If 2020 was a movie we would currently be somewhere in the beginning of the second act.  That means things have been established, and now the REAL action can start.  Time for the update.

 

Wednesday, July, 1, I can't believe six months of this year has already passed, and about three months of this pandemic.  I was watching a video on YouTube the other day pointing out how Spanish flu pandemic lasted approximately three years.  I sure hope this thing doesn't last that long.  There's talk that they might be hope for a vaccine by the beginning of next year which would be incredible, But there are still a lot of uncertainties about this virus.  The numbers keep going up all over the country.  Things we're reopening, but now they're having to close up again, and there's talk that things opened too soon.  TheGirl and I were looking forward to going out for dinner again, but that only lasted a couple of weeks.

My aunt told me she wanted to go to TJ Maxx today.  She mentioned that she, "Wanted to get out."  I understand that, and despite my trepidation I didn't tell her not to go out.  Still, I think it's a bad idea.  I was watching the security camera as my aunt was picked up by the city ride vehicle.  I noticed that she wasn't wearing a mask.  Later she told me that she reached the vehicle and the lady told her that she needed to wear her mask.  She quickly went back and got it.  I can't believe she forgot her mask.

How does the saying go about the best laid plans of mice and men?  The governor made a statement today saying that he was ordering the closure of bars and beaches and certain other locations, such as museums.  Yeah, that means my plans for Friday are out the window, because that meant the museum I was going to visit would surly have to close.  Oh well.  Sure enough, when I got home there it was, the official email saying that my appointment was postponed until further notice.  They said that the exhibit was extended until October, but the way things are going who knows what will happen.

TheGirl got fish & chips from the Smokehouse for dinner tonight.  The number of Covid-19 cases are going up big time.  And even though we could eat at the Smokehouse's patio, TheGirl and I felt it was better to just eat at her place.  I mean it's nice going out, but at the same time it's better to be safe than sorry.  It isn't official yet, but there's talk that they're going to prohibit dining in at restaurants, only take out or outside dining.  Oh, and for sure they're going to close down the bars, again.  It would seem that dummies were going out and not socially distancing.  Couple that with the cases that came up because of the protests and we have higher numbers of Covid-19 cases.  Just great.

Thursday, July, 2, On Tuesday I showed how they had the other driver and me help move tables from around the library to the main floor to have them ready for patrons.  Never mind that it doesn't look like we'll be open any time soon (like really I can't see us opening before 2021).  But after moving the tables so that they would be six feet apart these dopes went ahead and moved them yesterday.  Not all of them, but for some reason they moved some of them so that they're now NOT six feet apart.  Typical bullshit.

Today wasn't so busy on the route, but it was warm so that made it a little more difficult.  I've been going to Pacific and Adams first thing on the route, in order to get those out of the way.  There's usually nothing in the book drops at those two locations, which makes those two locations super easy.  By the time I got to Montrose I was getting hungry.  Since the time we've been closed I've been eating lunch by the big window that looks over Honolulu street.  It's been fun to people watch.  But now that more people are going out it's less fun to people watch, because people now see me and want to interact with me as I eat my lunch.  Or they will wonder what I'm doing in the library and ask me through the window if the library is open.  That's why today I decided to have lunch in the community room.  I couldn't use the break room because one of the maintenance crew guys was sitting back there having his lunch.

I checked my email after work tonight and saw a horrible abomination of an email from Mala.  Here's the email.

I am happy to report that curbside service is booming!  As a result, we have a heavy volume of holds that needs to be managed in a carefully coordinated manner.  Krishna will be overseeing this effort by working with:

Branch managers to develop a schedule of when and how often holds will be pulled at each site.
* Staff working with the holds will be asked to update a spreadsheet to help us monitor the pull list quantities on a system-wide level.
* Branch staff will also be asked to shelve items and check in book drop materials when working onsite to pull holds.
* A process for dealing with returned items that are captured for holds will be developed.

First off, having Krishna in charge of this is the worst idea.  She's literally the worst manager for this job.  Her micromanaging will make everything that much harder to do anything.  I've said it before, she's always afraid to make any decisions by herself, which means nothing can ever get done until she checks with Mala.  The only advantage is that she will have to deal with a lot of people, and she won't have time to micromanage everyone.

Delivery staff to coordinate a pick-up schedule of the hold bins from all the sites.
* Delivery staff may not be visiting all the sites every weekday. They will most likely be focusing their efforts at Central on Mondays and Tuesday to help prep for curbside operations starting on Wednesdays.
* Consistent bin labeling will be created for holds being routed to Central with a new area set up in the InfoSpace workroom to better accommodate the incoming hold bins.

The thing I focused on was the second section where they talk about the delivery staff, meaning me.  They're going to have Tony and me help the curbside on Mondays and Tuesdays.  I guess that's not a terrible thing, since it could mean more time.  I don't mind not visiting the branches every day, because there are zero books sometimes.

At the end I just hope that Krishna doesn't start getting in my way.  I don't need this shit.

Friday, July, 3, After having a late breakfast this morning my aunt turns to me and asks if I want to go to the market to get some ice cream.  Mind you, I bought ice cream last week, and I still have a good deal of it in the fridge.  However, she finished all of her favorite flavor, coffee, earlier in the week and she was probably craving some.  I knew that she wasn't asking for me, she was asking for herself.  I really didn't like the idea of going to the market, but I thought that the closest market might not be that packed.  Little did I know she didn't want to go to that market, but rather the market on Van Nuys and Sherman Way.  Again, I didn't like the idea, but I told her we could go.  Boy, was that a mistake.  As soon as we arrived I told her that I didn't like the situation one bit.  Once inside it got worse.  The market was PACKED.  No one, and I mean no one, was practicing social distancing.  It was a complete clusterfuck of people going here and here, and in each other's space.  I stood outside for a while, but then decided to go in and get the items on my aunt's list.  Of course I found some of them missing.  Fucking shit.  I told her we needed to go.  She gathered the few things she could find and we were off.  That was incredibly uncomfortable.  I never want to do that again.  I may add that if this is a daily thing at this market, I can understand why the cases of Covid-19 are not flattening.  As I just said, no one was practicing social distancing.  I had to dance around in order to maintain any sort of distance from anyone, and I was unsuccessful.  To say I was anxious on this market trip would be an understatement.  Fucking bullshit.

I texted a few people tonight to check up on them, since it's been a while and they don't check up on me.  Ha!  One person, Ani, called me saying it was easier to talk than to text.  She's right there.  We talked for about an hour, hour and a half, about work and the current situation.  She's working from home most days, but not really from home.  I think I explained it already before, but suffice to say she's been working at a friend's office to use their good internet.  During the conversation she suggested that perhaps we could hang out and get a drink after work.  Perhaps up in Montrose.

I've liked Ani for years.  Ever since I first met her while she was working at Central for two minutes and then after when she was at Brand and I would see her when I started driving the route.  I still desire her and wish I could sleep with her.  If I was some sort of smooth guy I could seduce her, or something.

Saturday, July, 4, This year is a bust.  There's no way that this pandemic ends before 2021.  And THAT's a huge wish that it does end by the start of next year.  But that means so many things that were the normal in the past are on hold.  The Queen Mary already announced that they are cancelling their halloween events.  I've wanted to go to that, and of course stupid me didn't go before.  Now that's on hold.  One thing I was thinking about that I like going to is the Enchanted Forest of light at Descanso Garden.  It's probably not going to happen this year.  Everything sucks.

I was chatting with Ilsa about things and I told her how my weekends are lazy, and I pretty much just sit around doing nothing.  That's what I've done this weekend, and nearly every weekend since we've had to shelter at home.  I guess I could do something else, but I have zero motivation to do anything on these weekends.  The current weather doesn't help either.  This weekend has been too hot.  What I should be doing is fixing my backyard, painting my house, going for a drive, or anything.  As it is, I just sit around.  Today I thought it might be a good idea to go out for a drive to I don't know where.  Maybe just pick a direction and see where it leads me.  At this moment I just thought about how I could just take Sepulveda south and see how far I get in about an hour and a half.  Perhaps there's something around to photograph.  I think I would do best to scope out some places to eat before just taking off.  I don't know, it's an idea that I probably won't do.

TheWish sent me a text wishing me a happy 4th of July.  It was nice to hear from her.  I texted her the other day to make sure she was doing well.  She said that she was going up to Santa Cruz this weekend.  She also sent me a couple of pictures (above).  I miss her.

Sunday, July, 5, Today I made the last payment on yet another credit card.  Woo hoo!  I've said it before, I want to use what I would spend on these credit card payments on my mortgage.  Course I should also try to save some more money as well.

My friend Amanda is someone I've known for a long time.  Since the time my Grandmother was still alive.  In those years she went ahead and got married and moved to Kansas.  Lately I've noticed that her social media posts don't have her husband in them.  Today her 4th of July post showed her sitting alone among a group of obviously coupled up friends (see above).  Mind you, not that I have a chance with her, but I used to have a crush on her a LONG time ago.

Monday, July, 6, Last night I jerked off.  I had found a really gorgeous girl on social media.  I figured, hey, why not have a go.  Well, it was strange.  Despite her being stunning she didn't get me going.  I don't remember how I found this other woman, but objectively I think most people would say that the woman on the left (pictured above) is more attractive than the woman on the right.  But hold on there, it's not all about that.  Something nice about the one on the right.  Enough that her videos got me going where the other did not.  I guess you can call it "chemistry."  Ha!

TheNewCute posted a couple of pictures on social media (one above) where she looks so cute.  Hence the name, TheNewCute.  Even if TheNewCute was single I don't know what kind of a chance I would have with her.  Probably zero chance.  If only.  Perhaps I could somehow convince her to pose for me.  If only.

Weeks ago, in an effort to help customers socially distance, markets set up one way aisles.  They put up big signs above the aisles and put big stickers on the floor to remind everyone that they should be going one way.  Well, today I went to the market and bumped into about four people doing the wrong with in aisles.  Still other times I found dummies wandering in all directions.  One lady was all over the map, and that was not OK.  I wish I could slap that dummy.  Not that it would help her understand that she needs to share this world with others.  At least this market trip was WAY better than the one I had with my aunt last week.  That was a clusterfuck.  Today was just an annoyance.

Tuesday, July, 7, I checked my work email kinda late last night, but obviously not late enough.  I was already in bed by the time Mala sent the above email.  She fucking sent it at 10:45pm last night.  Who the fuck does that?  I've said that these dopes don't do anything all day long, and then at the last minute want to make it look like they were busy all day.  Fucking bullshit.

Anyway, the email was about my assignment today.  They wanted me to pull the curbside pick-up holds.  Want to know why me and not Tony?  Because I'm the only one that is able to decipher their bullshit system that they use for this bullshit curbside thing.  It's a problem that it's not just one program I have to use, but at least two and sometimes three to get right.  Today it took me the ENTIRE eight hour shift to get this fucking this done.  And it's not like I just sat around doing nothing.  I took it easy, for sure, but I was on it the entire day.  I didn't even take any breaks except for my lunch break.  I kinda don't mind doing this assignment since it does benefit me in the end.  I get to not be out in the heat.  And, I get to kinda chill.

In my email to Mala about several of the problems with the curbside pick-up procedures I mentioned that the labels should all be facing the same way.  I showed up to work today and saw that they had put up a piece of paper with a picture (above) that had illustrated the "correct way" to place the labels.  But if you look closely the labels still go both ways.  Was it TOO MUCH to ask that they realign the slips so that the photo shows the correct orientation?  Obviously it was too much, because 3/8ths of the examples are incorrect.  I mean come on.  Why not just take those out and take the picture with the labels the correct way.  Whatever way they picked to be the "correct" way.  Or why not just have ONE correct example of the correct orientation?  What a fucking bunch of clowns.  If I was fucked up I would print a new piece of paper every week reversing the orientation each week.

What should be a simple job turns into a colossal job thanks to these dummies.  As I said earlier, pulling all the books today took the entire shift.  Eight hours doing this.  I don't understand how one of the programs they use has the library card numbers and yet doesn't generate that in a report.  I mean come on.  How hard is it to add a variable to the printed report?  Obviously in the case of this fucking useless program it's something that can never ever ever be done.  What a joke.  Oh well, as I was reminded recently, they pay me by the hour.

Wednesday, July, 8, Despite the fact that we're not really open, the library is still doing summer reading club/program.  As with so many things pre Covid-19, the children's librarian ordered us all SRC shirts to wear during the time we do this program.  Well, obviously since we're not open that is something that we're just going to need to wear.  But, since we have the shirts, I decided to wear mine today.  I guess it's just a goof for now.  I'm not sure why they pick this color for the shirts.  This is at least the second, maybe third, time that they have picked this color of shirt for the program t-shirts.  Hmm.

I usually don't care about the "leadership" meeting that the librarians have.  But for some reason I had an itch to listen in today.  Since this Covid-19 thing started they have been having their meeting in the community room, because of social distancing.  This means I can use the camera in there to eavesdrop.  One of the topics was reopening and setting a possible date for that.  The boss mentioned that she didn't feel us opening up before August.  I think even that's optimistic.  In my mind, the way things are going, I can't imagine we'll be opening any time before the beginning of 2021.  And that's also a big IF.

TheGirl and I went to the Counter tonight.  I know, I'm sounding like a broken record.  As I've said before, it's nearly perfect to go there.  They have a nice patio in the back of the restaurant.  Not only that, hardly no one sits back there.  The wine was flowing, the weather was nice.  It's just good times.

Thursday, July, 9, I went to city hall to drop off some food at the little free library and noticed that there were ribbons on the bottom of the street lights.  I knew immediately that they were covering up something, because I knew what was on those street lights that some people might find offensive.  When I first got this job at Glendale I walked around because I didn't have a car that worked.  I took the bus to HR at city hall and walked around the streets a bit.  That's when I noticed that the street lights had swastikas on the bottom of the lights.  No big deal since they weren't oriented like the Nazi swastikas.  They were oriented the opposite way.  To quote Wikipedia:

As a result of World War II and the Holocaust, many people in the West still strongly associate it with Nazism and antisemitism.  The Swastika still continues to be used as a symbol of good luck and prosperity in Hindu and Buddhist countries such as Nepal, India, and China.  The Swastika is very commonly used in Hindu marriage ceremonies.

So yes, it's an ancient symbol.  I remember seeing it on a poster many years ago in the offices of my Grandmother podiatrist.  He had a poster of ancient Chinese shoes, and one of them had a swastika.  No big deal.  Again, it's not the Nazi one, and even if it was oriented that way it's not like it means that the city is a Nazi city, or endorses those ideals.  Well, someone must think that it MIGHT say something negative about the city, since they went ahead and covered them up.  It's not like these things are everywhere in the city.  I honestly only remember them being in a few blocks of Broadway between city hall and the mall.  I might have to do a little investigating to see what's behind all this.

After lunch I booked it to Central to start the delivery of the boxed bags for the summer reading club.  Since the library is closed the big wigs at the library figured they could still keep in touch with the kids by putting little bags together to give out with the summer lunches that the school district provides.  The gang at the library boxed up as many of the three thousand bags as they could in boxes.  I was tasked with taking those boxes to the school district.  I packed up the van with what was probably only about five hundred or so bags in boxes.  I've been to the lunch program offices before, so I knew where to go when they sent me there.  I arrived, told them who I was, and they directed me to swing the van around the back of their offices.  I then took all the boxes and placed them in what is a walkway in their offices.  After I was done I told them that I would be back tomorrow, since that was just the first batch.  One of the ladies tells me something to the effect that they need to find a place for the boxes I brought before I brought some more.  I was like, cool, I don't want to do this tomorrow anyway.  I emailed Watson about what the lady said and she mentioned that the main boss said it was OK to bring more bags on Friday.  Hey, what do I know.  The people there said different.  At the end Watson emailed me again to say that the district was going to get a bigger vehicle to pick up the remainder at Central.  Of course I asked why they couldn't do this FROM THE START.  But, what do I know?  Nothing, that's what.

When I got to Casa I noticed a little pile of books that had slips saying "Casa" on them.  I just knew that these weren't right, because there's no reason why there would be some Pasadena books in the pile.  That's because the idiots at Central sent these holds to the branch.  There is no way that we're opening these branches up for months.  Sending the holds to the branches is stupid and useless.  I just don't get this shit.  I went ahead and changed all the books to Central pick up, and I took all Glendale holds off the Pasadena books.  Morons.

Friday, July, 10, When I woke up this morning I saw a cockroach on the floor and I kicked it around the room so that I could stun it a bit before going over to get a dust pan to pick it up and throw it outside.  I don't like cockroaches, but I also don't want to kill them.  So in these kind of situations I will scoop them up with the dust pan and throw them outside.  I did that with the cockroach I saw this morning.  It landed just under my back driver side tire.  I figured it would scurry off.  Not fast enough however, because I noticed that my aunt was looking in that general area of my car.  I knew she had seen the cockroach and wanted to kill it.  For its sake it was fast enough to run under the car and not run the opposite way.  I love how my aunt will use so much of her energy on killing cockroaches.  She will often get a dust pan and use it to crush them.  And she puts her full weight on that dust pan.  But of course, her being her, she doesn't clean up the cockroach guts that she leaves when she scraps up the bug.  Terrible.  She also told me this morning that she slept in the other room last night, because she saw a spider in her room.  She sprayed her entire room with bug spray.  She always mentions how bugs seem to seek her out.  It's more likely that since she's hyper sensitive to them that she notices them more.  Whatever.

My aunt warmed me some store bought meatballs earlier in the week.  She asked me what I wanted to go with them, and naturally I said some sort of pasta.  She made some, but of course as is her style, she didn't season them at all.  So surprise, surprise, the pasta was flavorless.  She then said that she concocted some sauce made out of cilantro and I don't know what else.  She then mixed it with the bland pasta.  Well, it didn't help, so she said that she also put garlic in it.  Also didn't help.  The entire dish is just one mistake on top of another.  It's a good thing that I didn't serve myself that much pasta.

Also on the aunt and food front, she must have noticed that I threw away some chicken that was in the fridge from a couple of weeks ago.  I picked up some fried chicken from some place in Burbank a couple of weeks ago.  It was so so the first day, and not so yummy the next day.  So when there were still two pieces in the fridge earlier this week I decided to toss them in the trash on Thursday morning.  But of course since yesterday she's mentioned chicken to me at least two times, and before Thursday she was selling them hard.  I suspect she figures I didn't eat them, but rather tossed them.  Which is what I did.  But today she asked if I had eaten them and I said, "Oh, that's easy... I mean yes."  I didn't want to eat them two weeks later.  They were not good the next day.

When I came back to Central after finishing the route I noticed the summer reading bags were now in the hallway downstairs.  It was after 4pm, so I didn't think that anyone from the district would be showing up now, since they told me they finish work at 4pm.  Course they might have gotten some poor driver to haul those stupid bags, and he might have been only been able to do it after 4pm.  Nope.  No one showed up today.  Yet another fail.  I just hope they don't have my coworker Tony or myself do it next week.  I'm pretty sure I just jinxed it by writing that.

Since the curbside crews on on three week rotations I only get to see TheNewCute once every three weeks.  I like having some face time with her.  I mean, she's not named TheNewCute for nothing.  She's super nice.  But of course some dummies at the library like to fucking "cock block" me when I'm trying to talk to her.  I get a few precious moments to talk in between her trying to do her work.  And today the fucking idiot security guard was interjecting himself into our conversation.  ARGH!  Leave me the fuck alone, dope.  I only got to talk to her a little bit.  I had a "note" for her, but I never got a chance thanks to the security guard fucking hovering around when I was talking to her.  If I wasn't talking to her he didn't even approach me.  But as soon as I was talking to TheNewCute bingo, there he was.  Fucking asshole.

Saturday, July, 11, Today was super hot.  I hate this kind of weather.  I retreated to my room, as usual, but the difference was that I had the A/C on for most of the day.  It wasn't until the evening that I went outside.  Not that it was very cool out, because it was actually warm until past sundown.  Just awful.  Hate this kind of weather.  Being at home on the weekends with little motivation coupled with the heat made for a day today that was just me sleeping all day.

Emma wants to do a podcast associated with our YouTube channel.  At this point, I do need some motivation for me to get off my ass on the weekends.  Well, technically I'll be sitting down on my ass, but doing this will keep me from sleeping all day.

Sunday, July, 12, As I write this it's 94 degrees, and it's a big humid.  I don't like heat and humidity together.  Growing up I honestly don't remember it being this combination of hot and humid.  I really don't like it at all.  I can only say that at least it's a little cooler today than yesterday.  Yesterday was horrible.

I was talking to Ilsa and Vagabundo, and TheGirl, this past week about going on a possible getaway.  Vagabundo is thinking of doing some car camping.  He can't afford going to a hotel, but can park his car and sleeping in it.  There are other things to consider, but it's doable.  TheGirl wants to go to the Fess Parker Winery up in Los Olivos.  I'm not sure if she would want to just make it a daytrip, or go for a weekend.  Ilsa and I talked about possibly going up for a weekend.  I know we would end up pretty much drinking all weekend.  Ha.  Not bad.  I'm not sure what plans we can make come to fruition, since we still have to deal with the reality of Codvid-19.  These current plans are focused on Santa Barbara, which is close enough to get to quickly, and yet not Los Angeles.  I think I'll have to do some research.  I would like to make these trips for the weekend, and not just a day trip.  We shall see.

Monday, July, 13, The email above was sent on "Sun 7/12/2020 11:39 PM."  I put that in quotes because I copied it directly from the mail header.  I was going to ignore the email, like I always do with these stupid meetings.  Buuuut, last week the email from the new assistant director that said,

This training is optional but recommended for any part-time staff who have not yet worked a curbside shift.

Yes, the underline was in the original email.  So now suddenly it's mandatory.  Idiots.

Anyway, I went ahead and confirmed that I would be attending the optional/mandatory meeting.  Joke is on them, I'm going to take my lunch and during the meeting and then still take my time off for lunch.  Idiots.

I received an email last week from Becks asking me to print something out in the big printer.  They know I'm not there, but they still emailed me.  Then, I found out later, they tried to print using the big printer.  Mistake.  I emailed Becks back to say that I would come in a little earlier this morning to see what was the issue with the printer.  Sure enough, these dopes tried to print using the wrong ink.  But it wasn't just that, it was also that the computer wasn't allowing people to login using the login we have for that computer.  I talked to the IT guy this morning and he reset the password.  After all that I called the guy that wanted the posters printed.  He told me that he already printed them using tabloid sized paper.  Womp, womp.

Downtown Disney opened up last week.  July 9th to be exact.  From what I saw on social media there were a good amount of people going there.  It also depended on what day.  I would like to go visit, but at the same time I think I would just go get a sandwich at the Earl of Sandwich restaurant.  But no way I want to go down there just for that.  I hope they open the outdoor bar in the Grand Californian.  Emma and I have been there a couple of times, and it seems perfect for this situation, since it's outside by the pool.  Yeah, that's not going to happen any time soon.

Tuesday, July, 14, I don't know what Mala does all day, but what I do know is that for the last two Tuesdays she will tell me about my assignment at the last minute.  Actually, last minute is being generous.  More like after the last minute.  She regularly emails or texts me AFTER I've already started my shift.  Today she sent an email telling me to do the curbside holds at 8:44am.  I start work at 8am!  Of course I told her I would do it.  I had a feeling last night that something like this would happen.  Which is why I downloaded the file with the appointments for today.  JUUUUST in case the damn thing went down, like it did a couple of weeks ago.  That was the day that they were asking me if I had downloaded the appointments.  Good thing Johnny on the spot here had them on his computer.  What would they do without me?

The new assistant director sent out an email some time last week or whenever stating that there was a training meeting for the curbside pick up.  For some it would be a refresher course.  But for some it would be new.  I'm not sure why they think it would be new for, since we've now done three rotations of this curbside stuff.  This so-called training should have been done BEFORE we started doing this.  But, I guess for these dopes it's better late than never.  I figured I would go up to Montrose and watch the meeting there and then have my lunch.  My friend STILL has my iPad, so I couldn't use that to attend.  I figured it would be fine since I had my computer in tow.  Nope.  The damn program said it wasn't compatible with my browser.  Just great.  Which meant I had to use my phone to watch the meeting.  During the meeting I couldn't see anything, except what you see above.  At that point I was just like "Whatever!"  I could hear what they were saying, but not much else.  Oh well.  I ate my lunch during the meeting since I was hungry.  Just dumb.

I made my way back to Central after lunch, shinning on going to two of the branches.  But that was OK.  One NEVER has any books in the bookdrop.  The other can keep.  I started out my curbside stuff by preparing for the whole thing.  It takes me some time, but this way I can minimize the bullshit.  Still, there's a lot of bullshit to be had.  Like the above picture shows, there are people in the library that STILL don't know their alphabet.  I mean how do they put the letter L before the letter H?  And I still hate that the labels go every which way.  It's just dumb.

Wednesday, July, 15, Work was work.  As it is at San Marino, it's nothing to write in her about.  Today TheGirl and I went to a joint up the street from her place.  Mexican food!  I had the Mole enchiladas.  They hit the spot.  I cleaned my entire plate.  It was good times, for sure.  Though I found that the margarita was weak sauce.  As always, a good time was had.  The weather is nice in the evenings.

We may not be able to get a meal out for a while, if the number of new Covid cases keep going up.  They might just say that even sitting in a patio isn't going to be enough.  And then TheGirl and I will have to go back to ordering take-out.

When I got home my aunt was asleep in her room.  About an hour later she wakes up and we met at the refrigerator.  She turns to me and asks me, "Have you been drinking and driving?"  Fucking bullshit.  I'm stone cold sober.  I just told you that the margarita that I had tonight was total damn weak sauce.  I didn't even get a buzz off it.  The only reason I had a buzz tonight was because I had my flask with me.

After she asked me that question I totally shut down and told myself that I needed to not talk to her for the rest of the week.  I remembered my mother telling me once that she was practicing, "La ley del hielo," which loosely translated means the cold shoulder.  And that's what I intend to do, give my aunt the cold shoulder.

Thursday, July, 16, I pulled out my driveway when I noticed that the tire pressure light was lit on the dashboard.  I went to check the tires by kicking them.  They all seemed good.  But when I checked their pressure one tire was only reading twenty pounds of pressure.  I drove to the gas station and attempted to refill the tire.  Nope.  I tried and tried and the tire pressure didn't go up.  I knew it had to be a nail.  Sure enough, as I stood up I noticed a nail sticking out of the tire.  DAMN!  I drove straight to the tire shop.  I was a little early, but I didn't mind waiting.  They opened up and told me to pull in.  Within fifteen minutes I was on the road and off to work.

Mala sent me an email today asking if I had attended the "training" meeting on Tuesday.  Come on.  I responded to the email invitation with a yes.  I was at the meeting, and my name could have been seen as a participant.  I'm just tired of all this bullshit.  Mala can eat shit.  She's supposed to know these things, yet she's always clueless to my schedule.  Clueless to everything.

My aunt made some abomination of a pasta dish last week, or whenever.  I saw it in the fridge a couple of days ago and thought about how I could get rid of it.  It's HORRIBLE to throw food away.  I never want to do that.  I have had times in my life when I was unsure about my next meal, because I was short on money.  Thankfully I'm in good shape now.  But I just could not eat this pasta again.  I know I wrote about it in a previous entry, and how she said the pasta was flavorless and that made her put garlic in it.  Yeah, well, that didn't help improve the flavor one bit.  I hate to admit that I took the pasta with me today for lunch with zero intention of actually having it for lunch.  My plan was to take the pasta with me and get a burger and then just dump the pasta at work.  I hate to say that is what I did.  There are people that don't have food and here I am throwing food away.  But I could not make myself eat that horrible pasta.

Friday, July, 17, The route was super chill today.  I took the van into the city garage to have them look at the windshield.  While on the route yesterday a gardener on the side of the road kicked up a stone with his weed whacker that hit the windshield and cracked it.  The guy at the garage said that we should keep an eye on it.  They also wanted to check out the van, so I drove the smaller car today.  It was good times, especially since there were hardly any books in the backdrops today.  I did continue to delete Pasadena holds while going around, since these dopes still haven't figured out how to delete all the Pasadena patron holds.  Idiots.

Saturday, July, 18, There's a list of holidays for the year on the bulletin board on my desk.  I was thinking about it the other day about how all of those holidays are a bust now.  Especially Labor day, but even Thanksgiving and Christmas is a bust.  I know they are saying that there might be a vaccine coming by the end of the year, but at this point even if it works perfectly this year is a bust.

Earlier this week the Rose Parade was cancelled.  It's about six months away, but much of what needs to get done was supposed to have started in March.  That and having to deal with social distancing meant that there was no way to actually get this thing done.  But, as I said, at this point pretty much everything is going to get cancelled.

Monday, July, 20, I got to print out the poster for my San Mario supervisor's "baby shower" thingie.  I say thingie, because the original plan was to have a small gathering.  But, the city found out about it and told us we couldn't have a "gathering."  No matter that it was going to be outside in the patio.  Oh well.

My San Marino job has an online summer reading club thingie going on.  Because I may have to answer questions about it I figured I would create an account in order to see that webpage and test it for myself.  Just because it's better to have some idea what I'm talking about when someone calls up and asks how to do such and such on it.  I put in that I was reading a Ritz cracker box, for an example.  But funny enough, I won the drawing for the week.  The children's librarian asked me if I really did read anything other than the side of a box of Ritz, and I told her yes.  Because it was true.  I started listening to an audio book today, and I listened for over two hours.  So yay, I won!

Tuesday, July, 21, I told a friend last night that I knew that I would not be driving the route today in favor of me pulling the holds for tomorrow's curbside pick-up jazz.  I mean, I should have known, it's going to happen.  But somehow I'm still surprised when it actually does happen.  Finally my supervisor's supervisor said that I'll be doing the pulls for the curbside each Tuesday.  At least for now.  Things change all the time.  Whatever!  I don't mind it too much, despite it being a clusterfuck.  Now that I know what I need to do I just go and do it.  It's time consuming but, as I say to everyone, they pay me by the hour.  And I'm not outside in the heat.  And I can bring my computer with me and watch things online as I get ready to pull the books.s

My aunt made me some corn yesterday.  Yes, just corn.  I'm not sure what they thought I was doing to do with that corn, especially when I'm fixing something for lunch.  I went ahead and just took a can of chili with me today, along with some Fritos and cheese for lunch.  It hit the spot.  I know my aunt is probably just frustrated with the fact that I never know what I want to eat.  Honestly, I don't desire to eat anything.  I eat because I have to, but not because I want to.  Yes, I do enjoy a good meal, but that doesn't mean I have to have one every day.  I could honestly do without.  But, of course, if I want to continue living I have to eat.  My aunt has exhausted her ideas for what to make me.  I never had any ideas.  So there we are, and that's how I end up opening a can of chili for lunch.

Wednesday, July, 22, I've said it before that the one way signs in the market have now proven useless in face of dummies that don't care and can't read.  This woman not only was going the wrong way down ever aisle, but the also was blocking the aisle.  Fucking idiot.  I wish I had a bat.

I was driving to work when I made a detour through some houses to show a friend a picture of a house in San Marino.  This guy was walking right in the MIDDLE of the road.  Of course he was oblivious to me being behind him, because he was wearing earphones.  ARGH!  I waited him out for a minute.  I finally beeped my horn and he quickly moved out of the way.  What an idiot.

I got a text message in the morning from one of the guys from administration.  I don't know how many years I've not driven on a Tuesday, but it's been a few.  I've had my current schedule for a while now.  Perhaps three years.  You would THINK that in that amount of time people I work with would know that I'm not there on a Tuesday.  Not only that, but there's a handy, dandy little thing called when to work that allows people to see everyone's schedule online.  But, no, just keep asking if I'm at work when I'm not at work.  I've gotten these message when I'm work as well.  Sometimes, in the past before this Covid thing, from a person that probably saw me in administration early in the morning.  ARGH!  It's so stupid.  This certainly won't be the last time this happens.

TheGirl and I went to the Counter tonight for our traditional Wednesday night dinner.  The food and wine hit the spot.  Not only that, but the weather was absolutely perfect.  Not hot, not cold.  While having dinner TheGirl mentioned that she would really like to go to the Fess Parker wineyards up in Los Olivos.  She checked online and the wine yard is open.  TheGirl would like to do a day trip to Summerland, located just before Santa Barbara, to visit this place called the Sacred Space.  She wants to go on Saturday, which is not a bad idea.  I need to get out of the house and take some photos.  But afterward I was a little wary of going out while the Covid numbers are spiking.  I don't know anything any more.  I wonder if we'll end up actually going.

Thursday, July, 23, The weather is strange, because a couple of weeks ago it was super hot, even early in the morning.  Now it's overcast in the morning (not that I'm complaining).  Believe me, I love this weather.  Last night at dinner it was not too cool, but just cool enough. I also have to say that in addition to the gloomy weather the mean streets of Encino were empty.  This, I like.

Once again I didn't have anything for my work lunch.  My aunt made more potato quesadillas, but not much else.  Which in a way is fine, because she's just going to blame me for it spoiling when I don't eat a mountain of spaghetti.

I picked up some fast food and took it to Montrose for lunch.  I set everything up on the break room table when I reached for the soda and spilled nearly all the soda on to the table and my food (see above).  I was pissed!  Thankfully the soda only got a little bit of the burger wet.  Everything else was fine, except for the table of course.  The take was covered with soda.  ARGH!  I cleaned up the mess and at my lunch.  While the bottom burger bun got wet, the second sandwich, a chicken one, didn't get wet at all.  I thankfully left that one in the bad just before I spilled all the soda.  I'm a dope.

Friday, July, 24, The days continue to flow from one to another, without much difference from week to week.  A lot of people at the library ask me when we're going to reopen.  Like I have any idea.  But, to be fair, I do get a lot of inside information on things.  Which people know, and that makes people trust that I know something they don't know.  I'm not sure if I would tell everyone when we will reopen if I knew.  It's best not to broadcast these things right now.  I'm trying to fly below the radar these days.

The route on Friday is like the easiest money I'll make during the week. There are hardly any books in the bookdrops, no holds to pick up (since those doing the holds do it at the beginning of the week).  Today the main things I had to worry about was picking up a box of stickers at graphics/mailroom and restart a computer at one of the branches.  You know, now that I think about it I should really take Fridays as an opportunity to do something extracurricular while I sit at Montrose and have my lunch.  Hmm, what what can I do?  I should write my novel.  Ha ha!

When I got back from the route I noticed some stupid things on the floor next to the circulation door.

I wasn't sure what this shit was, until I saw a piece of paper on one of the shelves.  Then I immediately knew what I was looking at.. a fucking stupid self-checkout machine.  There wasn't just one.  These things are so hideous.  It's the typical monstrosity that these morons seem to think is OK for the library.  My buddy and I always talk about how these idiots think of some lame project and then pat themselves on the back for Saving the library.  They literally just bring down the library more with these horrible ideas.  These dopes still can't get things to work right, and instead of fixing those things they just bring more wrong things into the library.

Here is a quick list of things that need to be fixed at the library RIGHT NOW.

Sierra: the program used to check in/out and keep track of the book collection is a fucking mess.  The program can't connect to the printers at any of the branches.  The only slip printers that work at the ones at Central.

Communico: This is the appointment program that we are using to set up appointments for the curbside service.  This thing is a total fail.  Patrons often make multiple appointments for pick-ups.  Not only that, but they are allowed to enter any name into the name field.  I often find that patrons names do not match their library card numbers.  Many times there will be patrons that have appointments but no holds for them.  Also, some patrons will use the appointment system to get an appointment slated for a car, when they are just walking up.  In short, it's a clusterfuck.

Barriers: I've shown here in this journal that the barriers they have placed at the service desks are completely inadequate for our protection.  One stupid Plexiglass partition on a huge desk isn't going to protect us from anything.  What they need to do is make the service desks more like bank windows.  Like the ones that have the thick Plexiglass and a little slot to pass things through.  Because people have a tendency to move their heads around the barriers.  I know, because even I've done it.  It's human nature.

Vocera: I've also chronicled the failings of Vocera in this journal as well.  It just doesn't work very well.  There are times when I see my coworker try to call someone only to get frustrated and simply walk over to the person or yell from the circulation desk.  I know that the day I worked that one Saturday I couldn't contact LP, because the damn thing didn't understand what I was saying.  I wanted to throw it across the room.  This thing is a tremendous fail.

Microsoft Teams: This is an all in one collaborative program that has the ability to have meetings and also collaborative files.  It also has a bulletin board and chat function.  The program itself isn't that bad, but it's the implementation that makes it a fail.  They haven't officially asked me to download it to my phone, but several coworkers have said that some manager has asked them to download it.  Vagabundo was told by Daveed to download it onto his phone.  He refused.  The city has probably told the managers to use the program, and to push us all to use it.  The problem is that we are supposed to put this on our phones and be constantly connected to the managers.  I don't want to be that connected.  I'm already too connected.  The meetings function didn't work correct, since the last meeting I attended on that thing had me staring at a blank screen.

Managers: The management of the library is in the hands of often inept personnel.  The managers all seem to be afraid to make moves without consulting higher ups.  Sometimes it's necessary for an underling to make decisions at the moment.  But even when it's not, the managers still seem to get it wrong.  The running joke between Vagabundo and I is that if there is a decision to be made, the mangers will make the wrong one every time.  From my experience they have made the wrong decision nearly every time.  From overly committing to e-books, to the divorce with Pasadena, to the terrible programs, and to the stupid sorting machine, the number of fails continues to rise.

This is why I call this job the slaughterhouse.

Saturday, July, 25, TheGirl and I were talking about going to the Fess Parker vineyards some day in the future.  In lieu of that she suggested a quick day trip to Summerland and this shop called the Sacred Space.  I've been there before, but it's been a while.  And, we all needed an escape.  I jumped at the chance, because it afforded me a chance to take some pictures.  Speaking of pictures, here are some more.

After finishing up at the Sacred Space we went off for lunch at a place called Padaro Beach Grill only a few miles away.  But when we arrived there was a line of people about fifteen deep.  That cut it.  We had to find another place, and fast.  I looked and looked online and found a place in Ventura called the Hollywood Beach Cafe.  Yes, both places were right on the beach.  The burger I had hit the spot.  It wasn't super incredible, but the burger was yummy.

All-in-all it was a good day.  The weather out in Summerland was nice and cool, and the store was super pretty.  I took quite a bit of pictures, that's for sure.  It was good to get a chance at taking photos, since I haven't done that in a LONG time.

Sunday, July, 26, I don't want to continue saying, month after month, that things suck.  Not everything sucks.  I mean, sure, this fucking pandemic sucks big time.  Having had one little adventure to the Sacred Space late in the month reminded me of the fun I was trying to have this last year, before we had to stay at home.  I'm not going to lie, dealing with this pandemic has been exhausting.  From people refusing to wear a mask, to the number of cases continuing to climb even as we 'reopen' the economy, it's all just so much to deal with.  I honestly can't give any month that still has a lot of anxiety attached to it anything better than a C grade.  And that's what my grade is for the month.  Overall, not the worst.  But, also not all that great.  Kinda meh.  I am a bit in awe of just how fast the days have flown by, day after day, week after week.  At the time of publishing this journal one hundred thirty-five days will have passed since the first stay at home order was announced.  That's about forty percent of the year.  Anyway, I don't want to harp on the time, but it's just something that I've fixated on these days.

Today is another lazy Sunday.  I had to back-up some files from yesterday's trip.  Aside from that I don't have much to do.  I passed out after lunch.  It was warm today, and that and food combined to knock me out.  I honestly hate that I sleep so much during the weekends.  But, what else am I supposed to do?  Also, I hate how much I like sleeping all day.  It's such a waste of time.

My weekends are quite boring.  I pretty much rest or sleep all day only to stay up late on Friday and Saturday nights drinking whiskey and jerking off for hours.  Above is the latest find from last night's jerk-off session.  My life is really in a rut.  I'm drinking too much during my jerk-off sessions.  I need a fuck buddy.

I was texting Talia and I had this idea that I could kill two birds with one stone.  How?  Talia mentioned that we should make a movie like, "Emmanuelle."  What is "Emmanuelle?"  IMDB describes the movie as, "The wife of a French diplomat in Bangkok, Emmanuelle embarks on a voyage of sexual discovery."  Wikipedia describes it as, "... the first installment in a series of French softcore pornography films based on the novel Emmanuelle."  So, by that I guess she meant that she wants to make a softcore porn movie.  Hmmm.

Monday, July, 27, I carry a lot of stuff when I go out to work.  I carry my "murse," which carries a bunch of important stuff.  Then I have my lunch bag, along with another bag that has some miscellaneous items.  Well, today I also had my camera bag.  Because of that, I mistook the camera bag for my lunch bag.  They're about the same size and weight.  Which meant that I had to rely on my back-up food at work.  What a dope I am.

In lieu of a small lunch with Becks the Mom to be of honor, we had to have a quick and dirty baby shower thingie today.  We gave her our gift, and she loved it.

My aunt got a letter today from Medi-Cal saying that the redetermination that they sent last month still hasn't shown up.  I sent the application at the beginning of this month, so there's no way they don't have that redetermination.  This lead to my aunt saying this was all my fault.  She said I took a month to send it in.  Wrong.  It was two weeks.  The deadline is August 10.  I sent it in a MONTH before it was due.  I suspect those idiots sent out a form letter, but now of course my aunt starts to point the finger at me.  This is not on me.  Fucking bullshit.  I always get shit on by my aunt.  I'm fucking tired of trying to do the right thing by my aunt only to have her shit on my actions.  I did nothing wrong, and yet I get attacked because my aunt says she's nervous they will start to ask her more questions.  Don't answer them, I told her.  Fucking bullshit!

Tuesday, July, 28, I told my aunt last night that she needed to call the Medi-Cal office to see what the deal was with her redetermination that they supposedly haven't received yet.  She was worried and her anxiety made me just made me super anxious last night.  Today she called and then called me to say that they want her to wait until Friday to call back.  These idiots said that they may have it in their mailroom, but they probably haven't processed it yet.  See, now they're going to find her application in the next couple of days and will suddenly enter it into the computer.  By the time Friday comes along my aunt will call and they will probably tell her that they received it.  What a bunch of clowns.

I'm not driving the route on Tuesdays, so I'm at Central doing my best to get these damn curbside holds done.  I'm in the library by myself most of the day.  At lunch time I went upstairs to the auditorium, but I didn't want to just sit in that big room.  This is why I moved a table from the children's room and sat in the stairway area, which is nearly all glass and overlooks the East parking lot.  It was different and nice.  Sorta "al fresco" you might say.  I think I'll leave the table up here and have lunch here again next week.  Nice.

I got my bug repellent candle in the mail today.  When the weather got cool I went ahead and tried it right out.  I didn't get bit, but of course I don't know for sure that it worked or not.  Guess I'll find out the next time I use it.

Wednesday, July, 29, If these numbers are correct, then this is a good thing.  The magic number is .95 new infections per each person that has it.  Any amount of new infections under that number means that the number of cases is shrinking.  I hope this trend continues.

Misa called me to tell me that she was monitoring the work chat and saw that Krishna was in charge today.  Oh boy, watching it throughout the day I saw just how much of a shitshow it was today.  The above screen cap that points out why I told them it was a bad idea to shelve branch holds separately.  But it goes to the root of why these dopes get everything wrong.  TheNewCute and I were texting, and she was mentioning how one of the librarians was allowing the patrons to change their appointment times.  Which is a HUGE no no.

TheGirl and I were wondering where to go to dinner tonight.  TheGirl suggested her favorite Italian restaurant or the Smokehouse.  We ended up going to the Italian restaurant and I ordered a lasagna, and it hit the spot.  It was a nice night though.  Wednesday night is the best night of the week.

Thursday, July, 30, We had a early morning earthquake this morning at 4:31am.  It was a good size jolt, to say the least.  The photo above is from a early warming app that I downloaded a few months back.  It did a good job in that it did warn me.  But, since the earthquake was so close the warning came at the same time as it was shaking.  Still, it did work.

Mala texted me last night to tell me that she wanted me to go to Casa early and open the door up at 8am for the Haynes people (the cleaning crew).  Who am I to say no?  I told my coworker Tony that he was driving today.  He was PISSED.

When I arrived at Casa there was no one there.  I went inside to check if someone was there and perhaps they had entered through the front door.  Nope.  I was actually late to Casa, arriving at 8:11am, so I knew that the Haynes people wouldn't be that late.  I went ahead and texted the guy I know from Haynes and he said that they had already visited Casa.  At 6:30am.  ARGH!  These library idiots.  I texted Mala about the situation, and she told me that I should just stay and pull the holds.  Double ARGH!  I did my best to print out the hold list and pull the books.  At first I thought there was a lot of holds on the list, but something went wrong when I printed the holds.  Because the holds list went down to sixty-one.  Oh well, I don't care.  No one has showed me how to do this.

The rest of the day was just fine.  I heard a couple of aftershocks while I was at Casa.  I didn't feel them, but the front doors did rattle a little.  Fuck earthquakes.

Wrap-up, I don't want to continue saying, month after month, that things suck.  Not everything sucks.  I mean, sure, this fucking pandemic sucks big time.  Having had one little adventure to the Sacred Space late in the month reminded me of the fun I was trying to have this last year, before we had to stay at home.  I'm not going to lie, dealing with this pandemic has been exhausting.  From people refusing to wear a mask, to the number of cases continuing to climb even as we 'reopen' the economy, it's all just so much to deal with.  I honestly can't give any month that still has a lot of anxiety attached to it anything better than a C grade.  And that's what my grade is for the month.  Overall, not the worst.  But, also not all that great.  Kinda meh.  I am a bit in awe of just how fast the days have flown by, day after day, week after week.  At the time of publishing this journal one hundred thirty-five days will have passed since the first stay at home order was announced.  That's about forty percent of the year.  Anyway, I don't want to harp on the time, but it's just something that I've fixated on these days. LINK