My newer office (#1042)

Topics/tags: Autobiographical

I have a new office.

No, not the one I moved into in June. Another one.

Let me explain. My primary office is in Noyce 3rd. Since I’m sabbatical, I gave it up to ensure that one of our visitors could have an office on Noyce 3rd [1]. I ended up with a new office at 1127 Park Street. I really like that office. It has a wonderful view. But with the pandemic, I can’t be there. It makes me sad, especially since I never got to go back and retrieve books.

My home office is not yet fit for human habitation [2]. So I’ve been using the dining room table. And it mostly works.

But we have a problem. Our Internet Service Provider [3] is Windstream. You probably read those first four letters as a noun. But I’m pretty sure that they’re a verb, to wind, as in Windstream has the bandwidth of a wind-up toy. Okay, I have to admit that it’s not that bad. But almost everyone who uses it agrees that Windstream can barely wind itself up to support one stream. And I have a son engaging in the experiment that is called unexpectedly remote learning. If I’m online when he’s online, neither of us gets sufficient bandwidth. And he should have priority.

Does that tell you what my new office is? That’s right. It’s my minivan [4]. I drive to campus, all two blocks. I park behind 1127 Park Street. And I log in. I’d like to walk to campus and sit outside at the picnic table, but I don’t think that’s an approved activity. However, the College did say that if we needed Internet access, we could visit campus in our cars [5]. And so I do. It hasn’t been ideal. There isn’t a table or similar surface, although I suppose I could work on that. Strangely enough, the Internet isn’t great. I’ve had it cut out on a Webex meeting and a Zoom meeting [6]. I wish it would do better.

I assume I’ll be using this new office for the next nine or ten weeks, which represents the amount of time Youngest has left in his term. Maybe at some point, I’ll be allowed to use the picnic table or even one of the tables on the interior of campus. But I’m avoiding the igloo!

[1] Or I was asked to give it up. I can never keep that straight.

[2] Even worse than the lab or even more stuff per square foot than my lab are two appropriate descriptions of my home office.

[3] ISP.

[4] I no longer have soccer players, but I still have a minivan. Given its rate of rusting, I should have it at least one more year, but not much longer.

[5] I assume minivan fits into their intent.

[6] Don’t worry. I wasn’t hosting the Zoom meeting. And there weren’t and Zoombombers [7], either.

[7] We did have a BlackboardBomber at CS Table. I’m pretty sure everyone knows who it was, though, and they didn’t do anything offensive.

Version 1.0 of 2020-04-07.