Random things

[celandineb]

• On my campus, as on most, summer is a time of projects. One project that our grounds maintenance is presently doing appears to be the installation of a permanent sprinkler system. At least that's my working assumption, based on what I've seen. They seem to be digging up the ground and installing pipes. They do of course still have to water the lawns in the interim, and the combination of newly dug earth plus water has produced some fairly spectacular mud puddles over the sidewalks and into the gutters. That in combination with the summer heat which then evaporates the mud has caused it to dry not in cracked plates so much as in curls. I find it oddly fascinating to see these curls of dried red mud sitting in the gutter as if Mother Earth were primping her hair.
• Earlier this week at the gas station -- I have to gas up every other evening now, which is kind of depressing -- I could tell it was the end of the month because the person who had been at that pump ahead of me had purchased exactly 2 dollars worth of gas, which amounted to something like .79 of a gallon. I could envision the driver rooting around in his car cushions scrounging for one more dime to make up that complete two dollars, and I hoped fervently that none of you, my friends, were in that situation.
• There's a family on our block that is perhaps not quite that close to the edge but certainly closer than they would like. They refinanced this spring to take advantage of the better interest rates, and from something said I am fairly sure that they also cashed out some of the equity they had. So things have been tight for them, and then in the flooding several weeks ago their only working car got completely saturated, destroying all of the wiring etc. They'd been putting off getting the second car fixed, but have now had to scramble to do that, and are also borrowing a car from another neighbor since they really do need two most of the time owing to their employment.
• Anyhow, as a result of that, my SO wanted to do something to help them out if we could, but the male half of the sketch in particular is quite proud and unlikely to accept anything that to him would smack of charity. So what my SO came up with in the end was the idea of giving the couple a nice dinner out together. He has enlisted two other sets of neighbors in the scheme; one family will babysit the children for the duration, and the other family and we will split the cost of buying a gift certificate to a restaurant. It won't alleviate their troubles in any real way, but the hope is that it might take their mind off of them for a little while.
• Thursday was my first day solo, a fact remarked upon by a number of people. I was kind of jumped in at the deep end, in a sense, as there was a minor explosion the previous night between one of the student assistants and a couple of staff members. There were e-mails and phone calls and all sorts of fun things going on, and as a consequence a meeting that morning between myself, my own supervisor, and one of the staff members; later I met with the student separately. I think and hope that matters have been resolved regarding these particular folks, but I think there are some larger underlying issues, involving additional people, both regular staff and students. For the time being I shall just watch and wait and encourage everyone to bring their problems to me directly and quickly, so that we can try to resolve them rather than letting things fester and eventually explode.
• Most appropriately, our HR person forwarded to me an e-mail announcing a leadership training seminar in August, specifically for newly promoted supervisors. It's an elective in this training program I signed up for, and I think I may take it. I'm asking the woman with whom I'm already signed up for a couple of other sessions if she's interested, but even if she's not I may go for it anyway if I can get authorization.
• I can tell a funny story on myself for Thursday, too. I walked into the big office this morning and quite automatically headed for the desk I've been using for the past three weeks, thereby passing the supervisor's desk which is now mine. Since I tend to arrive quite early, only one of the staff was already in the office, and he rightfully was amused by my mistake. It's amazing how quickly one can establish these habits.
• I will say that working in a library is rather dangerous. Practically every day I seem to find at least one more book I once read, but there's no way I can keep up with that. I'm going to have to be stern with myself, that's for sure. I still retain faculty status in the system, which gives me a greatly extended checkout. -- in our system old statuses are not automatically removed; I could do it by hand, but why would I? Already I have books ranging from archaeology to biology to really old home economics -- that one is a book from 1935, written by several professors at my uni -- and I don't even remember what all other topics. I will say that it is nice to feel that I can read pretty much whatever it takes my fancy, and not feel guilty that I'm not reading in my field. I do have several books at home that I got from a public library, and which are on the general topic of being a good library supervisor or manager. In fact I need to get cracking on those before they have to be returned; that two week check out is so foreign to me now, after years and years of mostly using university libraries.
• We went out to dinner this week and my meal came with fried spinach. I had no clue what to expect. It turned out to be deep-fried individual spinach leaves. They were surprisingly delicious, although the chef had had too heavy a hand with the salt afterward. Light and crunchy and with a nice spinach flavor.