Afterthoughts: This Past Month

The calendar says new year, but as always this is a recap of the previous month.  Let's get into how 2025 wrapped up in this December update.

Monday, December, 1, Last night I moved the bird feeders closer to the house for two reasons.  When it rains I want the seed to fall farther from the edges of where the water accumulates.  And the second reason is because I bought a new feeder that is meant to prevent so much seed falling to the floor.  But I only bought one feeder, so the other feeder will still drop seed on the floor.  I want to mitigate that as much as possible, because of the rats that eat that seed.I only want the birds to have seed, not the rats.  Let's see if my moves help.

I'm happy to report that my soup from a bag came out pretty good.  I like the corn chowder more, but this is not bad.  A cracker with it and it's really good.  And it was super simple to make.  I like that.

I got a random text message just as I was putting items into the delivery van.  I wasn't sure who it was from, until I realized the name was the handyman that sometimes helps out around the house.  He sent me a message and a picture of a couch.  Just then my aunt calls me and says that I should have gotten a picture of a couch.  The handyman had gone over to the house to tell her about the couch.  Our couch is a mess.  It's old, and it's ripped on one side.  The couch he was bringing us was practically new.  It apparently belonged to our neighbor from across the street.  Hey, I'll take it.  It's nice, and big.

I tried the chicken nuggets that I bought from Whole Food for dinner tonight.  Sure enough, they were MUCH better than regular chicken nuggets.  These are now going to be my go to nuggets.

My pants were falling off me today, so I decided to check my weight.  The scale read 176lbs.  Yay!  I'm back under one hundred and eighty pounds!  I was as low as 177lbs, but I went back up to 180lbs.  Now I'm down again.  Whew!

Tuesday, December, 2, I bought a Canon AF 35M, film camera.  It should arrive by Monday.  I can't wait to get it, so I can take better film pictures.

Last week I saw on Instagram that the Los Angeles public library was giving away a commemoratory bookmark celebrating the ninetieth anniversary of the Griffith Observatory.  Since I had today off I figured I would make a half day out of it and get my bookmark and then go to the Observatory.  Oh, and I wanted to hike up there in order to get my steps in.  I went to the Hollywood library, because my local library is closed for renovations.  That's cool, I got to visit a different library.  It's a nice library.  It has movie posters on the walls.

After picking up my bookmark from the library I hot footed it to Fern Dell at Griffith Park.  My plan was to hike up to the Observatory from there.  Once at the Observatory I asked about the commemoratory button.  At first they said they didn't have any, but the guy behind the information desk went ahead and checked a box that said bookmarks.  The buttons were also there.  Yay!  Mission accomplished.

Wednesday, December, 3, I usually load up my things into the delivery van from the driver's side.  For some reason I loaded them from the passenger side today.  And that's when I saw my knife on the floor, next to the driver's seat.  It was partially wedged in the area between the floorboard and the seat.  Wonder how it got to be there.  Now I have two knives.

For the second time in three weeks the ramp from the south bound Glendale freeway to the west bound 134 freeway was closed.  CalTrans seemed to be doing some repairs.  Whatever it was, its closure made me have to detour to the east bound 134, which was backed up.  All the cars that wanted to head west were now clogging the east bound lanes.  And everyone wanted to exit on Figueroa.  I ended up going to the next exit and doubling back.  So frustrating.

TheGirl and I have gone to Don Cuco countless times.  Too many to remember.  But our last two visits have been without Cheyenne.  Our last dinner together with her was at Don Cuco.  So going there obviously brings a lot of memories.  In our current state the memories are painful.  It's like that reference in the show Mad Men when the Don Draper character talks about nostalgia meaning the pain from an old wound.  When it comes to Cheyenne it's not an old wound, it's new and fresh.

After dinner we walked around Toluca Lake to check out the Christmas lights.  Because times are tough in Hollywood there are fewer homes with elaborate displays.  One house, Lilley Hall Toluca Lake, always puts up a lot of lights is on Moorpark.  We took some pictures in front of the house.  The one above of TheGirl and Chandaka is so precious.  The look on TheGirl is priceless.  We all know Chan isn't a real monkey, but there are times when we treat him as if he was alive.  It's that face.  That adorable face that brings you in.  Chan can never fill that which we lost since Cheyenne's passing, but perhaps he can help us deal with the pain just by being.

Thursday, December, 4, The KIC machine has finally been installed, but of course it sucks.  I checked it, and the front screen was missing the option to print.  It only had scan as an option.  One of my coworkers suggested I check the hamburger menu for that option.  Sure enough, the option was there.  BUT... when I would tap on it all I would get was an error message saying, "Unexpected print management window functionality."  Dumb.

We had the Casa Verdugo holiday party/staff meeting this morning.  I arrived at 9am, and some of the full timers arrived at 8am, or maybe 7am.  Because of that, they got to leave early.  On top of that, they invited our security guard to come in early and join the party.  So he got to leave early as well.  From 6pm on it was just Mary and me in the building by ourselves.  Of course this is wrong, but in the new library environment it's normal.  It's a good thing nothing happened, because in the old days you HAD to have a full timer in the building in case something happened.  Neither Mary or I can be designated the "person in charge."  And without Ronald there we're on our own.  We got through it, but I didn't feel good about being there on our own.  Sure, nothing happened.  We only had one patron at the end of the night.  That's not the point.  The point is that this is now the norm.  But, it shouldn't be.  Something is going to happen some day.  I hope not, but that will make the city change back to having to have a full timer in the building at all times.  Fingers crossed it's not something awful.

Friday, December, 5, Tomorrow I'm driving the bookmobile in the Montrose Christmas parade.  Today Krishna and Jaclyn decorated the bookmobile.  In a moment when I returned to Central for something, Krishna asked me to help put up the Santa hat on the vehicle.  I took the above picture, but tomorrow we will have to fluff it up so that it looks good.  I don't think it will fall off.

Earlier this week I bought a Canon AF35M camera.  It arrived today.  We shall see if I can get some good shots out of this camera.  Every time I've seen pictures from this camera they look great.  Sure, they are of their time, but I think I can get some nice shots out of it today.

I got home tonight and my aunt was getting a piece of bread ready with some frijoles.  I thought she was going to sit with me at dinner, but she left me alone.  It was the best.  No stupid questions.  No silly comments.  Just a lovely dinner alone.

Saturday, December, 6, I got a notification that my package had been delivered.  But, when I looked at the picture I immediately knew that it wasn't delivered to my house.  Upon further inspection I recognized that my package had been delivered to my neighbor's house.  Hmm.  I looked in his yard, but it wasn't there.  I wondered how long it would take him to throw it in my yard.  He finally did, but it's a wonder how the dummy delivery guy threw it in the totally wrong yard.  Especially since there are numbers in front of both houses that denote the address.

I got to Central and got to work on bookmobile stuff, since Krishna asked me to arrive at 3:30pm.  She wanted me to load up the ladder to be able to adjust the Santa hat on top, and also get a table cloth to cover it up from the public.  By 4pm Jacklyn had showed up and we were ready to get going to Montrose.  I drove at no more than twenty MPH to avoid the Santa hat from blowing away.  I would have rather secured it at the parade site, but Krishna knows best.  Whatever, it didn't fall off.  We got to the staging area and put some lights on the doors of the bookmobile.  Then we waited.  The parade starts at 6:10pm, but we didn't get moving until about 6:45pm.  Which is fine, because once on the route we didn't take much more than fifteen or twenty minutes.  It was not easy to drive the bookmobile.  Just because Krishna insisted we have the side doors open.  Admittedly it did show off the books inside.  I was just afraid someone would jump in front of the vehicle.  One dummy did jump out of the crowd to manhandle a book.  His buddy took a picture of him doing that.  So yeah, it was fine.  My highlight was when a young girl was yelling six, seven.  I said it back, and did the associated gesture.  She was screaming!  All in all we did good tonight.  Supposedly they want to do this next year.  Of course, I gave them the idea two years ago and nothing.  Now it's this annual thing.  Whatever!  I got through it.

Monday, December, 8, Lately the company that hires the cleaning people for the library has hired some attractive women.  I don't even know her name, but I do find her attractive.  Nothing will come out of this.

I wore my belt on the fourth notch today, and it was comfortable.  Wore it all day.  I'm super happy.

I was up at Montrose when Emma tells me that Jade is back on the schedule.  No way!  She further tells me that she will believe it when she sees it.  I texted him and he said that was showing up.  I won't be able to see him until Wednesday.  He's been out for a year.

I can't be sure, but I think the police have been told to crack down on the terrible driving by the drivers of Glendale.  There is an account online called Only in Glendale that shows countless videos of dummies doing dumb driving.  I say that perhaps the police have been told to crack down because I've seen a lot of more police pulling drivers over these last few days.  Good.  The drivers here are terrorists.

Tuesday, December, 9, After getting my steps at the mall I went to Travel Town to take some pictures with my AF35M.  I didn't take too many.  I thought of going to the Arboretum, but I only have $23 in my primary account.  So, I decided on something free.  Thursday is payday, so perhaps next week's Tuesday Adventure can be the Arboretum. 

The city holiday party was last Thursday.  Gitmo was there and he said it wasn't well attended.  Anyway, the city sent a link to an album of pictures from the party.  One of the cute girls I used to work with was named Salby.  She went over to HR at least eight to maybe ten years ago.  She was so cute.  Over the years she has put on a few pounds, like many of us.  Just because I'm thinner now doesn't mean I didn't have my share of meals.  Anyway, I could hardly recognize her from the party pictures.  She has gotten WAY big.  I feel so bad, because she was so cute.  Nora, from sustainability, was also at the party.  She looked angelic.  Elen is one of the city council members, and she always looks great.  She has been to a few of the bookmobile events and I can confirm that she has a great figure. She looked great at the party.

I went online to find a place that would make me some progressive lens eye glasses for me to use while I'm driving.  But not just driving, but mainly driving, because when I drive I sometimes have to half wear my glasses.  Which are reading glasses.  It's not a good situation to have to constantly move them on and off my face while I drive.  So I need something that will stay on and allow me to see the streets while still being able to look down and check out my phone.  I often want to check the traffic conditions, or change the song.  But I have to get my glasses, because everything within arm's length is blurry.  I hate that.  Anyway, I was able to order some today.  They should arrive in the next couple of weeks.  I'm excited.

Wednesday, December, 10, I am not of the opinion that this morning's holiday party was a bust.  We got fed food, and that's all I ever expected.  I didn't even eat that much, because I had already had breakfast at home.  I did want to participate.  Also, the sausage looked and tasted so good.  Yummy!  Others almost immediately said that it was sad, and that there were not that many decorations.  Who the hell cares?  There's free food.  Times are tough all around.  They fed us, which is much more than we can say other times of the year.  Anyway, others were saying it was sad.  The only sad thing was the lack of a good playlist.  Someone just went on YouTube and put on one of those AI generic music stations that play so-called Christmas holiday music.  Bullshine!  It was awful.  Why not just play the classics, or Charlie Brown Christmas music?  Dumb.

Just before I left for the treasury run my boss wanted to give me my evaluation.  It was super good, of course.  Three people had to comment on my work this year.  I have three supervisors, between working at Casa two days a week, and the bookmobile events.  As always, I'm all over the place.

A few weeks ago I bought TheGirl and I tickets for our annual trip to Descanso Gardens and their Enchanted Forest show in winter.  This time I bought them for a weekday - a school night.  I had been drinking.  I bought them after Cheyenne had passed, so I figured it would be OK if we went out on a school night.  We could stay out longer, without worrying about Cheyenne.  It's not a knock, but we did have to think about staying out too late or too far away when she was alive.  I would so give up our new freedom to still have her here with us.  Alas, it's not possible, so we have to live our lives.

First was dinner at the restaurant at Descanso named Farmhouse.  The food looked good online, and it did taste good.  Then came the lights, but we ended up mostly sitting and listening to a band called Yachty by Nature.  They played songs that are described as yacht rock.  The band was good, and we ended up listening to their entire set.  It was great.  It was getting late, so we then had to check out the lights in an abbreviated way.  It was fine, we've seen most of the lights already in past years.  They don't vary too much.  And besides, TheGirl and I are going to see more lights later in the month.  Also, I went to see lights a couple of weeks back.  So, I will have seen my fair share of lights this year.

Towards the end of the night, TheGirl and I had what I think I'm going to call a Cheyenne moment.  That is where we remember her and cry together.  This really is a trauma shared between us.  And not that anyone else doesn't miss her, she impacted our lives the most.  Her death has also impacted our lives the most.  I said it, and I'll keep saying it... we will miss her forever.

Thursday, December, 11, For lunch at work I always have a salad and an entree.  Yesterday's salad lacked pepperoncinis.  This morning I made sure I had a lot of pepperoncinis in my salad.  The thing is, I over did it.  I had WAY too many pepperoncinis.  I mean at the end I ended up tossing about half a handful of them in the trash (shown above).  For shame.  I'll add way fewer to tomorrow's salad.

Friday, December, 12, My eyes seem to always be dry these days.  I have eye drops, but they are not specifically for dry eyes.  I went online and bought some dry eye drops.  I tried them and they really worked well.  They're not an all day thing, but at least for part of the day I'm not feeling like my eyes are a desert.  I know that staring at a computer screen means that my eyes blink less, but what about the days I'm not staring at a computer screen all day?  Why are my eyes dry then?  Anyway... the new drops seem to be working better than the old generic drops.

I was running early on the route until I got to Casa Verdugo.  That's where I talked to Joseph and Jade, so that quick visit turned into a long visit.  Which meant that I now had less time to get to Central.  I made it on time, but then stupid me remembered that I didn't leave a table at Adams that they needed for Sunday.  ARGH!  I had to go back and deliver the table.  I made it back to Central at 4:30pm.

I wasn't going to go, but I'm glad I stuck around for the Adams, Pacific Park, and Bookmobile holiday party at Panda Inn.  It is nice to be fed.  That's all I really ask for, to be fed during the holidays.  The food at Panda Inn was pretty good.  I especially liked their rice.  I wish I could make my rice like Panda makes their rice.  The drinks were weak sauce, but it's probably for the best.  I didn't need to be smashed at the party.  I had a slight buzz, but that was it.  Lynn, formally of the children's room, stopped by.  It's great to see her.  Not only is she cute, but she has so much positive energy.

Saturday, December, 13, I love the sausages at IHOP.  I had some earlier this week during the work holiday party.  I figured I would get an IHOP burrito for breakfast this morning, since it has three links in the thing.  After cutting it in half, the half I ate barely had any sausage.  Perhaps the second half has all the sausages.  I'll find out tomorrow.  Today, I barely got any sausage or bacon in the burrito.  Is IHOP shrinkflationing me?  Probably.

Speaking of shrinkflation, I bought my aunt and I a pair of chicken sandwiches from the Habit.  Mine was called the chicken club.  It's a grilled chicken sandwich with avocado and bacon.  It's really good, but the size of the chicken was not right.  Half of my sandwich was just lettuce and avocado, with a wee bit of bacon leftover.  I do like the sandwich, but I wish the chicken was bigger.  What a shame.

I got my health insurance bill today.  My premium went up from nothing a month to $45.61 a month.  Sucks.  Thanks, dumb dumb.  It's so funny how these dopes love to hand companies money, and this healthcare bullshit is just handing these companies millions of dollars, and yet it's somehow a bad thing for the government to do?  Years before the ACA I didn't have insurance.  I couldn't afford it.  If I had to pay for it now I just wouldn't.  But now I do have insurance.  It's certainly not perfect, but now I do have insurance and the healthcare companies are making money.  How is this not a win/win for everyone?  Sure, universal healthcare would be better, but we're not going to get that in this country any time soon.  Well, either way the insurance companies are going to get my money.

Sunday, December, 14, The majority of the meat from yesterday's breakfast burrito was on the other side that I ate today.  Right at the end I hit a vein of bacon, which was good.  I'm not sure how they make the burritos, but they need to figure out a way to evenly distribute the meats.  All egg yesterday, and all meats today.  Makes no sense.

I ended up covering a shift at Central today.  At first they had me on phones, but after 4pm I was on the desk.  Despite it being busy, it was actually not bad.  And thankfully there weren't any incidents.  I have to say that there is an energy on the front desk.  I love being able to fix a situation, answer a patron's question, and generally have mastery over the desk.  While I was on the phone we had one of our regulars call in with a question about what happens if you throw a wallet into the washing machine.  Will it damage the wallet... the money... the credit cards?  I had an answer.  No, the wallet won't be damaged.  Unless it's leather.  And I told the caller why leather was different than a cloth based wallet.  I loved that I knew that off the top of my head.  He asked about the money, and I told him that our money is mostly cotton.  He was surprised about that.  I added that our money is tested to see if it can go through a wash without being too damaged.  This particular regular will keep you on the phone forever if you let them.  I think I was on the phone with him for ten minutes.  After that I told him he had reached his limit, and he hung up.  Nice!

I was texting Cindy E, who was working an event at Adams park.  There was a Hanukkah event going on.  She said that there was a good crowd, but that she only gave out five crafts.  Yet another L for the library.  I mean, I like that the library attended the event, but I can't even imagine what the craft could have been.  I'll have to ask Cindy E about it.

About two weeks ago the big screen TVs were replaced with new screens in the conference rooms.  Now the old screens had a lot of trouble.  They were basically useless.  I'm not sure these replacements are any more useful.  They have no real functions, other than being an electronic whiteboard.  The TVs have web meeting capabilities, but the question is do library patrons need this?  When people have asked me about the TVs they are usually trying to connect a computer to it to show in a presentation.  I don't see a way to connect things like a computer.  Another fail.

Cheyenne will never know how much we miss her.  Tonight I had a couple of drinks in me when I started viewing some of the videos I shot from the last two dinners we had with Cheyenne.  Our second to last dinner as a group we went to Reno's.  Our last dinner was at Don Cuco across the street.  To look at her you wouldn't know that she had cancer, or that she would be gone in less than a week in the last video.  She was so full of life.  But, that's all of us, until we are not full of life.  The song, "Pictures of You," by the Cure, kept running through my head tonight.  She will never know how much we miss her.  I like to think that she did know how much we loved her.  How much we still love her.  Her passing has left a crater in my life.  One that can't ever be filled.  I miss her so much.

Monday, December, 15, Since I had today off I decided to be productive.  My aunt wanted me to get some tamales, so I figured I would go early.  I've had my issues with Lupita's tamales, and it's usually because I get there too late.  Also, I figured I would eat breakfast there.  Mission accomplished on both ends.  Someone told me that the chilaquiles are really good at Lupita's.  Now I can confirm that they are super good.  They served me a huge plate of them.  I was only able to finish half of them.  I'll have the other half for breakfast tomorrow.  Yum!

After getting back from Lupita's I asked my aunt for her shopping list for the market.  Before going to the market I decided to go to the mall to get my steps.  I wore my overalls, and I love that I fit in them.  These overalls were the initial impetus for me wanting to lose weight.  When I bought these things nearly two years ago I didn't fit.  And this despite it supposedly being my size.  I knew then that I was a fat slob.  Here we are nearly two years later and I'm happy that I can wear it.  I love how being thinner feels.

Because I didn't work today I asked TheGirl if Chan and I could visit at another time.  She didn't really respond to that, until this evening.  I guess she didn't see that text.  I told her we could come over before she had to go to walk a dog that she's been hired to walk.  She hates walking that dog, but she needs the money.  I hear that.  I grabbed Chan and we went over to TheGirl's place.  She told me she's getting better in terms of Cheyenne.  I didn't tell her about how I felt the other night.

Tuesday, December, 16, I thought that for this week's Tuesday Adventure I might go to the Natural History Museum.  Instead I went down to Toluca Lake to get my steps.  It's a really nice neighborhood.  While I walked around I made a mental note of the houses that were decorated for Christmas.  It wasn't that many.  In years past many Toluca Lake homes would decorate for the holidays.  The last couple of years have been hard, because so many people are in the industry.  In the past I've wanted to check out all the lights.  This year I pretty much saw all of the major lights that are available to see.  Oh well.  Maybe if things get better next year there will be more displays.  Fingers crossed.

Tired of a bunch of bird seed falling on the ground, I bought a new bird feeder that specifically addresses the problem of birds spilling seed on the ground.  It took nearly two weeks for it to arrive, but it has arrived.  I don't want to feed the rats, only the birds.

I started listening to Howard Stern when he first showed up to Los Angeles radio in 1991.  So that means I've been listening to him for thirty-four years.  Wow!  Today he told the audience that he signed for another three years.

Wednesday, December, 17, I parked the delivery van down the street from Grandview, because there was someone still working on electrifying the entrance gate.  While I walked back to the library I saw this girl with a great behind.  I've never seen her before.  It appears that she lives in the house that neighbors the library parking lot.  How have I never seen her before?  She's delightful.  Wish my luck I'll never see her again.

TheGirl and I were all set to try a new place for dinner.  We had said we would try this bar named Idle Hour in NoHo, but last minute TheGirl said she thought it would be loud and didn't want to go there.  In the many years we have gone out to dinner with Cheyenne it became a custom to eat outside on the patio.  Ninety percent of the time we would go to a restaurant that had a patio, so we could dine with Cheyenne.  Obviously now that she's gone we have limitless options.  A few weeks ago I looked online for new places for us to try.  One of them was Idle Hour.  TheGirl suggested the Yard House instead, and I didn't insist we go to Idle Hour.  Dinner is also part of the grieving process.  There is no rush to change where we go.  Eventually we will find new places that TheGirl will be OK with.  But it is funny that she suggested Yard House, because that place is super loud.  Still, the food is good.  And the drinks are relatively inexpensive during happy hour.  And we arrive early enough that we can get happy hour drinks.

One of the things I do when I get home is to fill the bird feeders.  They are usually empty, but not tonight.  Maybe the birds don't like the new feeder, because they were still pretty filled when I got home.  They are going to have to get used to it if they want seed.  Maybe it's also time to get new seed, because these birds don't seem to like about 50% of the seed.  And that's the stuff that the rats and squirrels like to eat.

Thursday, December, 18, A post came up today saying, "I just want you to know that I know that you know who this is."  Yes, I know who this is.  There was a time where I transitioned from watching porn from DVDs to watching porn online.  I discovered way more porn stars online, for the obvious reason that VHS and DVDs were limited to whoever was on the media.  I remember discovering a site that had amateur ladies.  One of those amateur ladies was a girl named Heather Harmon.  She was a sensation online because she could effortlessly deep-throat.  The online forums couldn't stop talking about this girl.  This post made me check, and she's still around making videos.

Marketing doesn't seem to know how centering works.  Their newest sign looks bad, and I'm pretty sure that the marketing folks don't even know what's wrong.  How do they not know how to center things?  Dumb.  Maybe they're just trolling me.

It was a quiet night, until 6pm rolled around.  That's when I bunch of obnoxious patrons showed up.  First was the lady that came in like a whirlwind handing me a pile of books to check in.  That's not so bad, but she was one of those patrons that linger to watch you check in all the books.  It's like they are carrying a trauma of once being charged twenty-five cents for a fine, when they were 100% sure they turned it in on time.  Mistakes can be made, but that doesn't mean you have to be some sort of helicopter patron hovering over me as I check the books in.  What if I'm incompetent and I'm just going through the motions of checking in the books?  There are times when I will be scanning the books and the computer is not registering the scan.  Mostly because the cursor isn't on the input box.  Or another window is open.  So hovering isn't a guarantee of anything.  The patrons will still do it.  Then I had another helicopter patron, this time they only had one book.  Then they just sat in the teen area with their kid.  Hmmm.  Then there was the coughing guy.  ARGH!  He was coughing up half a lung all night.  Then he hits a wrong button on the computer and the sound goes to eleven.  He can't figure out what he did.  I go and turn down the sound and then try to figure it out.  He had accidentally clicked on speakers rather than headphones.  Why the computer doesn't just recognize that this dope's headphones are in and that they clearly want the sound to run through the headphones is beyond me.

Friday, December, 19, I got my new progressive eyeglasses last night.  Today I wore them, and it was all that I wanted out of glasses.  My up-close eyesight is bad, but the distance eyesight is fine.  But when I'm driving I need both to work.  These glasses give me that.  I can look up and see fine, unlike with my reading glasses.  I'm so happy with my new glasses.

A little after 10am I got a text message from Krishna asking what time I was arriving at Pacific Park.  OK, that's fine.  But, then when I answered her all she did was give me a thumbs up and never followed up.  Is she checking up on me?  It's her fucking day off, why is she asking me anything?  ARGH!  So dumb.

I found this post online with the caption, "Bro knows."  Yeah, he knows.

Saturday, December, 20, I told TheGirl that I love Claremont, and now I think she does too.  Our tickets for tonight's lights weren't until 6pm, but I told her we could leave around 2pm and walk around the village.  Then we could get some food.  That was the plan.  I wanted to also add the James Turrell Skyspace, but we didn't get a chance to see that.  Perhaps next time we will go just for that.

Ilsa told me about a restaurant named El Popular that she said was really good.  She wasn't kidding.  I ordered cheese enchiladas, which were super good.  The cheese!  It was such a great tasting cheese.  TheGirl ordered the chicken tinga tacos.  The food was super good.  We will be back again.  While walking around TheGirl mentioned that she would like to meet her family here for lunch.  She has this thing were they all meet about halfway from Burbank to Fontana.  Her son lives out in Fontana.  Claremont is good, because it's so quaint and has some good food.  We'll see if she goes back.  I know I'll be back.

After dinner TheGirl and I walked up to the California Botanic Garden, which is just half a mile from Claremont village.  It was a dark walk, but it helped us both get our steps.  The lights at the garden were not what I expected.  It was just lanterns lighting paths.  No real displays of lights, like other places do.  Hmm.  I love the CBG, but this was meh.  At least TheGirl loved Claremont.  That made up for the meh lights at CBG.  There will be no next time.  I will return to the gardens though, they are lovely.

The drive out to Claremont is long, because even though it's not super far it took us over an hour to get out there.  Much less time to get back.  The Metrolink has a station right there by the village.  It would be perfect to take that from Burbank.  It takes about the same amount of time and no stress.  I also checked the Metro A line, formally the Gold Line, and it goes out as far as Pomona.  The station is just two miles from Claremont.  And the price is cheaper.  Taking the A/Gold line would mean taking the train from Pasadena, but that's much better than driving all the way out to Claremont.  It might be an option.

Sunday, December, 21, TheGirl invited me to this thing called Fantasia Festival at the Autry.  It promised a bunch of vendors with a Disney theme.  Originally TheGirl and I said we should go around 1pm, but I woke up early and told her that we could leave her place at 11am.  She was up for that.  When we showed up we noticed that there weren't many cars in the parking lot.  Like the lot was practically empty.  We went into the Autry to check out what was going on, and that's when we were told.  The event had been cancelled.  They notified everyone on Instagram.  Yeah, well, I don't follow them.  Oh well.  Next year.

I came home from the market and went to the backyard to chill.  I lay out to chill when I smelled the smoke from my neighbor's yard.  I turned the fan on, that I set up for this exact reason and I noticed that the fan was pointing in the wrong direction.  My dummy aunt moved it, for some reason.  And not just moved it, but pointed it the wrong direction.  Why does she feel the need to mess with this fan?

Monday, December, 22, I received a text message yesterday, close to 9pm, from Mala asking if I could cover from 1:30pm to 5pm at Pacific Park.  That meant an abbreviated route, so I didn't go to two of the branches today.  The good thing is that I didn't have a lot of bins.  If I had a lot of bins it would suck.  So I finished up early and ate my lunch.

After the abbreviated route I was at Pacific Park for the evening.  None of the kids getting off school wanted to go to the library, which made for a quiet shift.  Hey, if they like me to just sit around doing nothing I'm OK with that.  I think I helped four people tonight.

One thing that came up tonight is that they posted job listings for a part time librarian and part time library assistant.  Nicole was saying how the dummies upstairs finally heard the pleas from the managers asking for me people.  The hiring freeze seemed to only apply to the library, from what I've seen.  Parks hired over fifty people in the last three months.  You're telling me that the city can't spare a few pennies to hire three library assistants?  Come on.  They're giving three people upstairs raises that equal over a thousand dollars per month.  Liars.

I went out and bought new bird seed to keep the mice from eating anything.  The old seed mix contains one big seed that none of the birds like.  With the exception that the mourning doves like that big seed.  But they will eat it as a last resort.  We'll see if they like this new blend.  Still on the look out for the best seed blend for the backyard birds.

Victoria Justice definitely lives in my neighborhood.  Last year she posted a picture of her at some storefront in Encino, by the post office.  Tonight she posted another picture of her on Ventura blvd.  (see above) That's right by my old apartment building on Ventura and Woodley.  How have I not seen her at the market or something I don't know.  Maybe she shops at Gelsons.

Tuesday, December, 23, The weather liars have been warning us for the last couple of days of a huge storm coming.  That's good news and bad.  Good because we do need the rain.  No surprise, we haven't had enough rain since the "rainy" season started here.  Bad news is that this storm promises to dump a lot of rain.  Weather liars said we could get as much as three inches from this storm.  That's the last thing we need with the giant burn scars still not even close to recovering.  It's apropos that this storm is at the end of the year.  In a shit year of fires and loss of course there would be a massive rain storm to give us that uppercut just before the new year.  2025, you sucked and continue sucking.

Tuesdays I usually start work at 1pm.  But this week ALL the full timers are gone, so I had to work the entire day.  That's fine, better to be at work than at home with my aunt.  And I need the money.  Todays's shift was good.  I worked with a coworker named Teresa.  I don't get to work with her that often.  She's good to talk to, because she's knowledgeable.  A lot of people don't have good knowledge about any subject to really talk about it.  Teresa does.  It helped the shift go faster.

I don't know why this one hair follicle on my right ear is so persistent.  Every couple of weeks this one hair pops out and disturbs me.  It's so little, but so big, at the same time.  I feel it every time I put my earbuds on, and it makes me want to pluck it.  Alas, even when I do it comes back in less thank two weeks.  My courageous fight against ear hair continues.

Wednesday, December, 24, The tarp I put up a few weeks ago in anticipation for this rain held up.  No leaks... so far.  I'll have to check after the storm.  The weather liars were talking about having more than three inches of rain.  I'm not an expert, and I have no gauges, but this storm did not have three inches of rain.  Which is good.  I said it before, we need the rain, but not all at once.  Well, I'll continue to monitor the tarp, and maybe get a second one.  What I do need is something to weigh it down, because the wind did move it a bit.  Maybe next week while on the route I'll get some sand bags and fill them up with sand, and then place them up on the roof.

Originally TheGirl was going to spend Christmas eve with her family.  But, they postponed it till tomorrow, so that meant we could still have our traditional Wednesday dinner.  Tonight we went to Panini Grill at the Burbank mall for dinner.  It was pretty empty, but they did have a lot of take-out orders.  They told us they were closing at 6pm, but we were there at 4:30pm.  We had some good eats.  I was stuffed, and I only ate half the food.  That's OK, I'll have it tomorrow.

Since we had dinner earlier than normal tonight we had a chance to head out to Toluca Lake to see the holiday parade.  TheGirl's friend, Mary Kay, participates in the parade every year.  We parked the car on Rose St. and walked down to Forman Ave. to catch the parade.  They trek around the entirety of Toluca Lake, which means the parade lasts three hours.  Not for us the individuals, but for the participants.  We got to check out the floats as they took a half time break.  They got going shortly after we arrived.  I took Chan with me, and it's funny because at one point TheGirl was holding hims and she gave hims right back to me saying, "People are looking at me."  I don't care what people think of me, I love bringing Chan along with us to these things.  The parade was short, but nice.  TheGirl thinks we should participate next year.  I'm down with that.

Thursday, December, 25, I decided to get some food from IHOP this morning, because why not.  The cute waitress with an amazing body still works there.  I first saw her years ago when my aunt and I would go there for breakfast before going to visit my Godmother on Sundays.  She still looks great, especially her behind.  I didn't get a picture, but the above video popped up (thanks Algorithm) and I can show you an example of how her body looked.  The employees wore PJs, and hers were tight.  So, her PJs did that thing where it looks like a butt is eating the material.  When it gets up in the crack.  I like.

I was about to go have dinner tonight when I decided to listen to some messages that Ilsa sent me.  In the message she says I don't know if you're working tomorrow.  This, despite the fact that I have said at least six times this week that I was working Friday.  I think it's time to pull back on the messages to her.  Like don't even mention certain things, since I know she doesn't listen.

I'm not sure if it's because of the holiday, but my jury duty is done.  I went on the website tonight to check my status and it said my duty was done.  Whew!  Another successful dodge.  The secret is rescheduling for Christmas time.  This trick has worked for me for the last few years.

Friday, December, 26, Mala asked me to work at Central today, instead of driving delivery.  They anticipated me needing to cover, but no one called out.  Because of that I pretty much was aimless today.  I spent most of my shift killing time.  I did some shelving.  I did some talking.  I conquered Kwanzaa by finding batteries for the Kwanzaa Kinara.  Then I went to find the giant toys that Jaclyn wanted for a Monday event.  I fucking hate those stupid toys.  No one plays them, and they're just a hassle to deal with.  I wish they got lost somehow, or burned.

The rest of my day I shelved some books.  I took my time, but also tidied up the messy shelves.  I don't know what these pages are doing out there.  Every shelf I shelved books was a mess today.

I came home and my aunt tells me that she made lentil soup.  She said she added tabasco and it turned it dark.  Hmm, I don't know about that.  Either way, what the tabasco didn't do is add any flavor to the soup.  It was pretty bland, requiring me to take one of those yellow peppers and having it with my dinner.

Justice posted a story on her IG today of a rainbow overlooking the valley.  Specifically Encino.  The buildings in the picture helped me triangulate where her house might be.  Sure enough, I found a street close by and compared it to one of many pictures that she has posted in front of her house.  What do you think?  I think I have a match.  She literally lives up the street from me.

Saturday, December, 27, Last night I had my new black light in my hand and I was checking things out with it.  In a moment I noticed that the balls of my feet were glowing pink.  Hmm, how strange.  Today I checked and the internet says that it's most likely an infection.  Yikes!  Time for some Neosporin.  The cracked skin is also a sign of this possible infection.  Dang.  Good thing I spotted it with my black light.

I worked at Montrose today.  Something I haven't done in a long time.  It was really chill today, since I'm sure many people are still out of town, or out of school; and also maybe at the stores.  I like chill shifts, like today's.

Sunday, December, 28, TheGirl gave me summer sausages for Christmas.  I wasn't sure what to make for lunch this week, until I put two and two together and thought to make summer sausage quesadillas.  I only had to get some fancy tortillas and cheese.  Super easy.  I still have nearly half of the sausage leftover.

I bought some peanuts at the market today in order to feed them to the backyard squirrels.  You know how squirrels are, they will come up to you if you give them nuts.  Sure enough that happened this afternoon.  The problem is that once you give them one peanut they will come back for more.  Which also happened.  Too cute.

I took a few minutes today to check on the tarp on the roof.  Sure enough, it moved in the wind.  I took this opportunity to add some weight to the ends of the tarp in order to keep it from moving too much in the next storm.  My weather app says it might rain on Wednesday, New Year's Eve.  So far the patch job and the tarp have kept the leak at bay.  I mean, it did leak a little the other day, but I'm sure that's because the tarp had already shifted.  Fingers cross it stays put.

Monday, December, 29, Today I saw the aftermath of the last storm on the many branches.  Nearly every branch had some amount of leaks.  Pacific Park was the worst.  They had a lot of water come in the same corner that always leaks.  The leaks were so bad that Mala already asked me to check the buildings on Friday.  We are expecting rain on Wednesday till Sunday.  I'm sure, 100%, that there will be leaks when I check on Friday.

My coworker, Stephanie, arrived at Brand shortly after I showed up.  I was up there earlier than normal.  She asked me if I wanted to take a short hike.  Sure, I need to get my steps in.  I've never gone up to Mr. Brand's gravesite, which is up in the foothills.  When we got to the gravesite we noticed that the gate was open.  Stephanie says that it's never opened.  We went inside, since we are employees.  It was pretty cool to check out the pyramid.  In pictures I've seen in the past it looked small, but it's huge.  It's easily eight feet tall.  Cool.

Speaking of Stephanie... she's cute.  That is all.

I haven't seen any mice in the backyard since I changed birdseed and feeders.  I'll have to ask my aunt if she has seen any during the day.  I do see less seed on the floor.  Does this mean mission accomplished?  Perhaps.

I'm still looking for a good cracker.  I'm not sure if I mentioned that I stopped buying Ritz crackers, because they fall apart so easily.  I bought some townhouse crackers, and they seem to be tasty, but they also fall apart.  Today I got the store brand crackers.  Let's see if these don't fall apart so easily.

Wednesday, December, 31, When I got the new bird feeder I took one of the old feeders down.  As I took it down it fell apart.  Well, I put it back together and placed it in a new spot last night.  I think I'll add the birdseed the birds don't like from the new one to this semi-broken one.  I want to give the birds a variety, while also giving them a chance at more seed.

I was talking to Junior today and on her desk I noticed some little figures that she told me she got from McDonald's.  Specifically the Disney Happy Meal in commemoration of Disneyland's seventieth anniversary.  I like the box, it's cute.  I may have to go to McDonald's and get a Happy Meal, but not eat anything.

Marie from treasury was wearing some nice leggings today.  She's a thick girl, but her body is kicking.  I know I have zero chance with her, but I really wish there was some way to know her outside of work.  Alas, I've said that many times, and reached out a few times and all I've gotten is a wall.  Boo!

On my way to TheGirl's place tonight I noticed that the sky and everything looked really bright for it to nearly be sunset.  Maybe it's because of the clouds that the little light was being defused.  It was confusing to me.  I took the above photo at 4:54pm, a minute before sunset.  What gives?

The Yard House in Burbank seems to be TheGirl's new favorite place to eat.  We've been there about four times since Cheyenne passed.  It was the first place we went to on the Wednesday after Cheyenne's passing.  I'm good with that, because I do like the food.  I just wonder why TheGirl seems to only want to go there.  I've suggested new places, but after initially saying yes she has last minute suggested the Yard House.  Like I just said, I'm good with that.  But there are other places I would like to try in 2026.  I'm patient.  If this is what TheGirl needs to do then I'm with her 100%.  If she doesn't want to go to our old stomps because going there reminds her of Cheyenne, then we can stay away.  No rush, really.  It's about healing.  Or maybe it's just about the yummy tomato soup that they have at Yard House.

We ended the night early.  I thought TheGirl had said she wanted to do something for New Year's Eve.  I thought she said we should go to Orange Grove and check out the floats before the Rose parade.  Like we used to before Cheyenne was in our lives.  Maybe I heard wrong.  Maybe it was wishful thinking on my part.  Either way, when we got back to her place and talked a little and then I said that it was getting late.  Before leaving I looked at the spot where Cheyenne was put to sleep.  It's right there.  Right in front of us.  Every time I visit TheGirl that spot is going to be there.  Cheyenne's passing was easily the hardest thing from 2025.  Even the fires weren't as big of a pain as Cheyenne.  We both miss her a lot.  It does hurt a little less.  TheGirl mentioned at dinner that she doesn't automatically cry when she thinks of her.  I'm also like that, but I still cry at times.  Especially when I think about how happy we all were before she passed.  We love her even though she's gone.  Never will we stop loving her.  It's still hard to think she's gone.  She was such a big part of our lives, and made such a huge impact.  Good night Cheyenne, wherever you are.

Wrap-up: This month wasn't the worst of the year, but it suffered from the awfulness of 2025.  I tried to make the most of this month.  I loved going to the Observatory earlier this month.  The Toluca Lake holiday parade was a highlight.  Claremont is always fun.  So there are some positives at the end of this horrible year.  I give this month a B- grade.

2025 wrap-up: This year was a strange one.  There were many changes, not all for the positive.  In fact, the good might be outnumbered by the bad.  It's just that the good was very good.  The worst thing about this year is having to put down Cheyenne.  I think the way her life ended was nearly perfect.  Not that it was a good thing, but the way things worked out could have been awful.  Like when my mother and grandmother passed it was late at night.  Cheyenne's passing is the most significant event of 2025.  It has left TheGirl and I devastated.  I only hope Cheyenne's passing doesn't serve as a net negative, because she gave us so much joy.  It's just difficult to focus on the years of joy she gave us, when those thoughts only bring us sorrow.

The year started great with a trip to Disneyland with TheGirl.  Her big mission for that trip was to get a silhouette of Cheyenne at the silhouette shop on Main Street.  It came out great!  I remember an early entry in this journal in which I quote the author Colson Whitehead, and it goes like this: "I have no hopes for 2025.  Humanity is disappointing.  We killed the Earth.  Villains triumph and the innocents suffer.  I imagine these trends will continue."  How prophetic.

And then there were the fires.  Never in my life had fires raged on all over Los Angeles like the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires (as well as a bunch of smaller fires).  The picture of the light from the flames just over the ridge on the Encino hills is something I'll never forget.  The devastation of both fires is something that we will live with for years.  I've never experienced winds like that before.

This has been the year of the Tuesday Adventures.  Since I have worked on the bookmobile most of the year, I had some Tuesdays off.  And even when I wasn't off, I didn't start work until 1pm, most Tuesdays.  That afforded me some time to get out and have fun at botanic gardens, zoos, and museums.  As well as a chance to get some food that I wouldn't normally have time to visit.  The first of these Tuesday Adventures I remember was the South Coast Botanic Garden.  With a visit to Giuliano's in Gardena, for one of the best subs I've had in this town.

This year has also been about losing weight.  I had already wanted to lose weight back in 2024.  Visiting the doctor in mid year solidified what I had to do... lose more weight.  Under doctor's orders I had to lose weight to improve my hypertension and my pre-diabetic state.  As I write this I have lost about thirty pounds, and I feel great.  My goal is to lose at least fifteen to twenty more pounds.  Sure, I'm swimming in my clothes now, but that's OK.  Being thin feels great.

This was the year of the bookmobile.  I didn't want the job, but because of budget cuts the job fell to me.  I think I did a great job getting the whole endeavor to a place where things actually got done.

This was the year of what I call the Algorithm, which is shorthand for the world knowing what buttons to push to make a normal situation into an awkward mess.  Or how like I get up to pee and my aunt seems to ALWAYS be in the bathroom when I need to go.  So frustrating.  Or how I go to the market and some dummy will be standing randomly where I need to get something.  And they don't do anything, but they're looking, but they never find what they want, but they still delay me.  ARGH!  Just move!

I started wearing glasses this year, which is good and bad.  I found myself not being able to see the computer screen at work.  One day I couldn't even see the numbers on a license.  That's when I knew I had to get some glasses.  The good is I can see now.  The bad is that I don't need them to see things that are far.  Which makes driving interesting, because to look at my phone and see what's on it means wearing my glasses, but I don't need them to drive.

In June Cheyenne had some bad days, dealing with a bad tooth and with her hind legs getting weaker and weaker.  It was hard seeing her suffer, but then she got well after the tooth was extracted.  Meds took hold and she was chugging along.  Until we lost her.

There was a period of time starting some time in August where I was not doing well.  Not health wise, but just life wise.  There was a night where I woke up at 3am and took a shower to go to work.  Then it seems like I couldn't get things right.  Then there was that time I had muscle spasms, and could barely move my right side.  And then I was late a few times to work, due to drinking the night before.  All this is on me.  And I needed to find my way back to normal... and I did.

This year was also the return of Talia.  Though she's been quiet in November and December due to phone issues, she was sending me text message where she was nude.  As of this summary I haven't found the time to visit her.  She's messed up, so I don't know if I want to revisit that relationship.  But, it's good to know that she is healthy now after her tumor was removed.

This is the year I discovered Claremont.  I love it out there.  It first started with a Tuesday Adventure to the California Botanic Garden.  Then my friend Ilsa invited me to lunch out there, and that's when we walked into Claremont village.  It was love at first sight.  And then on my next visit I walked the Pomona colleges campuses, but especially the Scripps college campus.  That is the most beautiful of all the campuses there.

This was the year of eating better, and making better choices when it comes to what I eat.  I did a lot more cooking this year, and ate a lot more salads to the end of being healthy.  When the doctor told me I was pre-diabetic and pre-hypertensive that moved me to double my efforts and eat right.  It also motivated me to do a lot more walking.

I've already mentioned some of this, but the late quarter of the year was dominated by Cheyenne's passing.  She lived a year and a half after her cancer diagnosis.  I think that's amazing, because TheGirl and I didn't know how long we would have with her.  But we got a year and a half.  Life is going to be difficult without her in TheGirl's life.  Our lives.  But TheGirl especially, because that was her whole life.  I'll miss her, because she is always going to be tied to TheGirl.  I won't be able to interact with TheGirl and not think of Cheyenne.

This was the year that I gave up on a lot of things.  First on the list was caring about work.  I mean I still do my job, but I learned how to just walk away from so many stupid things at work.  The other thing I gave up on was my aunt.  She broke any kind of trust or confidence the night she called after I told her Cheyenne was dead to tell me not to pay any vet bills.  Like what the fuck?!  She really crossed the line there.  She can never rehabilitate herself from that.  I'll never see her the same again.  I told her she was a horrible person, and I meant it.  I remain civil with her, but I'm also not going to take any stupid from her anymore.

Lastly, the thing I gave up on was women.  Gisela was introduced into my life and almost instantly she ghosted me.  I don't need this from her or any woman.  I've been working on not ever wanting to pursue women, and the taste of her ghosting me put me over the top.  To quote my coworker Abby... I'm done.

From the fires at the beginning of the year, to Cheyenne's passing, this year has been rough.  Honestly, as I quoted at the start of this wrap-up, I had no hopes for 2025.  I certainly don't have many hopes for the years to come.  All I can do is take all the lessons I learned this year and try to mitigate the awful.  There were good moments this year, to be sure.  The bad just outweighed the good.  I'm not going to sit here and say 2026 will be a good year.  Hell, it might be worse than 2025.  But this year did teach me a lot of lessons, such as to focus on me.  To be kinder to everyone.  To be better, and to live life, as the Buddha did... following the principals of the eightfold path.  While I don't meditate I think I need to return to that.