the countdown is over!

Some 326 days ago, I started to write down in my diary (yes, I still keep a paper one) how many days I still had to go as department chair.  I see that was a Wednesday, and that there was a department meeting that day: I'm sure that fact is entirely coincidental to the beginning of this practice.  Very soon, I was illuminating the declining numbers from time to time; once there were 121 days to go, I started to paint in the squares containing these figures.

I've been exercised, of late, whether I was counting correctly: when did my term as chair end?  My contractual letter said 15th August.  My successor's start date was 15th August.  So we decided - or her generosity decided - that it would be mid-weekend.  This is it!  A margarita was made and drunk at dinner time!

Had I known that this would be three years which would also contain Alice's cancer treatments, my mother's final illness and death, and a pandemic - well, I might have taken a pass on the chance to chair  for the second time.  But it's been a pretty good ride, with the exception of the odd day here and there - although a million times over, I wish that I'd been seeing my colleagues in person for the last sixteen months: one can only take so many Zoom meetings.

And now - the final gestures - writing to the department one last time; removing "chair" from my e-signature, and - YES! - sticking up a bounce-back message on my work account saying that I'm on leave.