Afterthoughts : This Past Month

Well, here we are... a month into 2022.  A few weeks back it looked like the beginning of 2022 was going to be the beginning of the end of this Covid stuff.  However, with the holidays came families gathering.  Not my family, but that's a different story.  We're still in this, and I'm writing about it.  Here's the update.

Saturday, January, 1, Now, the above picture is not a picture of me this morning.  I look much older, and I have a beard.  Ha!  The picture above is from 2008.  The day after I told the Silmarillion how I felt about her.  I wrote about that in my last entry.  I don't know if I've said that story, but I guess I can repeat myself here.  That night was nuts.  I went over with the intention of telling her how I felt.  But when I was in the kitchen with the Silmarillion and her mother, her mother says, "You get to meet Silvy's boyfriend tonight."  My heart dropped to the floor.  Boyfriend?  Why was I even there?  Why was I in the picture?  I ended up spending most of the night playing beer pong with her brother.  After the ball dropped and the boyfriend arrived I was ready to go home.  Actually, I was ready right after that statement from the Silmarillion's mother.  But, I didn't have an out then.  They thought I had too much to drink to safely drive home.  They may have been right, but I felt like I should go home anyway.  I could just sleep it off in the car.  I could park it up the street and boom.  But, they didn't let me go.  The insisted I stay the night.  I did, in the pool house, where her brother lived as well.  I don't remember much about that night after that.  I woke up and got ready and hot footed it out of there.  Not before they gave me cake.  I was sad.  I took the picture above after I got home.  I look like hell, but believe me, it wasn't because of the booze.  I felt like my insides have been kicked around.  I took that picture because I told myself a few days before that I would make 2008 the year that I took a self portrait a day.  It was something that was happening on the internet at the time, so I was doing my version.  Just great timing to start it on this day in 2008, after being rejected once again.

I was only able to spend a little bit of time in the backyard since it was so chilly today.  I did pass out and have a nice little nap.  But, I had my blanket on and I was still cold.  These days I can't sit outside at night, because it's so cold at night.

The above is Miss March 1987.  I signed up for a lifetime membership to Playboy plus (everything is plus these days) and one of the first Playmates I wanted to revisit is Marina Baker.  In 1987 I was about sixteen years old, but I didn't get to see her issue at that age.  I just know that some time later I got my hands on her issue.  I think it might have been at the neighbor's house.  Our neighbor at the time as a guy that had some magazines in the master bathroom.  My Mother and Grandmother would make some extra money cleaning his house.  So sometimes I would go over there to just be with them and help out a wee bit.  One day I went into the master bathroom to get the trash, I think.  And that's when I saw the magazines in a pile on the vanity.  And that's when I got my first glimpse of Marina.  Boy, she was awesome!  I loved her body.  I had never known a women to look so amazing and so curvy.

The plan now is to check out the past magazine issues from the start.  And yes, maybe even read the articles.

Sunday, January, 2, Today a friend from the past called me while I was having breakfast.  When I was done I went out to the backyard in order to get away from my aunt, so she wouldn't comment about what I was talking about.  But just as I said, "Hey dude," to my friend was the moment that my neighbor saw me and said hi back.  Ha.  Then I turned around and boom, the other neighbor is talking to me about the branch he's going to cut.  Then I went to the front yard to be able to not be bothered by the sound of my neighbor cutting the branch with a power saw.  But then, my aunt came out the front door to say something to me.  I could not get away from all the interruptions.  Jeez!

Just as a bookend from the previous entry where I posted a picture from 2008, I'm now posting a picture from this morning (before I cut my hair).

Monday, January, 3, I got a voice recording from TheNewCute this morning saying she was not going into work today.  I didn't hear it the first time, because it was a little muffled, but she said "Family emergency."  In the next message she said that her father had died in a car crash.  I told her I was sorry, and that if she needed to talk she could call me.  She said she's going to head back home, and that I wouldn't see her for a few days.  Then she said she won't be back until January twenty-four.  Poor thing.  She had just gone home for the holidays and now this.  Someone dying is never going to be on a good time schedule.  But it really hurts during the holidays.

Today I got to met the new city library at my San Marino job.  First impressions is that she seems nice.  There were no overt red flags that popped up.  Time will tell if she's actually nice, or if she's a phony.  For now, she seems OK.

Tuesday, January, 4, I got to Adams Square, where the former delivery driver now works.  He was lamenting the other day that he kinda wished that he could just go back to driving delivery.  I told him he would love it, since it's pretty chill nowadays.  What with Herr gone, and Kvon just demanding that the job get done.  I like that, and I know the former driver would love it.  But, alas, he is not going to be able to go back to driving.  Unless, he drives around the new bookmobile the library plans on buying (see above).

The former driver showed me the vehicle that the library is planning on buying.  This thing looks pretty terrible.  I could go over every little bit, but really all you need to know is that this stupid thing looks like a chimp designed it.  It looks so bad.  The inside shelves are just the regular shelves that any library has.  I would think something custom like this would have some special shelves that would keep the books from flying around while the truck drives around, but it doesn't.  That and the stupid storage in the middle of the van looks so bad.  It is so tiny and had a pull out floor, because no one can really fit inside of it.  Only a little person.  It's going to be the next fail.  But as usually, they're going to have shit and call it ice cream.

OK, like every other dope I want to eat better in the new year.  I think the magic bullet is going to be eating more salads.  I like salads, and I don't get enough of them.  My diet is a beef heavy diet, for sure.  Lotta proteins and such.  But I do need to eat more salad in the new year.  On Mondays I go get some fast food after I get off work, because I stop off at TheGirl's before going home.  It's a quick visit with Chan in tow.  But, it means that I get food on the go, and it's usually something from McDonald's.  The other day I had a cheeseburger and small fries.  Even that was a thousand calories.  And what I need is to stick to something like fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred calories a day.  Tops.  That and getting some exercise will help get me to loose some pounds.  Oh, and drinking less.  To that end, I was looking around to see what fast food joints still had salads.  They used to all have them, because they needed to look like they weren't killing everyone with their burgers.  They had to offer an alternatives to their burgers to look good.  But, now most fast food places don't have salads.  Good to see Wendy's still does.  Jack-in-the-box used to have a really yummy salad with chicken and corn and beans.

Wednesday, January, 5, I went to the 99 cent store this morning to get some things that my aunt wanted.  When I was about to check out I noticed the above.  Wine!  The 99 cent store has sold wine for a while now, but never did they have this set of wines from Stella Rosa.  I texted the image to TheNewCute.  She mentioned that the store is getting fancy.

I hate to say it, but the new city librarian at San Marino is kinda sexy.  She came down to walk around the library today, and she was strutting it.  Even old Zak said she looked nice.  But then again, we're both horn dogs.  Ha ha!

Last week we went to an Italian restaurant, so tonight TheGirl and I went to eat Mexican.  She loves this place in Burbank named Don Cucos, but in my mind it's just meh.  I ordered the sopes, but they were just meh.  I'm wondering how they made them.  I mean they were horrible, but there was a lack of flavor.  Like all the flavors seemed to have the volume turned down.  Oh well.  I've only ever had one good meal there.  Seems to be a pattern with these places that TheGirl and I visit.

On our way to Burbank I asked TheGirl when she was going to get her first vaccine shot and she said, "Oh, I'm not getting it."  She went on to say that her friend told her that thousands of people were dying from blood clots caused by the vaccine.  I later went online and I could not find anything on the official CDC website that showed thousands of cases of people with blood clots.  The number of people that reported blood clots were in the dozens, not the thousands.  I think her friend is one of these dopes that are anti-vaxers.  So now she's not going to get it.  And with that I'm through trying to convince her.  Despite being two sheets to the wind when we drove over to Burbank I think I made a good case for getting the shot.  But, TheGirl shows her ignorance when it comes to this stuff.  I even asked her if she thought I knew what I was talking about.  She said that yes, I usually know what I'm talking about.  But, despite that she won't take my advice to take the fucking vaccine.  From this point forward I won't say anything.  I haven't said anything for WEEKS about this.  I respect her not wanting to get the shot.  But everyone around her is getting Covid.  Her daughter got it last year.  Now her daughter's boyfriend got it.  Her son, daughter-in-law and grandson all got Covid last week.  I assume they are well, since she hasn't updated me.

There's only so much I can do, and at this point in my life if you want to do something stupid then be my guest.  I don't have the energy to keep fighting to tell you that you're making a mistake.  Not just in my opinion, but objectively making a mistake.  TheGirl joked that I could do her eulogy at her funeral.  I didn't laugh.  Honestly, if she does pass away I would probably not go.  That's how angry this thing makes me feel.

Thursday, January, 6, Jade came out of his car when I arrived at Pacific.  Krishna had been talking to him and had walked away when I arrived.  Apparently there had been a bit of a row between them.  Jade told me that Krishna was being unreasonable.  A couple of days ago the Pacific cleaning lady came in sick.  Later that day Jade said he started feeling dizzy and really hot.  He said he ended up going to the ER and they found nothing.  He insisted to Krishna that the cleaning lady be sent home and that the whole place needed to be disinfected.  But, Krishna balked.  This is when Jade threw it into overdrive by threatening to email the city manager.  Something like that puts Krishna on her hind legs and into defense mode.  This is the clash of the titans I've been waiting to happen since the day that Jade was transferred to Pacific/Adams.

Jade is shady and always has conflicts with everyone, it would seem.  And Krishna has always been shady about things like this.  When I left the two of them and the assistant director were going to have a "meeting" about this whole sick thing.  The crazy thing is that Jade was 100% in the right about this.  The cleaning lady should have been sent home.  The place should have been disinfected immediately.  But, I'm sure that the managers have been told to keep any illness on the down low.  I seriously think that they have been told to not make a big deal of someone getting sick and coming to work, because they don't want to shut down again.

In addition to this whole cleaning lady thing Jade told me that Krishna hit his car with her car.  He showed me the dent.  It wasn't huge, but it was clear to see from even a distance.  He said that when he asked her for her information she balked and said that she had to ask her husband about it.  Then she offered to "Keep it between us," and told him that she, "Knew a guy."  Yeah, super shady.  He was telling me that he may end up having to call the police and file a report with them, because she won't give him her insurance information.  Kinda nutty, if you ask me.  Whatever "honeymoon" these two were having, getting to know each other by working together for the first time, is definitely over.

DrDeath sends out a weekly email update.  In amongst all the other stuff he mentioned TheNewCute's father being killed.  He mentioned that he passed away "Unexpectedly."  What I love is that these dopes upstairs always get something important wrong.  In this case they gave TheNewCute's phone number out.  BUUUUT, it's wrong.  They put, "818" and the reality is that the area code is actually "618."  Dopes.

Friday, January, 7, Last night at around 6pm I received an email asking me to get some N95 masks from the fire department.  Of course I didn't know that until early this morning, when I checked my email.  I figured I would go first thing and pick up the masks.  The email chain mentioned having about how they would give the library about a thousand masks.  I didn't know how many boxes that would be, but it turned out to be one big box worth.  I returned to Central right away, because I figured they wanted to distribute the masks immediately.  But, of course they didn't.  Shake my head.

TheLooker gave me one of a N95 mask that she had stashed away, because come the 17th we're supposed to be wearing a N95 mask.  The picture above is of me wearing the new mask.  No more cloth masks at work.  Not very stylish, but it is what it is.

In the spirit of trying to get out there and not pussyfooting around, I went ahead and asked TheLooker if she was busy next week.  Because if she wasn't I had tickets to the light showcase at the South Coast Botanical Garden in Palos Verdes.  I knew I was going to see her at Central, but I sent her a text before she was to start work.  She said she may not in town.  Just great.  So now I have tickets to this thing and no one to go with.  At least at the moment.  I could ask TheGirl, but the timing is crucial.  But, I guess I should just ask her or someone else now, because TheLooker may have just been saying she was busy because she doesn't really want to go with me.

Saturday, January, 8, The water heater has a problem where after a shower by my aunt the pilot light goes out.  I finally called in a repairman to see what could be done.  He said that he recommended a new water heater.  The problem isn't super bad, but he said it wasn't worth it to replace the burner, because it would cost almost as much as a new unit.  Fair enough.  He did say that if I can live with resetting the sensor then the tank should last another ten years.  For now I'm going to just live with having to reset the sensor.  The repairman said that sentiment builds up at the bottom of the tank, and it makes it harder to heat the water.  The regulator compensates by having the burner heat longer.  This then triggers the sensor to pop and that turns off the pilot light.  I can live with this as it is right now.  I'm not looking to spend $700 or more right at this moment.

TheGirl and I originally had plans of going to Joselitos in Montrose for dinner, like we always do when we go to Enchanted.  However, I saw online that Basin 141 had a yummy looking grilled cheese sandwich on social media.  TheGirl said we should go, so we ended up going there.  As you can see from the picture above the grilled cheese looks yummy, but it was the tomato soup that stole the show.  It was SOOOOO yummy.

There is a sign that almost everyone poses in front of (see above), because it's a natural photo spot for all.  TheGirl and I got in line to take a picture.  When we were nearly to the front the couple in front of us asked me if I could take their picture.  Sure, I said.  I framed their picture as best as I could.  But when it came for them to take our picture the guy totally fucked up.  Look at the above photo and the one below.  The guy should have had the camera point higher so the whole sign was showing.  Look how much floor is showing.  Fucking dope.

I cropped the above photo to kinda fix it.  But, the top of the sign is still cut off.  Dammit!  Next time I take my own pictures.

After TWO long years we have returned to Descanso gardens.  For the first couple of times I visited Enchanted Forest there wasn't much of a change to the displays.  But then a few years ago they started mixing up some stuff.  This year was no different.  They added new stuff and changed some other things.  Here are some pictures.

Overall it was a great bunch of lights this year.  They changed this up a bit, which is always good.  I'm going to ask TheGirl if she wants to go to the light show I bought tickets for hoping that TheLooker was free.  But, as I said before, she's either free and doesn't want to go or is actually going to Carmel.

Sunday, January, 9, My aunt asked me what I wanted her to make for my lunch this week.  The choices I had were lentils, again, and tuna salad.  I rather have the tuna.  So while I was passed out in my backyard my aunt cut up the celery and the onions.  But, as she always does, the left those ingredients super soggy.  When I woke up I went and took the salad spinner and got as much water off of those ingredients as possible.  I didn't take a picture of how much came off those things, but it was a significant amount.  It explains why my tuna is always so soggy.  But not this time.  No more soggy tuna salad.

Monday, January, 10, I was feeling tired last night, so I went to bed relatively early.  Just past 10pm.  But, despite getting to bed early I felt tired this morning.  It didn't help that I woke up sometime around 4:45ish am.  I'm not sure why I wake up so early.  The only good thing about Mondays is that I don't start work until 10am at San Marino.  Which means despite waking up early I get to linger a little longer.

I checked online to see if my raise at Glendale finally kicked in.  I thought it would have already kicked in last pay period, but I was wrong.  It starts to kick in this pay period.  Better late than never.  My pay went up $1.19 an hour.  I'm sure my coworker Tony would be steaming if he found out they gave me a twenty cent more per hour raise than his.  I say any raise is a good raise.  Before taxes this raise represents an added amount of $1,400 a year.  Not bad.  I should attempt to save that all in the coming years.  Or try to pay off some bills faster.

TheNewCute sent me a picture that her sister made.  She added, "My sister thinks she's funny."

Wednesday, January, 12, This morning TheLooker sent me a text asking who I thought was leaving the library.  I sent her back the message, "You?"  Sure enough, she said it was her.  She got a job in the planning department with the city.  She'll be working upstairs in the Perkin's building.  That's one of my stops on my route.  But, for sure I won't be seeing her as often as I do now.  Now I see her at least twice in a week.  With her up in Perkin's I may see her once a month or so.  That is, unless she starts hanging out with me.  I threw her an invite to the light show this weekend.  She said she was going out of town.  I still haven't confirmed that with her though.  But, the question is mute anyway, since I asked TheGirl to go.  I hope that she will want to hang out from time to time.  I like her a lot, and I'm super happy for her getting this job.  The library is good for some people, but she just seems like she's miserable there.  Mind you, Planning isn't easy.  She may end up being miserable there.  At least it's misery with a full time salary and benefits.

Work was work today.  The new city librarian has said that we are to have a morning meeting, but she didn't tell me what time.  When I walked to the desk it was 9:55am.  That's when I walked in on the meeting.  I mentioned that no one told me what time the meeting was supposed to be.  Now I know.  But what does this extra ten minutes mean to my timecard?  Because, I don't officially start until 10am.  Having a meeting ten minutes before opening means I'm on the clock at 9:50am.  I suppose I can leave ten minutes early.

TheGirl and I went to the Counter for dinner.  We usually sit in the back patio, but tonight they said that the back patio was closed.  I'm flexible, so it was OK by me.  But, TheGirl always worries that Cheyenne is going to fight another dog that walks by on the street.  But, thankfully there aren't that many dopes walking around the days.  I think people are staying home.  Sure does seem like it.  When we go out to these days there are fewer people at the restaurants we visit.  I know times are tough, and I think people are staying home due to the new variant as well as the price of everything going up.  Well, TheGirl and I are still going out no matter what.

Thursday, January, 13, When I arrived I walked up to the front steps and noticed that one of the umbrellas was burned.  I mean it was gone (as seen above).  The umbrella was a total loss, of course.  These umbrellas have already ben jinxed in the past.  One was stolen.  Another broke after a windy day.  And now this one has been burned.  They really need to rethink this whole umbrella thing.  Really.

I arrived at the Pacific Park branch and TheLooker was there.  I wasn't expecting to see her, so it was a bit of a surprise.  She was drinking some juice by the back office sink.  She had a smile from ear to ear.  She gave me a high five.  I'm happy for her, but I know that I won't be seeing her as often.  She's nice, but I know things like these days where I would see her like three times a week would only be temporary.  All good things, and such.  My only chance at seeing her more than once a month is if she decides to hang out with me.  I know I invited her to the light show in Palos Verdes, but she couldn't go because she was supposed to go out of town.  She did mention that she would not be at Central tomorrow.  She wants to use her sick hours, I would assume.  Oh well.  Ultimately what's going to happen is that I'll see her once in a blue moon when I go to the Perkin's building.  I would like to hang out with her, but I think she may just dodge my invites until I get tired of asking.  Which isn't going to take long, since she already has one strike.

Friday, January, 14, It was a busy day on the route today.  Not that there were a lot of items going out, but a lot of little details happening.  Nothing I can't handle, but just a lot of little things.

TheLooker said she was starting her new job on January 31st.  That means that this is probably her last week working here.  I can't imagine she would work next week, but what do I know.  I figure she would just call out a couple of days next week to get her sick hours in and then she bails.  I don't know this for sure, but I didn't ask her when her last day was.  I suspect today might have been the last effective day she works at the library.  Like I said, she'll take some sick hours and boom, she's gone.  And because of that I figure that's it for her at the library. I figure it's best to just move on and not expect her to really contact me, nor invite me to take those photos that she said she wanted at the Huntington.  Vagabundo mentioned that TheLooker seemed to have a bit a flaky personality.  I didn't see it before, because I was blinded by her eyes.  But now I see it.  Oh well.  She is a great girl.  Flaky or not, I think we could have had some fun.  Maybe on the next go around.

Saturday, January, 15, I was talking to Bundy yesterday about porn stars.  He went to the "X3 Expo" at the Hollywood Palladium.  He took some pictures posing with a few porn stars.  He mentioned that one of the biggest that was there was Christy Canyon (see above).  She's a favorite of mine, and one that I've jerked off to who knows how many times.  Tonight I looked for some of her old movies online.  I found one with one of my favorite scenes.  She was a goddess back then.  She is pretty hot these days as well.  Everything these days makes me feel old.

TheGirl and I went to Pasta Sisters in Culver City for lunch.  I've heard about this place for a while, and I really wanted to try it.  But I don't get out to Culver City much.  The pasta was really good.  I had the gnocchi.  While there we saw a line of people waiting in front of a bookstore.  We didn't know who it was for, but someone was signing books.  I guess some celebrity.  But, I did see Justine Bateman in line for the signing.

After dinner TheGirl and I made our way down to Torrance to the South Coast Botanical Garden to check out this so-called GLOW show.  We went to two other shows, and I hoped that this one would be good.  But, I hate to say that it was lacking in fun displays.  It was kinda meh.  Not kinda, really meh.  I took some pictures, but really I'm not going to overly share.  I'll certainly go to the other two light shows, but if I see tickets to this one next year I'm going to pass.

TheGirl and I were just arriving at the botanical garden when my phone started to ring.  It was my aunt.  She wondered called to ask if I left the front gate open.  In my mind I thought, "Who the FUCK cares!?"  Yes, I did it.  I went home, because TheGirl said that she would come over to my house so that I wouldn't have to drive her to her place and then drive back to my house after the lights.  It was a good idea.  I got off work so early that I went home and chilled for a bit, until she arrived.  My aunt was passed out in her room, and never heard me come home.  Or leave.  Or anything.  She didn't hear my neighbors take their jeep out either.  She heard NOTHING.  But, of course once awake she said she was "hearing things outside."  Yeah, no.  She didn't hear shit.  It's just her overactive imagination, because she's alone in the house and it's dark out.  Not happy with leaving one voicemail she called back twenty minutes later to basically ask the same thing and to mention the sounds she heard.  I didn't pick either call up.  I'm trying to have some fun.  But killjoy aunt here just wants to call to ruin my time.  So what if the front gate is open?  It could have been me, it could have been the neighbors.  Like I said, who cares?  It's open.  I know her usual move is to be a dick and close it.  But, this time she said she was warm and didn't want to go out in the cold.  Good.  Finally something prevented her dick move.

Sunday, January, 16, My aunt hasn't taken a shower for a few days, and thankfully the pilot light has survived.  She took a shower the other day, but she took a short shower.  When she took a shower last week it was an hour long.  The repairman said that the water heater tries to compensate for the mineral build-up at the bottom of the tank.  When my aunt takes a long shower she obviously uses more water and that means that the water in the tank is now cold.  The sensor goes off when she takes a shower.  It has gone off when I've taken shower, but 90% of the time it's gone off is when she takes a long shower.

Speaking of my aunt, the thought came to me that she might be depressed.  The way she acts isn't normal.  She always finds some lame excuse to call me, when she could just wait until I get home to make a comment or ask me a question.  She mentions that there must be something wrong with me since I drink, but what if she's projecting.  She does that a lot.  She generally seems down.  It's hard to put into words, but I kinda feel she might be down.

TheGirl had dinner with her daughter tonight.  They went to Don Cucos in Burbank.  She sent me a picture of Cheyenne staring at some flan that they ordered.  Awww, puppy.

Monday, January, 17, I woke up and found that it had started raining last night.  It was coming down pretty good as I drove to work (see above).  It's nice when it rains, but there are too many nuts that don't slow down when it rains.

Almost everyone that I work with at San Marino have been vaccinated.  Some even boosted.  But there's one dope, who is on the spectrum, that did not get vaccinated.  He comes from a conservative family.  I get it, you don't want to vaccinate.  That's fine.  But, the way the city was talking last year it sounded like refusing to get jabbed meant you lost your job.  Somehow this guy is above all that.  Because what happened is that this guy got special treatment.  He was "Isolated" in the processing room and not allowed to work downstairs shelving books.  Anyway, I got a call from the office manager asking if I could come in on my Saturdays a wee bit earlier.  Like, let's say 8:30am she said.  Eight fucking thirty!  That means I'll have wake up extra early.  The reason I have to be here so early is the let our special friend into the building.  Because, no one else can do it.  This turns my shit shift into double shit.  Yes, I'm going to make a few more dollars, but it's not even worth it.

Tuesday, January, 18, We are shorthanded at both of my jobs that my schedule had changed since the pandemic started.  Today I was asked to cover three hours at the Casa branch from 3pm to 6pm.  The shift was pretty uneventful.  I was happy to get the extra money, but today was a long day.  Thankfully the commute home was pretty fast.  I picked up some McDonald's and just chilled the rest of the night.

I sure hope me covering random desks in the system doesn't become a normal thing.  I mean, I do like the extra money, but I also need my rest.  Ha!

Wednesday, January, 19, Usually TheGirl and I don't know where we are going to eat on a Wednesday night.  But, this time TheGirl said she was craving something from the Smokehouse in Burbank.  I was keen on either having the fish and chips or maybe a Reuben sandwich.  They usually don't serve those for dinner, but if you ask them they will make it.  At a little extra cost, but it's worth it.  Anyway, when we got there they began to sit us down in the back patio.  But when we got there one of the waiters said that we couldn't go back there because they were painting.  Well, there went that idea.  Instead TheGirl and I went to the Counter.  We are thinking we should try the Smokehouse again next week.  Oh well, I was really looking forward to getting the fish and chips.  Womp, womp.

When we got back to TheGirl's place Cheyenne was laying on the couch and I wrapped her up in her blankie.  I went home and TheGirl told me that she was still wrapped under the blankie at bed time.  So cute.

Thursday, January, 20, My aunt's sleeping pattern has changed over the last few months.  In the past she would get up when I got up to get ready for work.  She would grab the tacos from the toaster oven and serve them to me.  She still does that from time to time, but it's now not every day.  I don't mind this pattern, because I don't believe she needs to wake up to help me serve my tacos to me.  I am perfectly capable of doing that.  I'm a grown man.  I rather she just sleep and not have to worry about me.  I can take care of it.  Believe me, I do it all the time.

When I got home and I walked past the breakfast table I looked down and spotted a huge dirty spot on the floor.  It wasn't there this morning.  I'm 100% sure that it's made from my aunt's shoes stepping on something sticky.  I can't believe how this is still a thing.

Friday, January, 21, My aunt told me last night that she was watering the plants yesterday, but she didn't finish because she was tired.  I don't understand how she can't gauge how tired she's becoming during her activities.  Also, she didn't put away the hose.  I know, she's tired, but this is her all the way.  She's always half-assed things like this.  She always finds some excuse not to do it, or not to do it right.  I know she's getting older, and she doesn't have the strength or stamina she used to when she was younger.  No one does.  However, maybe don't try to take on so much during the day.  Perhaps also not having to wear ten layers of clothes would help her.  Because she not only has to fight her own diminishing strength, but she also has to fight her pounds of cloths.  She wears so many layers that she looks like the Michelin man when she walks around.  If she wore something that was thinner but warm then she might have more energy.  But, she doesn't think to buy something warm and thin.  She must have something that's made out of wool, and not just cotton.  Oh well, I'm not going to tell her how to do things.  I'm through giving a shit.  She never thinks to take my advice.  She thinks of me as some idiot.  I hate when people that I know and interact with me think of me as some sort of idiot that doesn't know better.  My aunt seems to think that I can't take care of myself.  She used to serve me my breakfast on work days because, why?  Did she think I would forget to eat if she didn't serve me?  Whatever.  I'm done caring.

In a previous entry I mentioned that the pilot light on the water heater tends to turn off when my aunt takes a shower, but not so much when I take a shower. Well, of course the Universe has to blast that statement out of the water.  I say this because yesterday and today I found that the pilot light went out after I took a shower this morning.  I wonder if it was just dumb luck that this happened, or is this mean that the water heater is getting worse?  Does this mean we'll have to buy a new one?  ARGH!  This is some bullshine!

Work has deemed it that we wear the N95, or the KN95, masks while at work.  These new masks pinch my face and move around a lot more than my cloth mask.  Case in point, the picture above is proof that these masks are harder to deal with than my old masks.  Oh well.

After looking at the picture I noticed that the mask was on upside down.  However, what I was saying still applies, because the nose area pinches me much more.  Not so much on these masks, but rather on a different mask that fits tighter around my face.  It puffs out my cheeks.  I rather wear the cloth masks, but at the same time I know that it's a little bit safer to wear these masks.

TheLooker was super happy today.  She only has one more week here at the library.  I asked her how come she was still working next week.  She said they didn't give her the days off.  I told her she should have just called out sick.  I know she says I should text her when I'm at the civic center, but I'm sure that won't last long.  She did say she still wants to go get some tacos, but we shall see if she follows up on that.  We shall see.

Saturday, January, 22, I slept in a bit this morning, so by the time I went to visit my aunt in her room to ask what she wanted for breakfast it was already 11am.  Of course, like every week, I ask her what she wants to eat and she bounces the question right back to me.  I'm good eating anywhere, because I can almost always find something to eat almost anywhere.  But my aunt, on the other hand, never knows what she wants.  After I asked her again she starts going off about how that Mexican place in Burbank has hard rice.  Ah, I didn't want a list of places you DON'T want to eat.  Finally she says that she wants mac and cheese, and I start to wonder where the fuck am I going to get mac and cheese.  Turns out there are a couple of places, like IHOP, for one.  But, I then think of Corner Bakery.  They usually have some nice sandwich I can eat.  So I go on my hungry way to the corner to pick up her mac and cheese and a sandwich for me.  I saw that they had some potato soup, so I make it a half sandwich to not get too full.  The soup really hit the spot.  So did my sandwich.  As for my aunt, there was a lot of mac and cheese in the order, and she only ate about half of it.  I expected as much.  She can have the other half tomorrow.  Though, knowing her she'll just say that I should eat it.  ARGH.  She always says that.

Sunday, January, 23, As I wrote last night, and predicted, my aunt told me this morning that I should finish the mac and cheese she didn't finish yesterday.  Of course.  I wish I knew why she always does this.  I told myself that whenever possible I would order off the children's menu.  Yesterday as I was ordering I ALMOST ordered my aunt's mac and cheese from the kid's menu.  But, then I thought that I shouldn't shortchange her.  But yeah, from now on I'll look at the kid's menu.

I was chillin in my backyard today.  It was super nice weather today, so I was able to sit in my backyard.  There was a point when I laid down and I knew I would fall asleep.  Sure enough, there was a point where I woke up and I was getting hungry.  Of course that's the moment my aunt comes out into the backyard to ask if we were going to the market.  Sure, I told her.  I told her to get ready, and then said, "You're the one that takes an hour to get ready."  Sure enough, it wasn't until past 3:30pm that we were finally on our way to the market.  I couldn't wait to eat, so I quickly reheated some of the mac and cheese she left.  About half of it.  That hit the spot, and kept me from starving to death.

About a week ago I was reading online how to prevent bloating and such.  One of the main problems is chewing gum, which I do all the time.  But, ever since that article told me how it is making me swallow air I stopped.  And I have to report that I have definitely felt less bloated since I stopped chewing gum.  Nice!

Monday, January, 24, TheNewCute came back to work today.  She looked like she was handling things well.  Of course there was still the air of possible tears coming out of her eyes at any moment.  But, she handled it well.  She didn't come out to visit me while I was on desk duty, but she was also busy with her assignments.  She's going to be doing a lot more assignments in the weeks to come, as the children's librarian is leaving soon to go on maturity leave.  The library is going to rely on TheNewCute to cover the story times that the children's library won't be able to attend.

I expect there to be a day where she might not be able to hold it in.  I know I've had those days.  It's not easy.  It never gets easy when you miss a loved one.  The pain feels like it's less, but it's not.  It's just that you're able to handle it better.  However, there are still times when I think about those who passed away and it brings those memories back.  And for me, most of those I loved have been gone for so long.  Yet, it still hurts.

Tuesday, January, 25, I woke up and went to pee and as I was washing my hands I spit out the phlegm that was stuck in my throat.  I don't have to tell you that it's usually not black or charcoal in color, like it was this morning.  I went back to my room and searched online for why would my phlegm be dark or black.  What I saw scared the bejesus out of me.  It said things like I might have lung cancer, or an infection.  And that's just a couple of the crazy bad things that could be wrong with me.  On the first result of the search it said that I should go see a doctor as soon as possible.  Fuck!  I thought to myself, "Wow, so this is how it ends."  I got nauseous to the point that I didn't even want to eat my breakfast.  But, then a thought came to my mind.  Last night my buddy came by for a visit.  I didn't my want my room to smell like farts, so I lit the Dole whip smelling candle in my room.  I usually just light it for a little bit, but my buddy was here in my home for nearly four hours.  So in total it was likely four hours that I let the candle burn.  When I first got it the smoke was nothing.  But then as it burned down I noticed that the smoke was looking dark.  I calculated that the smoke was still in my room and that during the night I breathed in that smoke and hence my mucus was dark.  At least I hoped that was the reason for the dark phlegm.  I figured that I would just monitor this during the day.  Sure enough, by mid morning my snot was not dark.  I blew my nose earlier and nothing dark came out.  Just normal colored mucus.  Of course if this comes back again I will go to the doctor, and hope that it's not something super serious.

In the picture above I had to increase the contrast for the photo to show any difference between the whiteness of the paper and the charcoal colored phlegm.

I drove up to the Brand library and as I drove up I noticed that there were a couple of people doing a photo shoot.  The model was this gorgeous girl with practically nothing on (see photo above).  My coworkers said that it must be a person that didn't get a permit to shoot on the ground, because me telling them about it was the first they heard of it.  I don't know about that, but what I can say is that the girl was practically naked.  She had a robe that she would throw off while the photographer got a couple of shots.  Then she would quickly put it back on when she would see someone coming in her direction.  She was gorgeous.

Just a little after lunch I got a text from Mala asking if I could attend this so-called ergonomic training.  I was thinking of an excuse, but at the same time I thought about how I should just bite the bullet and get this thing over with.  So I said I could do it tonight.  It turned out to be informative.  Good.  If I'm going to have to stay at work late I should at least get something good out of it.  And, I made a few extra bucks for just sitting around and stretching my limbs.  Nice work.

When I was downstairs in circulation waiting for the training to start, I received a text message from FireGirl.  She asked if I could do her a favor.  I said sure, and jokingly asked if it was money she needed.  She said no, and then went on to say that she was, "Having some issues home," and could I, "Only text me during 'work hours?'" I simply responded with a text saying, "4pm curfew... got it."  She said that she would explain what is going on when I go pick up the mail on Thursday.  A few weeks ago she mentioned that she was having problems in her marriage.  Sigh.  Poor thing.  First the job fucks her over, and now her husband is acting like a douche.  I wonder if he's fucking around on her.  Perhaps she'll say on Thursday.  I hope things get better for her.

Wednesday, January, 26, Last week we went to the Smokehouse in Burbank to have dinner.  But, TheGirl and I couldn't eat there because they were resealing the back deck.  This week we went back to the Smokehouse for dinner.  I ordered fish and chips, but after I started eating I thought about how I should have ordered a steak.

TheGirl visited her family today, so she wasn't super hungry.  This was the perfect night to splurge, but I wasn't too sure if I wanted a steak of not.  The fish and chips were fine, but part wondered if even the burger would have been a better choice.  Then again, as I think about it right now, I eat a lot of burgers.  I can go one night without eating a burger.

After dinner we went on a little walk around the block.  When we reached the location that was formally Ciao Christina Cheyenne went up to the door and waited for someone to come out and give her a treat.  TheGirl and Cheyenne walk all over the Burbank and Toluca Lake area.  They often came by this restaurant on their walks.  Mainly on Fridays, when TheGirl would stop for some wine and rolls that one of the waitresses would give her for free, or practically free.  So this was a frequent stop for the two of them.  But, now the restaurant is closed, probably due to Covid but maybe not.  TheGirl and I had gone to this location many times.  I gave it mixed reviews, but Cheyenne loved that they always gave her a treat.  This is why she rememberers.  Sadly, no one came out to greet her.

Friday, January, 28, Today was TheLooker's last day at the library.  Starting on Monday she'll be working from what's called the MSB building, short for municipal services building.  I know, to say municipal services building building is stupid, but it's what it's called.  She said she's going to the first floor planning department.  She looked super happy to be going over there.  And look, it's a good job.  Full time... full benefits, what else could someone want?  The library was bleeding her dry.  Now she's a full timer.

Since it was her last day she wanted to take pictures with everyone that was there.  She had had a little going away party on Wednesday, but I didn't know about it, nor could I attend.  Besides, for me it won't be totally adios.  I go to the civic center complex all the time on my route.  I used to go every day that I drove, which meant three times a week.  But now the other driver does the city hall run on Tuesdays and Thursdays, leaving me only Friday.  TheLooker of course says, "I'll see you on Fridays."  Well, she corrected herself and said every other Friday.  She's also on that rotation where she gets every other Friday off.

The assistant director mentioned TheLooker leaving in her weekly email.  Here is what she said.

Please join me in congratulating Sofi Sargsyan on her new full-time position at as an Administrative Specialist in the Planning Division!  Her last day with us will be today, 1/28/22.  Over the past 8 years, Sofi has worked in almost every department and has made very many positive contributions to our organization.  We are very grateful for all of her wonderful work!  We wish her all the very best in this new chapter of her career and are so glad that she will continue being part of the City of Glendale family.

I'm still going to try to throw an invite or two at her.  See if she bites.  When we took the pictures outside we were standing next to each other and I felt awkward just standing here, so I grabbed her around the waist and laughed as we took a few pictures.  When I left for the day I walked outside and the album I was listening to the other morning came up.  George Harrison's "All things Must Pass."  I found a link on YouTube and sent it to her.  As I listened to it in the car I started to get teary eyed.  I really didn't expect that.  I sure hope she's not out of my life.  I know that it's up to me to make the effort, much like I made the effort to keep in touch with TheDesire.

As with most Fridays I didn't bring my lunch from home.  The spaghetti that I had this week was all gone.  I finished it yesterday when I had lunch.  It was yummy, and I'm glad that I got to actually finish something my aunt cooked up.  So many times the food gets tossed because she makes so much.  But, that meant that I didn't have anything for lunch today.  Earlier in the week my coworker and I went to the Home Depot up the street to pick up an outdoor umbrella, like the one that was burned down earlier this month.  While there I saw the hot dog cart that resides there.  They have some yummy hot dogs, but they also have a pastrami sandwich.  I have never tried it, so I figured that I could have that for lunch today.  Sure enough, I went back to the Home Depot and picked up the sandwich.  Which was basically pastrami on a hot dog bun.  I can't say it was the best pastrami I ever had.  But, I did like the size of the sandwich.  It wasn't too big nor too small.  I'm not sure that I'll get that one again, but I may pick up a hot dog from there.  They are super yummy.

Yesterday I picked up a bunch of bins from Montrose going to the Chevy Chase branch.  Today I picked up even more bins going from Montrose to Chevy.  The picture above shows all the bins going into Chevy.  This is unusual since NO ONE USES that branch.  But, these dopes are "floating" all these items to Chevy because what they are actually doing is using Chevy as a storage facility.  No one goes up there, so any books that don't circulate can just be sent there to die.  The picture about is the proof.

My aunt says a lot of stupid things to me day after day, but today might have taken the cake.  I got home and even before I could change into my conformable clothes my aunt tells me she wants to talk to me in the kitchen.  Oh boy, here we go again, I think to myself.  Sure enough, my aunt says perhaps the stupidest thing she's ever said to me.  She tells me to be honest and tell her if I'm in some sort of trouble.  I look at her sideways and before I say anything she says that I got a package from Tennessee.  I'm not sure WHY THE FUCK she thinks that means I'm in some sort of trouble.  I got out of my chair and told her she could open the package with me and see that it's nothing.  Sure enough, I slice open the package and hand it to her.  She opens it up and before she is able to open up the inner box I tell her that it's her new phone.  She knows I give her a phone in order to keep track of her.  She doesn't say anything, but just gets up and leaves my room.  In a bit I went and got my dinner ready and I didn't say a word to her.  She tried to engage me, but I just answered with one word answers.  I am still livid as I write this.  After dinner I retired to my room and just sat here in the dim light.  I didn't turn on my TV or anything.  I just wanted silence.  My aunt came in with her grape juice at one point, but didn't say a word.  When I finally got up to check out something on the computer I went to the sink and tossed her juice.  I fucking hate this shit.  I hate that she always thinks the worst of me.  She thinks so little of me.  I need to really just stop caring.  I need to find somethings to do on the weekends so I'm not even here.  I don't want to be in her presence.  Years ago I would actually pretend to go into work in order to avoid her.  I'm tired of being shit on.

Saturday, January, 29, Oh just great.  I got this email yesterday, but I couldn't email the boss until today.  Don't want her knowing that I check my email on my off days.  But, as you can see above I'm not schedule on Tuesdays instead of Wednesdays, apparently.  Not sure how I got that "privilege."  Of course I can't be working on Tuesdays, I work at Glendale on Tuesdays.  I mean, I have thought of asking Glendale if they would let me work on Wednesdays as well, leaving San Marino with only one day.  But, I don't want to burn that bridge just yet.  However, Tuesdays I can't do.  I make a lot more money per hour at Glendale, and I'm not going to give up my Tuesdays there.  Like I just said, I would rather add a day to Glendale instead of move.

I emailed the boss and then a few hours later one of my coworkers also emailed her saying this must be a mistake.  Still, even if it's a mistake I wonder if this means they're taking me off the desk at 1pm on Wednesdays.  I mean, I don't mind, but at the same time I really don't have a lot of Foundation work that I could fill the hours from 2pm to 4pm But, I guess I COULD find something to do.

Sunday, January, 30, I wanted to share this picture of TheLooker and me.  Our coworker was taking photos, but on the iPhone there is this thing called Live photos.  It means it takes a little bit of a video, so when you see the picture you can tap the screen and it will move.  Like something out of Harry Potter, you might say.  I told TheLooker to send me the photos, and embedded in the photo was the video of us posing before our coworker actually took the photo.  I think it was moments after I put my arm around her waist.  Sigh.

Dealing with my aunt and her food issues on the weekends has not been easy since the pandemic started.  She never knows what she wants to eat.  I tell her to think about it Friday night so she can tell me on Saturday morning.  But, she NEVER knows.  Yesterday I had to force her to make a choice, because I told her that I was going to work.  Today I asked her and she was once again clueless.  She FINALLY came up to me and told me she wanted Chinese food.  I was like wonderful, finally a choice.  I have ordered their orange chicken, and it's just meh.  So this time I wanted to have the Mongolian beef.  Well, it wasn't good either.  I mean it was flavorless.  I was pouring Sriracha on top of it to give it some flavor.  So sad.

I went to use the bathroom at around 7:30pm tonight and I noticed that my aunt's room light was already off.  You can see from the above photo taken from the security camera in the kitchen that my aunt was already for bed at that time.  After dinner she said she was going to bed.  Sure enough, here's proof of her going to bed early.  I'm sure she'll be up during the night.

She didn't look good when we went to the market today.  There was a point where her eyes had this look of pain while we were in the market.  When she gets in the car she doesn't sit up, she's practically laying down in the seat.  And it takes her a lot of effort to get in and out of the car.  I would tell her that she doesn't have to go to the market with me, but I know that it's good for her to get out and see people and such.  She can't just be cooped up here at home.  However, it's such a huge effort for her to get moving.

I feel bad for him, because you can just see her slowing down more every month.  She spends a lot of time in bed on most days, and I think that inactivity is contributing to this slowing down.  Shame.

Monday, January, 31, A patron came up to me looking for a book that he said he saw on the shelf the other day.  He's a regular, and the part of the bookcase where he said the book should be is not one of the packed areas of the stacks.  That should make it relatively easy to find the book even if it's placed in the wrong part of the shelf.  But I looked and looked and could not find it.  I told him the I was going to check in the back office, just in case it had not been shelved.  I know that's not really possible, cause one of the new pages is quick and gets things back on the shelves fast.  Sure enough, there was nothing in the sorting shelves.  I was talking to a coworker about the book and she suggested I try looking on the children's shelves.  I thought that was nuts, because someone shelving shouldn't get the location that wrong.  Sure enough, I went to the children's shelves and the book was there.  Not sure how someone could miss that.  Actually, now that I think about it, several people had to get this wrong.  The person who placed it on the rough sort cart made the mistake. But then the other person that placed it on the sorting shelves after being on the wrong cart should have noticed that it was not a kid's book.  And then finally the page that shelved it should have caught that it was not a kid's book.  That's a lot of fails.  I wanted to bring it up to the boss, but these days I just want to run silent and run deep.

Instead of getting better my schedule at San Marino is going to get a lot worse.  I wrote the new boss about the mistake in the scheduling for the reference desk, and how I can't make it on Tuesdays because I'm working my other job.  I asked her point blank if it was a mistake that I was scheduled on Tuesdays and not Wednesdays and she just hemmed and hawed and didn't give me an answer.  She totally hand waved it.  Oh well, since I don't have a definitive answer I'm must going to assume that the other schedule is correct.  See, every week two schedules are sent out.  One is the general schedule for everyone, showing all our schedules.  Just the hours we'll be in the office, not what we are doing.  Then there's the reference desk schedule that obviously shows when we are on the desk.  Those two didn't match at all this week.  But, since the new boss sent me that general schedule last I'm going with that.

Oh, but then there's more "good news."  I get to work on Sunday a month now, because T is going on maternity leave.  To be "fair" the new boss, the circulation manager, the new part time librarian and myself will take on one Sunday a month in order to cover the Sunday shift.  This is fucking worse.  So now I'm going to work two Saturdays a month in addition to a Sunday a month.  ARGH!  I have loved my weekends off, but this past weekend I was lamenting that I didn't want to be at home because my aunt is such a pill.  Buuuutt, now here comes this new schedule and as much of a pill that my aunt is I rather deal with her than to deal with work.  Bullshit!  I did tell the new boss that I was never asked to work Saturday, just put on the schedule.  I told her it is something that needs to end as soon as the new people are hired.  I don't think she liked that, but she did mention that this is temporary while my coworker has a baby.  She needs to stop having kids after this one.

I'm trying to eat smaller meals these days.  In that spirt I went ahead and bought a Happy Meal for dinner.  And you know, it was pretty cute.  The burger and tiny fries hit the spot.  And the water is definitely better than drinking soda.  All in all a good choice, inspired by TheNewCute.

Wrap-up, As I stated in my introduction to this month's newsletter, I really thought that the beginning of this year would mark the end of this Covid bullshit.  But, because people let up and were less careful now we're still here.  We're still wearing masks, and we're not that close to going back to normal.