Afterthoughts : This Past Month

Last month and August marked the twentieth anniversary of this journal and this website.  I hope to continue to do this for twenty, thirty, forty, maybe more years.  I don't know what the future holds, but here's to the coming years.  And here's to the update.

Wednesday, September, 1, Veed, the manager at Montrose and Chevy Chase branch libraries, is many things.  He doesn't seem like a bad guy.  But, he is also a dummy.  Today my buddy told me that I should check "Teams" and see that Veed posted some pictures of the Chevy Chase branch.  They were pictures showcasing the changes to Chevy.  Oh yeah, SO MANY CHANGES.  What a load of crock.  The picture above is another piece of shit revisionist history that goes on in the library.  The photo is labeled "Study Area (previously Reading Spa)."  This "Reading Spa" name is something they invented for the new reading area on the second floor that was formally the administration offices.  They couldn't put the suffix "Space" to the word reading, because "Reading Space" probably sounded dumb to even them.  However, they did name that area the "Reading Spa."  So the only area that was ever named the "Reading Spa" was the new area at Central.  No other areas in any of the branches had been called the "Reading Spa."  To now say this was previously the reading space area is just following the Nazis down the trail.  In short, Veed is kissing up to the administration idiots.

And another thing... Veed posted many other pictures, but this one struck me.  This is the new holds area, where the books that were placed on hold for patrons will sit while they wait for someone to pick them up.  Those six shelves are overkill (left side of the picture).  To think they would need more than once shelf is either ambitious or foolhardy.  Actually, it's both.  The times I've worked up there there were barely a dozen books on hold.  Many of them were just for a few patrons.  In short, patrons that would come into Chevy would come in for multiple books, not usually just one.  And the reading area, now study area, will not have that many patrons here.  Veed and those in power seem to think that the Chevy branch is going to be overrun by patrons.  Yeah, no.  That's never going to happen.  Chevy has always had the lowest circulation numbers.  No one goes up there.  Those who do go up there to get their books and then they leave.  There is no lingering.  All these updates to the library are for nought.  Nobody goes to the Chevy Chase branch.  This update to this particular branch isn't done yet.  They're going to try and "automate" it, but of course the cheap way.  Which isn't actually going to be cheap, mind you.  They plan on installing about a half dozen cameras and a speaker system.  They already had me haul up another self-checkout machine.  A useless self-checkout machine, mind you.  Whatever, I just work here.

I have chronicled how I have to hurry in the morning in order to avoid dealing with my cousin's kids.  Today I hurried to get ready by 7am, but then they didn't show.  I was later told by my aunt that the kids were not going to come this week.  Jeez, it would have been nice to know this beforehand.  Fucking bullshit.

TheGirl and I went to the Counter for dinner tonight.  The main topic of conversation was getting ready for going to the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday.  We want to picnic and have wine and such.  I bought wine earlier this week for the event.  We all set for this.

Thursday, September, 2, I was given some personnel files to take to HR to be destroyed.  One of them was of LunaTick.  I HAD to take a picture of his final form, the so-called "separation" paperwork.  As you can see from the picture above LunaTick was let go due to, "Poor job performance."  No shit, Sherlock.  He was the absolute worse.

I had the not privilege of seeing AD's personnel file this week.  In it it has a list of "Strategic Goal" for her as the assistant director of the library.  Let's go through that list and see how well she did, shall we?

1) "Fully expand the vision of the GV Branch as a children and family focused library highlighting multi lingual resources and programming, and access to technology.  Plan a community celebration once service model is fully implemented."

Grade: D - The Grandview branch is now one of the worst performing libraries in the system now.  Not only does it feel like more of a playground than a library, but that so-called "Steam Space" area they spent no doubt thousands of dollars on is a complete failure.  The kids that go there are 100% from the school across the street.  They use the library as a sort of waiting room until their parents come to pick them up.  Yes, they do look for books.  And yes, they do sometimes ask for books about something they are studying.  But as I just said, the steam space is never used.  Especially now in Covid times.  The desk continues to be an abomination.  The new computers they installed during the pandemic are hardly ever used.

2) "Work in partnership with G.U.S.D. to determine the optimal methods through Library's online Circulation System to ensure students have library cards and are aware of available resources."

Grade: undetermined - I don't have access to certain things that would allow me to know how much of a success this is.  But, I know that yes, they gave every kid in the city schools a library card.  How many of those cards they actually use is interesting.  Especially after this week, where I saw my coworkers deleting stacks of library cards that were given out to the school kids.  These cards were never used or the child patron already had a card in the system.

3) "Expand the Maker Space Service Model to Children's Services, 6 branch libraries and Brand Library and Art Center."

Grade: F - But in a good way.  The branch maker spaces never materialized, thankfully.  Sure, they bought a bunch of 3D printers, but that a maker space does it make.  As always, they only ever get the surface of things.  They never really dive deep into anything.  They hear maker space at their conferences and get sold a bill of goods for things no one is interested in by the vendors that want to sell libraries a bunch of useless junk.  The fate of the maker space in children's is now sealed.  It never got off the ground, and now under the plans of the new children's room renovation the area that was supposed to be the maker space is going to be the new entrance.

4) "Develop a cohesive marketing plan to ensure a consistent message and effective outreach to inform existing clients and engage those who are not currently aware of resources.  The Marketing Plan will consider public relations and inter-departmental communication."

Grade: D - The reliance of social media for this is too much.  It doesn't really engage the average patron.  I had a conversation with one of the librarians about how the library isn't very good at disseminating information to the masses.  As a matter of fact it's probably the worse thing we do.  Printing up some fliers isn't going to get anyone new to the library.  It's only going to inform those who already go to the library.

5) "Review and expand upon the 2011 Strategic Vision for the Department.  Engage a facilitator to conduct a process that is inclusive of staff, community and community organizations."

Grade: F - The staff is never included in anything.  They are currently working on the renovation for the children's room.  They have already set the design.  It's only now that they are sending out links to a survey for the public to tell them, "What they want."  Yeah, that's not how anything works.  You don't set the plan and THEN ask what do you want the plan to contain.  Typical bullshit here.

Anyway, that's just part of her paperwork.  Perhaps later in the month I'll talk about her evaluation, and how it was just a political document meant to serve as a "I'll wash your hand if you wash mine," thing with DrDeath.  Bullshit!

So the dummy administrators are at it again.  They invited all of us to a so-called "Staff Recognition Event."  The dopes upstairs have no new ideas.  Instead of doing something we would really appreciate, like not getting hours cut, these dopes try to smooth all their crimes by throwing us some stupid bone.  The event is being piggy backed on a band concert that was already happening.  What they should do is have another one of the old staff days where they feed us and don't treat us like dirt.  Yeah, but what am I saying, they don't know how to do such things.  They only know how to hurt their workers by treating them like dirt.  I'm not going to this stupid event.  They can eat shit.  Also, I have plans for that day.  TheNewCute asked if I was doing.  Having her anywhere is good, but I already have birthday plans for that day.  It would have been cool to invite her, but this time it's just for TheGirl and me.

There's a girl that I first started following on social media after watching a movie she was in.  The movie is called "Birdemic: shock and horror," and the actress I follow is named Whitney Moore.  She's really cute, and I like her pictures.  Well, while I was at Brand this really pretty girl walked by the front desk, and I really thought she looked like this Whitney woman.  I couldn't forget how the girl at Brand was wearing those crazy butt hugging pants that women buy to show off their ass cheeks.  And I remembered the unique neon color.  Sure enough, later on in the day I saw that Whitney posted a picture on her social media wearing those exact pants.  The color matched, and the ass matched.  So yeah, she was there.  I mean, what a gorgeous girl.

Friday, September, 3, This week I returned to the old route.  The route that I was running pre-covid.  It felt good to go back to the old routine.  I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I didn't like the freedom that, what you might call, the Covid time route gave me.  It was good to have the entire system to myself and be able to work and not be bothered.  And the lack of traffic was nice.  However, I do like that the old route still holds up.  It is still worth keeping.  I tried different things during the pandemic to change things around and in the end going back to the old route is like going back home.  Good times.

On Wednesday the dopes upstairs distributed some donuts to the branches and Central.  Almost no one touched them.  Here are some donuts in the fridge at Montrose.  As you know, donuts don't really travel well after a day.  They get really hard and they taste nasty.  Kinda makes you wonder what happens to them in your body.  Also, the Admin dopes had some orange juice.  I should have put that in quotes, because a lot of people commented that it wasn't real orange juice.  The bottle wasn't even open at Montrose, and I saw that at other locations the bottle wasn't touched either.  The people upstairs are so incredibly detached that they think throwing us grunts a bone like donuts once a year, and splashing it with some OJ is going to boost moral, or something.  Well, as with all their projects this was a fail.  I refused to eat a donut.  Especially since they were delivered on Wednesday and here it is Friday and they're still out.  No thanks.

This is a picture of a girl that lives across the street from the Adams Square branch library.  I've seen her for the last couple of years, at least.  I'm sure she's probably Armenian.

Emma asked me to hang out with her tonight, because her friend, and our coworker, was going to go on a date.  Emma bought me food and drinks.  Boy did she buy me drinks.  We also hung out with our coworker's friend, who was pretty nice.  I wish I could drink more.  The date went well, but I honestly don't remember if she is going to go out with him again.  I would assume yes.

Saturday, September, 4, Weeks ago I bought tickets to the Hollywood Bowl to see John Williams.  Tonight was FINALLY the night.  TheGirl and I dusted off our old routine of getting a picnic together and having it at the Bowl.  I had bought wine earlier in the week for tonight.  Before heading out to the shuttle parking lot we bought some sandwiches at Vons.  We arrived at the shuttle stop and sure enough there were already people there waiting.  The line was long, but not too bad.  We only waited a little bit of time.

I turned around at one point and saw how much the line had grown since we arrived.  We had been the end of the line but it did not stretch back as far as it did when we arrived.  We arrived JUST before the hoard did.

We arrived at the Hollywood Bowl and made a beeline towards the picnic area.  We didn't see any spots in the first picnic area, which is closest to where the shuttles disembark.  But, I had done my homework and knew there was another picnic area just a few yards away.  Sure enough, it was packed, but some people were leaving, and TheGirl pounced on the table as soon as the other couple left.  Perfect!  We had never sat in this picnic area, and it afforded us a really nice view of the Bowl behind us.

Once we sat down TheGirl got the wine ready while I took out the plates and the food.  Good times!  I think I determined that the last time we had been to the Hollywood Bowl was back in 2017.  We had wanted to go the last few years, but nothing came up, or the tickets had been sold out.  And of course last year there were no shows.  But, we made it to this one and it was great.  It was like visiting an old friend.  I got really emotional during the national anthem.  Mainly because of all that we have all had to endure the last year and a half.  I was happy to be back.

And then the show started!  I'm not going to say that we had the greatest seats, but they were nice.  When we first started going to the Bowl when we were dating TheGirl and I got seats in section M.  This time we were close by in section L.  For the next show we're going to be more to the side, but I think a wee bit closer.  All I know is that some day I want to be able to be in the box seats.  Some day.  John Williams only did half of the show, since he's like ninety-two years old, someone said.  It was great, because he did two encores.  The first one of course had to be the Emperor's March from The Empire Strikes Back.  The second encore was from ET and Raiders of the Lost Arc.  Fucking good times!

Monday, September, 6, I was thinking about how the next day off I have is not until November 11th.  I know, it's not a good idea to just focus on the days off, and nothing else.  Actually, right after that is my trip up to Solvang.  I can't wait.

My aunt and I buy birdseed for the birds in the backyard.  We get a lot of birds these days.  I bought a nice new hummingbird feeder last month, because I love watching them fly around.  What I need now is a birdbath.  For now we're using this plate, for lack of a better word, that is usually placed under a plant container.  I want to get the birds a real birdbath.  It was nice to see the birds using it this morning.  I saw two birds taking baths.  And yesterday I saw a few birds drinking from it.  I want to get a real birdbath, with a little solar pump that keeps the water circulating.  It's good to have the water circulating.  Not just for the water, but also it makes for nice sounds.

Tuesday, September, 7, Last night I was really tired around 10pm, so I went to bed early.  But then I couldn't actually fall asleep.  I couldn't get comfortable.  It was warm, so I went ahead and turned on the A/C.  That made things better, but I still wasn't able to get comfortable in bed.  I had the A/C on a forty-five minute timer, and when it went off I knew it was late.  I turned it on again and tried to sleep.  No luck.  After a little while I thought that maybe I should just jerk off.  That was fine, and it felt good to jerk off the old fashion way, without porn.  However, I still took some time to fall asleep, but I finally did.  I think taking a long nap in the middle of the day yesterday sure didn't help.

Work was busy today, and I'm tired tonight.  It also doesn't help that it was hot today.  That sapped my energy today.  Couple that with not sleeping well last night and I'm a tired monkey tonight.

Both the Adams Square and Pacific Park branches opened today.  I don't know how the openings went, but I'll be asking question in the days and weeks to come.  I suspect no one showed up to Adams, because why would they.

Wednesday, September, 8, TheGirl and I went to Michael's on Riverside for dinner tonight.  The waitress we always get, Sarah, is a bit sassy.  I ordered up some pizza, which I didn't even come close to finishing.  Even though tomorrow is TheGirl's birthday she didn't allow me to buy her dinner tonight.  Because in the scheme of things it's her week to pay for dinner.  My week is next week, but she's also taking me for dinner next Friday.

When we went to the Hollywood Bowl TheGirl mentioned to me that she had a couple of itchy spots on her left arm.  She went to the doctor and they told her that she was suffering from shingles.  Shingles!  Can you believe that?  I'm not sure what treatments she's going to get for this, but hopefully it won't be too bad on her.  Talia recently had shingles, and she was in a lot of pain.

TheGirl couldn't have booze with dinner tonight, since she's on meds.  I had two cocktails, and then when I got home I had about three shots of whiskey.  Good times.  Well, there was a point that I took off my Apple watch and put on the Fossil watch I bought my aunt last year.  The watch she never used.  I like wearing it at night in order to see my heart rate when I'm feeling strange.  But I also like it because I can use the Google assistant function on it.  That is, when it actually connects to the internet.  I'm not sure why this thing doesn't automatically connect to my home internet.  The straw that broke the camel's back tonight was the fucking thing not displaying the weather followed by it not connecting to the internet so I could turn on the A/C before I went to sleep.  I was fucking livid.  I didn't pay a lot for the watch, but it should at least do the simplest of things, such as its core functions.  Like the fucking weather!  I was so mad I got out of bed and ripped the watch off my wrist and threw it at my dresser.  I probably destroyed it.  Piece of shit!  I bought it so my aunt would wear it and she never did.  For a while Chan wore it, because that way I figured if someone monkey napped hims we could find hims.  But that function never worked, because the fucking thing wouldn't connect to the internet by itself.  And finally, I wore it to track my heart rate at night.  Oh well, maybe I'll buy another night time watch.  I saw one online for about $30.

Thursday, September, 9, The girl pictured on the left in the above photo is Renia.  She's a good worker and she's, of course, leaving the library system soon.  Before the end of the month.  She got herself a full time job with the county.  Which is a good gig.  I can't blame her for leaving the library.  Unless you go full career than there's really no future for you.  She's another one of a growing list of people that have left the library in the in last two years.  A few retired, but some got themselves better jobs.  Good for them.  I'm stuck, but I make a nice amount of money.  Not great, but good, so I stay.  Also, every application I've put out there in the last few years have just been rejected.  I don't even get a thanks for nothing email from the employer that rejects me.  Oh well, I guess that's the trend these days.

When I got to Brand I felt my underwear really sticking to my ass.  I wondered if it was because of the heat today.  I thought perhaps my sweat was causing this problem.  When I got to Brand I went to the bathroom and I found that I had shit myself.  ARGH!  What an embarrassment.  Not only was I in the employee bathroom, but the smell of my soiled underwear would be clear if I went out with it in tow.  I thought of taking it off and wrapping it in my undershirt, but that wouldn't be good.  The van would smell, I would smell, and the air around me would smell.  I gave up.  I too my underwear off and just tied it up and threw it in the big trash can in the bathroom.  If that trash can hadn't of been there I don' know what I would have done.  As it was I could kinda small some shit on my pants, but I bolted out of there and figured I wouldn't linger anywhere.  And the worst thing is my next stop, Pacific Park, is where TheLooker was working today.  ARGH!

Speaking off, TheLooker of course looked great today.  She wears these silly long shirt-like dresses.  But boy, do they look good on her.  I didn't talk to her much today, because of the shit smell that was following me.  But, the little I did talk was nice.

I got a text today from Pseudo supervisor saying that the head librarian at Crowell is going to retire before the end of the month.  September 21st, to be exact.  That's SUPER fast.  Not to wish this upon her, but I'm wondering if she's sick and has to retire because of that.  It could also be that the new director just started working there and she wants to escape before she has to deal with a new dummy.  I guess I'll find out more next week.

Friday, September, 10, As I was watching the news this morning the weather liar mentioned that there were storms overnight.  Ilsa sent me a video of thunder and lighting she captured while driving home from work.  I figured that was a thing that happened out in her neck of the woods, but when I got outside I noticed my car had, what you may call, a sprinkling of water drops on it.  The floor was not wet at all.  It was probably just a quick little cloud that dropped some water and kept going on its merry way.  Of course it didn't rain the rest of the day.  Oh well.

I visit the Chevy Chase branch on my delivery route once a week, on Fridays.  Today I went and didn't expect to see anyone there, but there was a guy that works here and at Montrose.  He was there because the voting machines were being installed for this weekend.  What had also been installed this past week was something I never thought I would see in any library.  They installed a coffee machine (see above).  I know I say that such and such thing is a new low, but this coffee machine may just be the lowest of the low.  Why would they think that it's OK for a library to have a coffee machine?  Because they're going to automate this branch soon and they think people are going to linger.  No one lingers at Chevy Chase.  I've worked there a few times up there, and each time the patrons come in, pick up their holds, and leave.  No one lingers.  Even Emma told me that Veed is nuts to think that they need to make all these changes.  The Montrose/Chevy bunch told him that no one goes to Chevy.  Did he listen?  Nope, obviously not.  But then again, I'm not sure he has much choice but to follow the stupid plans of the administration.  Even before Veed took over at these branches they had the idea of automating the branch.  They showed us videos years ago.  Of course, like with everything else they've done in the last few years, they are going to fuck this up royally.  Any good project starts off with a good foundation.  This, is starting in quicksand.  I told my buddy that I wanted to start a little blog called "The Loneliest Coffee machine."  I may just do it.

Since I shit my shorts yesterday I had to wear some clean pants today.  I don't have a second pair of work pants, so I had to wear my jeans.  No one said anything, except TheNewCute.  She asked me what the deal was with the jeans, and added, "Is is laundry day?"  I told her that I guess she could say that.  I couldn't tell her I shit my pants, of course.  No way I could say that to anyone, except here in this journal.  I think I need a second pair of work pants.  Maybe some overalls.

The dopes upstairs sent out an email that I immediately deleted.  However, I had to go back into my email trash to see the questions after the librarian at Brand told me about how stupid the questions were.  And yes, they are completely stupid.  From the start they really don't want to know my answer.  The first question is "How happy are you at work?"  Yeah, no one is going to answer anything above a three star answer.  The second question about being informed is insane, since they never communicate anything with us.  So yeah, go fuck yourself, survey.

TheNewCute is the spotlight on San Marino's social media.  This is the survey that she was trying to get me to answer, only to finally answer for me.

Saturday, September, 11, My aunt wanted a chile relleno for breakfast, just like last week.  I took my ass to the restaurant in Burbank to pick one up, but the parking in front was full.  I went around the corner and found nothing.  In a spur of the moment I went and decided to head over to Forest Lawn to visit my Grandmother's, and Godmother's, grave.  I don't remember the last time I went to visit.  It was good, but also bad.  Everywhere I went there was some dope around, and it made me not want to deal with them.  People suck.

I didn't take long at Forest Lawn, because I was getting hungry.  I'm sure my aunt was getting hungry as well.  She wanted a chile relleno, but they hadn't made any yet.  It was too early, so I ordered her some enchiladas.  Thankfully she liked them.  I ordered a breakfast burrito, which was really yummy.  I think it was because of the sausage.  I haven't had sausage in a long time.  Damn good.  I will definitely order it again.

Sunday, September, 12, I was not feeling well last night.  I wanted to jerk off, but I was so out of it that I just went to bed instead.  I had set up the computer to my favorite porn site and everything.  But then when it came to that time I just wanted to sleep.  Super sucks.

My aunt knows that I'm going to dinner on Friday for my birthday, so she wanted to celebrate today.  When we went to the market she said I should choose a cake.  I picked a black cherry one.  At first she wondered why I would buy a cake with white frosting, but I knew that the chocolate would be fine.  Sure enough, it tasted good.  My aunt even liked it.  I like how she doubts me.

Monday, September, 13, I'm getting tired of writing about this, so I guess today should be the last time I write about this piece of shit family I have.  As you can see from the picture above, I am showcasing my family showing up early to school.  I'm sure in the history of this bullshit they may have arrived earlier than this morning, but I don't remember them showing up this early.  They arrived at 6:41am.  6:41am.  That is some prime fucking assholery.  I mean, they don't start school until 8am.  I don't understand why they can't just go straight over there and not come to my house at all.  Look, I've been here before.  I've said all this before.  Today was a fucking last straw.  I really wish I never saw these people ever again.

I was so sick and disgusted with these actions that I didn't even want to walk back to my room after they arrived.  I took my breakfast, which consisted of leftover pizza, and ate it in my backyard.  After they left I didn't even want their scent in my house.  I went and got the bottle of peppermint oil that's meant to repel bugs and sprayed it all over the living room.  Such bullshit!  Last night I set my alarm to wake me up two minutes earlier than last week.  I figured that two minutes would give me that much more time to get ready before these dummies show up.  Well, it looks like unless I want to wake up at 5am I'm just going to have to suffer with these dopes.  I wish they would never come back.

I got to work early this morning, but I sat outside in my car.  That is until the office manager set off the alarm.  I went to help her and then grabbed my stuff from my car.  I then started to open up the various gates.  On my way back from opening the side gate I saw the head librarian.  She told me the story about her being fired but given the choice of retiring.  She didn't mention why they fired her.  We have all known that she was on the chopping block for a while now.  The city manager was not happy with her at all.  Now her last day is next Tuesday.  Messed up.

Tuesday, September, 14, I went to the Adam's Square branch first thing today, because I wanted to kill some time before lunch.  When I got there I steered the conversation to the new "break room," since I already knew that they had converted a closet into a break room.  My coworkers showed me the actual "break room."  See above, for what passes for a break room at Adams Square.

I have security cameras all over the house.  There is one in the living room and a few outside.  If my aunt moves in those areas of course it triggers the cameras to record those actions.  Today the cameras caught my aunt leaving the house.  But not just the house, but like walking down the street.  Where she went she never told me, and I didn't ask.  It's her business.  But, what is my business is that I gave her a phone in order to track her, to make sure she's safe.  I'm not worried about her being kidnapped, or anything like that.  I'm more afraid of her falling down again and hurting herself.  And what happens if she loses her senses, like last time, and can't remember things like where she lives?  For that reason I want to track her.  But she never takes the phone with her.  So why am I paying for the service.  I figure that I have those tags that allow you to see where they are. I could just attach that to her keys and boom, instant tracking.  Now it's not the same as the phone tracking, which is up to the minute.  Mainly because the service on the phone allows for it to connect to the towers and GPS.  This tag method would be different, but at the same time it may be just as effective.  Also, I don't want to continue to pay $13 a month for the phone service.

TheDesire and I speak via voice text.  But, she didn't respond to my last set of messages.  Today I sent her a text about Adams so-called "break room."  She used to work at that branch, so she knows how small that place is to be in.  Having a closet be turned into a break room is next level hilarious.  After I sent her the text she sent me a quick voice message.  She says at the end that she misses me.  Oh boy do I miss her.  My heart still flutters when I hear her voice.  I seriously need to get over her.

TheNewCute was leaving to go to her other job at San Marino when I arrived at Grandview today.  She started drawing a little drawing for another coworker.  She then posed for the above pictures.  It's nice to see TheNewCute's face once in a while.

Wednesday, September, 15, Pseudo supervisor invited me to have lunch today after my desk shift.  She wanted to celebrate a friend's birthday.  I don't think she remembered it was my birthday, but it was nice of her to invite me to come along as well.  The girl she invited is named Iris, and she has worked with Pseudo supervisor for the last few months.  Ever since the spring when we did our Trivia Night Fever event.  She's been helping with the social media stuff.  Did I mention that she's pretty?  She is.

TheGirl mentioned that we should try something different for dinner tonight, and suggested that we go up to Burbank and eat at a place called Granville.  There used to be one of these restaurants a few yards from the library where I work.  I hadn't been there in a long time.  They still don't have a great menu though, so I ended up getting a burger.  Oh, and a couple of Manhattans.  As always, good times.

Thursday, September, 16, You gotta love the dummies upstairs doubling down on their stupidity.  The return of the so-called "222 East" series marks the latest fail.  Not happy with the failure of this series before, now they have brought it back.  No one attended these "concerts" at the library when they started there.  They were done in front of the library, and the whole thing was bullshit.  Patrons hated the noise and having to step around them in order to enter the library.  Then they moved them to the East "lawn" area.  I say that in quotes because it's such a small area.  Well, even fewer people attended there.  Then they moved them to the so-called "Paseo" that is the walkway from the alley to the Neon museum area.  Now they're having these stupid concerts at the other "Paseo," the one up the street from the library.  The city closed off a part of what used to be Maryland st. to have a little plaza.  It's not the worse, but it's also not that great.  The dopes upstairs are devoid of any good ideas, and certainly of any new ideas.  Hence them brining these failure back.

The children's librarian gave me some boxes with bags in them.  She told me they were the snacks for the Brand get together tomorrow.  I couldn't help myself, so I had to check what was in the bags.  When I got to Grandview I went into the branch with one of the bags and showed TheNewCute.  The contents of the bags were: Cracker Jacks, gummy fruit snacks, corn chips and a small bottle of water.  Yeah, THAT'S IT.  I just know that these stupid snack bags are a last minute thing, because the dummies upstairs didn't mention snacks at first.  I'm sure that almost no one will show up tomorrow.  BTW, TheNewCute said that no snack would be better than this horrible collection of snacks.  I agree.  She also said what we are all thinking, this is what they think of us.  Fucking, eat shit.

As I get on the freeway most nights after work I flip my wrist and ask Siri how long it will be until I get home.  Obviously during the pandemic closures she would tell me something like, you'll be home in seventeen minutes.  Awesome!  I never suspected that would last forever.  Today she told me that it would take about forty minutes to get home.  Well, she was wrong, but it wasn't her fault.  Some dopes decided it was a good idea to follow closer together and of course the smashed each other up.  I don't know the actual details of the crash, but these days drivers are really aggressive about lane changes.  Many people are cutting me off these days.  They start their merge, with a limited cushion for the move, and THEN they put on their turn signal.  And many of them don't even put their turn signal on at all.  It's a clusterfuck all the way.  Knowing this I'm sure some dummy cut someone off, or was riding someone's ass tailgating, and then boom... six car crash.  Getting to the crash from my entrance in Glendale took forty minutes.  Forty minutes to travel about five miles.  After I got passed the accident it was clear sailing and I got home in about fifteen minutes.  I fear this is going to happen a lot more now from this point forward.

Friday, September, 17, I went up to Chevy today and I found out that the coffee machine was finally turned on.  It doesn't have all the supplies to make all the different flavors of coffee, but it could make simple coffee.  Everyone I talk to about it, other than the branch manager, finds the installation of this thing a total waste of time and money.  No one is going to use this thing.  Patrons won't even see it.

When I got to the Grandview branch today TheNewCute had some gifts for me.  Included was a card, and it said the above.  "Viejito" is Spanish for little old man.  She also gave me a six pack of Cokes, and some flowers.  Nice.

TheGirl made reservations for my fiftieth birthday months ago.  She planned on taking me to Tam O'Shanter for dinner.  Why there?  Walt Disney used to have lunch there every day.  His old studio in Los Feliz did not have a commissary, so for lunch he would head over to Tam O'Shanter.  He had a favorite table in the corner.  When TheGirl made the reservation she asked to be seated at that table, but they told her that they couldn't guarantee we would get the table.  Well, we got the table.  I suspect they say that but they really do reserve that table for someone asking for it.

There's TheGirl, dressed to the nines.

As part of my gift TheGirl bought me a Lordship.  I'm now a Scottish Lord.

Here I am sitting at the Disney table, having the time of my life.

This is one of two dinosaurs that have been carved into the table.  Both are dinosaurs that appear in the movie Fantasia.

The night was young, but my full belly meant it was time to go home.  I know I had a great time.  The food was good, and so was the booze.  And of course the company was great.  On the way home I was asked if I had felt the earthquake.  Well, no.  I was driving so I didn't feel it at all.  All in all a great birthday celebration.

Saturday, September, 18, As a part of my birthday celebration TheGirl got us tickets to the Warner Bros. studio tour in Burbank.  We've walked by the offices many times after having dinner in Burbank.  About a month ago TheGirl asked if I was interested in going on the tour, and I said I was.

Here are just some of the movies Warner Bros. is famous for producing, including one of my personal favorites, "Rebel without a Cause."

In a display showing some of personal items belonging to the Warner Bros. there was a phone book that had Walt Disney's phone number.  How cool.

TheGirl used to watch Ellen all the time.  Until she found out she was a terrible person.  I remember going to a show once with her.  I "won" a diamond necklace, which I sold for $100.

The set for Central Perk had some interesting coffee blends.

It turned out that today was national Batman day.  I grabbed the first clean shirt that had something to do with Warner bros., but all day long I got comments like, "Nice shirt," and "Happy National Batman day."  Good times.

Monday, September, 20, Today the grunts threw a little retirement party for our outgoing boss.  She is not making a secret of her being fired.  Yes, she's calling it a retirement, but she told everyone the story that she was told by the HR guy that she needed to retire before they fired her.  Sad.

Who knows what bullshit is coming down the pike now that Irene is leaving.  Whatever does come down it's not going to be good, that's for sure.  This is going to be nothing but more bullshit.  Just wait, you'll see.

I was chatting with Ilsa today via Messenger and I mentioned that I saw the list of special foods for Halloween at Disneyland.  I sent her the list.  It's really a lot of food.  Almost too much food, if that's possible.  I can't wait to try some of it.  I wish I could literally just buy a couple of bite sizes and that way I could try all the food.  But that's not possible.

Tuesday, September, 21, Vagabundo sent me some images that he found in some folder of renderings of the new children's room at Central (see above).  I have to say that I don't totally hate the look of the new children's room, but there are some problems.  Of course.  I do like that they will be installing some bathrooms upstairs.  Basically this fixes the problem that they got into when they took out the old bathrooms during the last renovation.  I'm not so sure about the rest of the "improvements" to the room though.  Like I said, it's not all negative.

Today was Irene's last day at San Marino.  I know I'll keep in touch with her, but for sure things are going to be totally different from this point forward. I'm pretty sure the new lady is going to make huge changes.  And of course not all for the better.  I really wish I could win the lotto already.

I was driving up to the Civic center when I saw some idiot in front of me making some stupid moves.  Little did I know how stupid the moves would become.  The driver in the picture used the handicap dip on the sidewalk as a driveway to make a three point turn.  These dopes really need to stop driving.  They need to have their licenses taken away.  These drivers are a menace.  Every week I think it can't get any worse, and then it does.  Just awful.

Wednesday, September, 22, I don't have much to say about today.  TheGirl and I went to the Counter for dinner.  She won't be in town next Wednesday, so I wonder what I should do for dinner next week.  When she can't make it I usually try to go somewhere that I wouldn't be able to go with her, because of Cheyenne.  TheGirl is going on a trip up to Big Bear.  She was supposed to go a couple of weeks ago, but then she got shingles.

Thursday, September, 23, I said I wasn't going to mention my family showing up early, but I have to mention this.  I went ahead and set my alarm to 5:40am in order to get a jump on these dopes.  Today it worked out perfectly.  I got up, got into a shower and ate breakfast, all before 7am.  It was perfect.  Yeah, except one thing, the family didn't show up.  Which is good, but I rushed for nothing.  But you know what, I'll take it.  I'll gladly do this if it means that my family won't show up early ever again.  I honestly just don't even want them around.  They can take a flying leap, for all I care.  I'm just so annoyed by them.  Look what they have made me do.  I can't even have a few precious moments to myself before the long work day.  They bring me nothing but stress.  I sure hope this isn't a temporary thing.  I hope they listen to what my aunt told them and they don't come back.

The new lady at public works is gone (pictured above).  I was hoping to get to know her better, but apparently she left the city for another job.  Jeez, I don't get people these days.  So long, I hardly knew ye.

I've dropped my Bose speaker from time to time.  A few weeks ago I noticed that there was some distortion coming from the speaker when I turned it up loud.  I checked it out and I found that part of the piece of plastic that keeps the speaker from moving too much was busted.  I went ahead and bought some of that repair putty and tonight I tried to fix it.  The putty cures in about five minutes, so a few minutes later I tried it out and it sounded really good, with no distortion.  Woo!  I think I may have fixed it.

Friday, September, 24, Earlier in the week I went up to administration and they had four boards with renderings of the new children's room and teen room.  The children's room I already talked about, but now we set our eyes on the teen area.  While the children's room has some positives, the teen area is all fail.  They are doubling down on the recording studio idea.  But do you think that they will soundproof it?  They didn't soundproof the last "studio."  There are also plans to have a video game system in the corner.  Like, why?  There is also plans for some strange ceiling design that is supposed to be, "Interesting," for the teens.  Yeah, right.  In short, this is going to be the worst fail yet.

So, despite the fact that they have been working on this thing for nearly a year, it's only now in the process that these dopes are asking for the public's opinion.  The admin dopes placed this poster and invitation to voice an opinion in the teen corner.  I never see anyone going back there to do anything.  They obviously put it there to get no opinions.  The plans are already done.  To ask for opinions now is just paying the public lip service.  I'll check out this thing next week and I guarantee that it will not have any comments.  OK, maybe one.

When I went up to Chevy today I had to laugh when I saw the optimistic hold shelf (pictured above).  Originally Veed had made the first two shelf columns the shelves for the book holds.  I've worked at Chevy a few times and each time we didn't get much more than five visitors in an eight hour shift.  And you know what those patrons did?  They came in... got their books... and they left.  That's it.  I've never seen anyone linger there.  And to be fair, I haven't worked there in years, and I only worked there three shifts.  Still, in talking to those who do work there it would appear that things haven't changed.  Yet, the powers that be are pouring money and resources into that branch as if they think dozens of people are going to visit that branch.  The reality is no one is going to show up.  Those shelves show you their thoughts and the reality of the situation at the same time.  Veed wanted to have all these shelves ready for holds.  The ton of holds he expected.  But, the reality is that their are only three holds.  THAT alone should make them think that all these stupid efforts, such as bringing more books to the location, are futile.  And not happy with that, there is work going on to automate the branch.  But as with everything else they do, the dopes upstairs have committed to doing something, but not into doing it right.  They're doing it completely half-assed.

Sunday, September, 26, A couple of weeks ago my aunt said she wanted a pastrami sandwich for breakfast.  I was like, what the fuck?  This week I thought, "Why don't I get her a pastrami sandwich from Honeybaked?"  I told her and she said that was a good idea.  So I jumped into the car and drove out to Toluca Lake to the Honeybaked store.  I came back home and my aunt ate her sandwich.  I don't think she liked it, because she said that I could eat the second half of the sandwich later.  Ah, I already had a half sandwich to eat later, since I didn't finish my sandwich.  Later she told me that she thought it would be on a roll rather than on a slice of bread.  I told her she should have said that, because they will put it on a roll.  Oh well.  I think I need to bring her a sandwich from The Hat.

My aunt said that she wanted to make latkes for me so I can eat them for lunch during the week.  I was outside in my backyard, so I was chilling out.  My aunt started to work on them and I passed out on my bench.  When I woke up I noticed she was already cooking them up.  When I went into the kitchen I was confronted with the scene above.  I have no idea why she had flour.  The latkes were not correct.  Basically latkas are like hash browns, but with eggs and onions.  I didn't see an onion in sight, nor did I see shredded potatoes.  On the contrary, the potatoes where more like mashed.  I don't know where my aunt got this recipe, but it sure ain't latkes she made today.  Not only that, but it took her literally hours to make these.  I don't know why she made so much, as well.  We are literally two people in the house.  I have already mentioned how many times I eat here at home, and how many meals I have a week.  I also don't understand what took her nearly three hours to make what is super simple to make in probably an hour.  Oh well, they actually tasted pretty good, but how can you fuck up potatoes?

Monday, September, 27, My aunt is difficult to deal with.  Any little interaction with her is emotionally draining.  I can't hear her half the time, and when I can hear her she makes no sense.  I don't want to beat her up too much, but I just wanted to bitch about these facts.  She thinks some crazy thoughts, and like the latkes the other day, they were just done wrong.  She makes a mountain of food when it's only the two of us.  I don't know why she doesn't ever get it through her thick skull that we don't need a mountain of food.  She made me lentil soup and I ate most of it.  But I did leave some, and it went bad.  I'm sure in her mind I'm the bad person that left food.  But she had made other food and then I had to eat that.  She doesn't understand portions.  She keeps on telling me it's wrong to sweep up my backyard on Saturdays, because it's the sabbath.  She gives me grape juice to drink on Friday nights because it's shabbat.  I'm not going to be Jewish, ever.  She always tells me what to do.  I hate that.  She never gets facts right.

I was out in my backyard, as I'm apt to do all the time.  I hadn't seen a raccoon in a while, but tonight I got a couple of visits from the same raccoon (see above).  Good times.

Tuesday, September, 28, I knew there wouldn't be too many comments on the teen room, but I was surprised that there were four comments.  Of course the comments were not too keen on the idea.  The comments basically are connected about the loss of study space.  That's the library's bread and butter these days.  We don't have a lot of patrons coming in, except people that are studying.  This fail is already showing.

Wednesday, September, 29, TheGirl went out to Big Bear today for her belated birthday celebration.  The one she missed earlier in the month due to her getting shingles.  Her out of town means I'm without a dinner date tonight.  And since I'm not going to dinner with her I left Chan at home today.  It is silly to say I miss the little guy, because it's just silly.  Tonight I thought I would treat myself to a dinner at a place I wouldn't normally go with TheGirl.  I had the idea that I would go to Pink's, but I'm not entirely sure.  But yeah, this is about leaving the monkey at home.  It's become a habit to bring hims along with me, and it just feels strange to break that pattern.  Even if it is the practical thing to do.

Since I wasn't going to have dinner with TheGirl I went ahead and traveled to Pink's in Hollywood in order to get me some food that I wouldn't normally eat.  The food hit the spot tonight.