You never want to hear the words "There's asbestos in your office." That was the first bad news. It actually followed the good news of "We're cleaning the floor of your office." It's nice to look forward to a spring cleaning after a long winter of tracking snow, dirt, and muck into my office. But it's not really nice to open the door to my office and see that Bee Clean ripped up the flooring. I complained about this and a guy came and put down black tape. That's it--no fixing or replacing. At this point, I didn't even know that there was asbestos under the flooring; they only told me about that years later.
"No problem," he thought optimistically. "If it's a hazard, they would do something about it." But then the UCP took office and cut half a billion dollars and counting from higher education. There was no money for anything--not even asbestos abatement. And then Covid hit, and I taught remotely for almost two years. I guess that's good news? The fact that I wasn't in my office, being exposed to carcinogens. Okay, yes. That's good news.
Remote teaching eventually came to an end and I went back to my office. My asbestos-ridden, cancer-causing office. This spring, though, there was a glimmer of hope. Scarce money was being allocated to asbestos remediation. Yup, offices on the third floor would be completely redone. That's some good news, all right! The bad news is that my office is on the second floor, and there wasn't enough money for those offices. I looked jealously on as my colleagues packed up their offices. They would soon be asbestos-free, with spiffy new university-standard offices. This is the standard offices that new faculty get when they're hired: fresh paint, choice of flooring, new ceiling tiles, new window blinds. But not me: I'm old, not new.
But then--from out of nowhere--an email. Good news! More money had been allocated to redoing offices on the second floor! Except, as I peered through the documents, it wasn't so good. I'd be getting new ceiling tiles, and having the walls of my office painted. Wait, what? That's it? That can't be right. Every other office on my floor has either been completely redone (for new faculty), or was now on the list to be redone--except my office. That's, well, Bad News.
(Digression: What's the deal with ceiling tiles? The next time you're in the Biological Sciences Building, look up at all the gross, stained ceiling tiles. This building has leaks. It leaks a lot. When it leaks, it stains the ceiling tiles. Better not to look up. It's gross.)
I firmly outlined my case and eventually received (you see where this is going?): Good News. They would redo my office after all. It's just that, well, the renovations would start in the summer and run pretty close to the start of fall term. But there were a couple of weeks of buffer time in between, so that shouldn't be a problem. Right? Deep breath, and relax...
Packing up the office.
It took me four full days to pack up my office. Over 25 years worth of textbooks, papers, and knick-knacks. And an opportunity to pare it all down. (Marie Kondo, eat your heart out.) I went through every single thing in my office, recycling a few hundred kilos worth of old textbooks and papers, and boxing up the rest. Here's what it looked like:
(There was another bad news item that happened. The movers got tired (I guess?) and went for a break, leaving my office door wide open and all my stuff just sitting there unattended. Anyone could have just walked in and taken whatever they wanted. As if we don't have enough problems with theft as it is. Grr!)
And then I was done packing. I put it all out of my mind. There won't be any more bad news! Family vacation time in Victoria! Workers would be ripping up floored, remediating asbestos, and generally beavering away getting everything ready well before the first day of class. Except... Except not. Bad news: "delays" in getting the carpet. Which meant delays in getting everything else done, and getting all my stuff moved back. My greatest fear came true: move-in day was scheduled for September 8, with classes starting on September 5. So I'd be without an office for the first week? The busiest week of the year? Time to complain again.
Kudos to my department's executive assistant, who found me a spare office to use. I'll count that as good news, I guess.
A temporary office is better than no office?
And then, at last, finally, it was done.
Hmm, stripier than I thought.
Move-in day followed soon after. I've spent every spare moment over the past few weeks unpacking boxes, organizing stuff, and reconnecting computer equipment. After hours and hours of work, here's what it looks like now:
All done! Good news! But...but wait. I noticed something. I stepped closer. I peered at my blinds. My old, unchanged, not updated blinds. Oh, they'll be replaced "at some point." So, some bad news after all.
Overall though, I am pleased with the reno. The office looks pretty nice. I finally have carpet like my colleagues have. And the reno gave me the opportunity to get rid of a lot of stuff I don't need. Thing are more organized, and there's a lot more room for my stuff:
Now that's good news!
Why aren't you studying?
