It's hard to believe that the first month of the new year has already come and pass.  On to the update.

 

Wednesday, January 1, Happy New Year!  It's what everyone I know has been waiting for... a new year to hit the reset button on things and get things right for once.  I found the above post online.  It makes a good point.  We always say "Come at me," to the new year.  Sometimes we win, sometimes life wins.  Saying that I of course won't say, "Come at me," but I don't want 2020 to be like 2019 in terms of me being a lazy bum.  I want to go out and take photos with my new cameras.  Dane gave me one, and I bought that Polaroid, and Kodak finally reissued Ektachrome.  There's a lot to do this year.

My buddy Dane gifted me a "3D" camera called the Nishika N8000.  I kinda recognized the camera from years ago.  I remembered that it was a camera that you had to send the film to the company to have them develop it.  This was because the four pictures it takes at the same time needed to be combined into one print.  The print, if I remember correctly, without going online to check this, was a combination of the four pictures taken so that when you tilted the picture from side to side the 3D effect would show.

(moments later) I couldn't help myself... I had to check on the process that makes the 3D effect look 3D to the naked eye.  Because that was the trick of these prints, that you didn't need any special glasses or devices.  The 3D effect was in the print, so you could see it with the naked eye.  To quote Wikipedia:

"... lenticular printing, ... is used to give an illusion of depth, or to make images that appear to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles."

There are a series of cylindrical lenses over the print.  If you run you finger on the print it would be like running your finger over an LP.  Anyway, not to get too involved in this, but I wanted to point out that once I take the pictures I can't just send them to a photo store to have them printed.  It is a different process, and the film used to have to be sent to the company that made the camera.  That was a LONG time ago.  But these days the film can me developed that animated gifs can be made from the four pictures to give the illusion of a 3D print, only digitally.

Which means I'll try it out.  I can just have the film developed and then I can scan it and do some Photoshop magic to bring the images together.  I saw it all online.  But first I have to buy some film.  Nothing expensive, just regular old film.

I was sitting at my desk when I looked outside the window and saw the glow of the sunset on the trees across from me.  I knew that the sunset must be a bright orange, so I quickly went to get my cameras and tried to get some shots from my front yard.  But the house next to me and the tree besides blocked the good shot.  I knew that the only thing I could do was to run up on my roof to take the picture.  I think I need to do that from now on, because my neighbors blocked my view.  Last year they built a storage shed in their back yard that covers what used to be a nice unobstructed view of the western facing sky.  Yeah, well, that view is now gone.  My only other option is going on the roof.

Thursday, January 2, TheGirl and I had dinner on a Thursday for the second week in a row due to the holidays.  I took Chan with me, as I always do when going to over to TheGirl's place.  But I had to leave hims in the car in the parking garage.  Now it may sound silly, but I worried the entire day that someone would steal Chan.  I honestly didn't worry about the car, just that someone would steal him.  It's silly, but that little monkey means a lot to me.

We had originally thought of going to the Dog Haus for dinner, but they don't serve booze any more.  At least the one in Burbank doesn't.  Instead we went to the Counter in Toluca Lake, because there we can take our own wine.  TheGirl brought one of the bottles I gifted her for Christmas.  Nice.

It was a little chilly out, so TheGirl put a new sweater on Cheyenne (shown above).  She later said that she didn't think it fit Cheyenne correctly.  Still, she looked so cute in her new sweater.  As always, dinner was nice.  Next week we go back to our regular Wednesday schedule.  It's tradition.

Friday, January 3, I was about twenty minutes early to work, so instead of going straight to work I figured I would go and take some pictures.  But where?  I decided to go to the Glendale train station.  The light was just right.  I took the time to take some pictures with my film cameras, the Polaroid and the slide film.  I certainly need more opportunities like today to take more photos.

Friday light is getting a new context added to it... light bins.  I only had fifteen bins today between all the locations.  It was a super chill route today.  I even had a nice long lunch at Montrose today.  I kinda like that it's closed.  It's been quiet lately, but come next week the holidays will be done and in the rearview mirror.  Which means DrDeath is going to start making moves.  The big move is going to be who is going to be the next assistant director.  I'm sure that it will be someone that DrDeath knows from USC.  We shall see, but in my opinion they won't be good.  They'll oversee the total destruction of the library.

Saturday, January 4, I found out last night, via social media, that the Ralphs supermarket that I worked for, is closing at the end of the month.  The post said that the rent was raised and they are going to replace the market with an Amazon store.  I texted a former coworker that I still follow on social media to see if it was true. She confirmed that they have told them they are going to close the store.  I asked where they might send her, and she said that it's likely they will send her to the store on Hazeltine.  That's the store I visit nowadays.  I told her that's a huge store.

I'm not super nostalgic about the store, but it was a place that gave me a chance where so many other jobs passed me over.  I really needed a job way back in 2005 and thankfully they hired me.  It wasn't a great job, but it was a JOB.  I liked the people that I worked with there.  I'm still friends with some of the people that I worked with back then.  I drove by it today after getting my haircut and I honestly can't say I felt sad.

Sunday, January 5, TheGirl was gifted some cupcakes, and she went to get them today with Cheyenne.  She sent me the following pictures of Cheyenne ordering the cupcakes.

Monday, January 6, The new library assistant started today.  When she came in I immediately recognized her, because she used to come in and volunteer at the library.  What happened is that my buddy Vagabundo was the first to be offered the job.  Because of the hours conflict they didn't allow him to just work Sundays.  So he walked away from the job and they offered the job to their number two candidate.  That guy walked away because the salary was too low.  The next in line was the new girl.  She has her librarian degree, but no practical library knowledge except the time she volunteered at San Marino.  Strange career path, but she seems nice and who am I to judge?  Time will tell if she does well here.  But, seeing as she already has a degree it's not a leap to think that has soon as she gets some experience she's going to be looking for an actual librarian job.  And then she's gone.

When I visited TheGirl and Cheyenne tonight I was not felling well.  Cheyenne seemed to also be tired.  Maybe she sensed something with me.  All I know is when I left TheGirl's place my intention was to get to bed as soon as possible.  I arrived at home and fixed my lunch for the next day and went right to bed.  I easily passed out and went to sleep.  My stomach was cramping and my body had no energy.  I'm not sure what's going on with me, but I've gotten this tired feeling before a few times over the last few months.  It's like my battery goes from a good charge to nearly empty in a little while.  Because when I was at work around 3pm I was feeling pretty good.  Sleepy, but good.  After Pseudo supervisor left for the day I took a plunge and felt super sleepy.  I actually passed out in my chair for a little while.  After that I was not feeling well.  I don't like feeling this way.

Tuesday, January 7, An email showed up yesterday and I was not looking forward to today, because the other driver called out sick.  That meant more work for me today.  What I love is that they moved someone up, promoted him, in order for him to be the back up driver, but he has only backed up once.  ARGH!  Also, I NEVER call out sick, and this other guy calls out sick about once a month.  I think I'm going to keep track of the times the other driver is sick.  See if there's a pattern.

Sure enough, when I arrived this (above) was waiting for me.  ARGH!  There were a lot of bins, but not as much as a few years ago during the renovation.  I figured I would take my time today, and that's exactly what I did.  I'm not going to go full throttle to finish early.  No thanks.  The days of being a big dope are over.  Also, at the end of the day it was a lot of bins, but not that many.

Someone wrote a letter to the editor of the local Glendale paper pointing out just how stupid the ice rink was for the city.  (click on the image to read the full text of the letter.) The letter points out that the projections were that the city would make back about $150,000 of the $500,000 cost that the city was carrying.  I heard that the total cost was closer to $650,000, not $500,000.  I remember doing the math for half a million and I calculated that there needed to be about a hundred people an hour spending at least $20 to get close to breaking even.  The person who wrote the letter contacted the city and since they have to be transparent with what the city spends, they gave him the information on what the rink actually made.  It was just under $57,000, and only about 2,100 people visited the rink.  What a damn joke.  Everything these clowns do is just subpar.  The city is running deficits as projected in the annual budget.  But, they have enough to spend a half million dollars on a stupid ice rink, because they have "rink envy."  Because, Burbank has a rink.  And because Santa Monica had Third Street they're thinking of making the street that leads to the library entrance a street like Third Street.  And they've already said to be budgeting $8,500,000 for the project.  Meanwhile, that street is a current failure.  Dumb.

Wednesday, January 8, TheGirl and I went to this one bar/restaurant named Riverside on Riverside.  It's a decent place, with good booze.  We wanted to go somewhere where they would have a patio with heaters.  When we arrived the place was quiet.  There was no one on the patio.  It's usually pretty busy, even on a Wednesday.  But today nothing.  Later one of the waiters told us that the owners have been having a dispute, and that because of that business is tanking.  Sad.

It's very likely that this might be one of the last, or the last, time we eat here.  But then again, who knows how long the dispute could go.  Either way, the wine was flowing tonight.

Thursday, January 9, The sunrise while on my way to work today looked really great (shown above).

It was warm enough for me to have lunch at the park.  It's been a while since I've encountered the guy cutting the grass in that area.  That is, until today.  This guy passed by me three times.  The last two times he got REALLY close to me.  Like around three feet.  Mind you, he's driving that big trimmer around close to my head.  Not OK.  I'm not sure why he doesn't just come back to the area where I am later in his task.  It's not like I was keeping him from finishing his task.  He still had more than half of the lawn to trim.

On Tuesday my aunt told me that she needed to go to the clinic to get her flu shot.  She was going to call CityRide to take her on Wednesday, but I told her that I could do it.  Especially since the "appointment" was for after 4:45pm.  I don't know why there was a specific time for this, but yeah.  I told her it would be better if I took her to the appointment after I got home from work.  She was good with that.  It was so unusual, because of the time.  The time she was in the clinic was like ten minutes, tops.

There was an ad in the mail for some hot wings at a local fast food joint.  My aunt wanted to go there after her appointment to pick up some wings.  We did, and we took them home to eat.  They were OK, nothing special.  I liked the French fries that came with them more than the wings.  I don't think that my aunt will ask me to get these again.  They were just OK.

Friday, January 10, I drove by the temporary ice-rink by city hall.  I wrote about this thing earlier in the month, so there's no need to rehash that topic.  But I did want to just chronicle that it is being taken down now.  When I drove by yesterday the street was wet from the ice melting.

The route today was SUPER chill.  I didn't count, but I don't think I had more than fifteen bins to deliver today.  I took my time and had a nice long lunch at Montrose.  Even still I finished up fairly early and got home nice and early as well.  I had some chicken that my aunt made and relaxed watching some TV.  I remembered that I had to finish up a training for Glendale, so I went and did that while doing other things around the house.  Now I can turn in my certificate and be done with this cyber attack training.  I had to a similar training for San Marino earlier this week.  I guess it's a thing cities are doing these days.  Whatever, I'm done with it.  I will say that I did like how much more of my training was done online.  I can get behind doing it that way.  Because I was able to do it here at home, rather than listen to some stuffy presenter bore me to death.

I was paying a bill this morning when I noticed that I'm pretty close to paying it off.  It's just under $400.  Another bill I paid last week is hovering just above $400.  I received some money from my Godmother's account with the rest home she was living in.  I deposited it into one of my savings accounts, but I really didn't want to touch it, just in case someone comes around wanting it back.  But, it is very tempting to use it to pay these two bills.  It would mean not having to pay these two bill piecemeal, like I am now.  It would save me two payments.  Money that I could throw at something like my mortgage or another bill.  Or just save.  I feel that it's best to pay off as many bills as possible as soon as possible.  I would love to use this money to pay these two bills, but I fear that this year's income tax bill will be worse than last year.  I paid more in taxes last year that I've ever had to before.  I do have a little reserve money on the side from my trip that I didn't take.  I fear that I'll have to dip into that fund in order to pay off my income taxes this year.  So I don't know what to do.  I think paying off these two bills would be good, because they account for about $100 a month in payments going to a pair of credit cards.  I think I'll wait until next week and bite the bullet and pay them both off with my Godmother's money.  Wish me luck that someone doesn't send me a damn letter saying I owe $1,000 for some random reason.

While at lunch today I watched some videos, including one on the new food at Disneyland.  I saw that they have some new carne asada fries at DCA.  They look SO good.  I was considering going to Disneyland after work on Sunday, but I'm still worried about my aunt.  I will be going to Disneyland with Emma on the 18th, so there's time to get those fries.  But I do want to go down there without her just to have dinner by myself.  Though, as I think about it, being by myself is what kept me from going to San Francisco last year.  Hmmm.

Saturday, January 11, I forgot why or how Emma asked if I wanted to have dinner tonight, but I was game.  I picked her up from her house and on the way there Emma asked if I wanted to go somewhere other than where I had decided.  She mentioned Houston's, which is a place that I've wanted to go.  I was like, "OK, let's go to Houston's."  We arrived and there were a TON of people.  They told us that the wait would be about an hour and a half.  WHAT?!  Oh no, I was starving NOW.  We returned to plan A, Crack Shack in Pasadena.

We arrived and ordered some food and drinks.  Emma wanted to record us for the Vlog.  I'm down for that, it's fun.  Our drinks game first.

I ordered something they call a "Hot Mess," which had mezcal, Ancho Reyes, grapefruit, lime, and honey.  It had a nice spicy kick, and I liked it.  If I wasn't driving I would have had another.

I ordered something they call "Mexican Poutine," which consisted of fries, chicken, and jalapeno cheese wiz.  It was good, but it was also a lot.  I was only able to eat about half.

In addition to the fries I also ordered biscuits.  When they arrived they were pipping hot, and yummy.  I took some of them home.

Emma ordered "Chicken Oysters," which are basically chicken nuggets.

After dinner we drove over to the Vroman's bookstore.

Sunday, January 12, I had this idea that I should go to Disneyland after work, but I felt bad because my aunt said she was going to make me some lentil soup.  So, I didn't go to Disneyland.

I was thinking tonight about the week ahead.  During that I thought about when I might return to the desk at Glendale.  It came up because someone asked if last week if I was on still on the desk.  No, I answered them.  They asked me how come the "back-up" driver isn't driving on Tuesdays.  I told them that I honestly don't know why I'm still driving on Tuesdays.  I guess I'm just going to be driving.  Oh well.  I'll just continue driving.  I won't bring it up to Kvon.  Whatever.

Monday, January 13, My cousin's kids have been on vacation for three weeks.  Those vacation days end today, and guess what time they arrived this morning?  6:58am.  They had stopped coming this early, but I guess for whatever reason they decided to come that early today.  ARGH!  At least I was nearly out the door by the time they came today.

Today I was dreaming of taking a possible trip up the coast.  Not sure when, but it would be nice to get out of town on a weekend or something.  I'm not sure when I could go, but I do want to go some time before July.

Wednesday, January 15, Today was a busy day at work.  I had to finish up processing the Friend's of the library donations.  I did about twenty-five today, or maybe more.  I didn't have time to keep count.  I also finished up the editing of the bookmark contest winners.  There was a lot of other little things.  It was a busy day.

TheGirl and I went to the Italian restaurant that has a heated patio in Burbank.  Its food is just OK, but they do have good cheese bread, and good wine.  It all hit the spot.  As always, good times.

Thursday, January 16, Just like yesterday, today was a busy day at work.  I not only was asked to take some stuff from one of the branches to Central, but then I was asked to take a TV to Brand.  That last one turned out to be a bust.  The two people involved didn't communicate with each other too well, so neither of them knew what the other was doing.  And then I show up with keys in hand to take the TV with me on the route, but then the it's, "Oh, I don't know where the TV is."  Like what?  How do you lose a TV someone loaned you?  Whatever.  All I know is that it was OK that they couldn't find the TV.

After I finished the route I still had to pick up a bunch of stuff from Montrose to take to Central, because the person the things belong to was moving to Central.

I checked my San Marino email this evening after having dinner and saw that starting next month I'll be working every other Sunday, instead of every Sunday.  Woo hoo!  I secretly think every other Sunday might be just right, but I also want to have some Sundays for my own projects.  Well, I asked for it and for my sins they gave me what I wanted.  My first Sunday off is February 2nd.  I should think of something to do that day.  But what?

Friday, January 17, I talked to FireGirl today about how I'm going to have every other Sunday off starting next month.  She pointed out that Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday.  Oh wow, I honestly didn't even think of that.  I told her that the last time I was able to watch an entire game was back in 2013.  Oh cool.

Tomorrow I'll be going to Disneyland with Emma and Emma's friend/coworker.  The new Star Wars attraction opened today, so I wonder if the park will be super busy tomorrow.  Either way, we're going.  No idea if we'll be able to get onto the new attractions, but I seriously doubt we will.

Saturday, January 18, After not going to Disneyland since before Christmas, I finally got to go to Disneyland.  I went with Emma and her friend/our coworker, Dee (shown above).  This is the first time we've all gone at the same time.  Emma made breakfast reservations for Carnation Cafe.

Most other times that I've gone to Carnation Cafe I've had the basic breakfast, that includes eggs and country potatoes and bacon.  That's a good meal, but today I wanted to have the chicken fried steak.  I now seem to remember me having it before in the past, but for some reason I told Emma that Dee that I've never had it before.  It really hit the spot.

I had my Polaroid camera in tow today, so here are a few of the pictures I took with my iPhone and with my Polaroid.

The three of us had supper at a place in DCA called BLANK Trattoria.  It was good, but not the best I've had in the park.  Still, it's cool to try new places.  I was telling Emma how that place used to be more like a market place establishment that had ready made cold salads and sandwiches.  This version is much better, but it's a little on the expensive side.  My chicken parmesan was good, but it was $25.  So with my wine that came out to nearly $50 for supper.  Not bad if the place is super good, but this is just pretty good.  I did like the wine, but there are better places for the price (or lower) thought out the resort.

I was surprised that for a Saturday the park was not packed.  There was a point where we went on several rides in a row and none of them had long lines.  Granted, we picked the short lines, but when the park is packed it's hard to find a single attraction with short lines.  And today we found many rides with thirty minute waits.  That's unusual for a Saturday.  Disney did this thing with the new attraction where you needed to register on their app to board the new ride.  Anyone that didn't have that "boarding pass" would not be allowed to go.  Hence we didn't even try to go on.  We'll have to go once this changes into a traditional ride that needs no "boarding passes" to ride.  I do like this system though, because despite the fact that it prevented me from going on the new attraction, it also seemed to prevent a packed park.  But, as I pointed out to Emma a couple of times, it is the "off season," and there are fewer people coming to the park during this time of year.  Either way, I like that there are fewer people when I visit.  Mind you, I'm not saying the park was deserted, it was still pretty full of people.  It just didn't have the kind of crowds where you can barely move from one part of the park to another.  Nice.

Monday, January 20, Today is MLK day, and stupid me had to go to work, because San Marino doesn't celebrate that day.  In the past we've closed the library, but the employees have still had to show up for "training."  But not this year.  Predictably the freeways were empty.  I wish my commute were like this all the time.  Alas, it's not to be.  Anyone that was STILL somehow off for the holidays will likely be back tomorrow.

I started getting a headache around 11am.  I sometimes get a little pain on my right side that goes away on its own.  But today the pain on my face didn't diminish, it only got worse, eventually not only did my face hurt but my whole head.  I tried having lunch to maybe make the pain go away that way, and then I went to take a nap.  But when I got up from my nap I felt better, but I still had a headache.  I finally just took some pills for the pain.  THAT finally took my headache away, but I still had a little pain in the area of my right jaw.  I've been having some pain off and on in the area of my jaw.  It's like a dull pain that feels like I have something stuck in my throat.  Like a piece of food or something.  ARGH!  Sometimes the dull pain is totally gone.  Other times it really feels like a big piece of food.  I didn't feel well today.

The giant printer has been on the fritz for the last new months, but we've had to work around the problem because of the cost of repairing it.  The repair guy came by the other day and looked at the machine and said it would be $1,600.  I'm not sure if that's the total cost or the cost of the new printer head that needs replacement.  Either way it's a lot of dough.

One of my coworkers is getting married... the poor sap.  I joked that she should have a fling with me before that happens.  Yeah, like THAT's going to happen.  /sarcasm

Thanks to Becks and social media I found out that TheLamp got married recently.  Good for her.

Tuesday, January 21, The elevator at Central might be the personification of the failure that is the library renovation.  It's not working... AGAIN!  I have lost count as to how many times this NEW elevator has broken down.  I don't understand how the old elevators are still functioning while the new elevator is constantly on the fritz.  The running joke is that most of the money for its construction went to someone's pocket.  Doesn't sound that farfetched to me.

The electric company is going to shut the power down in San Marino on Sunday from 9am - 2pm.  We usually open at 1pm, but it looks very much like we'll be opening at 3pm on Sunday.  I advocated for the library to just be closed, since a two hour shift sounds super stupid.  But, the dopes in charge didn't think it was a good idea to close the library on Sunday.  Because what could go wrong, right?  Anyway, he's the email from my supervisor:

Hello Team,
This is the final decision on the plan for Sunday:
1:00 - [Circulation manager] checks the power situation.
1:30 - Circulation staff and [librarian] arrive.  We hope that the power is back on at this time.  If it is not, staff will do whatever they can do without power until it comes back.
2:30 - Reference staff (Eric and Angela) arrive just in case the power was back on earlier than 2pm and we have a "soft" opening at 2:30pm.
3:00 - Our official open time as stated to the public. [Library director] is working with [IT department] to have them onsite to turn the servers off/on before and after the power outage.

Well, there you have it... the roadmap to a shitshow.  I was really hoping that they would reconsider closing the library for the day, since we're only going to be open for two hours.  Oh well, guess things can't be easy on any Sunday I work.  At least this coming Sunday marks the last of my consecutive Sundays at San Marino.  My first Sunday off is going to be on Super Bowl Sunday.  I would like to go to the museum first, to heck out a Kubrick photo exhibit.  Maybe I could convince Emma to go.  She says Sundays are family day though.  I respect that.

I was sitting in my room tonight when from the distance I could hear my aunt coughing.  Not a lot, but more often than in the last few days.  I don't know if her cold has come back, but it sure seems that way.  She was not coughing at all the last few days, but tonight she's coughing about every ten minutes.  It sounds like a dry cough.  I feel bad that she can't fight off these colds and not have to be side all the time.

Wednesday, January 22, I had finished up talking to my buddy on the phone and I was just chillin' deciding what to do next when I felt a bounce come up from my chair.  I hear no other sounds, but I knew that it was an earthquake.  I checked my sources and sure enough there had been a quake, up in Granada Hills.  The magnitude was 3.6, and it didn't last but a moment.  Maybe not even two seconds, tops.  But, it sure scared the bejeaous out of me.  I went to be shortly after and hoped that was the last of it.  I didn't have a restful night.  I think I woke up about two times, maybe three.  I've been sleepy at work all day.

Emma uploaded a new video last night, featuring us going to dinner last week, and then going to a local bookstore.  I have to say that I do like these excursions to places I would not be going to alone.  If it wasn't for Emma and this project I would just be at home most nights.

TheGirl and I went to a local Mexican restaurant that has patio heating and decent food.  The booze really hit the spot, but at the same time I wanted more.  I limited myself to one tonight.  I feel I've been over doing it for a while now.  Sometimes I've felt really bad the next morning after only drinking a little bit.  But it's because I will drink right up to going to bed.  Probably not a good idea.  So, I'm going to cut down a bit.  Still, I would have liked to have gone home and continued to feel buzzed.  Oh well.  Next time.

Thursday, January 23, The interim manager at Montrose showed me a video from AD's new library in Altadena featuring her and some employees dancing around.

All these library made videos are very goofy in that they have people who are not normally in front of a camera acting and dancing and sometimes singing in front of a camera.  Often for the first time.  Some people are naturals in front of a camera, and some are not.  The same goes for this group.  I can't beat them up too much since they didn't go into the library world to be in front of a camera.  If they wanted to act they would go into that.

First thing I noticed was the REALLY shaky camera work.  I mean it's jarring to me, at least.  I like how at one point a finger gets into frame and they didn't think to redo that.  The lady in that scene was actually doing a good job selling her part.  But then comes this giant finger into frame.  Boo!

AD first makes an appearance during the "Tidying shelves" sequence.  She's the one with the ridiculous hairstyle.

I like how the one guy with the light blue shirt is hamming it up, BIG time.

I think my favorite part does come at the end when the random people start saying "books."  I mean that's just priceless.

Although, I do have to say that the last guy that does a dance move and then falls to the ground is just the cherry on top.  I told my buddy that his final pose reminds me of a famous photograph entitled "The Falling Soldier." (See above)

I didn't have time to write about this yesterday, but I do now.  Pseudo supervisor dropped a bit of a bombshell yesterday when she dropped some information into my lap about the head librarian at San Marino possibly having a drinking problem.  When she said that I put several pieces of information together and the picture did come into focus a little more.  The boss has been acting strange.  I've see her hands tremble, but not always.  She also came in with a huge healed cut on her right eyebrow area.  She told us how she fell down.  When one of my coworkers asked her if she went to the hospital she said no.  Super strange.  But then it all makes sense that she's shaking and she's falling down.  She's a drunk.  Ilsa told me that she often smells alcohol after the boss comes back from lunch at her house.  The boss has been doing that for a few months now.  I don't see her when she comes back from lunch at home, so I never noticed her smelling like booze.  There are other explanations, but the drinking like a fiend also makes sense.  She's been under a lot of stress lately, and it's possible that she decided to drown herself in alcohol.  I sure hope not, but then the alternative is some sort of illness.

Mala sent out an email that mentioned not badmouthing the work environment in front of patrons, because they will certainly overhear.  Fuck that shit!  Maybe we wouldn't be complaining if the dummies upstairs would do a good job.

Saturday, January 25, I'm not entirely sure why we continue to have open houses at the library, because people just don't show up to these things.  Last year and this year the open house happens to be on the same Saturday that is also Lunar New Year.  Most patrons have other plans on that day.  They don't want to show up to the library, but rather go somewhere fun.  This is why we didn't have that many visitors to the library today.  There were dignitaries, but not many patrons.  I hope we don't do this open house again next year.

The time came when the winners of the bookmark contest were announced.  I thankfully got a good seat to take the pictures of the winners.

After the open house was done I went and met Emma at the Pacific Asia museum on Los Robles.  We didn't find it that interesting, so we ended up walking around and wound up at the Paseo in Pasadena.  At the Paseo we ended up having a cocktail while waiting for it to be 5:30pm, which is when we were going to have dinner.  I ordered something called a maple bacon old fashioned.  It was served with a piece of bacon on top.  It really hit the spot.

It was finally time to go to dinner at Houston's.  Thankfully Emma made reservations for dinner.  The last time we tried to go they told us there was an hour and a half wait.  This time we just walked right in.

I ordered a ribeye and a baked potato.  To say the ribeye was great is an understatement.  It was a big cut, so I was only able to finish half of it.  I did eat the entire potato, because I figured the potato would not travel well.  I mean, I don't know.  I have to say that this was one of the best steaks I've had.  The guy making the steaks was an artist.  When I walked into the restaurant there was a guy cooking up the steaks.  It was a sight to see.  The guy was like an octopus, seemingly moving each arm independent of each other while cooking everything.  It was amazing.

I have to thank Emma for finally getting me to go to Houston's.  If it wasn't for her I would have just gone home after this stupid open house today.  Good times.

Sunday, January 26, The other day, when I told my aunt that I would be starting late today, she said that we should go to breakfast before I went into work.  I was good with that at the time, but then this morning I didn't want to get out of bed early.  Especially since I wasn't going into work until 2:30pm.  But, my aunt insisted I get moving.  I finally got moving, and we were on our way to get some food.

Emma sent me a text with something unbelievable... that Kobe Bryant had died in a helicopter crash.  I went online and didn't see any other confirmation other than the website that was reporting it.  But in time the confirmations started to come in.  It was true, Kobe was dead.

I told my supervisor at San Marino that there was no good reason to go to work today, because the power outage.  What with the power supposedly coming back on at 2pm, and that pushing our start time to 3pm at the earliest.  Of course I arrive at the library today and the building is still in darkness.  Mind you, they said that the power would be back by 2pm, and I didn't arrived at work until 2:30pm.  The best part is that I got a front row seat to the power company repairing some equipment right by the library.  Probably no more than two hundred feet from the library there was a crew installing new transformers.  I could tell from my vantage point that the job was no where nearly completion.

By the time 3pm came and went the power was not on.  My former supervisor went over to talk to the workmen and sure enough, he comes back saying that they estimate they're going to be working on their project for about an hour and a half to two hours.  Done deal.  By that time it would be past the time we would be closed.  T still had to ask permission of the dummy recreation director to allow us to go home.  It took a few minutes but she finally said yes.  What an idiot, because she's the one that made us go into work today.  But, all is not lost, I'm going to put the full two and a half hours I was supposed to work on my time card.  Fuck this shit.

When I got home I didn't really want to watch the coverage of the Kobe news.  To have such a vibrant person's life be snuffed out just like that is something we all have experienced in our lives.  The history of our age is spotted with these kinds of deaths in music, entertainment and sports.  We idolize these people, and think of them as invincible and ever lasting.  But, they're just like us... frail.

Jerry West is quoted as saying, "I lost a son today."  THAT line broke the dam of tears.  Jerry also said on a TV interview with Jim Hill, "To hear this news this morning, frankly, at first I was shocked... I really felt like a surrogate father to him... this has been one of the most horrible days of our life."

Here are some of what his contemporaries and friends said on social media.

@SHAQ : There's no words to express the pain Im going through with this tragedy of loosing my neice Gigi & my brother @kobebryant I love u and u will be missed. My condolences goes out to the Bryant family and the families of the other passengers on board. IM SICK RIGHT NOW

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar / @kaj33 : Most people will remember Kobe as the magnificent athlete who inspired a whole generation of basketball players. But I will always remember him as a man who was much more than an athlete.

@MagicJohnson : My friend, a legend, husband, father, son, brother, Oscar winner and greatest Laker of all-time is gone. It's hard to accept. Kobe was a leader of our game, a mentor to both male and female players.

R.I.P. Kobe

Tuesday, January 28, The route today was pretty chill, that is until the handle on the back door of the van stopped working.  After I took everything out of the van I went to the garage and had them look at it.  Sure enough, the cable that releases the locking mechanism broke.  No working lock for the van.  They said they would have to order the part.  And thanks to a new system for that in the city the part might take a couple of days to arrive.  Just genius.  Oh well.

But then I got my loaner vehicle, this tiny "station wagon."  It's so small, but at least I won't have to drive it tomorrow.  Then again, the other driver suggested that we might trade cars with the IT department, who has a Odyssey mini van, that's not so mini.  It's pretty spacious, and would be just right for our delivery purposes.  We'll see if they let us borrow it.

Wednesday, January 29, TheGirl and I decided to go to the Counter for dinner since last week.  We ordered up some Fess Parker wine and some food and once the wine hit us it didn't matter that the winds started to whip up.  I took a few moments to take the picture of the wine bottle shown above.  I tried taking one with my Polaroid camera, but the damn thing's battery had drained.  I was able to charge it a little with the battery charger I had in my bag, but the picture never came out.  Shame.  The one above did come out though.  I also took one of Cheyenne that came out looking nice.

Thursday, January 30, The Monday/Wednesday driver told me on Tuesday that he was going to ask the IT guys if we could swap cars until we get the van back.  Because, our loaner was just too small for the job.  Sure enough, they loaned us the car, and they used the loaner we got.

The route today was chill.  Yes, I had to shuffle the book bins during the route, but it wasn't so bad.  I've had to deal with worse.

Friday, January 31, Eleven years ago today the San Marino hosted the first anniversary and someone was able to invite Ray Bradbury to speak.  It was great.  The pictures from that day came up on my photo feed this morning.  I felt the need to post the above picture on social media.  Good times.  I can't believe it's been that long.  Things seemed much simpler back then, but they weren't.

Bradbury's visit was pretty damn cool.  I wish he was alive to come visit us on our tenth anniversary.  But, we'll always have 2009.

The route today was once again pretty chill.  I'm still in the loaner.  I'll let the Monday driver go to the city garage on Monday to check on the status of the delivery van.  I didn't feel like going there today, since they said it would take about two days to get the part.  And, I know that there is hardly anyone in the city on Fridays.