Weather update

This is for my mother, who has been asking me every time we talk this week: It is now snowing. I don't know if it will stick yet, since it just started, but there is a chance that we will get around 6 inches this weekend. And it is snowing heavily...sideways as a matter of fact, since the wind is also blowing rather hard. According to the snowfall derby in the paper, we are at least 5 inches behind so far this year.

Brockport archives

I have been volunteering a couple of afternoons a week at the Brockport college archives for a couple of months now. It is a great way to get to know the area and the history of the college - both of the collections I have worked on so far have taught me quite a bit. For instance, Brockport hosted the Special Olympics in 1979, and it was a really big deal - Mohammad Ali came, along with other famous athletes. Also, Brockport used to be a Normal School - a school for teaching teachers - and was almost closed down by the state in the 1940s because it wasn't seen as useful, but the school president fought that, and the school survived. In the 1960s it became a liberal arts style institution, as it is now. All this, and more detail, is available on the archives website here.

Volunteering is also a good way to try to make contacts for possible jobs. Yesterday when I stopped by, the archivist invited me to come to a meeting of some of the local university and college archivists. Although there were only 5 other people there, they were all archivists, and it was really nice to talk to other professionals. I had begun to forget, since I am rather away from the field at the moment, that I actually like being an archivist. Two of the attendees had been to the big SAA meeting in Chicago, and were sharing some of their reflections about it. A lot of what they were talking about were things I had dealt with in classes - so it was also nice to know that what I was learning is actually applicable! That is not always the case with classes, and is not always obvious when you are stuck trying to understand something. It also showed me that I know more than I think, when put to the test. Too bad none of the other archivists had any job openings... But, they know who I am now, and might remember me if they hear of something.

A second bathroom would be helpful

Over Thanksgiving, an accident occurred with my dad and our shower wall. The result was that we now have a medium sized hole in the shower. We are in the process of getting it fixed, but it is taking a while. You see, every step of the process comes with a waiting period: the pvc paint used to prep the drywall (put in by the landlady yesterday evening) has to dry fully before we can put up the tiles. Once the tiles are up, we have to wait 24 hours before grouting. After grouting, we rae supposed to wait 72 (!!!!) hours before exposing the tiles to water. While this is going on, we don't really have use of the shower. The landlady came on Monday to assess the damage, and take down the broken section of wall. Then we discovered that the hole had gotten a bit damp, and needed to dry out. But, she couldn't come back until Wednesday. So, on Tuesday we went to the gym to play racquetball, and took showers in the locker rooms. Yesterday, she came and fitted the drywall. Now the paint is drying, and if I have time this evening I will put up the tiles. But I think we are just going to have to cover the hole with plastic again, because the gym is a long way away, and neither of us want to go that far for a shower... And we could both use one!