What's in a Door?
The Door
When I first came to Sacramento, I had a standard gun metal desk by the door of 408 Eureka Hall. I replaced the first math professor, and shared an office with Prof. A, who became my mentor and second father. I think we shared the space for more than 15 yrs until he became department chair and retired. Originally my desk was right by the door, the joke being the oldest in the office gets the window seat. The office had a number of file cabinets and metal book shelves. During the The Loma Prieta earthquake I happened to be a t a math conference, Prof. A had a class and was prepping, when it hit, the bookshelves rattled and things came off the shelves. He allowed me to move parallel to his desk next to the window. I felt like a king, with a grand view form the 4th floor.
Not long after, the 4th floor went thru some remolding of the Counseling Center’s Diagnostic Center across the hall. For about 6 months there was a big, heavy door leaning against the wall. I coveted it for a desk top. Needing the space for a computer, printer and general work area, would be grand! It apparently was abandoned, or at best forgotten, and in so doing, I called all over campus inquiring about the door, no one knew anything inc. deans, associate deans, construction people, etc. So one day, Ed & I just moved it to the desk... and I spread out. It was great!
The very next day I came in and there was a postit on my desk from maintenance department asking if they could switch that door for another one for me... If I had asked someone across campus to bring a door over, it would have cost me 50 bucks... it was like a MASH episode where Radar cuts a deal with Sparky. II stayed in that office until I left the country fo a year, and had to move everything out. It was an archeological dig – math materials, papers, etc from former math educators that had to be sorted and thrown out. I vowed to never let my office get like that again.
So at any rate, I found out thru the grapevine that the current tenant of 408 wants to get rid of the door. So now I may get it back, wish I could have my old office back with it.
Often we move to place, and take over with out taking time to understand the little things, the history, the way things work.
Life is good!
When I first came to Sacramento, I had a standard gun metal desk by the door of 408 Eureka Hall. I replaced the first math professor, and shared an office with Prof. A, who became my mentor and second father. I think we shared the space for more than 15 yrs until he became department chair and retired. Originally my desk was right by the door, the joke being the oldest in the office gets the window seat. The office had a number of file cabinets and metal book shelves. During the The Loma Prieta earthquake I happened to be a t a math conference, Prof. A had a class and was prepping, when it hit, the bookshelves rattled and things came off the shelves. He allowed me to move parallel to his desk next to the window. I felt like a king, with a grand view form the 4th floor.
Not long after, the 4th floor went thru some remolding of the Counseling Center’s Diagnostic Center across the hall. For about 6 months there was a big, heavy door leaning against the wall. I coveted it for a desk top. Needing the space for a computer, printer and general work area, would be grand! It apparently was abandoned, or at best forgotten, and in so doing, I called all over campus inquiring about the door, no one knew anything inc. deans, associate deans, construction people, etc. So one day, Ed & I just moved it to the desk... and I spread out. It was great!
The very next day I came in and there was a postit on my desk from maintenance department asking if they could switch that door for another one for me... If I had asked someone across campus to bring a door over, it would have cost me 50 bucks... it was like a MASH episode where Radar cuts a deal with Sparky. II stayed in that office until I left the country fo a year, and had to move everything out. It was an archeological dig – math materials, papers, etc from former math educators that had to be sorted and thrown out. I vowed to never let my office get like that again.
So at any rate, I found out thru the grapevine that the current tenant of 408 wants to get rid of the door. So now I may get it back, wish I could have my old office back with it.
Often we move to place, and take over with out taking time to understand the little things, the history, the way things work.
Life is good!
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