I worked a lot again. Monday and Thursday I put in about ten hours on campus, as well as part of Wednesday. I got a lot done which does make me feel much better, all by itself. I finished the trials of the electrogravimetric analysis. I did six trials each of three unknown ores. They had to stir for over an hour each, but I have five sets of apparatus so I could do five simultaneously. While that happened, I made solutions and did the first of the four titration experiments, a redox titration with chromium(VI). I did four standardization trials one day and then twelve unknown trials (two different unknowns) the next day. I would have done more trials but I used up all the chromium(VI) solution, and I would have to standardize again if I made more. This is the endpoint color, kind of blue-purple.
On Tuesday I had the virtual doctor appointment, with one of the PAs. She was kind, and asked lots of questions. The virtual thing was strange but no stranger than teaching a class virtually. Anyway, she and my doctor don't think I'm close to menopause because I'm not experiencing any other symptoms. The PA thought it could be a thyroid problem, so Wednesday on my way to campus I went to the lab and had some blood drawn for those tests, which all came back totally normal. Therefore, my doctor recommends mindfulness and stress management techniques. Sigh. I mean, I'm glad there's no huge medical problem! But, it would be easier to have something that could be treated in a more concrete way. Instead, it kind of feels like "this is all in your head" so snap out of it already. I have another appointment with the counselor on Tuesday and I'll see what she says.
Today I went to one of the local basic hair salons (it's a national chain, no frills) and had my hair shortened by about ten inches. I do this every other year: get it cut as short as I can while retaining the ability to make a low ponytail. Then I do nothing while the hair grows out again for two years or so, which is when it starts to be annoying and hot. I knew I was due for this haircut in June, but I wasn't brave enough to go right after salons reopened. I had almost decided to wait another year, or maybe until Christmas, but I suddenly changed my mind. The place I used two years ago is gone but these chains have outlets all over the city. This one had an online check in thing so I found the location with the shortest wait time, checked in there, and then drove over. It was pretty slick. I did have to wait about 5 minutes in the shop after I arrived because both stylists were busy with other people, but there was no one else waiting. I feel much better now. The hair should stop tangling in my clothes (and face mask!) and it should be cooler. So that was a successful adventure.
I immediately changed my clothes and washed my hands when I got home, just in case.
We received several messages from the Provost this week. One was about being flexible with students who are experiencing issues and maybe can't do class work the way we would normally expect this fall. Another was the long-awaited announcement that the college has purchased a site license for Zoom and we can all sign up for accounts. It feels like this new guy is starting to make things happen, and that's good. On the other hand, I received access to my department budget yesterday and found that our equipment purchase and equipment repair lines were eliminated and the supplies budget was cut 20%. I don't know how well that's going to work out. It's hard to teach chemistry without buying stuff.
Today I made a screen capture video for my Quant students describing the textbooks and other required materials for the class. I usually just send an email listing the ISBN and brief comments, but I wanted them to hear my voice this time. I made a Google Slides deck with pictures of the books and the most important details and then I just talked through that (for 11 minutes, which I know is "too long" according to the experts, but I don't care). I'm going to do one for General Chemistry too, but those students don't know me already so I want to put a little more time into preparing what I say and how I say it.
I've been working on those knitted ornaments. Each one has taken about two hours, start to finish. I have made five so far in different combinations of yarn and beads. The yarn is leftover from a hat I made a long time ago and the beads are leftover from various lace projects. Each ornament only uses up about 4 grams of yarn, but 100 beads, so I will run out of beads first and then need to decide whether to buy more.
No comments:
Post a Comment