Afterthoughts: This Past Month

The title of this entry is "The Return... of a Ghost."  But that ghost has gone from whence it came from.  For explanations, on to the update.

Monday, September, 1, I'm trying to eat less processed foods, because reasons.  To that end, I was checking out my corn chips, and it turns out that they are cooked in vegetable oil.  I never really thought of what that meant, until now.  They have to process the hell out of vegetables to get their oil out.  Which means ultra processed.  No way, Jose.  I went online and found a few videos of people making their own chips in the air fryer.  This morning I tried making some chips.  Some of them came out OK, but a big chunk of them came out sorta limp.  Hmmm.

I have to change some aspects of my daily routine in order to avoid my aunt.  She has been eating a late night snack at the same time I'm getting ready for bed.  It's annoying.  And that annoyance taints my blood pressure reading at night, because her actions make my blood boil.  Of course I write this tonight and my aunt changes her pattern again.  No late night snack.  I need a drink.

Tuesday, September, 2, Last week I dropped of my film to a film lab on Ventura blvd.  I've been wanting to go there for years, and since this is the year of getting stuff done I went.  The process is that they will develop and scan your film.  It's sent via Dropbox and at a later date you can pick up the actual film.  Well, when I got the link for the pictures I noticed that the Claremont roll was short.  I wondered why.  Had I only taken so few pictures?  Or did the lab not scan all my negatives?  Well, when I picked up the film today I got my answer.  I had turned in the film before I had shot my whole roll.  Next time I need to be more careful.  Developing each roll costs me $25.  Whether they develop and scan one picture or thirty-six.

I also stopped off three doors down from the insurance broker to sign papers and get my coverage going.  But they couldn't underwrite it yet, because it's too far in the future.  I'll have to return next week.  Which is fine, this way I don't clean out my bank account.

I tried eating some of my homemade chips with my lunch today and it was awful.  The chips were chewy and hard.  Definitely doing it wrong.  I think I might try again with small batches of one tortilla at a time.  Which is super time consuming.  That is, if I want to continue using the air fryer.  The better way might just be to fry them up in a pan.

Wednesday, September, 3, I was worrying about who was going to open the main doors today that I asked my coworker to bring it up during the morning huddle, because I wasn't going to be there.  Well, the message got garbled in the transmission and that question wasn't asked.  Instead it turned into changing the time of the meeting so I could attend.  I don't care to attend.  Then I thought to myself, why should I go around caring who opens the doors when I'm not there.  Fuck this shit!  I'm not going to follow up on this.  People that make a lot more money than me are responsible for these things, not me.  If the doors don't get opened at 10am then so be it.  I'm tired of always being the responsible dumb dumb and not getting compensated for my efforts.

When I pack my lunch in the morning I grab and go.  I try to put things together for the next day, but I sometimes fool myself.  On Tuesdays I get my lunch ready in the fridge for Wednesday and Thursday.  Because when I get home on Wednesday nights I've had a couple and I am feeling nice.  And sometimes I forget in my hast.  So I set up two containers of 1,000 island dressing, and a container with hot sauce.  Well, in my hast this morning I grabbed the two containers of dressing.  D'oh!  So I had double dressing, but no hot sauce.  But, I went to Jack in the Box last week, and while ordering their tacos they gave me like ten packets of their hot sauce.  I kept a few in my lunch pale and I used them today.  Saving my lunch.

The heat today was really bad.  TheGirl said that she didn't feel comfortable taking Cheyenne with us to the restaurant.  I felt really bad, but she was right.  It was still super hot when we went out.  But, we did get to sit inside.  Still, I told TheGirl to eat quick to go back home.

Cheyenne was not happy when we returned.  We went on a little walk with Chan completing the quartet.  By that time it was still warm, but much cooler.  I feel bad leaving Cheyenne at home on our Wednesday dinners, because how many do we have together?  Dozens?  Each one is special.  TheGirl filled Cheyenne's belly with treats when we got back from our walk.  She deserved them.

Thursday, September, 4, I came home last night and as I went to fill the bird feeders I noticed that my aunt had moved the fan to another location.  Like why?  I don't know what I can do to mitigate her actions upon my things, and by association on me.  All I know is that I'm seriously done with this woman.  I really don't even want to be home on the weekends.  But those are the days I look forward to the most.  It's so frustrating, and it literally makes my blood pressure go up.  Not good.

I mentioned in a previous entry that I prepared two containers of dressing for my lunch yesterday and today.  Last night I thought I put the second full container in the fridge.  Wrong.  I put the full one in the kitchen sink and left the empty one in my side bag.  ARGH!  I'm wasting salad dressing.

For some reason I kept thinking that today was the start of storytime at Casa.  It is, in fact, next Thursday.  But all morning I was running around to get the book drop done, and I didn't need to rush.  Now of course next week I'll forget.

It's been a couple of weeks since I've been able to go for my lunch time walk at Casa.  It's just been too damn hot.  Merciless, and humid.  I have to get my steps in somehow.  On Mondays despite the heat I have Brand library all to myself, so I get my steps in.  When I'm at Casa it would look silly for me to walk around the library.  Like who is this nut walking around the library?  The patrons would probably start thinking I'm spying on them.  Some of them already think we're spying on them via the computer.  Like we care anything about what they are doing on the computer.  We have our own stuff going on.

I mentioned the name of the restaurant TheGirl and I go to as Don Cuco's, but it is actually Don Cuco.  Good job.  In writing this journal I wanted to check something, because I ate something I had not had there before.  I ordered the flautas, and they were yummy.  They are my new favorite.

Like millions of dopes I bought a PowerBall ticket this morning right before going to work.  Wish me luck.

When I got back home from work tonight I found that my aunt put back the fan where it was before.  Because of course she did.  Fucking idiot.

Friday, September, 5, My aunt went back to her old moves, meaning no late night snack last night.  She's all over the map though.  Adjusting to avoid her is like trying to catch a chicken, it's constantly changing direction.  Each day she changes her pattern, so there is no actual pattern.  It's so frustrating.

Since Sarah left no one, that I can see, waters the plant at the main desk.  I poured a little water from my bottle.  Sarah would tell me that the plant only needs to be watered every two weeks, so that's what I'll try to do.

I see some of these ladies walking around with pants that are all the way up their ass crack.  I don't protest it, but I wonder how they're able to stand the piece of cloth riding up their crack.  I ask, because in the past when my underwear was turning into a thong I disliked the feeling of that.  Today a woman with very tight workout pants proved to me that not everyone feels like I do... clearly.  Her pants were already up her ass crack, but as she walked by the delivery van she took her hand and hiked her pants up, further into her crack.  Like how was that possible?  Obviously these ladies want to show off their toned bodies.  And obviously I like to look.

My aunt moved the backyard fan again.  She moved it farther away from my neighbor's yard.  The whole point is to blow the smoke air back to their backyard.  Her moves defeat my plan to keep smoke out of my nose.  I wish she would just leave things the way I leave them.

Instagram on the iPad got a little better this week, because of an update.  It's a little different than the iPhone version, but at least now it looks better than the previous version.

Saturday, September, 6, I had a dream that featured TheNewCute last night, but I don't remember many of the details.  Yesterday I was sent a reel that featured TheNewCute's real name.  I wonder if that's what triggered my dream.  Hmmm.

I got up early today, but I still couldn't beat my aunt to the bathroom.  Who was taking a shower.  The Algorithm loves doing this to me.

I ended up watching the movie War of the World today because of a video I watched on YouTube entitled "How & Why did Big Tech turn to the Right?"  They mentioned the movie for being so terrible.  Well, it's not only terrible it's barely a movie.  All the way through it I kept on thinking how the story was as if it was written by a five year old.  The main idea of the movie is that aliens invade the Earth in order to take our data to feed themselves.  A scientist develops a vaccine that she then modifies with some code to somehow upload to the web, where it is downloaded with the rest of the data to the aliens that then blow up.  Like how is a vaccine able to turn into code that is uploaded to the aliens?  There are too many questions.  This movie is bad to the point that it might be a cult favorite in a few years.

I'm always looking for food to eat on the weekends.  Today I visited an old place that I've been going to since I was a child.  Domingo's has changed owners over those years, and each time it changes into something else.  It's always been a sub shop, only now they have changed the whole menu to feature more authentic sandwiches.  I had something called the Spicy Don.  It was OK, but I had to doctor it up when I got home.  I added some pepperoncinis and Kewpie mayo and improved it.  I shouldn't have to do that though.  Next.

Sunday, September, 7, I get a lot of notifications from my Blink app on my watch.  I think it's the reason why it doesn't make it through a whole day without having to be charged after lunch.  I changed the notification settings in order to not get that distracted by the Blink app, and to help me get text notifications.  Blink is an app that monitors my security cameras at home.  I have two that are very active, because my aunt seem to always be in the wash room.  That camera is the most active.  We shall see if this change helps.

I know that my searches influence the results on the suggestion page, but today Instagram didn't show anything except women's behinds.  I mean, I appreciate it, but I do have another account just for that.  It's just that sometimes I've hit a lady's link only to still be on my primary account.  I'll have to slowly train the Algorithm.

I went to Chinatown a few weeks ago and bought some tea.  I thought I could cold brew it, but after a couple of attempts I realized that I have to boil the water and brew it the old fashioned way.  When I did that today the tea was finally the correct color and taste.

I woke up from my nap today and when I went to the kitchen I found my aunt eating.  She made eggs.  After I got my spaghetti ready for this week's lunch I sat down and had the other half of my sandwich from yesterday.  She went into the fridge and cut half of her other half of the sandwich and ate with me.  And how she also does this late night toast with spread.  For me, I'm good until tomorrow.

This woman posted a really funny video about Disney influencers.  She cycles through the various subjects that nearly all Disney influencers go through.  Like how some food is the best thing they've ever had.  Or how taking a video is more important than actually enjoying yourself.  Suffice to say, she hit the nail on the head.

I put my glasses on Chandaka today.  Hims always looks so cute, but these glasses are pretty funny on hims.

Monday, September, 8, I put my belt on the forth notch this morning and didn't move it until after lunch.  Nice!  So I'm comfortable in the third notch now.  Easily.  My aunt even talked to me about my weight loss.  I love it.  I can sorta feel my bones a little on my back.  I'm not toned.  I do want to work on that.

I was packing the van for the day when I saw a pretty girl walking on the sidewalk.  She kinda looked in my direction, but more towards the library.  She walked towards the front of the library and that's when I lost track of her.  Then I saw her again (above) and then I turned the corner.  When I came out again with more book bins she was on the walkway.  She came up to me and said she wanted to check in a book.  I took the book and saw her name.

I found this person on social media.  My first search found one account that was small.  My second search found her main account with dozens of pictures with her family, and her art work.  She does religious painting.  She is quite pretty.

Because of the heat I haven't been able to get my steps in lately.  On Mondays I can walk at the Brand library.  That's what I got to do today.  If I want to lose more weight I need to keep up my steps.

Speaking about Brand, just as I was driving up I saw a deer on the front lawn.  I stopped to take the above picture, only to then find that it was a whole family of deer.  They leapt across the lawn, and it was super cool.

While cooling down from my walk I took a moment to go to the photography section and look through the books.  I found one by Nan Goldin, which contained some new stuff.  New to me, anyway.  The above picture obviously caught my eye.  I need a model like this.

There was a whole issue with the Adams Square money where I had to rush to Treasury before 3:30pm in order to have them process the money.  I barely made it before, but they were mopping up for the day.  The best thing is that I got to see Marie.  I'm not sure if her chest got bigger, or she was wearing a different bra, but today she looked super stacked.  And she's already stacked.  Back to the bag issues for a moment.  Somehow the money bags were not sent out in delivery, so we're going to change some things in the process.  Someone will now hand me the bags.

I visited TheGirl tonight after work and gave her her birthday gifts.  One of the gifts was booties for Cheyenne, because TheGirl mentioned that her paws didn't have footing.  While trying to put the booties on Cheyenne TheGirl mentioned that she has spotted another tumor on her right hind paw.  Emma put down one of her dogs last week.  That made me think about Cheyenne, because we have had over a year after the cancer diagnosis.  Which is a good thing.  But at the start of this part of the journey we wondered how long we had with Cheyenne.  We've had a year, but for sure we can't expect another year.  If we get it then it will be great.  Because TheGirl mentioned that Cheyenne still pulls her while on their walks.  But for how much longer?  I guess we'll see.  We just want her to be well.

Tuesday, September, 9, This morning I quickly took out the scale and checked my weight.  The last time I did I was at 182 pounds.  Today... 180 pounds.  Nice!  No wonder I'm on the forth notch of my belt.  Gotta keep up the good work.

There's a lady in the Toyota commercials, a character named Jan, who is really cute.  I went to the hardware store to get some heat shrink, and that's when I bumped into her.  I knew she had a nice figure from the commercials, but I didn't know she had such a great behind.  I mean it's out there.  My friend said I should go up and say big fan, but nah.  She was in civilian mode.

I wanted to eat something special today, but I wasn't sure what I wanted.  After going to the Red Cross, and finding out the best time for a walk in would be 9:30am on Saturday or Sunday, I decided to eat at Chili John's.  The chili was good, but the waiter wasn't too pleasant.  I wanted onion rings with my chili and he snaps that he doesn't have any.  Further he tells me that he is going to make them entirely from scratch, but in the future.  Great, how does that help me now?

Wednesday, September, 10, I got a surprise text from the ghost... TheNewCute. Out of the blue, wishing me a happy birthday.  I didn't have the heart to correct her.  I was just glad she reached out... FINALLY.  How long this lasts depends on a lot of factors.  For today she at least responded in somewhat of a timely manner.

The little information TheNewCute gave me is that she's circulation manager at her library, and that she's dating a guy named Tim.  Who is this Tim character?  She also sent me a bunch of pictures saying that was her year back home.  She looks happy, and that's what counts.

Does this mean all is forgiven?  What about the year of being a ghost?  I could try and say something to her like where have you been?  But to what end?  I'm glad she contacted me.  I always wanted to be the scarecrow, the one that was missed the most.  This entire year I felt more like mud.  But she thought of me on my birthday.  So, that's something, I suppose.  As with everything, time will tell.

The weather turned out damn nice today.  It's hard to believe that it was so hot and humid just a couple of days ago.  Today is SOOO pleasant.  I really wish more days were like this.  Alas, the weather liars are saying there's another warming trend coming soon.  Damnit!

I'm not super keen on dinner at Olive Garden, but TheGirl seems to like it. They do have something good on their menu, and that's entrees that are smaller portions.  Perfect!  Both of us ordered off of that menu and the size was just right.  The lasagna was not great, but it was good.  We got Cheyenne a meatball and she devoured it.  Good times.

Thursday, September, 11, I took some of the film my buddy gave me and loaded it into my disposable.  We shall see if the photos come out good.  I checked online and this Ultra Max film is supposed to be really nice.  Being that I'm using an old disposable camera I'm not sure how good the pictures will come out.  But, as with so many things, this is an experiment.

I'm not going to mention it to anyone that TheNewCute texted me.  At least not yet.  Maybe never.  This is only because I don't know how far this will go with TheNewCute.  I'm hoping it's a long lasting thing, but you never know.  She has ghosted me in the past.  This time I have persistence on my side.  Or so I think.  I intend to text her every day.  Every day.  Perhaps I can have her text me every day as well.  I don't know.

After a year she sends me a text, and I'm here thinking what it all means.  To her it's just a text.  But, to me it was the world.  As usual, I'm making a thing about it.  Because, it means something to me.  To her it was just a text.

Friday, September, 12, I texted Sarah today to say hi, and to mention the whole thing that it was hard for her to make a difference here because of management.  The following is her response.

The library world needs leadership that is strong, but compassionate and supports and uplifts staff.  The managers there are insecure and they put their staff down and take credit for their work to make themselves look better. It's bullying, and for some reason the library admin won't do anything about it.  How many librarians do you have to lose for the same reason before you do something about it?  I've never seen bullying from managers as bad as at Glendale library.

Truth.  I shared this text with one of the union representatives.  They are going to bring this up with the director.  We all know who the problem children are, but no one wants to do anything about it.  Perhaps they can't do anything about it.

I stepped out of the van when I got to Pacific park and I heard a sound.  I looked down and saw my disposable camera on the ground, open, film exposed.  The only good thing is that the camera uses a system where the film is spooled up in the camera and then after a picture is taken the exposed film goes into the canister.  Which means that despite the roll being exposed to light, only part of the roll is ruined.  Still, it sucks that any of it was ruined.  I will end up paying full price for half a roll.  I put tape on the camera, but I also need a better way of carrying it so it doesn't fall out of my pocket again.

I opened the doors at work this morning and put the door key in my front pocket. Well, there it stayed all day long.  Every time I felt it in my pocket I said I would return it.  Well, I never did.  When I got home I was taking off my work clothes when I felt the keys in my pocket.  Just then I got a text message from one of my coworkers asking if I had the keys.  I felt so stupid.  Next Mala called me and we basically said that I needed to bring the keys back.  I was already half way out the door.  I got to work a little after 7pm.  My dinner was on the table at home, getting colder and colder.  I felt like such a dummy.

Saturday, September, 13, I set my alarm to go to work last night, but I once again overslept and had to rush to work.  The routine is to put the shaking alarm clock under my pillow, and set my phone and iPad.  That's three alarms, and yet I was still late.  Fuck me.  The stupid shaking loud alarm clock never went off.  And hungover me didn't hear my phone at all.  Dumb.

I was fifteen minutes late, but since there was so much time to set up in the morning I didn't have to rush.  We got to Palmer park around 9:15am.  Plenty of time to set up for our program today.

When we got to the park we found that some idiot had parked in the temporary no parking zone.  I called parking enforcement but they arrived just moments after the car drove off.  Of course.  The parking enforcement lady told me they know this guy, because he habitually parks in the wrong spot.  Sometimes in driveways.  Oh hall nah.  I hate that above all other things.

Anyway... we had a good turnout at the program today.  And the weather was just right.  A little gloomy, but good.  There was a couple of nice moms in the park today.  One of them, Rebecca, stood out due to her nice figure.  I like these early on and early off bookmobile events.  I was able to get home in time to take my nap.

Sunday, September, 14, I like how when I don't need to wake up early I wake up early.  I was up at 7am, but on the weekends my alarms are set to 8:30am.  I set up my loud alarm clock the yesterday and it didn't work, and I was late for work.  Today, I'm up with the chickens.  What gives?

My buddy asked me to help me with his mother's furniture again today.  This is probably the last time, since there isn't much left.  Today we had to deal with a sofa, some bed frames, and an entertainment center.  We loaded up the entertainment center and a desk onto my buddy's truck and rolled over to the Salvation Army, only to find out that the donation center wasn't taking furniture that day for some dumb reason.  Because the guy that's in charge of furniture donations wasn't there, and he needed to inspect anything that comes in.  We were told that the guy never works weekends.  Why the fuck is this guy out on weekends?  My buddy was not happy, because he's trying to get rid of all this stuff as soon as possible.  He lives in San Diego.  Coming up here on his day off is already an imposition.  He can't come up here on a weekday.  As we drove away from the donation center I joked that he should just dump it.  He laughed, but the seed of an idea had been sown.  We went to a Good Will donation center and they said they didn't take furniture.  That's when my buddy said he was willing to just dump the entertainment center on the street.  And soon we were on a random street in what I think is Canoga Park, dumping the entertainment center on the curb.  One car was suspiciously lingering as we dumped the thing on this random curb.  I kept my head down and helped to put the furniture on the sidewalk.  We got back into the car and laughed.  "Now we have a story," I told my buddy.  A story of how these pieces of furniture end up on the sidewalk.  All because we tried, and failed, to donate this to some organization who couldn't make it easy to donate.

Monday, September, 15, I saw over the weekend that CalTrans was possibly fixing the pothole on the South 101, right before Laurel Canyon.  The last time they fixed they did shoddy workmanship, because they didn't let it cure and the next day there was a divot on the road.  Now... all these months later someone finally decided to fix this damn thing right.  Hurray!

I bought a phone holder for the delivery van, because the one was using was inadequate.  The old one was a suction cup holder, and I was trying to use it in the cup holder.  Not compatible.  So, I went online and bought this thing for about $20.  It will help me deal with the phone as I drive around and make my deliveries.  Small price to pay.

I sent TheNewCute several text messages today, and as of me writing this sentence she has not responded to any of them.  This time I'm going to brute force this thing.  I'm going to keep on sending her messages.  I don't know how long I will do this, but it's something I want to try.  I mean she's the one that opened communication last week with her birthday wishes.  I was on radio silence.  Sure, there wasn't a day that I didn't think of her.  But, I tried to be strong and not send her anything.  However, she opened up communications, and I'm just following through.

Tuesday, September, 16, I found one of my earbuds in the bathroom this morning.  I guess I took it off while I was on the toilet.  This made me start thinking that I might be sleepwalking.  I also have videos from my bedroom where I seem to be doing things without my knowledge.  I do love drinking though.  But this might actually make me want to slow it down a bit.

Chan is thirteen years old today!  As TheGirl said, hims a teenager.  How time flies.  In many ways he feels like I've just always had hims in my life.

No Tuesday Adventure this week, because I decided to run some errands instead.  First was picking up my negatives from 35M Pro.  Next was to buy some cheap t-shirts at Old Navy.  Since I was at the mall I figured I would check it out.  The Sherman Oaks Fashion Square, as it's known, is actually doing pretty well.  So many other malls I visit have low occupancy, with many storefronts empty.  The fashion square is nearly completely full.  I only saw about half a dozen storefronts that were unoccupied.

I got a little hungry before work, so I went to Tommy's and picked up a new, limited time, tamale.  It hit the spot, but I couldn't finish it.  I mean, I think I could finish it, but I didn't want to eat the whole thing in addition to lunch and then dinner.

All the September babies celebrated today at Casa Verdugo.  There are a lot of us.  Five, counting Chan.  Gitmo got us cake and chicken, as well .  I was still stuffed from the tamale to eat much.  I had to bring Chan along for the celebration.  I mean come on.

Wednesday, September, 17, I didn't have the delivery van today, because its side door is still being repaired.  The problem is that I didn't have a loaner vehicle.  I went over to the garage to get one.  The guy there, Neil, handed me some paperwork and told me to get it signed by my supervisor.  It was blank.  I walked back to Central and took it to Mala.  She said she didn't feel comfortable signing a blank form.  Apparently there have been issues in the past.  OK, so I walked back to the civic center.  I used the numbers that I saw on a previous form on the wall.  I then walked back to Central and finally got Mala to sign the form.  Then I went back to the garage to get the car.  I rolled out of there just a little after 10am.  I spent two hours walking back and forth from Central to the civic center and back again.  I did have a side quest at Treasury that lasted for a half an hour.  But still, that's a long time wasted to get me a car.  Whatever!  They pay me by the hour.

After getting the loaner I was finally able to get going.  I was able to fit everything going out to the branches, but I didn't take into account the stuff coming back.  Sure enough, I did three of the stops and the back was packed.  I had to go back to Central in the middle of the route to disembark the bins.  This is typical when doing the route, and I should have thought about how this happens with smaller calls all the time we get loaners.

We went to Don Cuco for dinner tonight.  I ordered the flautas again.  They were hotter last time, but they still tasted good.  There isn't much to report on tonight.  We had a nice dinner.  The air was electric with the possibility of a coming storm.  The weather liars say that it's going to rain Thursday and Friday.  Time will tell.  The clouds sure did look like they were ready to burst.  The breeze felt like one that carries the rain.  It was so nice and cool tonight.

TheGirl brought out Genovia to hang out with Chan.  I got a nice picture of the happy couple.

Thursday, September, 18, Vivian did more furniture moving at Casa yesterday.  As a result, she moved the teen graphic novels to an area that helped block everyone's view of the desk from outside.  I like not being able to be seen by the patrons in the morning.  But, my delight was short-lived.  She moved the book shelf there because she was preparing for tonight's event.  After the event she put the shelves back to where they used to be.  For one day I had a shield.

It was too hot and humid to walk today.  But I really need to get my steps in, because today I felt that my third notch was feeling a wee bit tight.  And it could just be that I have indulged in a little overeating thanks to all the cake this week.  Must maintain a low calorie count.

My brute force campaign with TheNewCute isn't helping me get more responses from her.  The amount of text messages hover at about two of three responses on average.  Today was another day that I sent her multiple texts and she didn't respond.  My buddy keeps sending me good videos pointing out the problem with dealing with people who don't respond to you.  He said it long ago, no response is a response.

At Casa we have a desk schedule that tells me when and where I am going to be sitting on the desk.  Desk one has been designated the desk nearest the doors.  Desk two is furthest from the doors.  On Thursdays I usually take desk one after I come back from lunch.  For the last two weeks my coworker Mary has said that she prefers working on desk one during those hours.  OK.  The only thing is that I liked having that big desk area to my left in order to catch up on my journaling.  But now I'm having to use my phone with my keyboard, because desk two has a smaller footprint.  And I have less room to work with.

Mala sent Neil a message yesterday morning, and he didn't respond until this morning... twenty-three hours later.  ARGH!  This is what I have to deal with in this city. å

For some reason working one less hour on Thursdays felt longer today.  The library now opens at 11am on Thursdays, so instead of me showing up at 9am I now show up at 10am.  But the last two weeks of this schedule have made my Thursdays feel longer somehow.  It goes with the general theme of this month being weird.

Friday, September, 19, I went to the garage to check on the van before I started the route.  Of course it wasn't ready.  I come to find out that the part wasn't ordered until yesterday, because Neil hadn't approved it yet.  This fucking guy.  I hate that I'm hampered at every turn.  Whatever.  I'll took it easy again today.

Today Grigor, Chris and I were talking about winning the lotto, and Grigor writes down on a piece of paper "$4 million" and hands it to Chris.  I told him I only needed $2 million, so he makes out a paper that says $2 million.  The rest of the day I was texting the image to people saying I had two million Grigor bucks.  Of course with no context people didn't know what that meant.  All day long I was saying how rich I was now.

Emma mentioned that we should hang out and celebrate our birthdays, since we are both September babies.  Actually, Emma shares a birthday with TheGirl on the ninth.  The bar was a good times.  My first drink was weak, but the second was good.  Could have been stronger, but it was tasty and solid.  I love that tiki style, and I wish I could do my backyard in that style.  But as long as my aunt is alive I can't do anything like that.  I know she would immediately say that the tikis are demonic.  She still tries to tell me to take down a hook on my door that is in the shape of a dragon.  She insists it's a demon.  I'm surprised she doesn't ask me to take down my Buddha off the same door.  Anyway, the bar was cool.  Not much mingling with others though.  Emma wants to hang out again.  I already told her two different bars we can try.

Saturday, September, 20, I went to the dealership to get an oil change.  While waiting for my car I watched the movie Valley Girl.  It was good, but a little strange.  What it was more than anything was a time capsule to my youth.  The old Galleria was there.  The old Ventura Blvd was featured, as well as Woodland hills.  Good times.

Years ago my now former friend Jennifer R. gave me a book written by her husband.  The subject of the memoir was about his infidelity.  It might be an interesting question to answer, but the book is not well written.  I got to page thirty-five and stopped reading because I was falling asleep.  I may pick it up later, but for now I need a rest.

Because the dealership had to change my brake fluid I had to stay longer.  Since I didn't eat breakfast, I was getting hungry.  Next door there's an In-n-Out.  I went over and bought a hamburger with onions and tomatoes.  That's right, no cheese.  I wanted to try something different, to see if I needed cheese on a burger.  Since the dawn of my youth I've had cheeseburgers.  That's the default.  But is that really the way I always want to have a burger?  The burger was good.  I think next time I won't have tomatoes though.  I'll have to keep trying burgers without cheese.

Sunday, September, 21, Proof that with the new phone I spend a lot more time looking at things.  I am on Instagram a lot.  Oh and YouTube... a lot.  Also, when I listen to Ilsa's messages on Facebook Messenger the screen has to stay on the entire time, or the message stops playing.  Hmmm.

I sent TheNewCute one last text message last night and then just archived the chat.  I tried one last time to get the lines of communication going.  Clearly she doesn't want this friendship.  Cool.  Done.  Good-bye.

Stephanie from work posted a picture that I wish I could take of her... but in the nude.  Ha!  When she first started I took a picture of her outfit and said that the series of pictures I would take from that point forward would someday create the book of Stephanie.  Well, I haven't really gotten many pictures of her since then.  I do like it when she takes selfies.  This one is in the bathroom at Brand.  I know because of that window and the rainbow.  The cut glass creates a bunch of little rainbows.

A picture of Salma Hayek came up on my feed and I really thought it looked like TheDesire (see above).  I texted TheDesire the picture, not showing the bikini.  I wonder if she thinks she resembles her or not.  She hasn't gotten back to me yet.

Monday, September, 22, I was talking to Junior this morning about nothing in particular when I noticed her phone was open to a chat with "Paul."  Not to be nosey, but I had to take a peek.  The last message sent by Paul said something about money being sent, and that his manager would pay her later.  This was the confirmation to something I already knew 100%.  She is being fleeced by a scammer.  I come to talk to Mary about this later and she told me that Junior was asking people for money a while back to pay her rent.  Of course.

The last time I went out in the bookmobile some dummy almost tapped the vehicle as they tried to park in the spot the bookmobile was vacating.  That brought up the idea of what needs to be done if we did have an accident while driving the bookmobile.  If I don't bring these things up Krishna sure doesn't think it.  Well, I told her we need to know where the paperwork is, and if it's changed.  While I was dealing with the van repair I talked to the guy at the garage and he gave me all the new paperwork that is needed if we ever get into an accident.  Another win for me.

I was disembarking the bins from the loaner vehicle when I received a call from my coworker Tony telling me that the delivery van was ready.  It was still early, so I decided to jet over there to pick it up.

For dinner I had the soup that my aunt served me yesterday, because she wanted me to eat it yesterday.  I had already eaten two slices of pizza, and I wasn't going to pile on more food.  My aunt is running some sort of campaign to have me eat more, because it serves some sort of purpose in her brain that she can't let go of from her childhood.  Well, I've broken from that.  I don't need to clean my plate.

Tuesday, September, 23, My A/C blower was busted yesterday.  When I left work yesterday I turned on the A/C, but the blower didn't work.  It only worked on the level four setting.  I did a search online and found that something called a blower restrictor needed to be replaced.  I thought about just going to the mechanic to replace it, but then I was thinking I should just do it.  I decided late last night that I would just get the part and replace it myself.  Well, it wasn't easy, but I was able to replace the restrictor.

Tuesday Adventures may have to morph into Tuesday Foodie Adventures.  I had a thought last night about museum food almost always being bad.  Perhaps there's an idea for a channel there.  I've been watching this one channel on YouTube about hot dog carts.  Perhaps I could do the same for museum food.

I really dislike the work t-shirt I've been wearing since the downfall of Polo version of my work shirt.  One of the reasons I don't like the work t-shirt is because of the stupid logo and letters on the back.  I don't know what dummy designed these t-shirts, but they are the worse.  I bought some plain black t-shirts last week and I'm going to be wearing them at work from now on.  I'll only wear the other shirt on bookmobile days.

Because of my repair work this morning I figured it was too late for a Tuesday Adventure, so I decided to go to the mall again and get in my steps.  Seeing that I wasn't able to yesterday.  The mall had plenty of walkers.  I ran into the same people several times during my walk.

One walker that peaked my interest was a pretty blonde that was also walking.  But then she stopped and stood in the same spot for at least two cycles, which at my pace was about fifteen minutes.  And then she was gone.  I think she might work at Macy's, because was dressed in all black.  The ladies at the make-up counter dress like that and are generally attractive.

I always seem to get hungry before going to work on my Tuesdays.  Today was no exception.  I went into the mall food court and tried out a place I had seen the last time I was at this mall.  The stall sells chicken teriyaki with rice, or noodles.  I ordered the kid's meal, because I didn't want to eat too much.  The chicken hit the spot.  I wanted to go there and pick up some food for my aunt.  But that will have to wait for now.

When I got to work I wanted to check on a few things in the DMV handbook.  I knew they would still be there, but the state of drivers in this town makes me wonder if they ever learned anything about driving.  Of course the handbook still says to stop at lights, and to signal intent.  The drivers in this town suck.

I was checking out some stuff on Playboy dot-com and a lady came up that REALLY looks a lot like my coworker Lily (above).  I doubt it's really her, but just a resemblance.

Wednesday, September, 24, Misa asked if I wanted a burger for my birthday celebration.  I said sure, why not.  Then Shannon took over and asked if I wanted Tommy's for lunch today.  Absolutely. I told her to just make it plain, not even cheese.  Because remember, I'm trying burgers without cheese.  Tommy's burger doesn't need cheese, but I do have to say that I like it with more than without.  Next time.  Today was a total cheat day, because Misa also got me fries and I drank a soda.  It's my birthday month, after all.

TheGirl and I already knew we were going to the Dog Haus for dinner tonight.  Might as well have some good eats on Wednesday.  I love the dish called the love boat.  Which consists of coleslaw on top of a bed of tots as well as chili.  It is one of the best dishes I've had.  I should make it at home, but I'm pretty sure my slaw would not taste as good.  The Dog Haus also has a really good corn dog.  It's now my go to dish, because of taste and portion control.  The weather is finally getting cooler.  Wonderful.

Thursday, September, 25, I'm still not 100% sure what I want to do on my upcoming trip this weekend to Solvang.  One thing I thought I would do isn't exciting me enough to be motivated to make a reservation for.  So I think I'll kinda wing it.  It's mainly an excuse to go out and take pictures of things that are familiar but also new.  I know I want to go into Los Olivos and Los Alamos.  From there I'm not sure what I'll do.

There's a new MILF coming to storytime.  Today she checked out some books.  Last week she wore really tight pants, this week they were not yoga pants so they weren't as tight.  But she does have a nice figure.

Mary, the page, is sick again.  I think this is the third time she has been sick in as many months.  I'm hoping that I don't get sick, because Shannon got sick and I spent more than fifteen minutes around her yesterday.  Jeez.

When they installed the new office furniture at Casa they done fucked up the cables.  For now they have the cables just out in the open.  This is some major Mickey Mouse.  Vivian says the city is going to fix it, but to me this is a big problem that shouldn't have been.  Oh well, not my problem.

I received an email from AT&T saying that I need to upgrade to fiber service.  I had mentioned to Ilsa that I saw the AT&T crewmen out on Haskel last week.  I mentioned that the box they installed looked like it was for fiber.  A few weeks ago the AT&T guys were in front of my house installing some little box that kinda it could be for fiber.  We shall see.  I have to respond to the email to set up a time for them to install the new service.

Friday, September, 26, There are times lately when I try to do something that everything goes wrong.  Tonight I tried to fix my front parking light on my car.  But it all went to shit.  I couldn't keep the heat shrink from falling off the wire.  I lost four pieces before I was able to attempt to solder the wires.  Soldering the wires also went all wrong.  Then my fuck ups might have caused a fuse to blow, because neither parking lights would light up.  Oh, and now the back parking lights don't light up.  Thankfully the brake lights still work.  I'll have to take the car to the mechanic on Monday or Tuesday.  With my bad eyes I couldn't see which fuse was the one for the lights.  This getting old stuff sucks.

I've been adding less birdseed to the bird feeders in an effort to mitigate the amount of mice feeding on the leftover seed.  So far it seems to be working.  As I write this it's Friday night and I'm sitting out in my backyard and I don't see any mice.  Nor have I seen any mice since I started doing this.  I hope it continues to work.

Saturday, September, 27, I seem to be messing up a lot of little things lately.  Today's trip to Solvang will have highlights of me messing things up.  Let's get started.

My first stop on my trip was the new Chumash museum and cultural center.  Not a bad place to start.  I learned about the history of the area and its people.  The garden was really pretty, and big.  I saw a bunch of birds, including a turkey vulture flying high above the museum.

After visiting the museum I thought of driving up to Los Alamos to check it out.  When I got there I was surprised to find that there was some sort of street fair.  That means people.  I didn't want to deal with people on this trip.  I wanted to check this place out for pictures.  That wasn't going to happen with the main street packed with dopes.  Bye!

After my failure at Los Alamos, I went to Buellton's Pea Soup Andersen's.  I stopped there two years ago when Ilsa and I went to Carmel.  It's so sad that this place, which put Buellton on the map, is now in disrepair.  The latest news is several months old at this point.  But, it does promise that there will be something new there, with a touch of Andersen's.  My wish would be a small shopping area with a new Andersen's diner.  Maybe have a roadside museum like in the past, but expanded and with some interactive displays.  Like in other museums.  I don't know, it's an idea.

Following Andersen's I took a short drive to the Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden.  This was the jewel of my trip.  It was a small garden, probably no more than a couple of aches, but it was the best spot.  Whoever curates this place needs some sort of award.  It was so quaint, but also so beautiful.  I don't know if one can have a picnic there, but it is the perfect spot for that.

By the time I finished up with the garden it was nearly time for check-in at the hotel.  I was looking forward to that so I could settle in and drink.  I drove over to where I thought the hotel was.  My GPS was telling me to go somewhere else, but even after copying and pasting the address twice into the GPS I still went to the Wine Valley inn and cottages.  When I got there they said they didn't have a record of my reservation.  I couldn't check my email because my phone service was spotty all day.  I had to put it in and out of airplane mode three times to reset the connection.  Well, they allowed me to piggy-back on the hotel wifi.  That's when I could see that I was in the wrong place.  I had made a reservation with the Solvang inn and cottages.  Right where the GPS had said to turn right.  Dumb.  I thanked the lady behind the counter and went about my way.  I was so sure that I had booked the Wine Valley hotel, but I was wrong.  I'm a dummy.

One of the places I wanted to try in Solvang was the Copenhagen Sausage Garden.  So after settling in and getting a little whiskey in me I made my way to the center of town for some good eats.  When I got to the front of the line I had some idea what to get, but I asked if the guy at the register had any suggestions.  Instantly I knew I had made a mistake when the guy said to me that everything was good.  Yeah, that's his way of just saying get what you want.  So I got the first three that I had on my list.  Never again.

After filling my belly with yummy sausages I decided to go to a tiki bar at the other side of the town.  Which really only means two more blocks East.  They don't have traditional cocktails with spirits.  They were wine cocktails.  Never again.  I drank one and was feeling good.  After the second one hit I got sick and threw up a little.  I caught and cleaned it with my handkerchief.  I paid up and left.  I went to my hotel to clean up.

Feeling better after cleaning up I figured I would go out again into the night.  I ended up going to a wine/karaoke bar.  It was fun.  I got up and sang with this woman, but I don't remember the circumstances.  I honestly don't remember much after a certain point.  Which brings me to another point.

Like I said, I don't remember how I started singing karaoke with this random woman.  All I know is that I'm starting to wonder if I'm blacking out.  There are chunks of other nights when I have had a few drinks where I don't remember what happened.  Like a few weeks ago I clearly went to the bathroom and left an earbud there on the sink.  But how, or why?  I think this trip shows me I need to stop drinking to the point that I don't remember what I'm doing.

Sunday, September, 28, I took a shower and went out walking down the streets of Solvang.  One, to get my steps.  But two, to do a little sight seeing before all the tourist show up.  Some are already in town, since they stayed in town the night.  Anyway, I went from my hotel to the Mission, but I didn't go until after having breakfast.  I took a bunch of pictures with my phone and with my film camera.  Hope I get some good pictures.  I won't know until I get them developed.  The phone pictures came out nice.

I've been wanting to try a diner in Buellton called Mother Hubbard's for a while.  But every time I've been up to Buellton I would go to Andersen's instead.  Now that Andersen's is closed I took the opportunity to finally visit Hubbard's, and it was good.  I was hoping to get some chilaquiles from Breakies, but they were super busy and I wanted to avoid people.  Mother Hubbard's had a good crowd, but no one else was sitting at the counter, so that's where I sat.  The waitress said one of the specials was a tri-tip omelet.  Sold!  It was good, but huge.  I took half of it home with me.

The drive back home was about two hours long.  Nothing awful, but it was just starting to feel long when I stopped off at Brent's to get my aunt and I some food for later.  After that I noticed one of my airpods was dead.  I looked online to see how I could fix it, but by the early evening the thing was charging as usual.  My problem was that it was dead when I got home, which is strange since it was in the charger since I left Brent's.  No rest for the weary, and the sick, I had to run to the market to get my week's lunch stuff.  While going there I took the film to the lab.  But I could only find one of the rolls.  Later I found the other roll, after I got home from the market.  Of course.

When I woke up this morning I found that I had a sore throat and that I had a little bit of a runny nose.  Nothing too major.  As the day progressed my runny nose subsided a bit, but my throat still hurt.  This wasn't just whiskey throat.  This was the real thing.  By the end of the day I didn't want to prepare my lunch for tomorrow.  I felt tired, and a wee bit achy.

Monday, September, 29, I had a sore throat yesterday, but today I added the sniffles to my list of symptoms.  No aches though.  But my sniffles came and went.  By the end of the day my throat felt better, and was almost normal.  But, there's still something in there.

I got a jump on the route today since I didn't have to open the front doors.  I was able to load up the van and go up to Montrose before going to treasury.  I don't know that I'll do this again.  I guess it was more like a proof of concept.  On Fridays what I can do is get the jump on the route by going to Adams first.  Or maybe not, I don't know yet.

My early jump gave me time for a special delivery to Brand from Casa.  I took it easy though.  No use killing myself for this place.

TheGirl informed me that Cheyenne has a new tumor.  This one is on her right jowl.  She's only going to get more and more.  But, as TheGirl says, Cheyenne still pulls and wants to go on her walks.  If that changes I think TheGirl might have to make the decision to let her go.  I cried when I got home.  We've been lucky to have had more than a year with her since her diagnosis.  Emma said that her dog lasted two years before they had to put her down.  Maybe that's how long we have as well.  Who knows.  Every moment we have with her and just on this Earth is a moment we get closer to the end.  That's why these moments are precious.

Tuesday, September, 30, After my fiasco with the parking light the other day I decided that I would take my car to a professional.  My coworker Tony goes to a guy right by the library that he says does good work and doesn't charge him much.  So, instead of going to the dealership for this one, I went to this mechanic.  It was as I thought, my bad repair job caused one of the fuses to burn out.  I was out of there in a jiff, and it only cost me $50.

You know how Charlie Brown never gets to kick the football from under Lucy's finger.  Well, the world seems to be treating me like I'm Charlie Brown.  I can't kick the football to save my life.  Today's football was dealing with some paperwork from the city of LA.  They sent me a letter claiming that because I got a 1099 form a couple of years ago that I must be running a business.  And I'll have to pay taxes on that.  Well, I don't run a business in LA.  However, I have to say that officially via a form that I have to fill out.  I tried to scan it, but the scanner at work said that my flash drive was incompatible.  Wrong format, supposedly.  The computers outside on the desk read the format just fine.  OK, so on my phone I have Dropbox, which will scan a document and turn it into a PDF.  Cool, I can also edit it on my iPad.  Well, I got it on my phone, but then while on my iPad then came ol' Charlie Brown again.  I couldn't get the editor to change the font color to black.  I had to exit and restart the app.  Then on one line I could not enter the text, because the button to do that was under the button for the keyboard settings.  So I had to take out my physical keyboard to make that work.  Overall I probably spent about twenty minutes on what should have been a five minute task.  I am Charlie Brown now.

Lynelle was my photography professor when I was at CSUN.  She was so gorgeous that of course I messed up what should have been a lovely something.  She posted some pictures on social media the other day, but I wasn't able to comment on them until now.  She's as lovely as ever.  Boy, to think that I had a chance with her but because I went on my trip to Monterey I never got to tell her how I felt back.