Not much new to report. My director has conveyed my message to the powers that be: that I do not intend to move and that I have a Duke parking permit. I sent her pictures of the van and maps depicting where I’m parked.
It’s an awfully strange way to communicate with somebody: having to send messages through a network of directors, deans, lawyers, and an apartment owner. I suppose that’s partly why I was taken aback when I got that first email in which I was asked to move out of my lot. I felt like I was being spoken to, not by real people, but by a gaggle of bureaucrats.
Why didn’t I get an email straight from the owner? Or why didn’t anyone attempt to talk with me in person? College, of course, is a business, and Duke is no exception. You’d like to think the university you go to would treat you differently than a corporation would, but it would be naive of me to think that a billion-dollar institution would handle things in a folksy face-to-face manner.
My lot issue won’t be a problem this weekend, anyway, since I’ll be driving the van over to David’s tomorrow for some pumpkin pie en route to the Appalachian Trail for another four-day hike. (It’s my fall break.) I’ll update when I can. Happy weekend.