Afterthoughts : This Past Month

We're in the thick of 2022 now.  Here is this month's update.

Tuesday, February, 1, When I got to work I checked on a few things, including the interdepartmental mail.  In it was a package for TheLooker.  She got it today and she was surprised by how fast the package got to her.  I told her we work fast.

Jade told me today that Krishna gave him a bad employee evaluation.  He also said that he went to HR to complain that the bad evaluation was in part because he asked her for her insurance information when she hit his car.  I don't know if Jade can prove that, but we shall see.  He as a way with these things, and I'm sure if there is a sliver of truth to his statement that she may get in trouble.  I'm sure it will ultimately be a slap on the wrist, but knowing him he won't back down no matter how slight the punishment.

I was asked to go to the Adams Square branch before going to the Pacific Park branch, because there were some boxes that needed to go from Adams to Pacific.  Because of that I ended up going down Colorado Blvd in order to get to Montrose.  I actually could have just gone north on Pacific, but I goofed and I had to go up Glendale ave. to get to the freeway.  This mistake had me driving by the municipal services building, which is where TheLooker is now working.  As I drove by I took this picture and texted it to TheLooker and told her to "wave."  She sent me back a gif with a picture of a penguin waving.

Last week I got a new phone for my aunt to use when I need to track her.  That means I have an extra phone now.  But not so extra, because I used it to replace the really super cheap phone I've been using for work as an iPod.  This phone is old, but it works a million times better than the previous phone.  That old phone was so bad.  I don't know how they can sell phones that barely function.

Wednesday, February, 2, I haven't been chewing gum for a couple of week now, just as I said I would.  Well, here it is a couple of week later and I have to say that I have suffered less bloating.  I have not had REALLY bad bloating like before I stopped chewing gum.  And what bloating I have has been less frequent.  I guess I'll have to stop chewing gum.  And here I have like three bags of gum.  Each bag has nearly two hundred pieces.

The new city librarian came to the desk today to talk about a change in scheduling.  I wrote her the other day stay that I was never asked to work on Saturdays.  She kinda hand waved that away and then today gave me the bad news that I'm going to have to work one Sunday a month in addition to every other Saturday.  Boy, this email didn't help me at all.  Bullshine!

TheGirl and I went to Don Cucos up in Burbank for dinner.  I was looking at their menu in order finally find something that tasted yummy.  Tonight I finally found something that was tasty, the tacos al carbon.  FINALLY!  The margarita hit the spot as well.  We talked about the guy that died from the city fire department.  When I went to Fire yesterday FireGirl was devastated that this man died.  I'm pretty sure I met him once or twice.  He touched many lives.  TheGirl mentioned that her son was mentored by him.  Sadly he died the other day... of Covid.  He never got vaccinated.

Thursday, February, 3, The side door that is the staff entrance has been repaired I don't know how many times.  At least seven, and possibly more like a dozen times.  There seems to be a fundamental problem with it.  The city repair guy has been out there all these times and once he repairs it the door will work find for a few days.  Sometimes even weeks.  But, it doesn't hold.  Eventually the damn thing breaks down again and it fails.  And by fails I mean to say that it won't open.  There's a RFID reader on the side of the door.  We swipe our FOBS and it unlocks the door.  But, when it fails the door makes a clicking sound as if it opened, but then it is still stuck in place.  I've pulled it pretty hard and opened it.  But, now that I have the master key I just go ahead and use that key when the door won't pop open.  Others don't have that luxury, since they don't have a key, just the fob.  We shall see if this repairs sticks.  The guy from the city said that he was going to take the entire thing apart, because he feels there's a pin or something that is not working correctly.  I hope he's right.

Yesterday, when I had a spare moment, I went ahead and made myself a little sign for the bin that I use for the little free library books.  As I look at the picture above I just realized that I missed an element of the picture that I had included, but I guess I didn't reveal.  It had a little silhouette of a little free library.  Hmm, I'm going to have to fix that in the file.

Today was old Zak's last day at San Marino.  He's worked there almost as long as I have.  We were having a chat the other day and he mentioned that he started working in March of 2008.  I started in January of the same year.  It's been a journey for the both of us, but his at the library has now come to an end.  We will all miss him.  Old Zak was a character, to say the least.  They threw him a little good-bye thing for him today.  I'm sorry I couldn't be there, but I know I'm probably the only one that will keep in touch with him.  We exchanged emails and phone numbers.  I know I'll make an effort, since I know others don't.

Friday, February, 4, I need a new work van.  Today I got out of the van and saw something not he floor.  I wasn't sure what it was until I realized that it was stuffing from the driver's side seat.  I looked up and sure enough the rip on the seat was bigger.  This is just one reason why we need a new delivery van.

Not every Friday, but most Fridays I go ahead and forego bringing something for lunch from home and instead eating something from a fast food joint.  Today I went to the Hat in Pasadena for some yummy pastrami.  I didn't want lentil soup again, nor did I want my usual Burger Queen.  I almost went to the Hat last week, but I forget what came up that prevented me.  Today I made my way to Pasadena to get my pastrami.  It really hit the spot, to say the least.

After lunch and after going up to Montrose I had an itch to check my San Marino work email.  Sure enough the new city librarian had sent me an email about the schedule changes.  The changes turned out to be much more favorable for me, that's for sure.  Instead of every other Saturday until May I'm working one Sunday a month until then.  I still have to work next Saturday and the last Saturday of the month, but then after that in March I just work one Sunday, and so on until May.  I like that.  I don't like working on the weekends at all, but at least this is better than every other fucking Saturday.  I guess my little talk with her didn't fall of deaf ears.

DrDeath sent out an email with some more bullshit.  Case in point the above "art" installation.  Yet another example of throwing cash out the window.  I was curious to the price tag for this monstrosity, and thankfully a quick search found the documents online.  This thing is budgeted for $550,000.  Yes, over half a million!  There's another stupid thing they plan on putting up down the street that is budgeted for another $100,000.  The city plans on having a bunch of other "art" displays.  Most of them will be close to the library.  In total the budget for these "art" works is about $1,300,000.  Yeah, this while they say that there is a "hiring freeze" and are constantly talking about cutting part time hours.  Morons.

Saturday, February, 5, Way back in July of last year I found out about this Klimt show coming to Los Angeles.  I was talking to TheNewCute about it, and how I wanted to go to it, but that I didn't want to go alone.  She said she would go with me, which was cool.  Today was the day we went.  I drove out to her place and picked her up.  She dressed super nice, and I was dressed in my usual jeans and t-shirt combo.  But, I did have on my Batman shirt.  Stylish.  We arrived at the former Costco and talked a little before going on, since we were so early.  She bought some baked goods for us to eat.  I had a cookie.

Of course the main paining this thing focused on is the famous painting The Kiss.  Here is a 3Dish kinda of projection that cycles through many paintings projected on an outline of the Kiss.  Pretty cool.

After checking out the different displays chronicling Klimt's life and work we made our way down this golden hallway.  TheNewCute took some pictures, and I took one of her and of myself.  Not together.

One in the projection room the show really got immersive.  I'm not sure how long the cycled show was, but I'm thinking something like fifteen minutes.  It was cool.  Lots of great images.

We paid for the VIP experience, which means we got to have a VR headset placed on our heads to see some art works in 3D.  It was pretty cool, but in order to put the headsets on we had to put a face shield on (see above).  When I took the selfie I thought to myself how ridiculous this really was.  This is where Covid has taken us.  Putting all this shit on my face.  The mask.  The forehead shield.  It made it hard to enjoy the VR experience since my headset got all fogged up, thanks to all the shit on my face.  It was still good times though.  I'm not sure if I would do this again, but it was cool to do it once.  Especially with TheNewCute.

After getting home I asked my aunt what she wanted for lunch.  We finally decided to have some Subway sandwiches.  I went and picked them up.  Her six inch sandwich was pretty packed with ingredients, but my sandwich looked a little small.  Even the bread looked smaller than usual.  And now that I think about it, I'm not sure why a foot long and six inch sandwich cost nearly $20.  Hmmm.  Also, I tried one of their "new" sandwiches which I later realized was just the same steak with pepper cheese on top instead of another cheese.  Double Hmmm.

Sunday, February, 6, TheNewCute posted the above video on her social media.  One of our coworkers commented that she looked so pretty with long hair.  It goes without saying she's pretty.

I went out to my backyard because the weather was super perfect.  Not too hot and not too cool.  When I woke up it was nearly 4pm and I went to check on my aunt to see if she was ready to go to the market.  I was out in the backyard since 1:30pm.  So she had about two hours to get ready to go to the market.  It takes her so long to get dressed, I figured I could just chill in the backyard while she got ready.  Yeah, I thought wrong.  She wasn't ready when I went to check on her.  She was asleep and I could see that she had not gotten into her street clothes.  Frustrated I just got my things together and went to the market on my own.  Predictively my aunt woke up when I was at the market.

As I was just about to sit down and eat the rest of my pastrami sandwich from Friday I noticed that there was a splashing sound as I walked in front of the fridge.  The fucking washing machine seemed to have overflowed the sink, or so I thought.  It turns out that the water was not overflowing from the sink, it was just on the ground.  I turned off the washer and my aunt and I went about cleaning the mess.  It took about twenty minutes to get most of the water that was there.  I still didn't know what exactly happened.  My first notion was that the water was leaking from the hose being detached.  Wrong, the hose was in its place and fine.  Then I thought that maybe something happened at the bottom of the machine and it flowed from there.  The only way to test that out would be to get the machine running again.  But, before I could try that out I lifted the door.  That's when I saw that the drum was completely full of water.  The water was up to the brim.  Not something that normally happens.  I thought to myself that something must have clogged the drain inside and prevented the machine from draining the water inside.  Because the bloody thing was still in the wash cycle.  I took some of the water out and then reset the machine to drain.  It seemed to be working properly.  But, I just ran the rest of the clothes through the draining and the spin cycle.  I'll have to test it out later in the week.  Still, this incident fucking pissed me off.  I was so worked up, because I just wanted to have my lunch in peace.  But nothing ever seems to work out that way.  It's always a struggle to do the simplest things when it comes to dealing with my aunt.  She wanted chicken from yesterday, but then ended up not eating it in favor of a tamale from the grocery store.  I just don't know any more.

Monday, February, 7, The library is being painted.  But these guys coming in today were taking their own sweet time.  Someone said that they were only going to be painting today, but I seriously doubt they will be done by tonight.  Today it was mostly prep work.  Still, the library does need a paint job.

A patron that is a regular and that visits both San Marino and Glendale told me today that someone from Glendale told him that I hung out with TheNewCute this weekend.  Wow!  Really?  People are talking about me, her, us?  First of all there isn't an us to talk about.  We're friends, coworkers.  TheNewCute is certainly not interested in me.  I have a pretty good feeling about that.  But, of course these dopes we work with have zero life going on.  It's natural for them to think that because we're hanging out that it means something romantic or such.  Well, I guess if it brings them some excitement in their lives then so be it.  I'm aiming for TheLooker, who I think is single.  I probably have a better chance with TheNewCute, just because with TheLooker there's the whole I'm not Armenian thing.  Which is a HUGE hurdle to clear.  More like impossible.  As Ilsa says, I'll just remain single for the rest of my life.

I was talking to someone about where in Pasadena they have good hot dogs.  That's when I remembered a place called Slaw Dogs, that was the place where TheGirl and I went to when we started our relationship.  Well, after a quick online search I found that Slaw Dogs closed nearly three years ago, back in 2019.  Sad.

TheLooker sent me a text saying that she was ready to call it a day (see above).  She's not even two weeks into this new job and she's already wanting to leave early.  I mean I get it.  But still, this is a great opportunity for her.  She needs to just put her head down and learn the job.  She'll do fine if she just does that.

Tuesday, February, 8, The windows at Central have been a mess for about four year, ever since they put an "art" installation where they posted large portraits on the side of the building.  The portraits were originally supposed to be installed on the walls, but of course the dopes upstairs said the portraits couldn't be installed on the side of the building.  In lieu of that they posted the portraits on the windows and on the floor in front of the building.  That brought more problems when it was time to take the portraits down.  The dopes doing that job scraped so hard that they scratched the protective film on the windows.  And that's what we've been having to look through for the last several years.  Until today, when some guy from who knows where came in and took off the protective film from the windows.  It's night and day now.  You can see out the now scraped windows.

Many times the people upstairs don't tell anyone about their plans.  Today was one of those days.  I dropped off some books to the branches.  When I got to Casa my buddy Vagabundo mentioned that the books in one bin didn't have spine labels.  Sure enough, those same books were also going to Montrose and Grandview.  No one upstairs informed anyone at the branches that they were going to receive some so-called "Marketplace" books.  So when they arrived at Casa it was only natural that my buddy would ask what the fuck are these.  Turns out that the dummies upstairs sent everyone the same books to display in their "Marketplace."  Yeah, sure.  It's just that no one said anything to anyone at the branches.  Maybe it would have been a good idea to inform the managers at least.  That's not how the dopes upstairs do anything though.

Wednesday, February, 9, I was watching TV before going into work today.  While watching I noticed someone I thought I knew.  Sure enough, it was my old buddy Oscar from middle school.  He was on a commercial for some window installation company.  I quickly took a picture of the TV screen (see above).  I posted the picture on social media and got about forty responses, so far.

TheGirl and I always return to the Counter because of the good food and the good times.  It's also perfectly suited for us since we have Cheyenne in tow.  We found out the waitress that had been working only a few months left since the last time we were there.  That was only two weeks ago.  It's typical of wait staff these days, they don't stick around a job for long.  Ever since Covid hit the restaurant business hard people have figured that working wait jobs isn't a good idea in the long run.  It's changed the entire industry.  My buddy O used to be a waiter, and it wasn't an easy gig.  He said it was hard.  You live on tips, and that life ain't easy.  It's good that so many people have figured out it's not a career, but I did like it when TheGirl and I would go out and the wait staff was the same crew, and we got to know them.  Those days are in the past now.  But, we still have good meals together.  TheGirl suggested we take a picture together (see above) so she could send it to her friend Mary Kay.  Mary is a really super nice person, and a good friend to TheGirl.  TheGirl needs friends, female friends, any true blue friends.  She said something tonight that she understands why people commit suicide.  Jeez, that wasn't one of the approved dinner topics.  It's just that she's lonely.  Covid isolated everyone, and because she's not vaccinated she isn't apt to go out to social events.  So she spends most of her time alone with Cheyenne.  And though Chan is a good companion to me, we can't have a conversation.  At least one that isn't one sided.  And TheGirl is the same way with Cheyenne.  Maybe I need to see if TheGirl wants to hang out more.  I'm sure not going to be hanging out with TheLooker or anyone else any time soon.  More on that in a minute.  So why not hang out more with TheGirl?

Speaking of TheLooker, I decided not to put the effort into texting TheLooker every day.  I was doing it because I wanted to stay on her radar.  But, the other day I went to text her and I noticed that there was a status that says "notifications silenced."  Which means that if I text her my message is only seen if she opens the messaging app and checks my conversation.  Oh well.  That's fine.  I heard somewhere this week where you should not text people so you can see if they text you first.  If they don't then that's your answer to whether you should continue texting them.  There you have it.

Thursday, February, 10, As I was getting into my car this morning I found feathers falling around me.  I looked up and spotted that they were coming from the direction of the power lines.  I looked up and sure enough I see a small hawk having a bird for breakfast (see above).  This hawk, or another, has been eating birds and leaving their feathers all over my backyard.

There's this thing at work where they ask us to tell them about some accomplishment or if we're celebrating something.  The dopes up in administration want to have that information so they can put it in the newsletter or weekly email or whatever.  TheNewCute got bamboozled by the children's librarian at Casa to mention that she bought a new car.  So, TheNewCute asked me to take a picture of her and her new car (see above).  Hey, I'm not one to pass up a chance at taking a picture of TheNewCute.

Friday, February, 11, Fridays have become a busy day in the last few weeks.  In the past Fridays were pretty chill, but lately they have been busy.  Look at the picture above to see just how packed the van was today.  Most of those boxes were full of the new program's materials.  This time they are heart kites that people have to cut out and assemble.  The main thing that makes Fridays easy though if the fact that my first four stops are closed.  I can basically touch base at those locations and get in and out quickly.  That left me time today to have a nice lunch in the park.

As near as I can find in my old photos, it would seem the last time I had lunch in the park was back in January 2020.  Wow, that's over two years.  I knew it had to be around that amount of time.  It was good to be back, despite the fact that my burger was meh.  I ordered something called a "Big King" at Burger Queen.  It's not big, it's small.  I guess I should have known from the sign at the BK that said it was only 480 calories.  That's not a lot for a burger that's like the size of say a Whopper.  Now I know.  I think I need to take a break from Burger Queen for a while, and on Fridays see if I can get something more yummy to eat.  Actually, there's a place between the library and the park that I considered.  But, the price of a cheesesteak was over $12 for just the sandwich.  I have no idea if that place is any good, so I didn't want to waste that kind of money on something that might be bad.  Then again, I dropped a few bucks on today's burger and it was meh.

When I went up to Chevy I had this itch to check out the coffee vending machine.  Sure enough there was something comical on the machine.  The city has declared that it will no longer allow single use items like cups and utensils.  Because of this, or perhaps because they ran out of cups (not likely), the branch dummies had to place this sign in front of the coffee vending machine.  Mind you, I'm nearly 100% sure that NO ONE has bought a cup of coffee from this machine.  Guarantee it.  So now some sucker that comes into the library and happens to want a cup of coffee has to have the mindfulness to bring their own cup from home?  The stupid runs strong in the administration dopes.

The last time I texted TheLooker was Tuesday afternoon.  It was Wednesday that I decided not to make an effort to text her until she texted me first.  Well, I think I have my answer now, since she hasn't texted me since Tuesday.  Makes sense that she wouldn't initially text me.  I'm just an acquaintance, and not a friend, in her mind.  I guess we can see just how long it will take her to initiate a text conversation, but I'm not holding my breath.  Moving on.

Saturday, February, 12, I wanted to show my neighbor's daughter's car.  I came home the other night and saw that the car was really askew.  When I was leaving this morning I saw the car still hasn't been re-parked.  Not sure how my neighbor's daughter thought this was OK.  But, what do I know.

Today is the last Saturday I'm going to work at Crowell for a very long time (hopefully).  While this was only the fourth Saturday I've worked since December 18th, I'm glad to be rid of this assignment.  Any Saturday I work is going to be a shit shift.  In my calendar I put "Shit shift" as the place holder for these shifts.  And I really hated the added bonus of having to arrive at 8:30am these last two times.  I had to wake up so early after going to be late last night.  But, i'm free now.  I'll still have to work one Sunday a month until May, but I can live with that.  I mean I would rather not work any weekend day, but four Sundays between now and May is doable.

Oh, I found out that the new page, Carolina, has a boyfriend.

I checked my phone and on the lock screen there was the above message.  I'm not sure why I told Siri to mind me, "Everyone can go to hell."  But, I must have said something and of course Siri misinterpreted what I said.  Not sure.  Whatever it was I thought it was a funny statement.  Siri knows me all too well.

After work I went ahead and picked up some food for my aunt and me at El Carpintero in Burbank.  My aunt wanted a chili relleno.  I picked up some tacos for myself (see above).

Sunday, February, 13, I had this notion to text TheLooker today, just a few minutes ago.  There was something I saw online that I wanted to go see, but I thought that I should maybe invite TheLooker.  Yeah, but that's dumb.  I guess I could do I as a test, but why bother?  I'm pretty sure I know the answer.  I mean I don't actually, but it seems like she's not interested in hanging out.  I have given her many opportunities to jump into an invite, and she's never taken them except once she said she wanted to get tacos.  I guess we'll see what I do.

And then there's Emma.  I told Bundy last week that I thought she might be giving me the silent treatment, but I don't think it's because of anything I did.  I think it's just that she's hyper-focused on her boyfriend.  The other day I received a suggestion from the photo sharing app we both use.  It suggested a new account, and it happened to be an account Emma made to post pictures of her and her boyfriend... and her dog as well.  I can see why people thought we were a couple, they are doing the same things we did when we hung out.  Ha.  Well, except we didn't sleep together.

Monday, February, 14, I don't have much to report today.  Work was work.  It was kinda slow in the morning, but after lunch the day flew by.  Mainly because when I come back from lunch at 1:30pm I only have an hour and a half left on the desk.  The last hour from 3pm to 4pm is spent in my office.  Today I didn't have any extra assignments, so I just sat there until 4pm rolled around.  I was actually falling asleep at one point.  I guess I could have done something more productive than literally nothing, but I didn't know what to do.  I didn't have anything that was pressing.

The one thing that I did want to work on was something I couldn't work on from work.  The security cameras at home were not responding.  I wasn't sure what the deal was.  The camera sync module was saying it was updating, but that turned out to be misinformation.  When I got home I was able to finally see that it was the home internet that was not responding.  I rebooted the thing and everything was fine.  I wish I could have had my aunt do it, but I could not rely on her doing it correctly.  Still, thing like this suck, because it means that I'm completely blind.  I've become very accustomed to being able to see into my house when I'm miles away.  Even when I've gone on trips I've been able to spy on what's going on at home.  I like that.  But when I get blinded, like today, it super sucks.  I need to find a way of using the telephone that I have for my aunt as some sort of back-up to switching the internet and resetting it.  I'm not sure how to do that.  I guess I could just have some way of having my aunt reset it with the flip of a switch.  I will have to look into such a way.  Because this would have been resolved in a few minutes if I could have called my aunt and told her "Hit the reset button."  Not that I have a reset button, but something like that would have had the internet back and working.  Gotta think.

On my way home from TheGirl's I found myself in smoke around the Coldwater Canyon and Woodman ave.  I wasn't sure what the deal was, until I got home.  That's when my social media popped on and showed me an alert saying that there was a trash fire under the Coldwater freeway overpass.  From the social media video you can see it was a pretty bad fire.  Just terrible.

Tuesday, February, 15, Yesterday was Valentine's day.  The administration team sent out some snack baskets to most of the branches yesterday.  But, the two branches that were closed yesterday didn't get their baskets.  I took down the last two baskets so I could deliver them today.  When I looked at the assortment of goodies I looked down at a bag that said "Chocolate Cheetos."  I thought, wow, that's pretty cool.  I wonder if they taste good.  When I got downstairs to the circulation office I found a bag meant for us in circulation and opened it up.  To my surprise it wasn't Cheetos that I found, but rather Cheerios.  Fucking BS, I totally read the label wrong.  Here I was thinking I was going to get something unique, and it turned out to be stupid old Cheerios.  They were meh, by the way.  Serves me right for getting my hopes up.  I was reading things incorrectly all day.  I felt dumb.

The weather liars said it was going to rain today.  I got my stuff ready at home.  Such as I moved the birdbath to under cover so it wouldn't get flooded with water.  I figured this way the birds could still drink clean water.  Well, the rain never really materialized.  I know the weather liars said it was going to be very little rain, but it turned out to be almost no rain.  Check out the photo above where my aunt went out the backyard at around 11:30am.  Not a cloud in the sky, by the looks of the bright floor.  That and the hard shadows shows that the sun was out at that time.  Sure enough, even though it was gloomy when I got home at 5:25pm the ground was dry.  For my part on the route I barely got any rain.  I did have to turn on the windshield wipers on twice, but only for a few moments.  I mean I'm glad I didn't get rained on while on the route.  It makes the route THAT much harder to deal with.

TheDesire posted something on social media today.  Her eyes look so nice in her masked post.  TheDesire thanked some place, "for making sure that I wear my mask with a little love... and my eyebrows of course."

Wednesday, February, 16, The news this morning was saying that it hailed last night.  Not in my neighborhood.  But, it turns out that it did hail in Pasadena and San Marino.  Want proof, just look at the picture above.  I went to open the back gates at the library and I saw a huge amount of ice still on the ground.  When I got out of the car there was a few little pieces still on the ground.  Not pictured is another big chunk of ice in the corner of the walkway on the West side of the building.  I could hear water coming down the water spouts, because the ice was melting on the roof of the building.

TheGirl wanted to try something different for dinner tonight, so we went to Forman's.  Forman's is a bar grill.  We've been there in the past, but not for a long while.  She wanted to try out the back patio, but we ended up just sitting in the front patio area.  Forman's is a nice place to go when you have time to just chill.  The burger that I got tonight was OK, but nothing special.  The Manhattan was great, but it was small.  Even TheGirl mentioned how small my glass looked.  Oh well.  The company is always good, and the small Manhattan did give me a nice buzz.  But, then again, I already had a shot from my flask before we arrived.

Our plan B for tonight was going to be Bob's Big Boy.  We haven't been there in a LONG time.  I may suggest it for next week's dinner.

Thursday, February, 17, TheNewCute sent me a text after I left work, but before closing at Grandview.  Apparently Grimace did another bonehead thing.  That lady doesn't know how to keep her nose clean.  Today's fiasco involved the children that coming into the library.  Now, the dummies upstairs designated Grandview as a "children's library," because they had no choice.  The school across the street dumps out the kids from around 2pm to 3pm.  That means the library gets flooded with kids from there waiting for their parents to pick them up.  Or, some of them legitimately go over to study.  Most just come over to wait for their parents and hang out with their friends.

When I worked there many years ago that flood of kids was over a hundred kids coming in and out of the library in a very short time.  And not just the kids, but many of the moms would wait there for their kids.  There were easily twenty moms waiting in the old days.  In the days before Covid.  Since we reopened from the Covid closures the kids and moms haven't returned in those numbers.  And ever since Grimace has worked there the numbers are even worse.  Here is an insight as to why that's happening.

Grimace went nuts today telling some of the kids that they could not leave the library due to their safety.  Since when these the library keep anyone from leaving?  If anything the rules of behavior call for throwing a kid. or anyone, out of they misbehave.  There's nothing that says we're the kid's babysitter.  There's nothing that says we can prevent any child from leaving.  Grimace just made that rule up, for some reason.  TheNewCute and I speculated that since she didn't get those jobs she was seeking that she's lost her mind and is lashing out.  Well, after I left today things at Grandview seemed fine. But then this thing with the kids happened.  TheNewCute got the kid's statements (see above and below.

As you can see on the two notes it looks bad for Grimace.  Both kids mention how Grimace is being mean to them.  One thing is enforcing the mask mandate, but another is going overboard, which is what Grimace does.  I've seen her yell at kids from across the library.  It's not a big place.  She can easily walk over to them and gently remind them to put their mask on, or to wear it correctly.  The two notes are similar in that they both mention Grimace not letting the kids go out, but then how she hovers around them, creeping them out.  At that age a kid doesn't want some grown-up hovering around.  It's worse when a male does it, but a female can be just as creepy.  Which is what Grimace is, creepy.  She doesn't need to hover over the kids.  If she had established a rapport with the kids then that would be different.  But they see her as an ogre.

That brings me to my final thought about something the kids said.  They said that, "A lot of people want her gone."  So true.  And it's not just the patrons, but the employees.  TheNewCute mentioned that many people have told her that they don't want to come into the library because she's there.  As I mentioned before, there were a ton of kids and parents coming in before Covid.  The numbers never recovered, but there was a trend of people coming back to the library.  That is until Grimace alienated everyone, where now kids and moms avoid the library.  TheNewCute mentioned that the regulars are all gone.  It's a new crop of kids that come in, encounter Grimace, and immediately regret it.

The best thing to do is to send her back to Central and put her behind her desk.  So what if she doesn't do anything, she doesn't do anything now.  But now she's become a liability for the library.  She needs to be placed somewhere where she does not interact with the public.  I've heard of so many complaints against her, but somehow they don't just put her on desk duty.  I get that we're short staffed, but I think she's more of a detriment than an asset at this point.

Good advice I gave myself.  I'm not sure when I added this reminder to my phone, but it's funny.  I'm wondering what I meant by it.  However, despite me thinking it's a mistake I do like the advice.  I should forget everyone.

Friday, February, 18, I treated myself to lunch in the park again.  Friday is the best day to have lunch in the park, since I have more time to just enjoy the time in the park. I can rush through the first part of the route and have that extra time in the park.  Only thing that sucked about my lunch in the park was the actual meal.  I went over to Burger Queen and ordered up a Whopper.  Boy, was it bland and just lukewarm.  I think I need to get a yummy sandwich or something to assure myself a good meal in the park.  There is a place in Montrose that serves up Mediterranean food that my coworkers have said is good.  The pictures look good.  This week, as I drove by it, I made note of where it is.  It's super close to the library.  I think next week I'll consider that an option for my Friday in the park lunch.  Nice!  Even if the weather does get colder next week, there are plenty of weeks where it won't be cold.

Over the last couple of years we have lost a lot of people at the library.  Some were replaced, mostly the people up in administration have been replaced, but others haven't.  The pages are one group that have not been replaced as they have left.  We literally don't have any pages left at Central.  One just quit this week.  Others left because they weren't being called to work during the height of the pandemic.  Those pages found new jobs and were never replaced.  Well, now they have hired three young ladies through what's called GYA, short for Glendale Youth Academy.  Which is a way of teens getting jobs to gain experience.  The three ladies they hired are all quite attractive.  The security guard and I were talking about how they were all very nice.

For months I've been wanting to buy a portable gaming system.  There was one I saw online that looked really good.  All these months later I finally bought it the other day.  It arrived today.  I was able to upload some of the game roms I already had on my computer, like Burger Time and Heiankyo Alien.  The latter being a game NO ONE knows about, but it's one of my favorites.  I'm not even sure how I found that game.  Probably looked good on one of my many trips to Toys R Us.  The screen is a little smaller than I like, but it's a good little system.

Saturday, February, 19, I've said it many times before, but the days really are flying.  I mean here it is already past half of the month of February.  I know we ask where does the time go, but I also worry about the time I have left.  I want to get so many things done, but I hinder myself.  I have this obligation to my aunt to not spend too much time out of the house.  Maybe it's quilt, I don't know, but I don't want to leave her alone.  Also, I'm the only person she interacts with most days.  Not that it's much of an interaction, but it might be the only thing kinda keeping her sane.  I don't know anymore.  But I do have a huge list of things I want to check out and places I want to eat.  I'm going to turn around one day and say I should have.  I don't want that list of should haves to be very long.

A commercial for Paul McCarthy in concert came up yesterday.  He's coming to Sofi stadium in May.  The cheapest seats are $184, but those are nosebleed.  I guess I have to figure out how much this is worth to me.  This may be the last time I get to see a Beatle live.  Boy, I sure wish that I was going to get another stimulus check soon.  That or I win the lotto.  Time will tell.

A picture came up on social media from a Solvang bar named High Roller.  It's a tiki bar that I walked by the last time I was in Solvang.  TheGirl is going to go to Solvang some time soon.  I haven't asked her when, because I'm pretty sure she's going during the week, and I don't want to take off work days in the middle of the week.  Call me stupid for feeling I can't do that.  The last time I was there with TheGirl we didn't do all the things I wanted to do.  I think my best bet for visiting this bar is to go alone.  It would have been nice to take TheLooker, but that ain't happening.

Sunday, February, 20, The only thing I look forward to on my weekends is jerking off.  Last night I started my search for some videos to watch and ended up searching for Jenna Jameson.  The website I was on had some upscaled videos that looked pretty damn good for being from VHS.  I don't know how upscaling works exactly, but I suspect it must have to do with come computer wizardry.  That's the only way I can describe it. Anyway, the above photo is a screen cap of one of the videos with Jenna Jameson.  She was a looker, and the epitome of a porn star.  Which can be said about the following porn star, which my night ended on, Janine Lindemulder.

I had never seen either of these videos from either of these ladies.  They were amazing videos.  In the Janine video I could not stop thinking how she looked like some kind of contemporary art piece.  Simply amazing.

I didn't plan on drinking, but I wasn't getting hard enough to continue at one point.  This despite the great videos.  But after having a shot of whiskey and finding the first Jenna video I was on my way.  I was feeling really good, but I think I over did it with the whiskey at one point, because I started feeling sick to the stomach.  Next thing I know I'm throwing up.  Not much, but I threw up in the floor as much as in the tissue paper I had in hand.  I cleaned it up and continued jerking off.

Monday, February, 21, Today was a good day... and it was somewhat productive.  I did my laundry, got my lunch and clothes ready for tomorrow AND Wednesday.  So yeah, I'm way ahead of the curve.  My aunt saw that I was getting stuff done, so she decided to start shredding some of her old documents.  Good.  She needs to get all that into the trash.  Hmm, that reminds me, I need to do the same with some of my old credit card bills.

When it was lunch time I asked my aunt what she wanted to have.  She actually knew what she wanted, but when she told me I let out an inside groan.  She had her little menu flier from a place called California Wok.  It's up the street on Ventura blvd, right next to where the Jerry's Famous Deli used to be.  It's been there for years, as I remember.  During 2020 she must have gotten that flier in the mail and since the last two times we ordered from there, I now dread it when she wants something from there.  The food is completely bland.  The second to last time I ordered some orange chicken.  Bland.  Last time I ordered Mongolian beef.  Bland.  This time I figured I would just get something else to eat nearby.  My plan worked perfectly.  I ordered her meal and I ordered something from Veggie Grill, which is one block away.  I picked up both meals and went on my merry way home.  When I got home she noticed that I had ordered something different.  I didn't mention why.  We went about eating our meals and soon after she started she got up from her chair and reached over to the other side of the table for a little container that has a bunch of sauces from our various take out meals.  I figured she wanted soy sauce, but I was wrong.  She went looking for the title packets of salt.  Yes, salt.  This from the woman that never seasons anything.  The blandness was strong in this food, and even she had to admit without words that it sucked.  I think next time I ask her what she wants I'll suggest another Chinese food establishment.  There used to be one on Sepulveda like twenty-five years ago.  But, they bulldozed it and put up a Jack-in-the-box there.  I think what I also need to do is print out some menus of places nearby.  Like I could have a print out of IHOP and like Corner Bakery, as well as California Chicken Cafe.  Yeah, I think I'll start on that tonight.

Meanwhile my Buffalo sandwich was super yummy, and the fries that came along with it were so crispy.  They weren't as warm as if I had eaten there, but they were still good.  This is one of the things that I don't like about ordering take out, the fact that the food gets cold by the time I get home.

My aunt came into my room in the evening, which is never a good sign.  She always brings up something stupid in these visits.  Tonight was no different.  She comes into my room and shows me a check from 1996 and asks me if I want to keep it for my records.  Really?  A check from 1996?!  I don't get why this check is so important in her mind that I would want to keep it for my "records."  The fucking check was from TWENTY-SIX FUCKING YEARS AGO!  I don't know what she's thinking.  Then she went on to talk about some other check that was from ten years ago.  I have some old checks that need to be gone from my "records."  ARGH, my aunt is dumb.

Tuesday, February, 22, I was on my way into work when I remembered that today is two weeks since TheLooker last texted me.  I told myself I would only text her back if she sent me a text first, and sure enough she hasn't.  As I walked up to the library I thought about how I felt that I had wasted so much time talking to TheLooker all this time.  Today I arrived at Central a few minutes before 4pm, and finished up a few minutes before 4:30pm.  When TheLooker was still working at the library I would chat her up and I would often end work at 4:45pm.  And the thing is, I never put that in my time card.  Why?  Because I was on my own time at that point.  I'm not going to put the time I spent chatting up TheLooker on my time card.  That why I would often finish at 4:45pm or later, because I had spent so much time talking to TheLooker (and to be fair, others as well).  But today I left right on time.

It may seem harsh to say I wasted that time talking to TheLooker, since we did have some nice times.  But, I was hoping it would lead to a real friendship, but apparently it didn't.  I was just a work friend.  I know, I'm coming off bitter about this whole thing, and perhaps I am bitter.  I remember feeling really sad when it was TheLooker's last day.  Almost as if I knew she was not coming back.  Not just to the library, but back into my life.  I know she said I would go up and leave her books, but that hasn't happened.  If she does text me at any time I can always just tell her I was giving her some space to get aquatinted with her new job.  But really, I was just mourning her departure from my life.  As superficial as it might have been, I liked TheLooker.  A lot more than I like others at the library.  I thought we would hang out.  I thought, well, I hoped, that something could come out of that.  Boy, did I have my head up my ass on that one.

It took nearly two weeks to post, but the dopes at Glendale finally posted the "good news" that they always ask us for.  There is this thing where the so-called "recognition" team wants to know about life events that we are celebrating.  TheNewCute got a new car a few weeks ago and she asked me to take a picture of her in front of her new car.  As recorded in a previous entry.  Well, nearly two weeks later and I was asking her what gives.  What happened to the team recognizing your "good news?"  She didn't know, but today it popped up on the online chat we have with the city.  It's an internal chat thing that only employees can see.  I had this feeling that they would say something about this in the weekly news email.  But, they didn't, and now they had to post it in the regular chat.  Lame.

TheDesire posted a cartoon of herself on her social media.  She captioned it by saying, "It's Two-sday, 2.2.22 and I have decided that being filtered is for the amateurs and deserve to be illustrated so I can honestly say no filters."  Nice.

I got a text message from Ru tonight around 8pm.  It turned out that she wanted to know more about the San Marino job.  Apparently she went out for the job, and she was offered it today.  She didn't get much information about things like scheduling.  But she wanted to ask me what the place was like.  I gave her the scoop, as I see it.  I would love if she became my new supervisor, but at the same time it seems from what she told me that it's not really a good fit for her.  Then again, the way San Marino is acting, it doesn't seem like ANYONE is going to want this job.  Two people have now told me that San Marino doesn't seem to be interested in paying a salary commiserate with other libraries in the area.  Which makes for a tough sell, but since they are more duties with that smaller pay it doesn't make for a good combination.  See, Becks was fresh out of school, and perhaps she didn't know better.  But, she also liked the job the way it was.  But anyone else applying for the job is not impressed with the low salary.  Makes sense.  This is why it's taken so long for San Marino to hire anyone.  I don't remember if I write this here, but the librarian at Brand was also up for this job and she turned it down before they even offered it to her.  She said that it was too low a pay, but also that the city would not negotiate for her to start at a different step, a higher salary step.  It would mean that she could have fewer steps to go, but it would also be closer to the salary she's making now at Glendale.  Mind you, San Marino has money.  They have a lot of money.  Why they're being so cheep when it comes to this job I'll never know.  They're are not going to get anyone that is qualified at this point.  They will have to settle for the last person on their list.  Or maybe they'll have to settle for some rube, as Becks said.  Time will tell, but this hiring process has been nothing short of completely dumb.  Looks like I'll never have a new supervisor.

Wednesday, February, 23, For days I've heard the weather liars on TV talk about the rain we were supposed to get this week.  First it was Tuesday, then it was today.  But, no rain.  When I went to work today I went to the car wash, because I knew that it wasn't going to rain.  Weather liars.

My aunt called me to ask me if I wasn't too busy to go to the 99 cent store after work and pick up a couple of things.  When I went to the store there was a lot of people.  This is why I like to go BEFORE going to work.  If she had told me say last night or this morning that she needed a few things I could have gone before work.  But, nooooooo.  Anyway, I went after work and picked up the items.  Like I said, the place was busy.  Too busy for some people to even clean up after themselves.  The shopping baskets were a mess.  Some idiots can't take a few extra seconds to put their baskets in the proper order.  I went ahead and did it for them.  I just can't take this kind of shit.

TheGirl and I have a weekly debate about where to eat dinner.  Despite there not being any rain tonight, it was WAY cold.  So TheGirl said we should go somewhere that's outside yet covered.  She then mentioned Riversid, which is now called Michael's on Riverside.  We've been there a ton of times, and I can only say that I've had a couple of really good meals there.  The rest of the time I've had some lousy meals.  Count tonight as one of the lousy ones.  The menu was not complete because of "labor shortages."  I should have just bought a pizza, which is passable.  However, I went with the burger.  The fries were really well done, nice and crispy.  However, the burger was bland and lifeless.  I'm going to discourage TheGirl from choosing this place any time soon.  Even the cocktails were weak.  I had to pour some of my whiskey into the cocktail to get it any kind of kick.  Shame.  I could just drink mine in that case.

Thursday, February, 24, Despite the weather liars getting the rain forecast wrong the weather has been completely gorgeous this week.  The weather liars say that it's going to be in the 80s next week.  ARGH, I hope not.  I like the weather just how it is right now.  There's plenty of time for the heat.

The route today was pretty chill.  There are days when there are a lot of books, like on Tuesday when the books that had accumulated from the long weekend all got put in my face.  But, the reality is that our circulation numbers are still low.  There are some locations that are not getting a lot of books at all.  Grandview, Casa, Pacific Park and Adams are getting one bin on average.  Sometimes those bins are half empty.  It's the other locations that are pulling the system's weight.  Central is, of course, the busiest of the locations.  But even their numbers are way low.  Brand is sending a lot of items out on this Link Plus thing.  Which I would suspect counts towards the library check out stats.  So by this measure I'm thinking they're going to use the checkouts through Link Plus to say that the circulation numbers are not just steady, but that they are up.  Meanwhile, the books are circulating here, they're circulating at other libraries, and vice versa.  Shady.

For the last couple of days I've seen commercials online for Paul McCartney coming to Sofi stadium in May.  I thought about buying a ticket, but when I saw the prices I balked.  But, as I think about it more I have to rationalize is by saying that he is a Beatle.  I'm never going to be able to see the Beatles live.  Ringo isn't touring, and his catalog of songs is nothing compared to Paul.  So, I bit the financial bullet and bought myself a ticket to see the concert.  Grand total was $417.40.  That is including $66 for parking.  You know what thought, it's going to be worth it.  He's a Beatle and I will go to my grave having said that I at least got to see him in concert.  If there's a heaven, or something like that, then I suppose this will be tops on the list of concerts I see on Earth, and I can maybe see him play with Hendrix in Heaven.  But, since there is no Heaven is is going to have to be it.  I'm excited.

Ru sent me a text today to tell me that she didn't take the San Marino job.  There were just too many negatives.  The city would not negotiate salary.  Ru was willing to take a little pay cut, but the city expected her to start on the first step.  That would mean a huge pay cut, which she could not live with.  Because, San Marino can't offer anything as a plus other than a good salary.  And failing to do that their offers to people are going to fall on deaf ears.  No one is going to take a pay cut for that job.  I don't blame Ru for not taking the job.  It's a shit show.

Friday, February, 25, I saw a meme about watering dead plants (see above), which advocates for stopping texting people to see which ones are your true friends.  The full text says, "Stop texting first and see how many dead plants you've been watering."  I stopped texting TheLooker and you see what happened.  Zero contact from her initiated.  There are others that I archived and don't have an intentions of texting first.  By the end of March I'll have a clear picture as to who cares and who doesn't.  I'm ready to see how many dead plants I've been watering.  I'm sure it's a lot.

I had lunch in the park again today.  I rushed through the first part of my route in order to have a nice long time in the park.  Instead of having a half an hour lunch I went for the full hour.  Fuck it.  The weather these last few weeks has been amazing and really perfect for lunch in the park.  I'm lucky to have this opportunity to chill in the park for my lunch.  All the other suckers I work for have to be stuck inside a building and behind a desk.  I am the lucky one.  The one out there on my own.  No one to tell me that I should have lunch at a certain time.  No one over my shoulder.  No stupid patrons.

Saturday, February, 26, The calendar for the new season of the Hollywood Bowl came in the mail today.  It's the usual suspects of shows to check out.  I texted TheGirl about what we might go see.  I would rather not go see John Williams again, if possible.

Sunday, February, 27, Today was my first Sunday shift at San Marino in over two years.  Because we are so short staffed I've been told that I have to work one Sunday a month.  Oh well.  Last night I was jerking off and drinking and generally having a good time.  Although, strangely enough I work up this morning with a scar on my left hand.  I somewhat remember hitting my wall.  This morning I saw where I hit it, because there's a mark on the wall.  Hmmm.  Well, instead of beating up my wall I should have turned on my alarm.  Actually, I thought I had set my alarm the other day, and since I was sauced I didn't check last night.  I was too busy coming.  Well, of course I oversleep this morning.  I woke up around 10:45am.  I was supposed to be at work at noon.  And often the trip to work can take forty minutes.  I ran into the shower and flew out the door.  My aunt told me to take and second half of the sandwich she didn't finish yesterday.  For once I was glad for the fact that she's always pawning off her food on me.  Nice!  I jumped into the car and made good time.  I got to work with eleven minutes to spare.  I went in, did a couple of things, and then warmed up the sandwich.  That was my breakfast, and lunch.  Whew!

On Friday the county said it was OK for individuals who are vaccinated to take off their masks indoors.  At Glendale they decided that it would be too much trouble to ask people for their vaccinated status.  But, at San Marino we're checking people's vaccination status.  But only if they want to take their masks off.  Many people prefer to keep their masks on anyway.  In a few days the county is going to change things again soon, so this checking thing shouldn't ask that long.  Hopefully.

When I came home I warmed the second half of my sandwich from yesterday.  Just as I was finishing up dinner my watch popped up a message saying that my heart had been beating at a rate over one hundred twenty beats a minute for a prolonged time.  And, it added that I this was happening while I appeared inactive.  True.  All I was doing was eating my sandwich.  Hmm.  An hour later it was still beating fast.  I finally just took my pill.  As I write this my two readings said ninety-five and ninety-seven beats a minute.  But, just a few minutes ago it was down to seventy-one beats.  The readings in the nineties are still high, but nothing like earlier.  Hmmm.  I'm not sure what's going on.  I didn't feel bad, but my heart was beating like crazy.  Strange.

Monday, February, 28, I don't know how many times I've been burned by my aunt when it comes to this lawyer thing.  Last week she said she called and he said the paperwork would be ready by today.  So of course we head out there and he says, Oh, the paperwork won't be done until after 2pm.  Fuck me!  Again we show up and it's not ready.  Fucking shit!  I don't know why it's so difficult for my aunt to ask if everything is all set.  Because I wonder what she talks to the lawyer about if it's not when and where.  The lawyer must know that this is something my aunt wants to get done.  So both sides are myopic.  When I dropped her off at home my aunt seem to think that we were going tomorrow.  Nope.  Earliest we can go is Wednesday.  And what needs to be done is for my aunt to call him and ask him point blank when the paperwork is going to be ready.  I wonder if she's doing that, or how she can barely be understood so the lawyer thinks she said something else and says yes to be polite.  ARGH!

So I was wondering what the deal was with my heart yesterday, so I went ahead and googled it.  Sure enough, drinking a lot of booze can make your heart race.  The booze messes with the signals to the heart and causes the heart to race.  So I can continue to do what I'm doing and damage my body.  Or I can cut down on hopefully get better.  I do love boozing it up, but I don't want to get sick from it.  I think it's time to just enjoy a drink from time to time.  It will also help with my weight issue.  I'm a fat slob, and I need to lose some weight.  I think what I need to do is limit my drinking to Wednesday nights when I go to dinner with TheGirl.  But, I also need to visit the doctor to see what can be done, if anything.

After lunch I had such a hard time staying awake while on the reference desk.  I started watching videos online, but I just could not keep my eyes open.  I blame my bad night's sleep.  I fell asleep a little slower than normal, but not too long.  But, then I woke up a couple of times during the night.  I can't even remember how many times I woke up, but it was at least twice.  It ruined my night, and of course ruined my day.  I know I'm going to bed early tonight.