I worked another 2.5 days in the lab this week. I finished the first two experiments for Quant and got things set up for the third. The experiment I was working mostly, each student starts with a different indicator solution (they don't know the identity), so I repeated the whole procedure for each of the six indicators we had ready. This way, if it comes to it, I can give different students different data and they won't all have exactly the same analysis. It seemed to take forever to get through these. These solutions do look pretty, though. This is bromothymol blue:
All of the next experiments require students to analyze replicates of an unknown substance, and I'm not entirely sure how that's going to work for me. For the one I am starting next week, I have five sets of equipment so I am making five samples and going to try to run them all simultaneously. Hopefully, that won't take all day and I'll be able to do at least two or three different unknowns before moving on. All the other experiments are titrations, and I haven't figured out a way to titrate more than one sample at a time.
I also need to put the data together for students at some point. Right now, all the photos are in my Google drive, notes are written in a physical notebook, and spectra are on a flash drive. I need to start putting that together (I'm thinking of using a Google Slides file for each different set) before I forget all the details. There's also all the lecture prep I haven't really started yet...
Sunday afternoon I had my little knitting group scheduled. It's just me and two other faculty members. They asked me to teach them how to knit...goodness, that was two years ago!...and we've been meeting at my house about once a month since then. They are both making simple potholders - very, very slowly - but really this is an excuse to get together and talk. None of us has many friends here; I think it's hard for us to make friends as adults. We've been meeting virtually since March. Anyway, only one of them showed up this time. We emailed the other person afterwards and it turned out she had had an emergency (I hesitate to be more specific on the interwebz). I was relieved to hear from her, but sad that things are not going well in her life. I almost wrote the common line about "let me know if there's anything I can do" but I didn't because (a) the number of things I could actually do and would be willing to do at this point is pretty small, and (b) if it was me, I would read that as a sort of empty offer and I don't want her to feel similarly ambiguous about it. Instead, I wrote about how much I valued her friendship and wanted things to be better. We're going to try to meet virtually again soon.
Tuesday morning I had my counseling session. The counselor was nice, I guess. I haven't ever had counseling before so I didn't know what to expect. She suggested that my troubles could be hormonal, that maybe I'm in perimenopause, and I should talk to my physician about some tests. Since my bad episodes only last one or two days, she didn't seem to be too worried about me. She suggested a book on stress management, physical exercise, and using an app for mindfulness and meditation. We are going to talk again in a couple of weeks to see how I am doing. I did feel better after talking with her. She reminded me that it's been a very stressful time (which I knew, but somehow it helps when someone else says it) and that I am grieving the loss of our staff people (which only happened two weeks ago - another weird time-thing - it feels like longer). I have a virtual appointment with my doctor (actually with his PA) next week to follow up on the hormone angle. I don't expect that to be productive since I don't have any other symptoms of menopause yet.
And after that, I went back to the dentist and had my filling replaced. It was not a big deal and didn't hurt at all after the Novocaine or whatever they used. My mouth was numb until suppertime, and that was that. Everyone there was super-nice to me. They asked me all about how I am preparing for fall semester and how I feel about school starting. I was surprised at how much I talked, since I don't normally do a lot of chit chat. Maybe I was feeling more open after the counseling.
Imperfect Foods has changed our delivery date because they have drivers for our area now, I guess. All our boxes so far have come by FedEx on Saturdays, but soon that will change to Wednesdays. It looks like tomorrow's box is on the previous schedule and then we don't get anything next week, with the next shipment scheduled for the Wednesday of the following week. I'm hoping that with an IF driver we can start returning some of the packing material and cold packs we've been collecting. BAM used some of the cold packs when he bought ice cream this week, but there is a limit to how many we really need. These IF deliveries have been really nice these last few weeks. We got mahi mahi and salmon last week and also ate some smoked salmon from a previous box, and I felt very virtuous for eating so much fish!
I finished the retirement gift scarf this week. It has been in progress since late April, but I really enjoyed the pattern. I like double knitting. I like having the design develop on both sides at the same time. The pattern is Crystalline from Knitty magazine. Being an old crystallographer, I was attracted to the panels featuring different symmetries. I hope my colleague will like it too. I need to figure out whether I should drop it off for him at school, or take it to his house, or mail it.
I have been working on the second of a pair of socks this week and making pretty good progress. Tonight or tomorrow I will start the next thing, which is going to be some Christmas ornaments. They will use up some yarn I've had in stash for a long time and make good gifts. Since I didn't go anywhere fun this summer I didn't collect anything for people, and I'd like to have something more to give family and close friends than just a random book from the person's Amazon wish list.
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