Office Space

The new job comes with office space. This is where I'll do my grading and deep thinking about school.

It's weird going back into full-time work at a college after being footloose and fancy free since leaving full-time teaching in 2016. I'm not sure what to say to students about my background. Do I mention nomading and #vanlife ? (I can't help but think of Matt Foley living in a van down by the river. Do I give a similar speech to my budding English prodigies?) Will the faculty think I'm less collegiate because I took off and drifted for awhile? I met the dean this morning and confessed that I've been sleeping in my van by the automotive tech wing of the school. "That's great!" he said with a smile. He knows I'm waiting to go pick up my RV from Utah.

Right now I've got half my stuff at the Rangely campus in faculty housing, but I can't stay there. I have 30 days to get my RV back to Craig, which is where I'll be teaching. The distance between these towns is 92 miles if you do the Dinosaur way, 105 if you go the Meeker way. It's only 85 miles if you take the Deserado Mine Road, but it's not fully paved, and I don't know if it gets plowed in the winter.

Speaking of the winter, I was in the Craig Walmart this morning to pick up a belt. I'd left mine inside the laundry basket, which is over in Rangely. Two older ladies were talking at the register. One said she's seeing the signs of a long, cold winter. The other lady noted the Farmer's Almanac is predicting one that is worse than last year in this area. Quite frankly, I'm more than a little freaked out to be living in my RV in the cold. I only have to make it through November unplugged, and then in December, the campground will have a space for me. Being plugged in matters because some of the stuff I'm reading about winter preparations in an RV include having a supplemental heat source, such as a small space heater or electric blankets. The climate data I've been looking at suggests December and January as the coldest months in Craig, Colorado. Fortunately, I'll have off work for part of December and January (winter break), so I'll really only face about two hard weeks on the front end of December and the back end of January. That being said, Colorado can get snow well into spring. One May, I was camped in the woods near Buena Vista, and about nine inches of snow dumped on me.

Ah...winter. I'm not looking forward to it. I put in a call with the place that has my RV down in St. George. I'm going to see what they can do about adding the heating pads to the freshwater tank and the grey and black. I'll also see if they can look at the furnace. So for now, I'll turn my attention back to prepping for the semester and thinking about how to decorate this office with light, color, and furniture arrangement.