Bits and bobs - blogging like it's 2005

So, I was looking at some old posts and saw that in a post from June 26 reflecting on the first 100 days of life under the pandemic, I signed off by saying "I can do another hundred days easy."

Well, by my reckoning it's now been 256 days and things show no sign of changing.

Today, instead of heading up to Canada and going to Chau Veggie for a holiday outing, we merely drove to an area lake for a nature walk and got takeaway from our favorite Vietnamese place on the way back. As we were returning to the parking area and passed a masked family coming in the other direction to begin their hike, we heard the father day to his daughter,  "Remember, when we meet other people, you have to pick a side and stay away." And the Vietnamese place once again has a barrier across the entry and no indoor seating, as we head back into stricter standards in an attempt to control infections.

That's life under Covid, heading into the ninth month, full steam ahead. The new normal. The now-normal.

Still not a burden, not really. Work goes on, school goes on, walks go on, binging Netflix-AmazonPrime-CBSAllAccess-HBOMax goes on, life goes on. If I have to telecommute full-time and have to skip browsing Value Village and have to play D&D on Roll20 and have to socialize by Zoom for a while, I can do that. On my head. Other people have it a lot harder.

Let's all do the right thing so we can get this done, and nobody has to bear any kind of burden at all, or get sick unnecessarily, or die.

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I don't know if I have posted this before, but I wanted to do some drawing this long weekend, and it just feels like this:

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So, I can remember drinking this when I was a kid. You had to be real careful, or it would foam all over the table...

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Speaking of 2005, this little snippet put me in mind of this post from 15 years ago.

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So, let's continue our counting down the days. It may be a while before we're free of the coronavirus, but we may soon shed a different loathsome disease.

Six-two-and-even, over and out.

It's Thursday

 

(No brand endorsement implied, I just really like the cleavering)

So, it's Thanksgiving, or as we call it in this house, Thursday off. Lots of reasons it is a problematic day: political, historical, dietary, and so forth - but I am not wanting to diatribe today.

As I have said before, it is a good thing, separate from any particular myth, to take a moment to be mindfully grateful for what we have. The annus horribilis that was 2020 doesn't seem at first glance to be fertile ground for reaping thanks, but really there's some good stuff in there.

Neither Coco nor I actually suffered directly from Covid-19, in the sense of becoming ill from coronavirus.

Both Coco and I kept our jobs, working remotely, and suffered no financial hits from the pandemic.

We have a home situation that includes two separate offices, so while we were working remotely those ten or so hours a day, we weren't on top of each other.

We live in an area where it is possible to take long walks in empty streets on on mostly empty trails, often with a view of the bay, helping to keep us grounded and sane.

We have ample access to technology that allowed us not only to work but to stay in touch with family and friends.

It would be unseemly to be less than grateful that we were able to weather this crisis relatively unscathed.

Similarly, the unpleasant political situation in which we find ourselves has not affected us directly. We are lucky enough not to be specific targets of the varieties of hate, both personal and institutional, that have manifest themselves in this country over the past few years.

Of course, what this creates is an even greater responsibility to do the right thing and support those who are less fortunate, materially and politically. I think we have done this - I hope we have done this. I know that the notion looms large in our conversations every day and is demonstrated in where we direct our time, energy, and resources.

And that is what I am most grateful for, in the end: the opportunity to do some good and help those who need it.

Let's all try that, okay?

Once more into the breach

 

So, yeah, this happened yesterday: the BTC Board of Trustees approved a contract for your humble servant as Interim President and Chief Academic Officer of the college from January 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. I start shadowing the president on December 1 (no stonewalling the transition team in this transfer of authority).

Besides actually continuing the business of the college to provide workforce education, all that's on the agenda for the year and a half in the job is balancing the college budget in the face of declining revenue and financial support; reversing an enrollment drop that has hopefully hit bottom at 20% down; navigating a change to an entirely new computer system for all campus operations; launching a new Guided Pathways initiative that reconfigures curricula across the college; getting through an Evaluation of Institutional Effectiveness site visit from our regional accrediting body; and opening negotiations for the faculty collective bargaining agreement. Oh - and doing it all on Zoom under pandemic conditions, at least for the near future.

Piece of cake.

Seriously, I am pretty chuffed, as the Great Pottery Throwdown contestants were wont to say. (BTW, that's a great show.) The move to Bellingham and to BTC has been a good one on so many levels, and this is just another positive development stemming from that decision. It's a nice affirmation of what is now a 23-year career in the community and technical college system, and the support and confidence demonstrated by the Trustees, my president, and my colleagues is truly heartening. I thought that Vice President of Academic Affairs was going to be my last, best job... but I guess not.

I have no idea what the situation will be twenty months from now, or where I will wind up for the last few miles of my ride into the sunset, but I am excited to begin this new phase. I think this message from my current assistant accurately sums up what's in store:

Up, up, and away!