New Work Week

Well, tonight was a lovely evening. I took a walk around the neighborhood fields right around dusk, which is a perfect time to see the melting of colors from daylight into the setting sun. It was augmented tonight by vast fields of lush, fluffy clouds, leftovers from a passing storm front. We've had this welcome change in the weather, a cooling off and a smattering of rain to clean out the air. Fresh. Pretty soon it's going to be hot again, so I'll enjoy it while I can.

Honestly, I wanted to write tonight just to share this picture of the bike trail near the North Natomas Regional Park. It isn't everyday that I have a beautiful picture to go along with my ramblings, so I have to take advantage of it when I can. I was right in the sweet spot of perfect lighting, where light meets dark and the two dance together to bring perfect clarity to shapes and depths and contrasts, before the onset of night downs it all away. And this picture was just shot with my little iPhone 8 Plus. Which, incidentally, is nearly paid off. Just one more month to go. Small victories.

Well today I actually returned to work. I mean, to Sac State. It's the end of the semester now, as finals concluded last week. Who knew? Not me, really. Never before have I been so oblivious to the end of a semester. It seems like it ended back in March. For me it kind of did. But today we re-opened the gates, albeit only briefly, as we've assigned a time window of 10:00am-2:00pm for students to come back and clear out their lockers and return instruments. It's a normal end-of-year rite of passage for students, slightly altered this year due to Covid-19. The game changer. Students now have to sign up for a window to come in, and only 5 can sign up for each window of 15 minutes. And they have to use separate doors for entrances and exits, and avoid contact with each other and with us, and so on. They took it in stride. They're so adaptable, these college students. Not like old farts like me.

Dan and I were the only employees at work today, and there was a steady of trickle of students for much of the four-hour window. But overall it was slow. Quiet. Not like the music building used to be. Now it's more...somber. Still, it was nice to see bodies back in action at Capistrano, if only briefly and only for clearing out the remains of their belongings that were left behind when this storm hit. Tomorrow and Wednesday, more of the same. Though the trickle of people will slow. And after Wednesday, we can crawl back under a rock again and shelter away from the rest of society.

Except, society is starting to re-open. Just a little. A peep through a narrow crack in a door. Hopefully the door opening will continue to widen, and before we know it we'll all be back in business again. More or less. Though as of right now, I'm having to assume that there will really be no work load for me until at least August. And Sac State has already announced that they intend to keep classes mostly online for the fall, so who knows when my "normal" work week will resume.

I've kind of gotten used to being at home. Though I'm not nearly as productive as when I'm in the office, where I can focus. It will be quite a system shock when and if I resume a normal 40-hour work week again, back in the old tired building which I've spent the better part of the last 25 years of my life. I'm bleeding out vacation hours now, and also some Paid Administrative Leave offered by the State for those who's work lives were upended by this unassuming little virus. Well, whose life wasn't upended? But the Leave is welcome, and will help keep me from bankrupting the hoard of vacation hours I've amassed over the last 20 years. You never know when you might need a whole lot of time off.

But hey. I was AT work today! Been a long time. It is definitely a "new" work week. Looking forward to tomorrow, actually.