Sand through the hourglass

 Every August I feel unready for the academic year to start. I shouldn't even remark on it anymore.

There was finally action on campus. They put small tables inside every classroom to hold a bucket of disinfecting wipes, a gallon bottle of ethanol hand sanitizer (pictured; one of my colleagues is concerned the students will try to drink it), and a box of tissues. I don't know what the tissues are for. Large round stickers also were applied to all the floors and stairwells at about five foot intervals. They say "one-way traffic" and "stay 6 feet apart". We have four stairwells, and now two are Up only and two are Down only. Every room got a new capacity sign (applied with poster putty, so they're already falling) with absurdly small numbers. Half the chairs disappeared from the rooms, and some of the tables, as well as most of the hallway benches.

I worked on campus five days this week again. I went in earlier and earlier, stayed later and later, and still have a to-do list that is exhaustingly long. One day, I spent almost all the time converting worksheets into Google docs. Another day I entered all the lab assignments to the LMS. And as I work, I'm remembering additional things that still need to be done.

Our new faculty person came in on Thursday, which happened to be the same day I had scheduled the chemical waste removal. So that day I don't think I accomplished much, other than assisting the removal guy and walking the new guy around showing him where things are. Turns out, no one had been in his office since March. When he opened the door, we found the ceiling had leaked water all over his desk and his computer and the ceiling tile was ruined. Got that cleaned up, but it was not the way I would have wanted it. No one has gotten his nameplate on the door, or a mailbox in the main office. I don't even know his office phone number. It was a pretty pathetic welcome for him.

I now have 66 students in general chemistry. The thermometers for my lab kits are supposed to arrive Monday and then I can put the kits together. I packed sandwich baggies with the little stuff this week so that, hopefully, those items will not get lost or damaged. Sixty-six baggies: one strip of chromatography paper, two coffee filters, twelve toothpicks, a 9V battery, two corks, three plastic transfer pipets, a coffee cup lid, and a hexagonal nut. 

I have one student in the analytical class who will be attending remotely this semester. He just contacted me this morning about it, which is fine. So all those photos I took this summer will get used (still have to work out how that's going to be organized) at least once. I asked him to meet virtually with me so we can talk it over before the class actually starts next Thursday.

A pretty large number of students in both classes have responded to the Google forms I sent out last week asking for some basic information. Really, it was just a way to start engaging with them, but I did ask some important things like preferred name and pronouns. This week I sent another assignment to the general chemistry students to get them to do a Flipgrid and a Padlet, which are both tools we are going to use regularly. I want them to try it out ahead of time so it's not so scary later. So far, six students have done the assignment (all women, wouldn't you know).

Yes, my whole waking life is focused on school. I'm sure I'm boring, but I don't know what else I could do. It's only four days until the first class. I have a department chairs meeting and two other meetings Monday. Tuesday is an all-day Zoom faculty meeting (I could have sworn they promised it wouldn't bee all day on Zoom but whatever). Thursday at 8 am is my first class, in person. After that, it's no break or letting up until Thanksgiving.

I knit a pair of baby socks this week. I finished the ornament balls. I might start a new pair of adult size socks tonight.