A very full Fall Break

And so Fall Break begins: After a nearly three-hour meeting, I arrive home long after dark burdened with a tote bag full of midterm exams and papers that must be graded before noon Monday and facing a full schedule of events that will deeply eat into my grading time. I may not have to teach for the next couple of days, but that doesn't mean I won't be working.

What made me think it was a good idea to pursue a demanding home-improvement project in the middle of a busy semester? Over the summer we painted most of the living areas in our house, and two weeks ago we painted our bedroom. Last week on my I finally painted our bathroom, making no attempt to keep paint off the carpet that will soon be replaced by waterproof vinyl flooring. For nearly 20 years I've wondered who thinks it's a great idea to install off-white carpet in the bathroom, but finally all that mess is going away.

But first I need to get a mammogram--first thing tomorrow. And then I need to finish cleaning out closets in two bedrooms and shifting small movables to make it easier for the flooring dudes to move the big stuff. Yesterday we cleared out both big closets in the guest room, but I still need to move a lot of junk out of the laundry room--and now I'm looking at our big walk-in closet and wondering whether it would be a better use of my time to just burn the place down and start over. At some point I'll need to haul some boxes of stuff to the Goodwill, but that can wait until the dust settles, or the smoke, as the case may be.

Then on Friday comes the good part: the flooring guys will tear the old, stained carpet our of two bedrooms and a bathroom, tear up the nasty old linoleum in the laundry room, and install new carpet in the bedrooms and vinyl tile in bathroom and laundry room.

I know I'll have to distract myself so I don't keep sticking my nose in during the installation process, so I'm thinking that Friday will be the time for grading. Saturday is the time for driving north to see the grandkids, and Sunday is the time for driving home, so I'm not sure when I'm going to get around to putting all the stuff back into the closets and reassembling the rooms after the flooring is done.

So yeah, I'll enjoy my Fall Break, but I doubt that it'll feel much like a break. At some point I intend to sink my bare feet into that brand-new carpet and savor the softness and the absence of stains. But then I'm getting back to work.