After a week of indecision, the university finally granted us the ability to telecommute. It will begin Monday and will last at least a week, maybe longer. They are giving us today and tomorrow to prepare for working from home. I hate to break it to them, but I’ve been preparing since last week. Now that I have my new MacBook at work that I can take home, there’s nothing keeping me from working at home except an official okay, which was granted today. I do have to go in to the museum for a full day on Wednesdays to check things out and make sure all is safe. However, I’ll be the only one there and should have no contact with anyone: I dread having to document what I do every hour of the workday at home, but it can be done easy enough.

While more and more people begin telecommuting and limiting their face-to-face interactions, my university can’t figure out what to do with the staff. Faculty and students are working from home and doing everything online, but universities across the nation are putting their staff at risk requiring them to continue to work. I understand that some staff members are essential to the continued operation of the university, but let’s face it those who can work from home, should be working from home. Furthermore, the museum is closed to the public. There is nothing that we can’t do from home at this point. We are not essential during this crisis, yet we are still being made to go I to work. I hope the administration finds their senses soon.

Work is a bit slow going right now. I only know of three people other than staff who actually came into the museum yesterday. When students aren’t around, it’s always like this. Today, we will have meetings all afternoon. We have to come up with our 2021 strategic plan. There are few things more boring than these meetings. This one has the potential to be slightly interesting because we will also discuss our pandemic action plan. We basically have to decide how we will continue to work if they close campus. Middlebury College which is south of us will start their spring break a week early starting on Friday and then go to online classes until a reassessment can be made in mid-April. It is not yet known what, if anything, we will do. If we do close campus, we can certainly continue operations virtually until we can return. Since Middlebury is closest in size to us, we will probably look to them for guidance as our schools often consult each other over issues.

This week is spring break for my university. As staff, we only receive today off, so I plan to take advantage of it. I’m going to try to sleep in. We’ll see how that works out. Since I’ve begun using my CPAP, I sleep so much better at night and wake up ready for my day in the morning. While this is a very good thing, sometimes I just wish I could sleep in.

Tonight is the opening reception for our new exhibit about swords and guns. We have everything from pre-Islamic Arabian swords to a Star Trek Bat’leth (You know me, the Trekkie, it’s actually a replica of the Klingon Sword of Kahless). We even have a sword made by Tiffany’s. In the gun department, we have a Chinese a wall gun which is over six feet long, and took two men, one in front and one at the trigger, to hold and fire it. We also have Persian rifles, a gun owned by Abraham Lincoln, and dozens of pistols. We have a massive arsenal in our gallery right now. The cadets will love this exhibit. Some of these weapons are really beautiful pieces of art.

There is so much to do this week. The opening of our new exhibit is Thursday, so we will be working extra hard to get everything in its place. I also have to finally finish getting everything out of my old apartment. The end of the week will culminate with Winter Is a Drag Ball Saturday night. If all gets done by Sunday, I can actually have a day of rest. I will need it. I am feeling more than overwhelmed.