Man, this month was not that much better than last month.  For more on that, on to the update.

 

Tuesday October 1, The picture above is of the "Overflow" books for the "Marketplace" displays.  DrDeath has gone rouge, because he has this idea that the marketplace needs to be filled with books.  But he's ordered so many books that there isn't any room for them.  And now Achee tells me that DrDeath wants to move the holds from where they are to somewhere else in order to make room for these marketplace books.  There are just too many of these books though.

I was just starting my 2nd part of my shift on the desk when Jade comes up to me and says, "Admin wants you to go to graphics to pick up some things," because LunaTick didn't go.  I initially asked, "What," and then just got up from the chair I was sitting in and went to get the keys for the van.  I rushed over to water and power and the graphics department specifically.  Sure enough, there was the two boxes pictured above.  They contained the events of the month, which were already a day late.  I asked the guy at graphics if she saw LunaTick show up to pick up the stuff and he said, no, but he's not always around.  However, he did mention how the event fliers were ready at 3pm YESTERDAY.  That means they were there this morning when he should have gone to graphics.  I also know that he does the route backwards, going to graphics in the afternoon.  That's doubly damming since that means he really SHOULD have seen the boxes.  The guard at the door at the water and power building mentioned that LunaTick did walk into the building, but that he didn't see him go downstairs.  Only that he went to deliver some books at the housing department, which is on the second floor.  Graphics is in the basement.  In short, he didn't go to the basement to pick up the fliers.  Also, I had to go to the fire department to get their mail.  FireGirl mentioned that she didn't see him today.  And she had mail for me.  Which isn't solid proof that he didn't show up there when she wasn't at the window, but it sure infers that LunaTick didn't go to fire either.  What a dope.

When I returned to Central I went upstairs to deliver the fliers.  Emma's father, funny enough, is the guy that does this project since the lady that was doing it was fired a few months ago.  He was livid to learn that LunaTick didn't pick up the fliers, and immediately wrote an email to Mala and Kvon.  Not that Kvon will read it until he recovers from his illness.  But as I was going downstairs to go back to the van to get two bins that LunaTick forgot to bring inside, that consisted of one for Central and one for the branches, Mala finds me and asks, "What's going on."  We talked and at the end she says, "Could you write me an email telling me what happened today?"  Sure, I told her.  If LunaTick still has a job after this then there's nothing short of murdering someone that will get him fired.  Especially after the shit he's pulled the last month, like not showing up for the mockery fest.

My Godmother is dead.  That fact seems to matter of fact.  I don't know who will show up for her funeral, other than me.  That's for sure.  I think of my funeral, and it will not be like her funeral, but at the same time it will be like hers.  My funeral certainly won't be attended by many people.

Wednesday October 2, My eyes were so tired today.  I wasn't physically tired, but my eyes were so dry.  There was a point when I went and checked my Glendale work email and found that I was now scheduled for the route on Tuesdays.  I guess that's a pretty good indication that LunaTick is gone.  I'll know more tomorrow, but I knew that THIS time he screwed up royal.  I guess I'm not going to be on the desk for a while.

I really needed dinner tonight.  The wine was flowing, and the food was yummy.  It was nice to just be.  TheGirl mentioned that a waitress from one of the places we went to eat a couple of weeks ago mentioned to her that I was still in love with TheGirl.  I think that's fair to say.  I think that's why we still continue to do this Wednesday night dinner.  We do love each other.

Thursday October 3, The short version of today is that Kvon fired LunaTick.  The sad story of his ineptitude has come to an end.  Course this means that now I'll have to pick up the slack.  Whatever that stupid slaughter desk is, it's a bit of a sanctuary from the heat and cold of the route.  It was also nice not to have to exert myself as much as before.  Having one less day was nice.  Oh well, there goes that.

There was a point today where Emma sent me a text that said today was October 3rd (seen above).  I liked that little exchange with Emma, so I just had to call it like I see it... I told her she was lovely.  I think she is lovely.

Ilsa brought me some food yesterday.  I had already eaten lunch, and was having dinner with TheGirl tonight, so I figured I would save her food for my lunch today.  Boy, did it hit the spot.  Ilsa is a great cook.  I told her that she should always cook me lunch.  Ha!

I had a meeting with the lady that's going to officiate my Godmother's funeral next week.  We met at the mortuary, an all too familiar place now.

Friday October 4, I was thinking about how LunaTick only lasted twenty weeks at the job.  Yes, he was hired before that, so he technically worked more time.  I'm just talking about the route.  As you have seen I've been keeping track of how many weeks I've been on the desk.  That's the amount of time he drove.  Mind you, he missed at least four days, which out of twenty total work days is a significant amount of time.  He committed all these job crimes in twenty weeks.  THAT's an accomplishment.  Also, fuck this guy.

Here are a couple of quotes about LunaTick from the past.
From May 24th:

I arrived at work on time, as I usually do, before 8am.  I figured the new guy would be there on time.  The time turned to 8:05am and he still wasn't there.  It was then 8:10am and still nothing.  I was told to show him the ropes today as if he were going at it alone.  So I planned on letting him do everything.  I know, fun times, right?
It was now 8:15am and STILL no signs of him.  I was starting to think the rumors of him quitting were true.  I figured we'd start whenever.  He finally showed up at 8:18am.  THIS is not OK in my book.  I was there ten minutes before 8am, and I waited nearly half an hour for him to arrive.  Not good.  But, if those are his ways what can I do?  I'm not a supervisor, I can't reprimand him.  He's the library's problem now.

From May 28th:

I mentioned in a previous entry that the new guy, who needs a nickname, was late.  After checking out the stolen umbrella I went into the library to use the restroom.  I got to talking to the security guard.  I noticed that once again the new guy was late.  It was 8:22am when I took the above photo of the keys.  I later saw the new guy walking to the van.  But of course he was already late.  Not that these idiots care.  But it would be interesting to find out if he's putting 8am on his time card rather than 8:30am.  I tend to think that he is putting 8am.

This guy was a fucking mess from the very start.  Glad to be rid of him.

I walked by Emma's locker at work on the way to the bathroom.  When I came out something made me curious to see what was in it.  I honestly didn't think she would have SO many book in her locker (as seen above).  Something about this endeared me to her.  Then again, I think I'm just developing a crush on her.  Yeah, like an honest to goodness crush.  I know, not a good idea.

Saturday October 5, I FINALLY got to go to Disneyland.  The last two times I've tried to go, including trying to go with Emma back in September, have all been thwarted.  When I arrived I saw that the security lines were long, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone by going through Downtown Disney.  That way I could use the new land bridge that was recently opened to allow people to walk to Disneyland.  In the past people had to cross the street, wasting precious time waiting at the stop light.  No more of that.  Just go straight through to Disneyland.

It's halloween time at the park.  Sadly I wasn't goin to stick around long enough to see the park in its night time glory.  Perhaps next week, since Emma has mentioned going next week.  I'm game, but I don't want to jinx it.

There was a point in which I was going to leave but then thought, "What's my hurry?"  I went to the Opera House to check out something and to get out of the heat.  I passed by the above, a bench.  A bench from the merry-go-round in Griffith park.  The story goes that Walt Disney went out on a Sunday with his daughter to the merry-go-round and sat on the bench as his kids had fun on the attraction.  That's where he supposedly thought of a park where both kids and adults could have fun at the same time.  And so was boring Disneyland.  True or not, there's the bench.  Kinda important to the whole thing.

Sunday October 6, Now that I'm back on the route on Tuesdays I was thinking about how much I'm off the desk these days.  And not just at Glendale, but both jobs.  I go from working about nineteen hours on the desks to seven and a half hours.  A total of twelve hours less since last month.  About a month ago I was still on the desk on Monday mornings for four hours.  Now with the that gone, and the Glendale desk hours on hold until they hire a new driver, I'm down to about seven and a half hours per week.

There was a point today where the lady from the afternoon program asked to have an announcement made.  I so didn't want to make it, and I was busy with patrons waiting at the desk.  They gave me a dirty look when I tried to find some information about the event in the flier.  I never found anything relating to their event.  Meanwhile two patrons were tapping their feet.  I was able to dispatch one fast.  The other was harder, because I couldn't find the book they wanted.  The computer said it was in the library, but I had to look in a few places before I found it.  Knowing that the lady from the event wanted some announcement I texted T to see if she could help.  Now I didn't specifically say I'm busy.  So of course when I tell her that they want an announcement T just says, "Go for it."  I might actually be busy, not just sitting around the desk doing nothing.  It was quite busy today.  I really need to not work on Sundays anymore.

The thing about T not being anywhere near the desk today was that some dopey patrons found their way to the stickers and decided since no one was around that hey, I can just help myself (pictured above).  T had to deal with the Opera Talk thing, but that's about an hour off desk.  On the same video pictured above I saw that she wasn't on the children's desk for but a few minutes today.  I get it, it's not fun.  She has to breast feed her kid.  But come on.  How much of her job duties have to suffer because of this?  At least this isn't a forever thing.  How long do women breast feed their children for, a few months?  A few years?  Damn!

I bolted out of work after having a dopey shift.  I was flying when I suddenly hit traffic right by the Rose Bowl.  Yeah, sometimes the freeway slows down around there, but this was a near dead stop.  I quickly checked my apps and found that there was an accident ahead.  The description said that it involved cars racing.  Oh goodie.  These days there seems to be a lot of accidents in the area of the freeway between the Rose Bowl and the Glendale freeway.

Accident number two was closer to home, by Woodman, and involved someone hitting the center divider and then crashing into two cars.  Just great.  The Universe wasn't content with a fucking horrible day at work, it had to throw two accidents on my commute home.  Fuck everything!

Monday October 7, The new OS update for my computer came out today.  I spent part of the morning updating my computer.  It looks good now all updated.  Now all my devices are updated.  Woo hoo!

Pseudo supervisor asked me to stay late tonight to take pictures of the Foundation board members.  I had to stay late.  I kinda didn't want to, but I wanted to make up for some of the hours I was going to be missing later in the week due to my Godmother's funeral.  The actual picture took less than ten minutes to take.  Terrible.

It was late, but I made it a point to visit the ladies tonight.  Cheyenne was in rare form.  She was super happy to see me.  I love her too.  In getting there late it probably was a huge surprise that I showed up.

Tuesday October 8, Day one of being back not the route for me.  It turned out to be pretty chill, thankfully.  I did forget to go to the fire department, but I went back and still finished around the same time I usually do.  That's when I told FireGirl that LunaTick was most likely fired.  Then again, it's not absolute.  The office manager told me that he hasn't had any "separation" papers go past his desk.  And he would know, because he processes those papers.  In other words, it's not official yet.

After work I went straight to the mortuary for the viewing of the body.  I received three mystery phone calls about the time that my family said they were going over to the mortuary to view the body.  It turns out that the funeral home wanted to check with me if it as OK for them to view the body.  I was livid that they didn't leave me a message saying that.  ARGH!  If they had just left me a message I wouldn't have sent it directly to voicemail.  Very unprofessional.

Wednesday October 9, Today is my Godmother's funeral and of course things just can't fall into place.  As I write this part I haven't yet gone tot he mortuary, but I had to write this moment.  I woke up feeling really sick.  I think all the stress of this whole thing finally wore me down.  I ate some food and took the place back to the kitchen.  I see my aunt in her robe, and she says to me, "Well, good luck."  I was like, what do you mean?  I asked her if she was ready to go with me.  She says, I didn't know I was going with you.  She just wolfed down some food and is changing her clothes.  I have no idea what she was thinking.  Even if she wasn't going with me it's about the time my family would come to pick her up.  I have no idea what she was thinking.

My Godmother's funeral was today.  It went well.  There was a moment when the slideshow was turned on and I saw some pictures that I picked, but didn't really see.  There was one in particular that had my cousin and that started the tears for my cousin.  But moments before that one of me when it was my baptism.  She was there at the beginning, and now I'm here at the end.

I suspected I would cry, and sure enough as soon as the slideshow started I cried.  It's been rush, rush, rush with this funeral thing that it's been hard to just have a quiet moment to reflect on my Godmother's life.

Emma suggested I do something my Godmother might like, but all I could think about doing is going to get a yummy burger at Pie n Burger.  The burger hit the spot, even though I noticed that the size of the patty looked smaller.  But, it was good to have a familiar burger.  After the burger I still had some time before going to work.  I told them I would arrive at 1pm, and it was not even noon.  I was feeling tired, so I figured I would take a nap and set my alarm to wake me up with plenty of time to get to work.  I was just up the street, so driving to work would take less than ten minutes.  My plan was perfect.  I arrived at work and did some stuff before going on the desk.

I needed tonight's dinner, or should I say I needed booze tonight.  TheGirl decided to leave Cheyenne at home so we could go somewhere where we could sit inside, rather than on a patio.  I told her we didn't have to do that, but she insisted.  We went to the Mexican restaurant that has some strong margaritas.  I couldn't drink but one, because I had to drive home.  But, it was still good to have a nice buzz.

Friday October 11, There's a fire North of where I live, up in Sylmar.  The smoke can kinda be seen in the picture above.  At the time I write this the fire has caused even more evacuations.  Just awful.

The above picture is one of the ones that used in the tribute slideshow.  It shows my Mother on the left, and my Godmother on the right.  I have no idea when and when this picture was taken.  I'm certainly not even a gleam in my Mother's eye at this point.  I've been very lucky in my life to have good people like this in my life.  To guide me and to love me.  I miss my Mother and my Grandmother so much at times.  If I actively think about them I'm sure to cry.  And I think that now goes for my Godmother as well.  She did not have an easy life, but who does.  But she was an important person in my life, and her passing is yet another milestone passed.

Saturday October 12, It FINALLY happened... I went to Disneyland with Emma.  I hope this is the first of many trips with Emma.  But it is strange how in my history I will hang out with someone and then never again.  I think this time it's different.  I know I WANT to go with Emma to Disneyland more than just this one time.  I'm going to make the effort to go more often.  Which makes me think I will have to renew my annual pass.

The first stop was Carthay Circle, where we waited a little bit to get in, but once in went full in on the booze.  We had three drinks each and some pretzel bread.

We moved our drinking to the Hearthstone lounge in the hotel.  There Emma ordered a drink that she didn't like.  Before that there was a moment in which she pretended to be asleep (as seen above).  She was like a dream to me at that moment.  I have to make this happen, like I was able to make it happen with TheGirl.  It's not like I have a very good track record with this stuff, but I have to try.  I really do have to try and get this done.  I need this.

We had dinner at the pasta joint in Downtown Disney.  I didn't realize how much the cost was, because next thing I know I'm dropping a good amount on dinner.  But it was with Emma.  I could get used to this.

After dinner we returned to the park and had a time.  She kept on asking what I wanted to see, and I kept on telling her we needed to go to whatever had short lines.  We ended up going to Roger Rabbit's Car Spin, which was cool.  Then the rollercoaster in Toontown.  I've never been on that.  I showed her the Halloween Tree that makes reference to Ray Bradbury.  We ended up going on the Jungle Cruise and visiting the Tiki Room.  Good times.

Of course the entire day I wanted to find a spot where I could kiss Emma.  I'm never been good at this "seduction" thing.

Sunday October 13, Every other Sunday I end up working the children's desk at San Marino.  I used the excuse of having to do my projects for not sicking around to sit at the desk.  And I did have a lot to do.  But, of course it was better away from the desk.  There was a point when I did make an appearance on the children's desk, and I nearly immediately regretted it.

Monday October 14, Today was a day where I simply put my head down at work and worked.  Pseudo supervisor is dealing with her dog being paralyzed from about where a waist would be on a dog down.  I feel so bad.  I was so worried and sad when Cheyenne was dealing with her health scare.  I can't imagine how she must feel.  Still, she worked.  She worked through it.  As we all do.

The price of the Disneyland annual passes goes up every year.  This year is no different.  But, despite that I went ahead and renewed my annual pass.  I'm hoping to go a lot of times with Emma.

TheGirl was up in Big Bear since yesterday, and poor Cheyenne really gets tired from trips in cars.  Tonight she was excited to see me, but I could tell that she was just not up to playing very much.  Sure enough, within a little while she was snoring in TheGirl's lap (as shown above).  Hell, I was sleepy as well, seeing as I was up late last night.

Tuesday October 15, I woke up feeling meh.  It was when I got out of the shower that I really felt bad.  I felt like I could not completely catch my breath.  I finally did catch my breath, but this sort of thing seems to be happening more lately.  It never used to happen, and now boom.  I hate it.

Emma had her interview with the housing department at work.  I wished her the best, but she didn't text me back until the evening.  I feel so ready to finally get out of this cocoon that I've been in the last few years and give Emma my heart.  I know, what a statement.  Yeah, you're probably right, that's just my dick talking.  Terrible.

I finished up work and before I left I started talking to Kvon about some work business.  Before I knew it he was asking if I wanted to go get a burger at In-n-Out to, "Break the monotony," of the work routine.  Tell me about it, I'm living in "Groundhogs day."  I could say that Kvon is in a rut, but who isn't.  As usual, I'm a little ahead of the curve when it comes to this.  I'm ready to make changes.  Everyone else seems to be where I was two or three months back.

Wednesday October 16, Pseudo supervisor is going through a crisis with her dog.  The poor dog is paralyzed from the waist down.  Today her puppy was having surgery.  The doctor says there's a good chance she's going to be OK, but it's going to take some time for the recovery.

The last few weeks have been really terrible, what with everything that's been happening.  This makes me doubly look forward to dinner with TheGirl.  We went to our favorite burger joint tonight and ate like pigs.  At least I did.  I always want to try something new, but tonight I went with tried and true.  The wine was flowing and for a little bit all was right in the world.

For the last few years TheGirl and I have been going to Descanso garden's "Enchanted Forest of Light" event.  Tonight we discussed when would be a good time to go again this year and when I got home I bought the tickets for her and I and her daughter.  I kinda want to see if Emma will go with me.  Hmm.

After coming home from dinner with the ladies my family gave me the bad new about my other aunt, that's been in hospice for the last few months.  Yesterday they discovered that her feet had some ulcers on her toes.  Even as laypeople we knew that those aren't normal.  Today they all went to see what the people at the home, but specifically the doctors, had to say about this.  My cousin was thinking that this was a case of negligence.  It still may be, but the doctor told my family that it's because my aunt's heart is giving out.  I've seen it before, and it looks bad.  They told my family to expect her to only last about three or four days.  I told my aunt that it's just like with my Father and with my Godmother recently... once they're on morphine, it's over.

Friday October 18, There seems to never be anything I want to have for lunch on Fridays in the fridge.  Today was no different, and so I walked out the door this morning with an empty lunch pale... again.  I figured that I would be able to just pick something up on the route.  But today I tried something different on the route, and it pushed my lunch back.  There was also the little matter of Central having me go up to Montrose to check the door, which was left open last night.  The place looked clean where I got there, but they suspect that some patrons went in.  Actually they know that someone, at least one person, went in.  Because that's how they found out that the library doors had been left open.

The patron went to the County library up the street and told them that they had gone to Montrose and the door was open, but there were no employees.  It looked very much like nothing was disturbed, but who knows.

Everyone kept asking me about next week's training at the California Library Association convention in Pasadena.  This is AD's baby, since she's the co-chair for it.  Which means of course shady practices.  First, they made the day mandatory for all full timers.  They're closing all the branches to have these poor dopes show up to the convention.  Not that anyone really wants to go.  When I was up in administration this morning one of the people there asked if I was going.  I told them no.  They then joked that they would tell AD that I volunteered to do a presentation.  Oh sure.  I told him that I knew exactly what to talk about, and started with the phrase, "You've all lost your way."  Because I do feel that the direction libraries are going is a bit of a " in the wilderness" moment where you don't know which path to take in order to survive.  But, I doubt my words would mean anything if I really did do that presentation.  The driver for Pasadena mentioned that he had to go, because he's a full timer.  He really doesn't want to go, but again he has no choice.  This was done in order to pad the numbers for this convention.  I've never been to one of these, but it sounds perfectly awful.  All I know is that I'll have next Friday off.  I want to go to Disneyland.  It would be funny to go to the convention to see just how much of a shitshow it will be.  But I don't want to really waste my time.

Today I was feeling low, what with my other aunt sick and dying in some hospice, and with all the other things going on in life.  I really want this thing with Emma to work out and blossom into something nice.  Name it what you will, but I wanted it to happen.  But really, the way things are going there is no hope for me with this.  I've succeeded in the past, but that's the past.  Previous performance is not indicative of future performance.  That's what those investing commercials say.  I'm just down, because I think that I don't really have a chance with her.

Saturday October 19, When LunaTick was fired it meant that one of his shifts would not be covered.  Among all his shifts there was a unique one that was for an event in the library auditorium.  Well, because he was fired they needed coverage.  That meant responsible dumb dumb here would have to cover that shift.  It turned out to be a pretty easy event to work.  End it meant that I made some "easy" money.  Emma made the suggestion that I could take my computer with me, I was way ahead of her.  Because, that was exactly what I thought of doing.  I thought I would be working the door, to keep dummies from coming into the library after hours.  But, it turned out I worked the event.  Thankfully the organizers from the music school brought in a lot of their own equipment for the sound.  They only used our mics for an ancillary purpose.  I didn't even have to set anything up.  My coworker fixed that, and had everything ready.  The only thing I ended up having to figure out was the lighting.  I called down to my coworker asking him if they wanted some sort of special lighting, but he didn't know.  Sure enough, within five minutes the guy from the music school was asking me to turn down the house lights and just leave the stage lights on for the show.  Will do.  I hit the appropriate button on the control panel and it was done.  After that they did their thing and when they were done they packed up and left.  Easiest money I've made on a library auditorium rental.

Sunday October 20, I fucking hate working on Sundays.  But especially the Sundays that T works, because I end up having to do a lot of heavy lifting due to her having to pump breast milk for her child.  They don't pay me enough at this job to do what T supposed to do.  After dealing with so much shit today at work I just couldn't take it anymore and I wrote my boss an email saying that I couldn't work on Sundays anymore.  They're going to hire some new dopes, they can make them work Sundays.  I'm done.  I want that extra day off.

What with everything being so terrible and dire these days I decided that I needed to take one of those short little dinner only trips down to Disneyland.  And since my aunt is with my family I could rest assured that if anything happened to her she wouldn't be alone.  Hence me taking off to Disneyland.  My plan was to get some food at Hungry Bear.  There's this fried fish sandwich that I wanted to try since I heard of it on this one social media vlog.  Sure enough, it's pretty dang good.  I felt rushed, because when I was driving down to Disneyland I noticed on my home security cameras that my family had arrived home early.  I wondered if it meant bad news for my other aunt.  But, they later told me that she actually requested and drank milk.  My cousin told me that despite his bright spot in the day the doctors said that her vitals are slowly decreasing.  Signs that she's passing.  Damn fucking shame.

Monday October 21, Since I set the alarm off at work yesterday I figured I best check the cameras to see if anyone was inside the library yet, before I put my foot in it again.  I saw my coworker Shawnie and that meant I could just go in without worry.  See, since T has been so unreliable I shouldn't expect her to arrive on time on her Sundays.  Yesterday was the straw that broke the camel's back, since it was just me for the first few minutes that we were open.  They certainly don't pay me enough for this shit.

Tuesday October 22, I found an email in my inbox this morning that was pretty interesting from someone in administration inviting all of us to sit down with DrDeath for coffee (seen above).  I come to find out that this was the idea of one of the librarians to have the director meet with the employees.  Another librarian I was talking to this morning tells me that DrDeath is not really the talking type, in that he doesn't listen to what you say.  He just kinda tells people what to do, rather than have a real dialog with him.  Why am I not surprised?  Ironically want to go just to go and ask him some stupid questions or some actual good questions really.  But again this was not DrDeath's idea to do this, so how committed is he going to be to answer the peon's questions?  But I will go because I think it's interesting, and might be "fun."

In the "Things move on fast" category you can put AD's job, which was listed this morning.  This answers the question that I had about whether they were going to continue having an assistant director position at the library.  Of course this means that DrDeath is just going to install a puppet that will not be the counter that AD was to him.  The rumor was that AD and DrDeath didn't get along.  And not that AD was that good, but it's always good to have a counter.  AD was that counter, but not any more.  She was terrible, but at least she wasn't a "yes man," like the new person will likely be.  AD's going to destroy Altadena now, but I'm not celebrating her leaving.  Like I said, she was not OK, but as a counter to DrDeath she was good.

Since it's the popular thing today to post jobs the other jobs that were posted were for library assistants.  There is a move a foot in the library to re-classify everybody who is a customer service representative into a library assistant.  This way they can give them a bribe, I mean a raise, and re-classify them to something that is more commiserate to their actual job duties on the desk.  Because over the last few years the customer service people have been asked to do reference work, and they don't like it.  Especially when the amount the representatives make is about 2/3rds of what a librarian can make.  If not perhaps even as much as half of what a librarian makes.  And they're doing the same job.  In the long run this means there will no longer be any customer service representative jobs in the library system.  You'll either be a page or a library assistant.  Bullshit!

I picked up a burger on the way home, because my family is usually home late since they've been visiting with my sick aunt.  But, when I got home I heard the sound of the water valve, and I wondered why.  It turns out they were home early.  My aunt was basically unresponsive today, so they came home early.  As I was eating my burger my cousin called up to say that her mom, my aunt, had passed away.  It was a week ago that my family saw the ulcers on her feet.  It was only going to be a matter of time before the end.  It's so strange how this has happened almost exactly a month after my godmother passed away.

Wednesday October 23, I was talking to my buddy about my plans to go up to San Francisco during Thanksgiving, and about how I wish I could take the fancy camera from Glendale up with me.  He then says, "Why don't you rent a lens online?"  What a great idea.  Since I was on the desk this morning I figured when I had a little time I would check out some websites to see what would be involved with renting lenses.  The prices look pretty good, but I'll have to figure out which one to rent.

Thursday October 24, The onramp I use to get on to the freeway and to work is a clusterfuck of shame.  Part of the problem is that it's an unusual design for a street.  The far right lane is for the 101 freeway only.  While the lane to the left is for the 405 only.  People don't read the giant signs that state this.  The problem lies in that people want to also go straight up Sepulveda, but they don't understand that the far right lane is a turn lane.  Not sure how this keeps happening, since in theory most of the dopes that drive this way have to do it all the time.  Which means they should already these facts about the far right lane being for the freeway only.  But, morning after morning there are always dopes that see the open lane and say to themselves, "Oh goodie, an open lane."  Clearly they never think to wonder WHY the HELL is that far right lane is often wide open.  NEVER do wonder why the other cars haven't gone that way.  Nope, they will fly right into that trap, and in the process block my way to the freeway (as seen above).  It's frustrating to have to wait through two, sometimes three cycles of the light to get on to the freeway.  Especially since on a good day I get on the freeway in a matter of seconds, not minutes.  Idiots.  In the picture above the car in front of me made the "mistake" of going in this far right lane and is now trying to merge.  The same is true for the other car, a Prius, also holding up traffic in order to now merge to the left.  Thanks, dopes.

Not that anyone thought the faces in front of the library would stand a chance being placed on the floor, but of course they are really taking a pounding.  By the looks of it, they won't be around much longer.

I went up to administration and to my surprise they had the new shirts with the library's new stupid looking logo (see above).  Don't I look stylish?  Ha ha!  I love that everyone on the route thought that the logo looked extra bad on the t-shirt, because it does.  These dopes will have to wear the shirt at least once when they go to the stupid library convention last this week.  What a bunch of dopes.

Just as I was starting to drive home I received a phone call from my cousin's husband asking if I was home already.  No, I told him.  He told me that there was a big fire near my house, and he was looking for the rest of the family to make sure they were OK.  I told him that they had gone out, and he said he was going to call them.  He eventually picked them up and took them to the house.  The fire was pretty bad, but except for the constant smell of smoke in the air, it wasn't visible from the house.  But, they did send out a bunch of alerts on my phone saying that they weren't calling for an evaluation, but that we should be prepared to do so in a moment's notice.  Damn!  I took the streets to get home quicker, since the online map showed that there was extra traffic around my house, due to the fire.  Thankfully the fire fighters hit the fire hard with a lot of resources.

Friday October 25, I had wanted to go to Disneyland today, which is why I asked the day off from Glendale.  But also so I wouldn't have to attend that stupid California Library Association convention.  But knowing that I had to be back by a certain time kinda put a damper on the Disneyland plans.  I was also just tired, and since I'm going with Emma next week I'm golden.

My aunt wasn't a religious person, though I think she believed in a "God."  This is why we ended up having a viewing of her body rather than a full funeral.  She just wanted to be cremated.  That was her wish, and that's what my cousin did for her.  I didn't get to visit her when she was in the hospice care.  Now she's gone.

Saturday October 26, My aunt asked me to take the family to the Northridge mall so they could buy some items that they wanted to get.  Sure enough, I took them there, leaving them for about an hour while I went and got a hair cut.  They hadn't even ventured into the mall in that hour.  Jebbers.  Well, it was getting to lunch time and my aunt asked where we might go get food.  I directed them to the other end of the mall, where they have some food to choose from.  We ended up going to a place introduced to me by TheGirl when we were dating.  Good BBQ food.  I ordered a tri tip and my aunt ordered a salad.  I asked her if she wanted the smaller version, because I know from experience that the salads are pretty big.  She said no, and of course immediately she makes me wish I had ordered the smaller version anyway.  When the food arrived she takes a small place that we were given and starts to distribute salad to my other aunt, my cousin and my uncle.  Mind you, my uncle had ordered a smaller version of the salad, so he didn't need more of hers.  It was the exact same salad.  But that didn't stop her from distributing the contents of her place to all the little plates.  This is why the picture above has three plates of salad.  She just couldn't give enough of her salad away.  To the point that she forced me to eat two of the mini plates of salad.  Jeez.

On our way home from the mall my aunt just looked distressed.  I've noticed that she looked pained for the last couple of weeks.  Really for a while, but it's really pronounced the last couple of weeks.  To be fair, she has been having to deal with staying out of the house all day with my family.  First with visiting her sister every day while she was dying.  And then even after my other aunt passed away, she went to the mortuary with my cousin.  I've also noticed a decline in speed since she's been back from the hospital.  She may just need some rest, or maybe she's just not well.  She doesn't want to tell the doctor about the nearly constant pain she has on her right wrist.  She also doesn't want to tell him about how she's generally not feeling well.  It's frustrating, because there may be something they can give her for the pain.  Of course nothing is going to give her good health, but she needs to take it easy.

Monday October 28, There isn't much to report today.  My work day was busy.  It's coming down to the last three weeks before the big fundraiser at work.  I'm ready to have a nice long rest after this.  Visiting TheLadies tonight was nice and relaxing, but I had to leave relatively early because I was so tired.

Tuesday October 29, The picture above is of the new business cards for all the dopes that require such things at the library.  The guys at the graphics could only shake their head and wonder at how such a design could get past certain people at the city.  But, they also pointed out that DrDeath was given free rein on this project to choose a new logo.  The main guy at the graphics department asked if he could keep the card to show HIS boss just how bad the new cards are in reality.  I love how the logo is decried by everyone that sees it.  Only the ass kissers have said that they "liked" the new logo.  But anyone that knows anything points out all the faults.  I've said them before, so there's no need to go into that again now.

As I was actually late for the first time in a long time, I got a later start with the route.  And as timing would work out I got back from Pasadena/city hall at around 11am.  Just in time for AD's going away party.  Kvon and the gang were in circulation all standing up and supposedly ready to go.  But you could see that Kvon wasn't too keen on going just yet.  He didn't want to be some of the first people to show up.  I told him we could be fashionably early.  We started to go to the auditorium and saw a group of people from HR at city hall and that made him less hesitant.  But we still didn't go up.  I helped a patron out on the desk and then went up to meet up with the gang.  The whole affair was kinda whatever.  There were some forty people there, mostly from the city and Central.  Each of the branches did have their managers there, but not many other employees.  Except Casa, that had three employees show up.  Vagabundo had to be at the branch alone, because they all took this little "sabbatical" to say good bye to AD.

I was standing by a photo album that had pictures of AD and some nice notes from everyone saying nice things.  Sure enough, my note wasn't there.  Boo!  But, to be fair, mine simply said, "Good luck."  Still, as I told my buddy later, AD does play the game.  She came up to me and thanked me for coming and gave me a hug.  She didn't have to do that, but I guess my always waving hello while I walked by her office compelled her to do so.  I later told my buddy that she was obviously playing the game.

DrDeath said some nice things about her.  Everyone in the know understood that he was being nice and polite.  After all, he "won" now that she's leaving.  He now has total control.  After that the floor was opened to anyone that wanted to say anything nice about AD.  A few people, mostly the managers, said some things.  A lady that AD "worked" a lot with from city hall said some nice things.  I then bolted and went to get my van ready for the route.

I found a questionnaire sitting on someone's desk earlier in the day asking what people thought about the conference last week.  There were four questions, and it's hard to see in the picture above, so I'll transcribe them here.  1) Your favorite three workshops.  2) Interesting people I met or things I encountered.  3) Highlight of my day.  4) I wish the conference had....  You just know no one wanted to answer these stupid things.  Because it's fucking bullshit.

DrDeath wrote an email regarding the conference and this is the part I want to highlight, because of the whole logo shirt thing.  I love how he points out the new logo every chance he gets.  I mean OK, we have a new logo.  It's also terrible and no one can find anything good to say about it.  However, it's his baby and he loves it unconditionally.

Thursday October 31, Junior asked me on Tuesday to bring in a red shirt, because they gang was going to dress up like the Incredibles.  Sure enough, I arrived with my red shirt in tow.  They then took some pictures with me and the gang (see above).  I only wish they had used a better camera, and not the camera on an iPad.  Any one of our phones would have taken a MUCH better photograph.

New ladies have been hired at Pacific.  Two of them are in the picture above.  The two new ladies are on the far left and in the middle.  They're nice looking, but of course way younger than me.  Boo!