The View from the Hermitage, Day 166

 

All hail the shiny new functioning Samsung refrigerator! We managed to pull it together with a lot of luck. If I hadn't given the local Lowe's website one final look, we would have settled for ordering something that would not arrive until October at the earliest. It will take a while to figure out the optimal item arrangement, but that's part of the fun. It does have a door compartment tall enough for a wine bottle or two, and a shelf in the body that fits beer bottles. I have emailed older son a grocery list, and he will hit the local Wegman's before he comes out to run tomorrow morning. 

The university waited until 4:51 to send out the email announcing that they're going with in-person classes starting on September 8. Students can move into the dorms starting on September 3. The announcement email began:

 "Earlier this month, we delayed the opening of undergraduate residence halls and the start of in-person undergraduate classes by two weeks. We did that to assess the spread of the virus, which was concerning to us, and to resolve some difficulties with the testing supply chain. It also allowed us to observe the early experiences of other universities, which have been quite mixed."

So the early experiences of other universities have been quite mixed, eh? The only ones I've heard about are the ones with problems. If they say other universities have been successful in opening, I guess I have to believe them. I would think, though, that given all the problems, a school with no problems would be noteworthy. The other statement that caught my eye was

"If we were to go all online and close our dorms, we would not be addressing the challenges that we have seen on other campuses."

I'm likely reading too much into this, but it almost sounds like a we-can-do-it-you-couldn't statement. We can address the challenges the other schools could not. Classes will start on a Tuesday. Does that mean success will be making it to the next week or lasting for two full weeks? I'm not gonna go there.

To be clear, I would like to see the university succeed because there are a number of people, some on staff and some contract employees, who will lose their incomes if the dorms and dining halls are empty or emptier than they otherwise would be. I don't want to see that happen. So for all my cynicism and biting remarks, I don't want the university to have to go all online unless they allow at least some students to stay in the dorms and use the dining halls. 

As for positive cases, the husband got an email from his department chair noting that one person in the physics department has tested positive. That individual evidently had not had close enough contact with anyone else in the department for contagion to be likely, so no other people will need to isolate or quarantine themselves. I hope the person is not a high-risk case and recovers without sharing it with family members who might be at risk. 

The husband's class seems to be going well. The second lecture was today. He'll be taping the three for next week tomorrow or Sunday, but probably tomorrow. We're supposed to get rain all day tomorrow which means the planned lawn mowing will not take place. He can tape lectures while I continue to unpack and organize boxes of books. I'm finding books I did not know we had. My current reading is The Night the Mountain Fell: The Story of the Montana-Yelowstone Earthquake. Said earthquake happened in 1959, so while I was alive and living in Montana at the time, I remember nothing about this.

And now to go open the new addition to the family and find what I can for dinner. Tomorrow I may actually have to look behind things to see what's there. For now, though, the pickings are slim.