Day 8 of Governor Newsom’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy”

Happy hour…it’s been months…

Friday. 9/4/20

7:30-8:00 - Class is starting at 8:30 and I like to send my ‘Good Morning’ prompt to my highschoolers at 8:00 so I’m up and I take the dog out.  More and more this week, the dog is distracted by a scent that she is tracking all over the yard so she won’t do her business.  She runs around and around the yard before finally ‘alerting’ at the base of one of my trees. I don’t see any animals in the tree so I don’t know what the problem is. She finally goes potty.  We go inside. Cheese.

8:00 – I grab my coffee and go to work (enter home office).  I prepared the emailed content for my students last night and saved it in the Draft folder, ready to deploy.  I click ‘send’, email the “Good Morning” prompt and my highschoolers start responding immediately. I take attendance based on the emails I receive, but I also respond to every email, making sure to address them by name for that personal touch.  I’m getting to know their little personalities – many of them are quite funny.

I’m teaching two classes, simultaneously, so next:

I go on Canvas and “publish” the prompt on the Discussion Board for my college students for Class No. 2. They start responding.

8:40 – I click send and email  “Audio Lecture Chapter 3 – Part I” and the corresponding PP slides to the highschoolers.

8:45 – My college students open the PP slides and “Audio Lecture Chapter 3 – Part I” on Canvas – I don’t have to send/do anything because everything is on the Canvas platform. I take attendance from the Discussion Board for Class No. 2.

I sip my coffee and listen to The Daily.

9:00 – I note the absent highschoolers (four) and send an email blast, reminding them that class started at 8:30 and that it’s still not too late to join and answer the prompt. I’m gentle with them.

9:30 – At this point, it’s time for both college classes to listen to the assigned podcast.  I click ‘send’ and email  the link to the podcast to my highschoolers.

My college students open the podcast and start listening. I don’t have to send/do anything because everything is on the Canvas platform.

I sip my coffee and listen to Today Explained.

9:45 – I send an email blast to my absent college students, asking them why they’re absent.  I am NOT gentle with them. A student emails me with a bulls—t excuse, saying he can’t find the “prompt.”  I tell him, in no uncertain terms, to sign in right now on the Discussion Board.  I add that I’ll be watching the Board until he signs in.  He does.  I tell him to open “Audio Lecture Chapter 3” and follow the instructions, right now.  He’s late to class, but I’m still going to make him complete the work.

10:05 – Class is over.  These classes are fully automated, which is what I envisioned. 

Unfortunately, this is going to change, yet again (sigh), because the IT Dept. finally placed the Canvas shell for my highschool class on the “dashboard” so we now have to move to that platform. This is what College No. 2 and the high school Administration want – Canvas is the better medium – but it’s a shame because the students are finally ‘programmed’ to review the course content via email and it’s going smoothly.  Now they have to learn an entirely new system and I have to walk them through it.

I leave work (exit home office).

10:30-11:15 – It’s a mad scramble to take a shower, get dressed, and be ready for the locksmith who is finally coming between 10:00 and 2:00.

11:15 – Two men arrive. “Mike” puts his mask on AFTER I answer the door – his assistant is already masked.  I’m masked, too, and I have four windows open. They head for the door and start working on the lock.

They are done in 8 minutes.

After months spent researching how to fix a “lift-latch lock” on a “swinging French door” and consistently getting the run around, I now have an operational lock. The clouds part and the holy chorus sings…until I’m billed $165 for labor and $20 for parts. 8 minutes, y’all.

Both men are really nice, but “Mike” moves his dirty clipboard all over my counter, then asks to use my bathroom.  I’m horrified, but what can I say? He says, “I’m not going to do anything ‘serious’, just so you know.” I guess that means he only has to urinate? Great.

They leave and I sanitize ALL surfaces with my Clorox wipes, washing my hands repeatedly throughout.  Then, I open the windows in my office and  bathroom and switch out the bath towel. I open another downstairs window, crank up the air conditioner for maximum air flow, and bring my oscillating fan downstairs. It’s exhausting and I’m reminded that L. has to sanitize constantly at the art studio.  I wear my mask, inside my own house, for the next hour.  Perhaps I’m overreacting…

12:15-1:15 – I grab my salad and go upstairs to eat my lunch.  I read Mothership.

1:15-2:15 – The dog and I lay down on the couch in my home office.  L. goes to Starbucks and I ask her to buy me a coffee to celebrate the lock repair.

2:15-2:45 – B. calls and is open to going to happy hour today so I suggest Alchemy and he says he’ll pick me up at 5:00. L. berates me for returning to Alchemy.

2:45-4:00 – I catch up on blog entries.

4:00 – 4:30 – I water my plants.  California is in the middle of a terrible heat wave.

4:30-5:00 – I change into a sun dress and put on light make-up. I listen to Slate’s The Political Gabfest.

5:00-7:30- B arrives and we drive down the street to Alchemy. We sit outside, away from the people on the patio area – the customers don’t take masking seriously and our waitress deliberately wears her mask UNDER her nose.  We order – the service is sllllooooowwww – but the food isn’t bad when it finally arrives. I have two glasses of champagne and B. orders two vodka tonics, at happy hour prices.  B. pays and seems satisfied with the amount of the check.

7:30 – 9:30 - we go back to my house and sit outside on the patio.  I make B. a Jack Daniels Tennessee honey whiskey with 7-up and we talk politics.

8:30 - B. asks for another Jack Daniels.

B. leaves, but not before giving me two 5-pound dumbbells that he purchased for me a few days ago!  I’m really happy about this.

10:00 -11:00 – I tidy up downstairs, take the dog out, and LOCK my door for the first time in MONTHS. There is no light coming from under the door of L.’s bedroom so I guess she’s asleep.

11:00 – 1:00 - I go upstairs, sit in my favorite chair ready to watch Forensic Files, and promptly fall asleep for the next two hours.

1:00-2:00 – I wake up, still in my sundress. Nighttime routine and bed.