Power Outage

I meant to post an update yesterday, but I was feeling first like I had too much work to do, then too tired. I'm still tired--and very thankful that the training has only been 3 days this week and that we've gotten out earlier than I first expected we would. (Mark and I were up till midnight last night watching the women's all around gymnastics competition, so that didn't help either...) Anyway, the training has been going well. The details are probably pretty boring, but right now I am working on wading through the materials and beginning to draft my syllabus. I only have to put together the details of the first 5 or so weeks, but I'll probably try to do as much as I can before the semester starts. Overall, I have been very impressed by the whole orientation/training. Also, the people in the department all seem to be very helpful.

Other than the ongoing training stuff, I think there are two interesting things to share. First, as you may have guessed, we had our first power outage on Wednesday night. There was another very impressive monsoon (I'm realizing that, as a rule, Tucson monsoons are much more severe than the ones in ABQ--longer, more widespread, more rainfall). The lights dimmed a few times, Mark and I located flashlights, and sure enough, the power went out. We were without it for almost four hours. It was okay--we read instead of watching the Olympics, but it was hard to go to sleep. By midnight when it wasn't on yet, we were getting pretty uncomfortable since the apartment was warming up and the air was so still. But thankfully, just as I was lying there trying to stay asleep even though I was waking up, getting warm, worrying about the food in the fridge, wondering if I should call the power company again, it finally came back on. In the morning, we learned that there were neighborhoods still without power. I think we can expect at least a few of these during the monsoon season. What was funny to me was that at first, I thought it was kind of exciting to have the power go out. (Though that wore off after the first hour...). But I think that must have to do with my parents making sure power outages weren't scary when we were kids. Also, maybe that's the longest one I've ever been in, so loosing power for half an hour or whatever is totally different. I do remember playing games with my sister, pretending to be in the middle of some power outage or natural disaster. Usually, we piled into the bathroom with all of our dolls and stuffed animals. (The bathroom was in the middle of the house and had no windows or exterior walls, so it was the safest. It was also carpeted, which I think made it a more comfortable place to play than it would have been otherwise). Anyway, a real four hour power outage isn't that great, but it could have been worse. We are also now better prepared for the next one--we've got batteries in our camping lantern, for better light; and Mark's battery powered fan is up and running, which should make it a little easier to sleep.

The other thing is that I spent almost three hours yesterday with the university's 24/7 computer help people. I took my laptop over because I had been having some problems with it, specifically connecting to the Internet. I got the laptop as a high school graduation gift, and used it a lot my first couple of years, but after that, for a variety of reasons, I ended up using my computer at work and Mark's desktop for most of my computer needs. So, in the spring, when we brought the laptop on one of Mark's audition trips, we couldn't get it to connect to the Internet, the keyboard and mouse were acting a little weird, etc. Thankfully, I took a tour when we visited UA, and learned that they offer all kinds of free computer help to students and staff. Turns out that my computer needed a service pack for windows and a bunch of new drivers, which took quite a long time to all install, but here I am, writing this up on my own laptop at home for the first time. For some reason, I am still having a hard time connecting to our wireless network, so I'm using another one now, but I'll probably try to call tomorrow and see if they can help with that, too. They were really friendly, patient, and helpful, in addition to being able to actually solve my problem. I think it's a really great service to offer. And, I am certainly planning to use my laptop more now, since I'll be on campus all the time, it'll be nice to have this one with me to work with at my desk or wherever I want. It's also cool to sit here on the couch and take care of things at home.