We have finally reached 2017.  It is time to reflect on the past month though.  A month filled with obstacles.  On with the update.

Thu Dec 1, Pasadena called yesterday to day that their dock was not available yesterday. Because of that I had to deliver the stuff I had in the van on Tuesday and of course the stuff that my buddy collected yesterday.  That meant a lot of bins were going to Pasadena.  When I got to Pasadena they told me that the reason why they couldn't' have any deliveries yesterday was because they were fumigating their sorting area for bed bugs.  The sorting room was full of bins and people checking and sorting books.  They hadn't caught up with all the check-ins, so my load back to Central wasn't that big, only fourteen bins.  This compared to at least twice that much that I delivered to them.

I returned to Glendale and knowing that I wasn't going to have a lot of books to deliver to the branches I took some time to not only fill the gasoline tank but to have the van washed (picture above).

The route today was super easy with few book bins because Jade didn't do much sorting.  Like earlier in the week, I suspect that Vagabundo is going to have a lot more bins tomorrow.  Sucks, but there isn't much I can do about it.

TheDesire invited a bunch of us to Korean BBQ.  Only one person responded to her email.  Emma was texting me today that she doesn't want to go on the outing.  I'm surprised, she's usually first in line for these things.  She told me that she doesn't like some of the people in the group that's going.  She didn't specify who, but I don't want to go because it feels like going to a lost cause.  Why bother?  I loved TheDesire at one point.  But these days I still feel very much the same towards her.  Nevertheless, I don't want to involve myself with her, because it's a waste of time.  I tried being her friend, but I couldn't do it.  I need her in my life, but not JUST as a friend.  But if that's what I'm going to get I rather just walk away.  I don't want to one day soon have her tell me she's seeing some douche and even later tell me that she's marrying said douche.  I don't want to feel those feelings again.

I stopped at my last branch stop and of course the cute page Sally was working there.  We had a nice little exchange where she put some pumpkin stickers on the hand cart I use to bring the books into the library.  I really wish I was brave enough to ask Sally out.  I posted the picture above on social media and Sally liked it.  I like her.  She's so cute, and so nice.

The other day I told Vagabundo that the next time some idiot parks in the van's spot I was going to take matters back in my own hands and call fucking parking enforcement.  Almost as if the Universe was testing me on this, I drive into the parking structure tonight and some idiot has parked his fucking car in the van's spot.  Well, I as in no hurry after that point.  I called parking enforcement and got this idiot a parking ticket.  I parked the van in front of the car, just in case the owner returned.  Then I walked away, far away from the van, to wait for parking enforcement to show up.  I didn't care if I was going to clock out later in the day.  No one wants to help me, I'll just do this EVERY fucking time.  I don't care if one of those fucking parking structure employees parks there, they're getting a fucking ticket.  I'm done.

Fri Dec 2, I got to work and I have to say that the shift today was pretty chill.  No big things, except a person taking a test.  This gave me some time to just chill.  I wanted to work on some more photos that I took on my trip.  But, of course every time I tired to open a file a patron would come up.  Last night I did get to work on two photos from the trip.  The results are positive (look above).  I think I'm going to like working with RAW files.

Vagabundo and I went to dinner tonight and then hung out.  Dinner was super yummy carne asada tacos.  Afterward we hung out and chewed the fat.  Nothing major, just stuff about our stupid job.  It was definitely good times.

Sat Dec 3, would have to fake going to work today.  I had a plan where if my aunt decided to go visit my Godmother then I would just stay home until I had to go to TheGirl's place for our plans tonight.

Tonight I had plans to go to Descanso Gardens to check out something called Enchanted Forest of Light.  A couple of years ago I went with TheDesire to Rise of the Jack-o-lanterns, which was cool.  THIS looked even cooler when I first got the email about it.  But, before we could go there we went to get some food.  Our first option was inaccessible because there was a parade going on in Montrose tonight.  So we went up to another area and went to a Mexican food restaurant that was sub-par.  I'm not sure why there is so much bad Mexican food in this town.  There should be only good Mexican food.  But whatever.  I needed food.  We finished up and went to Descanso.

I remember seeing an email for this event a few weeks ago.  Automatically I knew I wanted to go, and that I wanted to go with TheGirl.  That is not to say I didn't consider asking some one else at first.  I love TheGirl, but I wanted to maybe use this opportunity to go with perhaps that girl from work that's nice, or TheDesire, or whatever.  But at the end of the day I rather not go with anyone but TheGirl.

We got there and immediately I liked this display much more than the Zoo lights we did either a year ago or two years ago.  Not that the Zoo lights was so horrible, but this was different but cooler.  Also, more interactive.

There were two portions that were super cool, one of them pictured above... the enchanted forest.  THIS part and the previous part MADE the night for me and TheGirl.  It's too bad my photos don't do this portion justice, because it was quite beautiful.  It was a good night.

Mon Dec 5, There was a moment today when I saw TheLamp while I was on the reference desk and her body looked so curvy.  The above picture is from the camera we have behind the reference desk, later in the day.  I had to get some semblance of what I saw today when I looked at her.  I think I'm setting myself up for a crush situation where I pine away for her and of course I find out she's not interested.  I'm dumb, but she did look good.

Not much really happened at work that I can write about.  I got off work and went to get something to eat before visiting with TheGirl.  I was craving a McRib since last week, but it wasn't until tonight that the local McD's that I visit after work offered McRibs.  I ordered one up, and though it wasn't as tasty as I remember it in the past, it was pretty good.  I could have had two.  I forgot that it comes with pickles, so next time I get one I have to remember to order it without.  And I need to put fries on top of it.

I went over to TheGirl's for our now traditional Monday night visit.  She was telling me how TheHusband STILL throws it in her face about cheating on him.  Despite that fact that he was also cheating on her.  He forgets that part, of course.  Still, TheGirl mentioned a couple of weeks ago that she wanted to tell him off about this whole thing, and apparently the other night she did.  She said that if he was going to continue to throw it in her face that she would rather not spend time with him.  She does hang out with him a lot, but the same could be said about my situation with her.  Hey, it's all good.  I'm glad she said something to him, but it does show me that he STILL hasn't forgotten about the entire affair.  I was talking to a friend about that time of my life yesterday.  He said, "You're lucky you're not dead."  And he's right.  TheHusband could have killed me.  And from what TheGirl says I'm sure that if he ever got his hands on me he would still want to kill me to this day.  All the more reason to give him a wide berth.

Wed Dec 7, I was on my "merry" way to work when the freeway suddenly stopped moving just as I entered Pasadena.  All traffic stopped, and all I could see was a line of red lights as far as my eyes could see.  I was on the phone with a friend, and I commented that it must be a really bad accident ahead.  What followed was me not moving an inch for at least five minutes, and not really moving much more than a few car lengths in the next twenty minutes.  My friend went to check the radio and I did the same.  It turned out that it was something other than a car crash.

Turns out that they CHP closed down the freeway past Lake because of a suspicious package.  Meanwhile I was completely stuck on the freeway.  The police finally started getting some of us off the freeway via the onramps.  It was the only way.  Meanwhile a ton of cars ahead of me were not going to go anywhere until the freeway was cleared.  For that to happen they have to bring in the bomb squad robot to check the package.  I was able to finally get off using the onramp and I got to work pretty quickly.  When I got to work I walked into the boss' office and found that they have JUST opened the freeway.  Too late for me to be at work on time.  But oh well.

Dinner with TheGirl was pretty quiet tonight.  We talked a little about our possible trip to Santa Cruz in February.  She has this spot that she wants to check out.  I'm good with that.  I would like a new adventure up north.  I ordered a Monte Cristo, but I shouldn't have.  It wasn't very good.  No Monte Cristo is as good as the ones at Disneyland.  Those are the BEST.  Still, the company was good.  The food, meh.  Also, the service was meh.  Our waiter hardly helped us.  A waiter that was helping some other girls sitting by us did more to help us than our actual waiter.  When I went to pay for the meal the girl at the counter didn't charge me, she called out for the waiter and he just rolled his eyes and his neck.  So not cool.  I won't soon suggest going to Paty's for a long time, other than for breakfast.

Thu Dec 8, I walked up to work this morning while talking to Les, who was wearing a suit to celebrate Bundy's fifteen years on the job.  This is when I noticed the fucking crappy banners on the front of the library fence.  It's hard to see in the picture, but take it from me, they're stupid.  They are obviously stock photos and a bunch of stupid phrases and words about the new library.  Some of the words used are: "New Makerspace, new gathering rooms, remembrance room and outdoor cafe space."  Not outdoor cafe, but SPACE for an outdoor cafe.  Fucking stupid shit!  All these things are the hack items that the bosses think will make this library better.  Don't mention to the public that they're tossing easily 1/3rd of the books.  Don't mention that there will only be three people on a desk to help.  And that they're responsible for checking out their own books.  Or that if you need any help the employees won't be anywhere to be found.  Why?  Because they will marginalize us in favor of bullshit automation.  Those banners represent so many of the things wrong with the library management these days.  They're myopic and stupid.  It's a bad combination.

Emma came to Central to use the laminating machine to make a new sign for Montrose.  Apparently the one she made a few weeks ago wasn't good enough for Syco.  I helped her run the sign through the laminating machine, which pushed me from the route a bit.  Still, it was a light day in the number of bins.

After the route I still had to go out to Pasadena to drop off a book kit and take it to the bookstore that supplies the books that are sold during the author events at the library.  I'm not sure why this couldn't wait until tomorrow, but as Jade pointed out, "It's more hours."  He wasn't kidding there.  And it wasn't super easy money, but it wasn't hard money either.

I got home and ate something and then settled in for the night.  I did check my work email, because there are times when it's a treasure of stupidity.  This wasn't stupid, but Bundy accepted his fifteen year pin today.  I mention it here today, because TheDesire is pictured.  I've seen her around, but I haven't talked to her or texted her in weeks.  I asked Emma about her, and whether she has a fella.  Emma doesn't think so.  She went on to say that TheDesire is strange, and says strange things.  I think it's cute, but Emma thinks she's nuts, and that she's heading for a mental breakdown.  I don't think it's all that serious, but how would I know?  At this point I can't gauge her.  I want to bridge the gap I've created, but at the same time I don't.  Makes no sense, I know.

Fri Dec 9, I've mentioned my cousin's kids coming to the house earlier and earlier before going to school.  Today was the fucking absolute worst in terms of how early my cousin's husband brought over the kids... 6:49am!  How the fuck is that OK?  I was still asleep when they all started pouring through the door.  I mean fucking shit, why the fuck are the kids arriving so fucking early?  I've said it so many times, they don't start fucking school until 8am.  You don't know how fucking pissed off I was when I heard them all show up before 7am.  I obviously don't blame the kids.  I want to just sleep every moment that I can in the mornings.  That is obviously too much to ask for these days.  Motherfucking shit!  I fucking hate this bullshit!  And it's another reason why I hate people.

I wasn't working today, but of course I don't want to be home on my Fridays off.  I took off for work, but not work.  On my way to Pasadena I run into traffic just past the 2 freeway on the 134 Eastbound.  I tells you, it seems that this fucking part of the freeway ALWAYS has some accident.  Wednesday wasn't an accident, but there are so many other times when someone will be in an accident right before entering Pasadena.  And because the way the 134 is there isn't an exit for nearly three miles.  Normally exits are spaced about every mile or so.  But because this runs up a hillside there's no practical way to have an exit between the exits they already have.  That meant I was stuck on in the fucking traffic jam.  It's not like I had to be at work at a certain time.  But I spent to much time in traffic this week that I didn't want to spend any more time in traffic.  But, of course that's what I get.

I didn't want to just go into work today, since I ALWAYS do that.  I figured that perhaps today I would go to the Huntington to check out something called Orbit.  It's an installation that makes sounds from satellite tracking.  I was texting a friend from the library that asked me if I was working.  I told her no, that I was going into the Huntington with a member's pass.  She insisted that she come over and let her get a "legitimate" pass to enter the grounds.  I agreed and she came to the Huntington to walk around with me.  It was good times.  We went into the galleries, which is something I don't usually do.  I usually check out the various gardens, but this time it was chilly outside, so I wanted to remain inside as much as possible.  She went to pick up her kid and I sat in my car killing a little time before going home.  I should tried to kill more time though, but I got hungry and decided to get some Tommy's.

I say that about killing more time, because I went home after Tommy's and I arrived close to 4pm.  Too early, because my cousin's kids were still at the house.  ARGH!  I have cameras that allow me to check what's going on at home.  I decided I could just home early today, but I think that's not a good thing.  It fucking sucks that I can't be at home.  It sucks that I'm invaded every weekday with early wake-up calls as the door opens at fucking 6:50am.  And I hate that I have to pretend to go to work in order to have some peace and quiet.  FUCK!

Sat Dec 10, I could have faked going to work today, but I didn't want to fucking fake it today.  For ONCE I wanted to sleep-in and stay in bed for as long as possible.  Thankfully I was able to do that today.

The above photo is of Chan, after I cleaned his face last night.  I finally had some time to clean his face, and the above photo was taken in order to send it via text to TheGirl.

I figured that since I was home all day that I would do some things that I always say I don't have time for, such as sewing my jacket.

A few minutes before 3pm Emma texts me that she can't make it tonight.  Apparently she forgot that she was hanging out with another friend.  I do wonder about that.  But, that's for another time.  Either way, now my evening was free.

I intended to kiss Emma tonight.  I sent her a text on Thursday after she asked me if I wanted anything, because she was going to be at Central to laminate her sign.  I told her... like water or a kiss?  She played it off, but she knows that a kiss is what I wanted more than the water.  I played it off when she arrived at Central.  I kept asking her, "Where's my water?"  She knew that I meant the kiss.  But, we both know that THIS is the game we have to play to get what we want.  But, she knows this and if she did have a friend that she was going to hang out with it's also kinda convenient that she had this thing that she forgot with a friend.  I don't want to be some crazy irrational fool and think that everything everyone says is a lie.  But, life has taught me different.

Earlier I said that I didn't want to fake going to work, and that was fine.  But I do wish that Emma didn't flake on me tonight, because during the time that I was supposed to be with Emma my aunt deemed it necessary to come into my room and talk to me.  Ah... I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO ANYONE!  I talk to people all day, nearly ever day.  I want a break.  I want a break, and for some reason my aunt CAN'T get that through her fucking thick head.  ARGH!  Good thing I have booze.

Sun Dec 11, Today was such a non-day at work.  I have to say that the one good thing about today was going in and seeing that the stands that I have used to keep patrons from walking behind the desk seemed to be used by more of the staff.  Not everyone uses them, but I've now seen them up on days I don't work.  And I love that!  I fucking hate it when patrons walk behind me.  It's not OK in my book.

When I went home tonight I was right in the middle of dinner when the power went out.  It was only out for a few minutes.  Other than that, today was a whatever day.

Mon Dec 12, There isn't much to write about today.  I went to work, and work was whatever.  The one thing I actually had to do today was to set up the Nest cameras.  I took so long waiting in line at the post office this morning, otherwise I could have had the time this morning to set up the camera in Life Long.  But, that will have to wait until Wednesday.  I used Chan to check out the camera.

I went to the market after work to pick up a few things.  When I was going back to my car on the roof I spotted a girl with the most incredible body.  She got into the elevator and I snapped the above picture when she was exiting.  It's so messed up to do this, but I just had to get a picture of this girl.  I needed to illustrate that I'm not dead inside.  I might have given up on relationships with women, but I certainly still desire them, and quite frankly lust after them.  I still want to ask out that girl from San Marino.  She seems nice.  Then I've also been kinda trying to maneuver to try and make a move on Emma.  I think I like Emma.  I know I find her attractive.  But maybe deep down inside I think that I can sleep with her.  Nuts. 

I went over to TheGirl's place after work.  She told me that she was having issues with her phone not connecting to there home wi-fi.  I tried to fix it, but I couldn't fix it.  I'll look into it and find a solution for her by Wednesday.  If there is a solution.  It should be easy, but I couldn't figure it out tonight.  Dang.  I played with puppy and she was pooped by the time I went home.  As you can see from the photo above.

Tue Dec 13, I showed up at work and of course when I arrive Jade isn't there and the bins from yesterday's route are not sorted.  Granted, he does have a lot of tasks to do on his own during the day.  But, I think he should devote the last hour of his shift to sorting the bins out.  That way the next morning he's not rushing to do it in between the drivers going and coming back from Pasadena.  Whatever.  These days I just go in and do what I have to do.  I'm pretty tired of everything and everyone.

I went up to Montrose to make my first stop of the branches part of the route.  Ru was there, and man were her boobs huge.  She's a tiny girl, and she's been packing on the pounds, seemingly all in her boobs.  They are massive, and they look especially big on her tiny frame.  Vagabundo later asked me if I think she's pregnant.  I told him that I didn't think so, but that if she was in about three weeks it would become more apparent.  Not it it's any skin off my nose, but I sure hope she's not pregnant.  I know, what do I care, right?  But a beautiful woman is going to ruin her beauty for the sake of having another brat invade this world.  There are enough dopes around.  The world doesn't need my child, and it really doesn't need anyone else's child.  And it's sad because later in the route I ran into Krishna and she was standing in the daylight.  I usually see her inside the library, where the lighting is dim.  But today I saw her in all her former glory.  Not that she was ever a slight girl, but now after having a kid she's ballooned out.  She was cute, but she has seemingly not lost the baby weight.  And where she once had a big but nice butt, she now just has a huge butt with no definition.  I am no spring chicken myself.  I'm fat, but I am trying to maintain myself in some shape.  I want to try and do more walking in the coming year, to finally get rid of this stomach of mine.  I'm trying to eat smaller portions as well.  But, well, that's me.  Having a child does a lot of things to a woman's body.  This is why I want Ru never to have a child.  And sadly those things have already happened to Krishna's body.

I don't know if I mentioned it here or not, but the other day they sent out an email that stated that the opening day for the library was set... March 23, 2017.  I'm pretty sure I mentioned it, but whatever.  I said it again.  I counted, that's ninety-nine days.  Of course you can't count holidays and weekends to complete that task.  I did a quick and informal count of the amount of days taken by weekends, and it comes to about twenty-eight.  Couple that with at least a week's worth of holidays and you have about thirty-five days.  Ninety-nine minus thirty-five is sixty-four days (give or take a few days).  That's all the time they have to finish up this fiasco.  It would seem like the right amount of time, but I saw a sign up by the construction that has the number of days the without an accident.  It had the number five-hundred thirteen.  I can assume that this is close to the number of total days this thing has been going on for.  I checked and that number of days is nearly a year and a half, at this point.  I love how they said that this entire thing would only take a year and a half to complete.

And now we come to the holiday party pictures.  Thursday after work they had the holiday party for entire city.  I was invited, but I never like going to those things.  Well, of course TheDesire went.  Someone there must have been taking pictures of the employees and their significant others.  The above picture is of TheDesire with one of our fellow employees.  The other girl doesn't work very often at the library these days, she's going to law school.  Except for the silly smile, TheDesire does look really good in this picture.  She is a marvel, I have to say.

Wed Dec 14, Today was the big employee luncheon in San Marino.  It's always nice to have a free meal.  I do look forward to today.  I get to hang out with some coworkers that I like, and eat some free food.

Also, I got to sit with TheLamp.  You know, she is pretty.  She was telling a story about traveling and she did say the word "we" during the story.  I tend to think that she is attached, having said that word.  Logically it could mean that she means her family and such, but I tend to think that means "significant other."

Angelica came by and gave me a really nice hug as I was sitting.  I wonder about her sometimes.  I wonder if she wants to sleep with me, or what.  I'll never know.  Unless she comes out and says it.

Desiree looked super cute when she finally arrived at the luncheon.  She wore a cute skirt and a really nice sweater.  And she did her hair up all cute and such.  My buddy asked me why I haven't asked her out.  I'm a chicken.  I have this plan to write her a note and ask her out to lunch that way.  But really, is that going to fly?  I'm too chicken to do it any other way.

TheGirl and I went to a completely new place for dinner tonight.  We ventured out of our usual Toluca Lake haunts and went to Burbank to a place called Los Amigos Bar and Grill.  The food was better than most of the Mexican places we go, especially TheGirl's favorite, Viva.  I really loved the bean dip they gave us with chips when we sat down.  THAT was super good.  The margaritas were not that great, and they were weak sauce.  But, as I said, the food was better than other places I've been with TheGirl.  Good thing I had my flask and had booze before going to the restaurant.  We reminisced about the good times.  I told her I wanted to go to Disneyland on Sunday, because my pass is blocked out after that.  I want to try the pineapple upside down churro they have at the Hungry Bear.  THAT alone sounds like it's worth a trip down to Disneyland.

I got home and I went on my phone to check something and noticed that the library's Instagram account had the photo above with the caption that they will be opening on March 23, 2017.  Mind you, I've seen the construction and there is STILL a lot to be done.  Yes, perhaps most of the heavy lifting has been done, but there is still a lot of work to be done.  But, I guess they feel that they'll be done, despite the fact that they have two actual months to do it.  I mentioned how I counted the days that they would actually be working, and it amounted to just over sixty days.  Also, these dummies said that they expect to be done by January.  Ah, even if we aim at the end of January that's still just barely a month, and with the holidays it's less.  Good luck, dopes.

One of the main reasons I hate my coworkers these days is that very few of them even question this.  Some do, but most just go along with this idiotic plan to say "Oh yeah, we'll be done by March."  Good luck, dummies, when it's late March and the library isn't ready to open.  I joked the other day that they'll be cutting the ribbons for the grand reopening and some poor sucker will still be rolling a paint brush across a wall.

Thu Dec 15, I went to city hall to pick up the mail and saw some stuff going to the library.  The above is a small part of some paperwork pertaining to the library construction.  Apparently they city counsel approved $420,000 more for the renovation.  Ah, of course.  They had to fucking rush this project in order to get it done anywhere near the time they said they would.  This is just so typical.

Today was the Glendale holiday party up at Chevy.  Of course I was invited, but I didn't go.  No way I'm going to go up there with those dopes.  A couple of people on the route asked me why I didn't go, and of course I just told them that I was working.  Which I was.  But even if I wasn't working, I wouldn't want to celebrate anything with these dopes.

The route today was pretty chill.  I got to Brand before 1pm and took a nice break there.  It was chilly, but it was nice.  I finished up the rest of the route on time.  The boss gave me my yearly evaluation.  It was good, but I didn't really read it all the way.  I figure I'll get it next week after it's been signed and recorded.  Then I can really read it.  It started raining just as I was leaving work.  Perfect timing.  I went home and ate and then chilled.  Emma texted me, asking if I was working.  I think she wanted to see if I could hang out, but by the time she texted me I was already home.  Once I'm in, I don't want to leave the house.

Fri Dec 16, Not much to report from work today.  It was pretty chill, and nothing big.  Just like the rest of the week has been... just blah.

My coworkers finally sent a link to photos of the holiday party yesterday.  Yup, it was just like Vagabundo predicted, a party filled with retired employees and all the usual suspects.  TheDesire, of course, looks amazing in the photos.  But, I'm super glad I didn't go.  I don't want to talk to any of those people.  No thanks.

Sat Dec 17, Today I had the day off and I decided to hang out with Dane.  I asked him where he wanted to go, and he said Malibu.  So I took him to the Malibu pier.  It was good times.  We walked the short pier and and walked around a bit.  Then we went to get a drink across the street.  He wanted a beer, and I got myself a really expensive tequila.  My drink cost $25, which is insane.  It was good tequila, but no way is it worth that much money.  Japanese whiskey, yes, not this stuff.  It was smooth, but still.  We walked around the beach and also a historical sight nearby.  Then I drove up the cost until we decided to turn around.

On the way back to Glendale I decided to drive part of the route on Mulholland Drive.  THAT was fun.  We ended up stopping at the Hollywood Bowl overlook.  The city looked very pretty tonight.  It was damn cold though.  I went through Burbank to get to the park just outside of Griffith park where it meets Los Feliz in order to drop off my buddy Dane.  Just as I was talking to him and get ready to go home I get a call from my aunt.  I ignored the first call, but she called again and I figured it must be serious.  Sure enough, she tells me that my Godmother is in the hospital after falling down.

On the way back to Glendale I decided to drive part of the route on Mulholland Drive.  THAT was fun.  We ended up stopping at the Hollywood Bowl overlook.  The city looked very pretty tonight.  It was damn cold though.  I went through Burbank to get to the park just outside of Griffith park where it meets Los Feliz in order to drop off my buddy Dane.  Just as I was talking to him and get ready to go home I get a call from my aunt.  I ignored the first call, but she called again and I figured it must be serious.  Sure enough, she tells me that my Godmother is in the hospital after falling down.

My aunt tells me that they took my Godmother to county.  I told my buddy that I had to go, and why.  He wished me luck and I was on my way.  I made my way through traffic, but it didn't take me that long since I was close by.  Sure enough, I get their, they take me to the ER and there she is lying on a bed.  I'll skip many of the details, but suffice to say she fell down.  They did a bunch of tests on her, and in the time I was there they found out that she fractured three places on her hip.  Also, they found that she had a urinary tract infection.  That probably made her feel dizzy, like she told the doctors she felt when she was retelling the story about how she fell.

I stayed with my Godmother as long as I could before I gave up on them taking her to a room.  The doctors said that they were going to admit her to the hospital, but that they were short on beds.  Just before 3am I decided that I was not going to be much help if I was just with her the entire night.  That's when I decided to go home.  I had this idea that I could get some food on the way home.  I hadn't had any food since I ate at around 1pm with Dane when we were at Malibu.  At this point it was over thirteen hours.  I was going to eat when I got home, but of course I didn't go home when I planned to.  When I got out the hours of not eating and the cold really got to me.  That's the only way I can explain what happened to me next.  My whole body started to shiver at first, and then shake.  To the point that I found it hard to walk or catch my breath.  I liked it like a line in a song that says, "Bowel-shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse, Assail him, impale him with monster-truck force."  I didn't have doubt or remorse, but I will say that the shaking was like a bowel shacking earthquake.  It was one of the strangest things I've experienced.  I got home and got ready for bed, but didn't actually get in bed just before 4am.  I felt like I wasn't that sleepy now, but I soon fell asleep.  It was a fucking long day for me.

Sun Dec 18, My aunt was planning on going to visit my Godmother at the hospital today.  She didn't know how to get to the hospital, or how she was going to find my Godmother, so I figured I would just take the day off from work and drive her there.  I told work about the situation and they got someone to cover for me.  That done I was able to take my aunt to the hospital.  We didn't arrive too early.  Mainly because I was still sleepy from having gone to bed at 4am.  We ate and I drive us to the hospital.  Our first stop was actually my Godmother's apartment.  Again, no way my aunt could do all this by herself.  We grabbed some clothes and took them with us, as well as her walker.  The apartment smelled of urine.  My Godmother isn't well.  She's ninety-two, what would you expect.  But she also doesn't help herself out by listening to doctor's advice.  She thinks they're all after her money.  But also as we all do, we start to fall apart.  And she obviously doesn't make it to the bathroom sometimes before she pees herself.  I never want to get like that.  I say that now but who knows when the time comes if I'll care.

When we finally got to the hospital I expected that my Godmother to be out of the ER, but no luck.  She was still in the ER.  Perhaps by tomorrow they'll put her into an actual room.  My aunt and I visited for a little while, but my Godmother was mostly asleep during our visit.  I know how that's like.  All night long the nurses come in and wake you up.  My grandmother used to tell me how that was the case.  So I suspect my Godmother didn't get that much sleep during the night.  Also, she's still fighting off an infection.  My aunt and I went to get some food, stayed a couple of more hours with her and left.  It was cold tonight.  Tomorrow my aunt will go to the hospital with my cousin's husband.  I'm going to work.  I can't keep missing days.

Mon Dec 19, I actually work up late today.  I drank a pretty good amount last night, but still.  I did have a slight hangover, and I was not feeling like going to work.  But of course I have to so I don't starve to death.  Pseudo supervisor didn't know about my Godmother, and we got to talking about stuff.  Such as life, and futures.  Part of the conversation focused on relationships and now Pseudo supervisor's husband is clueless when it comes to reading the signals that a woman finds him attractive.  She asked me if I was like that, and I answered in the affirmative.  Because it's true, I always fuck up the signals and read them all wrong.  I told Pseudo supervisor about TheDesire and how I obviously read those signals wrong, but also that I might be reading the Emma signals all wrong.  Emma is the only one of those dopes at that job that has reached out to me to ask me how I am.  Everyone else, nothing.  They have seen a change in my actions there, but they don't question it.  THAT's yet another reason why they suck dick.  None of them wanted to cross that line to ask me how I was doing.  Only Emma.  I've wanted to drop some hints at her, but I'm kinda chicken.  That night we were supposed to go out and have food and drinks was a night I considered making a pass at her.  But of course that never came to be.  Oh well, time will tell.  And then there's Desiree, who I really like and find attractive.  ARGH!  Relationships suck.

I got home and my aunt told me that the hospital finally moved my Godmother to a room.  They also were saying how she can't live alone anymore.  Duh!  She needs to be under constant vigilance.  This way if she doesn't want to eat or isn't feeling well or anything there will be someone there to help out.  We need to happen.  My and and I had this idea that she may have to come and live with us.  But there's no way that my aunt can take care of my Godmother by herself.  My aunt has her own life to lead, and also still takes care of my cousin's kids after school.  That's a lot on the plate.  So it looks like we're going to have to find her an assisted living apartment.  Hopefully one that's close by.  Closer than where she lives now, which is near downtown.  This will make it easier for us all to visit her.

Tue Dec 20, The route was pretty easy today.  Mainly because Jade didn't sort the books into the branch bins.  The bins in the picture above are from yesterday.  I'm not saying that Jade doesn't have work to do during the day.  But he should have put a dent into those bins.  I've worked the sorting desk and the amount of bins he had should have been done in an hour and a half.  Not saying he doesn't have other things to do, but certainly if new guy shows up at 3:30pm Jade had two and a half hours to do those bins.  That should be a priority.  Of course it works out for me that he doesn't sort the bins, because then it means an easier route for me.

The picture above is from the library's IG feed.  It's just another example of their collective stupidity.  I think my favorite lines are, "... Stop by the library.  We are currently closed to the public...."  Like what the fuck, you idiots!  I can't believe they're inviting people to visit a CLOSED building.  Not only that, but to take a break from their shopping to visit a closed building.  Ah, why would ANYONE want to do that?  Just some fucked up idiocy.

After work I went to get my hair cut, and I brought Chan along (pictured above).  It was fun times with my barber and Chan.  Afterward I went to get some food and to chill.  But I couldn't relax, because I noticed on the security camera that she left the house at nearly 4pm.  The sun sets at around 5pm these days, earlier even.  I'm not sure why she would wait until nearly sunset to get out the door.  I told her after I picked her up at the bus stop that she needs to not go out so late.  When it got to be nearly 7pm I called her.  She went to get her prescription, that was ready at the pharmacy, and then she decided that since she was out that she would go to the market.  ARGH!  I don't know why she didn't do that earlier, and then come back home and do what she said kept her from leaving earlier.  I worry about her being out in the cold.  It's not good for her.  Lately she's complained that she has felt tired from walking to the bus stop.  Ah yeah, I can't make it out there without my leg cramping up.  I'm out of shape, in her case she's getting older.  I told her she needs to start getting around on one of those dial a ride things.  I think I need to look into it for her.

My aunt told me that she spoke to the social worker about my Godmother's living arrangements.  Apparently she was moved to a nursing home today.  We're going to have to visit her, ASAP.  Perhaps tomorrow.  And we have to get her things to the nursing home.  At this point she needs to be taken care of, but we also need to see what we can do to get her moved closer to where we live.  Because, otherwise my aunt would have to make a long haul to visit her every week.

Wed Dec 21, Since I don't have to actually be at work until 2pm on Wednesdays I told my aunt that I could take her to visit my Godmother before having to go into work.  We had yet to go to where they moved my Godmother to, until today.  It's in a part of down called Little Armenia.  The funny thing is I didn't see many Armenians.  I think like so many places in Los Angeles, they get a name that fits the prominent population and then that population moves on, but the name still stays.  Like Chinatown.  The place isn't the greatest, but at least my Godmother is being treated well.  She looked MUCH better than she did last week when she went to the hospital.  Now that the infection has been treated for she looks much better.  This place might not be the most ideal, but it's going to fix her up good.  More importantly, she won't be alone.  And, my aunt will be able to visit her easier.

Since I didn't have to be at work until 2pm I figured that I would run some errands and then go to work.  I ran my errands and arrived at work around noon.  I was pretty sure that the potluck was going to be winding down by then, but I was wrong.  It was actually just starting up.  Which meant that the sandwich I brought on the way into work would not be needed today.  All the food was really good.  There was a little bit of everything.  Someone made tamales.  There were cheese enchiladas, chicken pot pies, salad, mash potatoes; rolls, chow mein... well, you get the idea, there was a LOT of food.  I stuffed myself.  Work on the desk was chill.  I'm liking this new girl, TheLamp's figure, more and more.  She's small, but nice.  Of course there are so many obstacles.

Dinner with TheGirl tonight was on me tonight.  I went and bought some food and went to her place.  I gave her my Christmas gift, which she says she won't open until Christmas day.  That's cool.  Despite eating so much during the potluck I was starving.  Dinner was a good time.  We're still trying to figure out how to split the cost of our next trip up north in February.  I don't have the cash this instant, so I would put my half on a credit card.  I know we'll figure it out soon.

Thu Dec 22, It was raining when I got up and when I got on the road.  Thankfully the traffic was nonexistent.  This despite the fact that there were at least three major accidents on freeways I travel.  One was on the 101 North, and it was all the way out by Woodland Hills.  The other had potential to slow me down, but it really didn't.  That one was on the 101 South, near Lankershim.  It slowed the traffic down by where I switch over to the 134, but not any more than any other day.  The other was on the 210 East, but that was out by Allen.  I actually had a quick and quiet drive into work.  Unusual for any time of year.  When I got into work and had a quiet moment looking out the new administration offices.  It was literally and figuratively a calm before the storm.

Once on the route things were pretty chill.  I went up to Chevy to have lunch, because I really don't want to interact with anyone.  I arrived at Casa and TheDesire passed by behind me as I was going up the ramp.  I didn't see her, but I would bump into her later in the back office.  I said hello, nothing out of the ordinary.  Bundy came out to the van to talk to me about how he's staying at Casa.  Gave me some cockamamie excuse that they need people out in the branches who know reference.  Whatever!  He did mention how Maleficent says that there are, "Way too many chiefs," and of course she's not talking about upper management, she's talking middle management.  There are too many chiefs is right.  There are more managers than there are part timers at central.  When it comes to part timers it's the three drivers, two pages, and one CSA.  Also, of those two pages, only one works at Central regularly, and she only works about five hours a day.  We used to have about a dozen pages working when I first started at Central.  Granted, not all of them worked every day.  I only worked three days a week when I first started.  My bigger point is that what Maleficent said to Bundy is true.  They have gotten rid of so many part timers that now they need to replenish that core, but at the same time the full timers need to do more work as well.  I told my buddy that even though we thought the dark times were during the renovation, we ain't seen nothing yet.  The real dark times are going to be after the renovation is over.

Vagabundo texted me yesterday to check my work email.  Sure enough I find an email from one of the dummies at one of the branches that wants either Vagabundo or me to deliver some BS signs to another branch.  Normally I'm OK with this, but this time I was like, "Fuck this shit!  Can't they just take it themselves?"  Well, when I got to that branch the person who sent the email meekly comes up to me and asks if I saw it.  Sure, I tell her to have the signs ready for me.  I load them into the van and tell myself that I'm not going to make any extraordinary effort to deliver them.  The email sent said, and I quote, "Please deliver ten frames and boards to Pacific Park."  Which means I'll take them from my second stop to my last stop.  Well, I arrive, take the signs out and place them by the back door.  I go around and get my coworker to turn off the alarm on that door and then I bring them in.  With her help.  As I get the last one in Mala says to me, "Oh, those were supposed to go to Adams.  Ah, what?  Why the FUCK were they labeled motherfucking Pacific Park?  Why the FUCK does the email say Pacific Park?!  Assholes!  With the help of my coworker I put them back in the van and hoped that they were all trashed by the time I got to Adams.  They weren't.  I wanted to smash them over Mala's head.  She said I could just leave them for tomorrow's delivery, but that isn't the point.  Get your motherfucking information right!  ARGH!  I fucking hate that branch.

The coworker that I mentioned in the previous paragraph is just wonderful.  She SO sympathized with me about the signs, agreeing that they belonged in the trash.  She happens to be so gorgeous as well.  The photo above does NOT do her justice.  But not only is she gorgeous, but she's SUPER nice and seems to "get it."  And by that I mean she seems to see what these fuck-tards in charge are doing, and doing wrong.  And she voices it.  I like her a lot.  I WISH I could take her out for dinner some time.  She is the kind of person that deserves to go out for tacos.

I'm trying this new way of doing the end of the route.  I now take the last batch of books into the dock area, leave them there, and then park the van.  When I come back I take the books up to the sorting area, drop off the keys on the boss' desk, and then go home.  In the past I could get all the books upstairs and then take the van across the street to park it, and then return to the library to return the keys.  The new move saves me one trip.  It has also given me a chance to fight the idiots that continue to park in the van's spot.  Case in point, today.  The above photo shows the car of this one dope that works at the structure.  He does this shit all the time.  Well, today he got a fucking parking ticket, because he shouldn't be parked there.  I don't give a shit who parks there now, they're going to get a ticket if I can help it.

After I finished the route and dealing with dopes in the parking structure I went on a quick tour of the construction with Jade and another coworker.  The other coworker was pointing out what I've been saying, that there is NO WAY the construction is going to be done by the time this fucking library is set to open.  I wanted yet another witness to what I say when it comes to the timeline of this monstrosity.  Also, my other coworker pointed out how bad all the construction looks.  It's shoddy work, he kept on saying.  The both of us pointed out more than a dozen examples of their shoddy work.  Cracks in new cement.  Stains on carpets.  Old electric plugs that were disconnected but not taken out.  The stain on the wood on the new shelves is spotty.  Little things look unfinished.  And so on, and so on.  I'm glad these two went with me on the tour of the construction.  Like I said I want witnesses to this bullshit.

By the way, there are several leaks in the new roof.  The stairwell was flooded with water this morning, but the picture above was taken by me just as I left work.  The water was twice as deep as it was this morning.  It's not much, since it's barely about a quarter of an inch deep in the picture.  But still, they had a guy suck up the water this morning with a wet/dry vac.  And now look at it.  Worse than before.

I finished working at 4:15pm tonight, but I didn't leave work right away.  As I said, I walked around the construction area with Jade and another coworker.  What was shady is that Jade kept on telling me to clock out as if I worked until 5pm.  I know it was nearly 5pm as I walked out the door, but at the same time I finished working at 4:15pm.  No way I'm putting an extra forty-five minutes on my time sheet.  It would be very easy to do so, but I didn't.  I'm a lot of things, but I'm not going to claim time I didn't actually work.  And today I did work.  I didn't even take my full lunch, but that's my own fault.  I'm not going to claim I finished forty-five minutes after I actually did.  That's so not right.

I'm happy to report that I'm done with jury duty.  I picked this week in order to hopefully avoid going into court, and thankfully my plan worked.  I avoided having to go to court.  I was sweating bullets, hoping that they weren't going to be dicks about it and make me go in tomorrow.  But I timed it just right.  Not only is tomorrow close to Christmas, but it's also the start of Chanukah.  So yeah, no one was going to be in court THIS week.  Woo!

Fri Dec 23, I dropped off my aunts at my Godmother's apartment and then drove to work.  I went to work with the intention of making up of some of the leg work time at work that I've missed in dealing with my Godmother.  Of course that plan went by the wayside quick.  Not only did I get to talking to my coworkers, but then the internet went down.  Not just the internet, but the internal net, which meant I couldn't do my work.  Oh well.  I'm certainly not going to count this toward my hours.  I'll just subtract my Wednesday hours from my fundraiser hours I still have.

I went out to the circulation desk just before returning to my Godmother's apartment.  While out there I ran into the girl I should ask out.  I took the above picture and considered asking her out to lunch or something.  I have to say, she looked really cute today.  And I really found it hard to not stare at her body.  It's such a dick move to stare, so I caught glimpses of her here and there.  Why am I such a chicken?

I went back to my Godmother's apartment to do what I could to help clean up.  That wasn't much, I'll say.  I haven't mentioned the conditions where my Godmother has been living.  For so many years she lived with her husband in a little apartment in Santa Monica.  She then moved to Highland Park.  Her husband passed away something like fifteen years ago, if my memory serves me correct.  I know it was after my mother passed away, but before my grandma did.  Since then she's been living alone.  In the last few years she's gotten older, and it's harder for her to walk.  Not only that, she has a very bad hernia that has come out of her body and is a mass of flesh about the size of an avocado.  Because of that, and her advancing age, she's found it more and more difficult to walk.  Her small apartment smells of urine.  She smelled of urine, because it was likely she couldn't get to the bathroom before she peed herself.  In the hospital her clothes smelled so bad that I nearly vomited.  Thankfully since she's been in the convalescent home she doesn't smell.  It also didn't help that she was fighting an infection.  Who knows how long she's been fighting it.  Anyway, the point was that her apartment smells like urine, and that isn't a good thing.

While looking through my Godmother's things I found several photo albums.  In one of them there was the picture above.  I picked this picture to show here because it features my father (far left), my aunt (third from the right), my grandmother (second from the right), and my mother (far right in red).

After the apartment we went to visit my Godmother in her new digs, the nursing home.  She is never in good spirits, but I tried my best to cheer her up.  After the visit I was feeling hungry, and my aunt told me we should find some food.  But, my other aunt was with us.  I got off at my exit and drove to our local IHOP for some food.  This other aunt pouted and insisted that she was going to stay in the car.  So we got back into the car and dropped her off at her house.  Later I told my aunt, the one I live with, that my other aunt was such a child.  Never did she think that perhaps the two of us were starving to death.  Never did she consider that PERHAPS one of us might have some health issues that should be considered in our consumption of food.  Never did she consider that maybe we're just fucking starving to death.  Nope.  She has to be a fucking child and pout and force me to drive her home before I could get some hot food in my belly.  I have nearly zero tolerance for stupid people these days.  So, we took my aunt home and then we went to get some food.

A big storm blew through Los Angeles tonight.  It was damn windy.

Sat Dec 24, If it wasn't for my phone I wouldn't even know what day it is today.  Once again I committed to going to my Godmother's apartment to do some clean up.  What was I thinking?  If I don't I know that my aunt will go there on her own, stay too late, and I'll be here at home wondering if she's going to make it home safe.  No thanks to that.

I got hungry while "helping" clean up my Godmother's apartment.  So I walked down the street to Jack-in-the-box for something to eat.  Not that it's my favorite.  Years ago, when my Grandmother was still alive, we would go and get some food there from time to time.  Back then it was good.  Not that it was going to win any awards, but the food was MUCH better than it is now.  Today the entire menu is a hot mess.  I'm willing to pay for good food, but fast food joints can't cater to me in that fashion.  They have to offer cheap/terrible food.  I'm hungry, so what can I do?

I was online tonight and this story came up on the Yahoo news feed.  It made me livid.  So much so I HAD to donate some money to the poor dog's cause.  Here's a part of the story.  The full story can be found by clicking the image above.

A dog found abandoned on a curb is awaiting a permanent home after his owners left him behind when moving out of their Michigan home, reports say.

A photo showed Ollie the dog sitting on a chair, surrounded by garbage on a Detroit corner earlier this month.  The 2-year-old dog was emaciated and suffered a broken leg when he was discovered, according to a You Caring fundraiser for the dog started by the Detroit Animal Welfare Group.

"He waited for his family to come back. And they didn't want him.  They didn't come back for him," Terri Looby told WXYZ of the dog's owners, who allegedly took their smaller pup with them when they moved away.  "They did come back for the little dog and then left Ollie."

I hope they find that family and hang them.  Merry Christmas indeed.

Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas tonight.  I have it on my computer.  They aired it on TV over a week ago.  What a bunch of dopes.  Why can't they air it on Christmas eve?  Fucking TV stations.  Merry Christmas!

I was uploading pictures on to my online back-up.  The site shows pictures from this day in the past.  Tonight while uploading pictures a picture from the past came up... a picture from when I was with TheGirl and we went to Venice on Christmas Eve.  The look in her eyes is quite simply one of love.  I was so in love with her at that moment, and she with me.

Sun Dec 25, Each year I move farther away from interacting with what is Christmas time.  I don't do any significant shopping, except buy a few things online.  So I certainly don't go to the mall.  I don't put up a tree, and this year I didn't even get to go to Disneyland before Christmas.  This year I'll have to wait until AFTER the new year.  But you know what?  I don't miss it.  I just like the lights.  I like the little things that have nothing to do with gift giving.  Also, this Christmas my Godmother was sick, and I had to deal with cleaning up her apartment.  So yeah, I wasn't feeling super festive.  I slept in, and when I woke up my aunt was nearly out the door.  She was going to go to my Godmother's to finish up the clean up.  I told her I would take her, but she suggested that I just pick her and my other aunt, who slept over my Godmother's last night, after the were done cleaning up.  I liked that idea.  I told her that I would at least take her to the Universal metro station, and she agreed.

When I got back from the metro station I had a lot of things that I wanted to do.  First was to do some laundry.  I know, how exciting.  My jeans are dirty, but I need a fast turn around.  Also, my aunt doesn't always leave my clothes quite clean, because she has this idea that she needs to let them soak in the washing machine.  Ah, no.  That's how bacteria cases odors in my clothes.  And that's why I took it upon myself to do my laundry today.  But then I stupidly became distracted and let the water overflow in the sink that the washing machine drains to, and I had to clean that up.  I did some other things, like sweep up the back patio, and cleaned out the back of my car.  Which was a good thing, because I needed every inch in my car clear to bring back all the things both my aunt's wanted to bring back from my Godmother's apartment.  What they left at that apartment was mostly towels.  My Godmother seemed to have thing for buying towels.  Guess she thought she would never have enough.  As pictured above, I don't think that's going to be a problem.

After dropping off my other aunt, I took the aunt I live with to get some food at her insistence.  I knew she was hungry, since she didn't eat since this morning.  She kept on telling me, as I drove down Ventura, that if I saw a place I should stop and go there for dinner.  I knew where I was going, to the IHOP by our house.  I knew that this place would be open.  Our timing was good.  After we were seated a bunch of people came in, and what was a restaurant that was about a 1/3rd filled quickly became completely filled.  The service was slow, but at least we got a hot meal in our bellies.

Mon Dec 26, Because everyone seems to have taken off for the holidays the freeways have been pleasantly empty.  Today was no exception.  Never will you see so much green during the rush hour.

Most libraries are closed today.  So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the library was actually pretty busy today.  I was kinda busy myself.  The time is getting near for the bookmark contest winners and the library open house.  I'm kinda tired of these assignments.  Mainly because it feels that no one ever really looks at this stuff I make.  Which makes me wonder why even care about these things when I make them.  I guess because it's my job.  And I do care about such things.  I'm just tired of the same old thing.

Went to visit TheGirl.  I told her I would set up her new camera, the one I got her for Christmas.  It was really quick to set up.  The previous camera has some flaws, like it will go off-line.  So frustrating, I know.  This one is less apt to go off-line, which is why I got it for her.  I want to possibly get one that's like the ones I installed at the library.  Those are super nice, but expensive.

Wed Dec 28, There is a lot of work for me to do by Monday for this open house event.  Even though the event isn't for another month, I have to have five posters ready by Monday.  Fuck!  I've done a little work on these assignments, but really I thought I had more time.  I've been kinda just doing whatever.  And now here I am, scrambling to finish what I should have had more time to do.  Oh well.  No choice but to put the nose to the grindstone.

Dinner with TheGirl tonight was mostly about memories.  I showed her a picture of Chan in my car.  It's set to be my throwback.  The photo is Chan in my car, being held by TheGirl, while we were on our way to Pasadena to check out the parade floats along Orange Grove.  That triggered us both showing each other pictures from the past, when we were still together.  Yeah, those were fucking good times.

Cheyenne would have nothing of our nostalgia, since she wasn't around and we didn't give her any of our table "scraps."  So she pouted while on her bed.  It looks like TheGirl and I are very likely going to Carmel in February.  I can't wait.  This should be fun.  Not that I have to worry about this, but what if I do get somewhere with this girl from San Marino.  How am I going to explain going to Carmel with my ex-girlfriend?  Hmm.  I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.  And knowing me, I will not have found the courage to ask this girl out from work until WAY past the trip... if at all.

Lastly, a few words from a FB post I put up today.  I posted the with a video of the ending of the first Spider-man movie.  The good ones, not the recent ones.  It all about how blessings often come with a curse element.  I was listening to one of those TV preachers, and he did make some good points about how when we are blessed the downside is that others want to put us down.  And that sometimes those blessings come with more responsibility, more work.  His point was that we should not focus on the negative, but remember that we are blessed.  And that ultimately the blessings can overcome the downsides of those blessings.  Here is what I wrote in my FB entry.

There are three types of comic book super heroes... every other super hero is derived from Superman (who has every superhuman power), Batman (who chooses to do what they do), and Spider-man (who through fate or dumb luck, is given extraordinary powers).  That is why the last lines of the first Spider-man movie resonates.  What is a blessing can be a curse as well.  But we must focus on the "blessings" rather than the burden that those "blessings" incur upon us.  And with that I remind all of you that 2016 is soon to be in the rear view.  It was a shit year, but in the end we survived it.  Which is more than can be said for a lot of people.

Thu Dec 29, I usually get to work in the morning around 7:45am.  This week, because of everyone being out of town, I've been getting there a little earlier.  That means I go into work early as well.  I'm usually in the building at 7:55am.  I go upstairs to get my parking validated and pick up the interdepartmental mail from the administration office.  Then I go down and get the bins for the Pasadena portion of the route, and finally I go get the keys for the van.  Then I get the van, load it with the bins, and return the book truck to where I will use it later.  All that takes about a half hour, and that's about the time I'm getting ready to head out to Pasadena.  I spend a little time getting my iPod ready to play while I'm on the route.  Now Jade is supposed to be starting at 8am as well.  But he is usually JUST getting in when I'm nearly leaving for Pasadena.  Today he strolled in just past 8:30am.  What a guy.  Since no one ever checks up on him, he's able to do this all the time.  It's terrible.

Because Jade doesn't do all the sorting the night before, I usually get some light loads on the route.  Today it was a moderate amount of bins going out.

Two of the branches emailed Jade to ask him for extra bins this week.  Their logic is that after the long weekend break they're going to be busy and have a lot of books.  Yeah fucking right.  My fucking ass they will.  The above are the outgoing books at Grandview.  I didn't even take the bins, I just threw the items in bins I already had in the van.  Consolidated them all.  Fucking bullshit.  Grandview asked for five extra bins, and Casa asked for six.  When I got the extra bins from Jade I immediately took one out of each of their piles.  Then I figured that when I got to the branch I could gauge it and see if they really needed that many.  Sure enough, Grandview didn't need that many.  Especially since I was already giving them back all three of their bins on this delivery.  At Casa they had nine bins on the side, plus the nine I used to delivery the books.  In addition to the they wanted six?  Oh no.  I only gave the four.  Fucking cocksucking idiots.  Maybe Casa could use some of those bins, but they really don't need six more on top of the nine they already had, in addition to the nine they got from the delivery.  Fuck these fools.  I fucking hate this shit, and this is why I fucking short changed them.

After work I had to drive out to Highland Park in order to drop off the keys to my Godmother's apartment.  I figured we would wait until nearly the end of the month to clear out and give back the keys.  This way if we needed to go back we wouldn't feel rushed.  I got there and the manager of the building wasn't there.  I rang his apartment and then went to the office.  Nope.  I noticed that the bottom of the door for the office was pretty wide, and that I could easily fit the keys under.  So I signed the papers that he wanted me to sign to relinquish the apartment and tossed the keys under the door with the papers.  Done and done.  With that my Godmother has no where to go.  Except of course the home where she is, and our house.

Fri Dec 30, Woke up to the sound of rain, and it was nice.  One of the things I love about going to Carmel is that the air is always clean, because it rains nearly every night.  It would be nice if it rained here more often, to clean out things.  Oh well.

I went to work and it was pretty chill.  I had work to do, but while on the desk there's no way I can get any work done.  I didn't see Desiree right away, and I forgot that she doesn't start work until noon.  She looked really cute today.  And yes, the above photo does reflect my desire to get to know Desiree biblically, if you know what I mean.  Also, my buddy was telling me how he thinks Shawnee is nice.  This is true.  Too bad about the religious thing.  But still, I hope that my buddy gets to know her a little better and maybe asks her out to lunch or something.  I know I have to do the same with Desiree.

After work I wanted to treat myself to a nice meal.  I thought of going several places, but decided to go to My Taco in Highland park.  They have such good food there.  I ordered a fish taco and a sope.  They really hit the spot.  I thought of getting some carne asada fries, but the sope at My Taco is really good.  This was not an easy month to go through, which is why I wanted to eat something yummy.

I got home and my aunt tells me that she called the plumber to fix the toilet.  Ah, I wasn't aware that the toilet had a problem.  Any time she uses the toilet she always finds that her remnants don't go down.  So for that reason she thinks something is wrong with the toilet.  Also, the seal around the bottom is starting to leak.  That I will give her.  The first problem is fixed by flushing correctly.  There is a trick to our toilet.  But, she also will use a bucket of water that we collect from showers and from the leaky faucet.  Mind you, that leaky faucet was supposedly the original motivation for calling her grey market plumber.  Mind you, he didn't fix the faucet, he fixed the toilet.  Also, I should add that he had to get a whole new toilet, because apparently while trying to take the old one off the tank broke.  OK, fine.  So we now have a new toilet, and I have to say that it looks good.  So happily that worked out find.  Though, we still have a leaky faucet.

After chilling out in my room I went to the computer to try to get my external hard drive to mount.  The other day I came home and plugged it into the computer, but it didn't mount.  I didn't have time to play with it.  I knew it wasn't a good thing though.  Sure enough, I tried to mount it using disk utility.  Nope.  It's dead.  Yet another hard drive dead.  I think if I get a replacement for this thing that I'll get a solid state hard drive.  No more of these moving parts bullshit hard drives.

Sat Dec 31, Finally made it to the last day of the year.  The above is a screen cap of the reservation TheGirl made for Carmel in February.  I'm not entirely sure what we will do when we go up there, but I'm still looking forward to going.  Always good to go away.  I checked, the trip is forty-eight days away.  Nice.

I didn't want to do anything today.  I wanted to just chill and watch TV.  And sure enough I did.  I got to finish up Daredevil and started watching Westworld.

Last night I jerked off and found a hot porn actress to jerk it to.  Being that I'm going to stay in tonight I figure I would find more videos of this porn star and have a good time.  Yeah, good way to ring in the new year.

December Wrap-up, This past month feels like it's been a month of obstacles.  Wherever I turned it seemed that someone or something was in the path of least resistance.  Which meant that my so-called path of least resistance was actually an obstacle course.  Still, I somehow managed to make it though it all... barely.

I can't imagine what it must be like for my Godmother.  In less than a week's time she went from falling to being moved into a convalescent home.  Where she will likely live for a long time.  If not for the rest of her natural life.  I have this idea that if she gets well enough she can move in with us.  But that's a long ways from now.  My point is that it's incredible how things change so quickly.  I guess that's how things are.  And that brings me to wrapping up the month and the year.

This month is a total C.  Nothing great happened, and just a bunch of little bad things happened.  This month was sort of like this year.  It was filled with obstacles, and the good guys didn't always win.  It feels like I've been beaten down pretty good.  I'm still standing, but I wonder how much more I can take.

2016 Wrap-up, I have to start out by saying that 2016 was pretty much a shit show.  Of course that doesn't mean nothing good happened.  Plenty of good stuff happened.  But for the most part the year was bullshit.  The main thing that dominated my year was the library renovation.  It was not easy enduring all these library trials.  And even as I write this there is still at least three months of more construction.  At the end of which I'm not even sure that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.  I love working at the library, but this renovation has been a challenge.

Because certain things are fresh in my mind they do make me think about how good the year was aside from the library drama.  I'm thinking of my trip up north, and my other little adventures.  Like going up to Santa Barbara a few times.  Like going up to Solvang.  And like the many good meals I had.  THOSE things certainly helped mitigate the life drama.

Then there are the things that will change the direction of my life.  This year I've become more anti-social than ever before.  I really just want to be left to my own devices.  I really don't seek out people, especially a relationship.  I've mentioned it so many times this past year that I know there is little chance of me every marrying.  The changes of me finding a girlfriend are eroding as well.  So I'm getting aquatinted with the idea that I will be alone for the rest of my life.  It's becoming a real thing, not just some possibility.  I would like to change that, but I honestly don't have the tools nor the inclination to do so.

And that brings me to energy.  This year has been the least energetic of my life.  I really just want to go home and hide out in my cave (my room).  But even that sanctuary is often trampled on by my aunt and my cousin's kids.  I've never felt the need to be so isolated before.  I feel it's less important to interact with people just to interact.  The interactions I have should be more meaningful, not just more frequent.  This is why I've adopted a "ghost" mentality at my Glendale job.  None of those people are redeemable, in my eyes.  Even TheDesire, who I adore, isn't.  She's of that bunch, and as much as I want to assign some specialness to her I can't any longer.

In short, I'm ready for 2017 to start.  I really don't want to think about how terrible 2016 was.  I tried to make the most of it, but it was not an easy year to experience.  Overall I have to say that I have to give the year a C+ overall.  The trips to Carmel, the little trips to Santa Barbara and Solvang, are highlights.  All the good food I had are also highlights.  The lowlights include work, dealing with Talia, family intrusions into my space and important down time, and of course the election.  It's very possible that next year will be worse.  I saw a post by TheDesire to a fellow coworker.  In it she has a post that says "2016 humbled everyone."  "I can't say it did.  The year was not horrible, but it wasn't great.  it is certainly punctuated by some events.  I was watching TV and one of those preachers was on.  I usually don't listen to that show, but this guy had a good point during part of his sermon.  He said that we should focus on our blessings, not our set-backs.  He's right.  If all we focus on is the negative then that's all we will see.  We need to focus on the fact that we're still here.  So many people died this year that a friend called it the year of death.  I don't think any more people than usually die died this year.  But it sure did seem that this year took a lot of people we know and love.

On my resent trip up North I did some sightseeing in old Monterey to soak up some of the local history.  I was in a area next to Colton Hall, where the state's constitution was written, when I stumbled upon a pretty garden and a beautiful walkway.  The above photo is of that walkway.

On my last trip up to Carmel/Big Sur I stopped off at Little Sur Creek to take the above picture.  I told myself that I hoped I would never become so jaded that THIS view would become old hat.  It hasn't yet.  Every time I travel up the coast this place still amazes me.

Not much to say about this photo other than to say that I went to the Getty Center and saw a person taking a picture. She looked interesting against the background.

Taken on October 20, 2007 during a trip that I took up to San Francisco.  I had not been in the city for over twenty years at the point that I made this trip.  Not since I was a child, and not alone.  This was my first trip that I traveled alone.  I so wanted to visit places in S.F. that I had never visited before.  I remembered the Palace from the movie Vertigo, and I really wanted to visit it.  Turned out to be a really cool place.

Taken on December 8, 2013.  I'm a movie buff, and I love visiting old movie palaces.  Broadway in downtown Los Angeles is in a bit of a revival in that many of the movie palaces are being renovated after years of neglect.  The Orphum was showing The Nightmare Before Christmas, and I used that as an excuse to not only see the theater, but to go with TheDesire.  Both were beautiful that day.

Taken on December 9, 2012, when my cousin was visiting from Mexico with his kids.  They wanted to go to a character breakfast, but not just any characters, the princesses.  We went and I got to met Belle!  THAT made my day.

Taken on January, 1, 2004 while visiting Olvera Street in downtown with my old buddy Joe.  He is no longer with us, but I still remember him.  He was a bit of a clown, and of course when I said I would take a picture of him with a stuffed burro he had to pose in a funny way.  It's difficult to think that when I took this picture he would only be alive for just over four more years.  I do miss my friend Joe.