An era's end

 Well, sort of.

This afternoon I carried the last bits of "my" equipment out of the teaching lab. Some of it went into the temporary homes (one, an empty office where my ecology field gear is stored; another, the soils stuff moved either to my research lab, where I will attempt to teach the class (and overflow in another disused research lab). The rest went to a storage building down the hill from us. So I moved the bulk density sampler and the light-banks and some other things I rarely use down there, and transported a big bag of Perlite for a colleague who wants to use it in the future, but not this coming semester.

I'm surprised how sad I feel to see the empty lab - everything down off the walls (all the posters of plant anatomy and prairie types and the bulletin board. And all the equipment gone.

I mean, it's for a good reason - the renovations, which we've been told will start sooner if we have everything out before January (which feels to me like a polite fiction we're being told; construction never starts on time, no matter what). But next semester isn't going to be fun - we're going to be scattered around campus and I probably won't SEE any of my colleagues. it will be almost like 2020 again, except we will see students in person. 

I'm sure part of it is that I'm extremely tired; these last few weeks have been a lot, between all the grading (I was literally involved from 8 am to 6 pm yesterday with giving or grading exams, then had a meeting at church that went until 8 pm), and the minister leaving (and me finding out SURPRISE I am on the search committee! On top of being on two job search committees at work!). And i think the periodic flare-ups of knee pain (transporting a loaded cart down a steepish incline is not good for it) isn't helping; I had to apologize to a colleague yesterday after I snapped at him on Tuesday for something that wasn't his fault, but I was having a bad pain day.

I don't know. I hope this is all worth it. I hope the renovations are on time and are done by May as they've said. I hope things look a lot nicer and newer after them. 

I need to get home and do at least a short workout, and tomorrow I have three (3!) job-candidate interviews (for a university position. We have one packet for a possible ministerial candidate, but we're not ready to start that just yet). Saturday is graduation. 

At least my Monday and Tuesday may be a bit freed up. I have not had time to get to the little gourmet shop to look for a FEW Christmas cards (I am not sending out many this year, just don't have the energy or time) and some stocking stuffer gifts for my mom. Failing that I could probably take the car one day I'm up there and go to the walgreen's near her and find things. 

But yeah, just lots of weird and complicated and sad/nostalgic feelings, especially now as the bottom of the year approaches.