Explore Tennessee Tuesday 6/11/2019

We decided this week to explore around our own hometown a bit. We started our morning with a 1.64 mile walk around Lake Tansi, and then headed to Tennessee Pavilions to check out that kits. As beautiful as they were, they are out of my price range, but I am still glad we stopped by.

Next we went to a local junque emporium, where we found a cabinet we are going to repurpose for the kitchen, and then headed to the Mad Batter Bakery where we had coffee and pastry.

Next we checked out the local outlet mall, and picked up a few items for John for Father's Day before heading to our favorite store (Lowe's) for more mulch and a shepherd's crook before heading home to do some gardening.

Explore TN Tuesday May 28, 2019

Our first Explore Tennessee Tuesday saw us head north, where John wanted to check out an apiary he had seen on our way home from Indy.

 When we stopped there, the owner was feeding their dogs and so we waited in his office for him. He was 80 years old, and diagnosed with bone cancer 3 years ago. We sat and talked for half an hour, and he offered to set us up with 1 or 2 working hives. He was going to call us with prices, but so far, nothing. Before we left, we checked out his puppies, a Pyrenee/Anatolian Shepherd mix. They were so beautiful!

After leaving there, we headed to the Cumberland General Store where we wandered around for a bit, and ended up buying some fudge before leaving.  Our final stop for the day was the Highland Manor Winery. We bought a Seyval Blanc and a Muscadine and had a picnic lunch of sausage, cheese and crackers. 

Here is a beautiful video created by my friend and colleague, Linda Hacker, for my retirement.

Retirement - one week in

We've made great progress in the week that I've been off. We've cleaned and organized, found an organization to take any furniture or appliances we don't want to take with, packed more boxes, and made a few more trips to Goodwill. Yesterday we stopped at Zambitos Realtors and Mark Z will be coming out next week to advise us on which projects it makes the most sense to do, and what we should just pull the plug on. Conceivably, at this rate, we could have the house on the market by the end of the month!

Yet another crossroad

Here is it, about 2 years since my last post. Much has happened since then. After completing my degree I did form a Scholarly Communications (and Special Collections) unit - SC2 for short. Initially we thought it would be staffed by Jennifer Kegler, Charlie Cowling, possibly Dana Laird, and me. Ultimately it was Mary Jo, Charlie and me, with the "promise" of a clerk some day in the future. In December 2017, Mary Jo stepped down as director of the library, and Jennifer Smathers was named Interim Director. JJ had been backing away from her spot for much of the fall semester, and so when the shakeup happened, I contacted Bob and offered MJO a spot in our unit. This turned out to be a good fit, all around.
Shortly after, the library was reorganized into teams, with ours being the first to be named. As a unit or team, we were cohesive and worked well together. We accomplished a lot and built the new program from the ground up. Our major initiatives were Open Access (the OA resolution passed Senate prior to the SUNY Resolution came down from the BOT), Open Education Resources, Digital Commons, and several outreach events, including the American Soldier Transcription Event held in the fall of 2018.
In the summer of 2018, the four Team Leads (Mia, Ken, Erin and I) started receiving a stipend, and eventually started having weekly meetings with JS. Not surprisingly, I always felt like the outsider in the group, the others having regular interaction with her through the ALMA migration process. ALMA took over the focus of the library for almost 2 years. As hard as I pushed to get the promised clerk, it never happened, as JS came up with one excuse after another. It was clear that she didn't see the value of our work, and didn't support it. The situation became untenable, eventually I found myself angry more often than not.

We intensified our TN home search and in the fall we thought we had found one. We put in and had accepted, a purchase offer on a home in Cookeville on Hwy 79, but the deal fell through when the termite inspection uncovered rather extensive structural damage. Even though the sellers offered to fix it, we decided to withdraw our purchase offer, so it was back to the drawing board. Finally we went down in November, I was determined not to come home without having made an offer. We toured a few homes, but when we found the one at 1366 Hillendale Rd, Crossville, it felt like it we had found the one. We closed on January 15, and when I got back to work I turned my retirement letter in, effective 3/30/19.

Another crossroad

It has been more than two years said I've written a blog post, and in that time I began and have nearly completed a Master's program in library and information studies. We had just bought the cabin in Sevierville, which we owned for just over 2.5 years, and sold in early January 2017 for a decent profit. We enjoyed the time we spent there, but we were facing the need to buy some kind of water softening system and having to deal with some dead trees. It looked like retirement was going to be eminent for me, so we decided to sell, rather than invest any more money into the cabin, It sold very quickly, and while we enjoyed every minute we were there, I don't regret doing that at all.

I'm now 40 days from graduation, and for a while I wondered whether I would make it through. I'm taking 3 classes this semester, as I did the previous semester. It has been a very stressful academic year, but I can see the end in sight! I've been all over the map with what I want to do after I graduate. Before I started school, my original plan was to retire in January 2017. Then it changed to hanging on until I completed my degree. Along the way I considered two librarian jobs, one at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN; and the other at the University of Kentucky Law Library in Lexington, KY. But before I could go for an interview at ETSU, John's father died on July 29, 2016. His mother really needed to have John around for a while to settle things, and help her decide what her next step was. When she became very ill early in 2017, she was hospitalized, and sent to the nursing home to do rehabilitation. She has since decided to stay there, so she could be cared for. She is much healthier, and I believe happier as she has other seniors to socialize with. Then, after I had my first interview with KY, I realized that what I was really after was to be able to retire as a librarian. Given that, I would just as soon retire from Brockport as a librarian.

So, I talked to Mary Jo and to Bob. Apparently that was a mistake, because I told MJ that I'd be happy with just a change in my local title to Scholarly Communication Librarian and she was quite agreeable. She sent in a request for this to Bob and HR, but for whatever reason (something to do with APT not allowing professional librarian lines, I think) that couldn't happen. Then Pam was going to put together a committee of Charlie, JJ and I to discuss what a (faculty line) Scholarly Communication Librarian would look like. This was supposed to happen in February, but again, for whatever reason, it went nowhere. Then Bob suggested to me that I apply for the UUP professional promotion program, where we just have to show I have been working out of title, so last weekend I completed that - got two letters of recommendation (Joe Makarewicz and Roger Kurtz), and last week Bob signed off on it, and sent it forward. I believe the timeline to hear is by the end of May. That works out well for me, because if the answer is yes and I get a title change and salary increase, that makes it enticing for me to stay 2 more years. And if this doesn't work, well, it will be the last straw and I will retire without looking back.

So why am I considering staying for 2 years? Last fall I took a Scholarly Communications class with Chris Hollister, and throughout the semester I developed some ideas for an Office of Scholarly Communication on the whiteboard in the SW Conference room. Mary Jo was onboard, as was Bob and Roger Kurtz. Mary Jo put together a proposal for IF2 funding, the only hitch being she made Pam the Project Lead on it. She claimed it was to get Pam onboard, but she then turned around and offered it to Pat Maxwell so I don't know what to think anymore.

Monday and Tuesday there are meetings to discuss some library leadership and team building initiatives - whatever that entails. Whether it portents true change or is just another pipe dream remains to be seen.

That's enough of an update for now, I guess.

Ten Most Influential Books in my Life

I don't remember what inspired me to make this list, but I think I'll preserve it and see if my opinion changes in a few years.

Ten most influential books:

1.       Happy Hollister series when I was very young. My sister, Carol, subscribed to the series for me, and it is one of my earliest memories of owning a book.

2.       Farmer Boy, in 3^rd grade, which was read aloud to the class every day after recess. It planted the seed of how important it is to read aloud to children, even after they are old enough to read to themselves. I have read this book and many others to both my children and grandchildren, all of whom I am proud to say are avid readers.

3.       Rufous the Red-tailed Hawk, by Helen Garrett. Another book that I believe I was introduced to by my 3^rd grade teacher, and which I later searched far and wide to find to buy for my own children. To this day, I can’t see a hawk without remembering that book.

4.       Bulfinch’s Mythology – I can’t tell you how old I was when I read this, elementary school, I think, but reading mythology (and the Bible) forms the basis for understanding all sort of literature as you get older.

5.       ELLSWORTH AND THE CATS FROM MARS, NOBODY, DON'T TOUCH MY ROOM, OH, BROTHER! by Patience Brewster – books I bought my children from an author/artist who visited our local library when they were small. I believe they all still have theirs, or if not, their sister is caretaking it.

6.       The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. I owned and marked up a copy when my children were young, and we read many, many books from it.

7.       The Silent Knife by Estner and Cohen, my bible during my childbearing years

8.       Euell Gibbons, Stalking the …. books. They influenced my love of nature and self-suffiency.

9.       Christy by Catherine Marshall. I read this when it came out in 1968, and I have loved it ever since.  How fitting that we will move to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee in a few years.

10.   Alex Wade’s 30 Energy Efficient Homes You Can Build, and someday I hope we will.

11.   Bernard Clayton’s Complete Book of Breads, given to me by my best friend, Vicky, in the late 1970s, and still in use in my kitchen today.