7:00AM - It's dark and slippery out there. As I write this, I'm listening to a snow plow lumber back and forth outside my office window, clearing a sidewalk so students--should the University open at 10am as it's supposed to--won't slip and slide and hurt themselves. The slow ride in felt pretty trecherous. Back streets were all slippery, and the main roads, including the Beltway, weren't much better. I drove my two miles or so on the inner loop at about 45mph and only one car passed me.
So, here it is 7:00am, and the University doesn't open for another three hours. Why would I come in so early? Well, at 5:15 when the alarm went off, the University's home page didn't indicate there was any weather-related problem, so I got up and got dressed. Then, like a homing pigeon, I returned to the computer, ever hopeful, and found that my hopes were answered--at least partially. The home page now displayed a clickable "Weather Alert" warning. Well, I gave it my very best click, but the page that the browser took me to displayed no additional information. I did this a couple of times and got the same results with each page refresh. So, I decided to go downstairs, take my vitamins, drink my Citrucel, and feed the cat. This incidental behavior took exactly the right amount of time, because when I returned to the computer, the main page no longer showed the warning, but clicking on the blank yellow image took me to a page that read:
Due to inclement weather, the University of Maryland will open at 10:00 a.m. today.
But by this time, I was wide-awake. I figured if I went in at the usual time, skipped the gym (which wouldn't be open anyway), I could leave early (thereby also skipping my first day of class, "The Roman Republic," too). Of course, I could always ask my boss if I could work from home, but today is also a Lab Managers' lunch at Franklin's, and I can't miss that. It's for me--at least partially. A fond send-off from DCS most-tried and still truest customers. Which is why I made my cautious commute, braving slick roadways and avoiding contact with others who had chosen to do the same, and am sitting in my office so early in the morning.
What to do now that I'm here? Well, there's always email to be read and responded to. Also, I think I'll start packing up for my move to my new, smaller quarters. I'm moving on Monday from my office in the Computer & Space Sciences (CSS) Building, an edifice that has been my home away from home for nearly 30 of my 32 years here at the University. I'm moving to the first floor (which is actually the second floor) of the more rarefied atmosphere of the Patuxent (PTX) Building where a close watch can be kept on me by the University Vice President and CIO, currently Joseph JaJa acting in an interim capacity. The lion's share of OIT sits in CSS and I'll miss the hustle and bustle as well as the colleagues that it will now take a good deal more time and effort to see. But in addition to keeping the old, I now have an opportunity to make new friends in PTX and elsewhere on campus--the latter function an essential element of my new position.
OK, I've said my say for the morning. It's still dark; it's very quiet here (the plow has gone), and it's time to start packing.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
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