Where did the year go?

The e-mail notice that my WordPress subscription was about to automatically renew got my attention. That’s right I thought … I used to blog. Spurred on by a curiosity that felt like a green shoot poking its head through the crevice in the concrete, I found the bookmark to Beacons on the Journey that had been buried beneath a year’s worth of browsing and marking and pulled up the blog site. My last post was over a year ago … in August! I had written about the motorcycle ride to and from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and reflected on the beginning of my stint as Interim Dean of Libraries at the University of Oregon.

It seems like that was another lifetime ago, and now my world is a completely different place. Yes, some things remain the same, but so much has changed too. For example, I am still the Interim Dean of Libraries … as much a surprise to me as to anyone else. But, COVID changed everything, didn’t it? Last March, on the eve of my “airport interview” for the permanent position of Vice-Provost and University Librarian, the Provost called with the news that he was suspending the search because the coronavirus crisis was deepening, and it wouldn’t be possible to bring finalists to campus in April. All of the UO library locations closed and locked their doors a couple weeks later, and over 90% of the staff scattered to their homes and have been working remotely ever since. The suspension of the search, a harbinger of many more cancellations to come, was followed by abandoning a long-planned, three-week trip that Janet and I had taking to calling The Three-I Adventure (Iceland, Ireland and Israel). Fortunately, as it turned out, we had worked with a travel agent who did the heavy lifting of cancelling flights, hotels, rental cars and seeking refunds. We lost little in the way of finances, but the disappointment cut deep. Not long after, work trips to Albuquerque and Chicago were replaced by virtual events, and the Zoom era was underway. On the home front, the chaos of COVID mingled with sweeping changes to our lifestyle that had been underway since January. Reaching a decision that staying on our 2-acre compound with my mother was no longer sustainable, we embarked on what turned out to be a 6-month process to help her move into an independent living facility along the Willamette River, engaging a realtor, putting the property on the market, finding a buyer, making extensive repairs to the balcony over the front entrance and locating a new place where we could downsize and move. Blogging would have probably been a good outlet to help calm my emotional state, but all the adjustments at work and the unending demand of things to do left piles of untold stories in my wake. Sitting in my newly furnished den at 3778 Siletz Street, about as far across Eugene from where we used to live as one can drive, I find myself more able to gather my thoughts and return some energy into putting them together.

It’s been a long and eventful year, and there is much to unpack now that the boxes and material contents of life have been properly stowed. I can tell that we are settling in. I know the drawer where the cheese grater is stored; I’m becoming adept at moving the new, “smart” TV through its paces; I press the correct light switches most of the time and have mastered the use of the oven probe that brings cuts of meat to the exactly right internal temperature. It’s mastery of the little things that tell me this new chapter is underway. It feels good to be back. As always, your companionship is a delight.