with the authority to order**
No go. Because the grower's-supply refused to understand the concept of "some places are sales tax exempt" and that means the purchase cannot be made. So it was back to square one. And I ended the day with no resolution. Which drives me up the wall about this kind of thing because I *think* I will be able to "mark it done" and then the person-with-authority comes back and says "Nope, can't do it" and I feel like I wasted my entire day.
(**And this is partly why it drives me up the wall: I have no authority to do things, but it's not the person-with-authority's job to do the legwork on tracking stuff down. So it takes much longer and is more convoluted than it should be. I have been informed by people elsewhere that on many campuses there is an administrator whose job it is to do such things but....of course not here. It's just more of the added labor faculty do, largely on our "own time")
The added insult of this whole thing was that early this morning, when I came in, there was the official Call for Papers from the journal I was planning to submit the manuscript I'm working on right now to, and they said "Please have them in by August 1 and if you could, let us know if you're submitting" and I e-mailed the editor (whom I know slightly) back to say "I'm working on one, I should have it in by mid-July" and she responded enthusiastically and that made me feel good, made me almost feel a little bit like maybe I do have a chance at this paper (that feels like a long-shot) actually getting published, and I was going to make the tables today but....nope.
The problem is: the meaningful and important stuff, the stuff that might even actually possibly outlive me*** gets always shoved on the back burner because there's dumb but urgent stuff that has to be done - and it's not even stuff that I'm the best-suited person to do, it's that I'm the one HERE and the one that it kind of defaults to in the absence of someone who actually has lots of experience in stuff like tracking down equipment and negotiating with sellers.
And that's upsetting. Or at least it was upsetting to me today.
(***In the paper I cited a publication from 1966, and another one - a Master's thesis - from 1955, and while it's entirely possible the authors are still alive, still, I know I have cited papers by deceased authors)
A more immediate reason why I'm not throwing on a cardigan or stuffing my feet into wool socks: it's beastly hot here right now. We had a dewpoint of 73 F for much of the day, which is just miserable, even with some level of air conditioning. (It was 79 F in my office, which is really hotter than I like, and hotter than is ideal for my best functioning). I have hives all over (perspiration is one of the things that does it to me - yes, I am allergic to myself, apparently) and I hurt and it's a little hard to breathe. I am much less tolerant of stuff when the weather is like that. And it seems like it's been a real slap in the face: it seems like it got really hot and humid all of a sudden.
We're also under a tornado watch and I'm a little discombobulated because campus police sent around a note that they were leaving the buildings that have tornado shelters unlocked tonight, and they don't usually report that with tornado watches, so I am almost wondering if they know something they're not telling us. (Oh well. If it comes to it, I'll get in my (dry) bathtub and crawl under a pile of pillows and quilts and hope for the best)
Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
I've concluded there's nothing more I can do about encumbering the unused departmental money. Somehow they will have to make it happen for me to have the new soils kit, or I can't teach lab properly come spring. But there's nothing more I can do to make it go smoothly. That bothers me more than it should. Bureaucracies are stupid and annoying but they also are good at making me feel like I, personally, failed, when it's actually their stupid and annoying rules and deadlines that prevent me from doing things smoothly.
I was trying to do my department a solid by helping them spend down leftover money (the way it often works on college campuses: if you don't spend, say, $5000 of your budget by the time a fiscal year closes, they cut you by $5000 for the next year, on the grounds that "you didn't need that money, so...we're giving it to someone else." It's a stupid thing but bureaucracies are often stupid.
I guess the answer is: stop trying to always do people solids all the time, because you don't wind up getting your own stuff done, and often people don't pay back the favor.
I ran to Pruett's for dinner food. I don't care that English muffins are high in sodium; I am making English muffin pizzas for dinner tonight. (Anyway, what I really wanted was a pizza from Roma's, but (a) that's probably more sodium than an English muffin with a little pizza sauce and cheese on it and (b) I really didn't feel like running out again to get it - and they don't deliver)
I'm also taking a rest day from working out tomorrow. I did the dvd workout for the first time in a while today and I think I pulled something. I wish it weren't so beastly hot and this town were more walking-friendly; I really enjoyed walking for exercise up at my parents' but that really doesn't work well here - too many roaming dogs, few sidewalks, and the weather is miserable, even early in the morning, for going out walking.
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