Noughth Begins

Morning run, chapel for the Office and Mass, fruit breakfast at home (cos the college doesn’t have space for staff to breakfast with appropriate social distance), then a series of Zoom meetings: one, two, three, four, with opportunities to meet new students. The afternoon took up and then amended prep for two of my modules, because the accrediting overseers (who made several constructive suggestions regarding problems in one of my assessments) won’t allow me to change the assessment until the changed regimen passes review at the Central Committee, which only meets occasionally — so that after hearing and accepting criticism of my module design, I have to perpetuate for it another year. Moreover, to ameliorate the problems cited in the assessment, I have to put extra work into patching and reconfiguring an exercise that I’ll only offer once more. Sigh.
Evening Prayer, Majliss for dinner, Ozark, and that’s a wrap.

Michaelmas Dawns Grey and Soaking

Two days of not running in heavy rain, chilly weather. Morning Office, hot breakfast, Morning Worship on Radio Four, morning Mass, a Zoom greeting and introduction to the community, then a socially-distanced community lunch. The afternoon involved course prep then light admin and reading while I made the most out of my last afternoon before term kicks into gear. We watched an episode of Ozark chatted with Nate, and then Eight of Ten/Countdown.

More Rain, Last Day of the Vac

Tomorrow begins Michaelmas Term, so I relished as much of the day as I could; it’ll be ten weeks till my life eases to this extent again. Serious rain this morning, so I didn’t make a morning run, but obvs I said the Office, morning Mass, hot breakfast, and finished my first pass through Legends volume 2 just after lunch. What a satisfaction!
Set up another module after lunch, caught up with some correspondence, all of which was slowed by drowsiness from a sleep-light night previous, and some doom-scrolling. Pizza for dinner, and finished up Strike (I don’t like it much).

More Catch-Up

Chilly, rainy morning run — I thought, about halfway through, that I might turn home and cut it short, but instead I forged ahead for the last three-quarters of a mile. This was a mistake; the rain picked up, and I was already soaking from the first bit of the run, so that by the time I got home I was sodden. Morning Office, morning Mass, fruit breakfast, and into the study to advance the cause of James and miracles, and of course preparation. That occupied most of the working day, apart from a midday grocery trip. Soup for dinner, and the first half of Strike before sleep.

Back To The Coal Face

Today is my first day back on duty at St Stephen’s House after months of sabbatical leave (first) and furlough (subsequently). It’s good to be back on duty, although it’s been more than six months segregated from seminary business, so I feel a bit rusty. Add to that the special circumstances attendant upon the coronavirus, and the college world I’m [re-]entering differs significantly from the world from which I withdrew in March. Frustratingly, my enforced absence from libraries and the on-going thrum of stress from the pandemic impeded my progress on the projects I’d hoped to make headway on — impeded, but did not preclude.

Chilly morning run, Morning Office, morning Mass, work toward extruding a James essay from my resisting consciousness, quick lunch, Exam Board meeting followed by college business, and home for some Legends before dinner (Margaret’s soup). We watched the German series of Criminal after dinner, and retired for the night.