Afterthoughts : This Past Month

The title of this month's newsletter comes from a coworker who I was talking to about how there are some good things that happen these days.  He responded, "Yeah, one good thing happens, but then twenty bad things happen."  He's not wrong, but I know things will get better.  I hope that the ratio will turn the other way.  One can hope.

Tuesday, August, 2, We had yet ANOTHER useless training session today.  This time it was about helping people with disabilities.  Really what it turned out to be is an exercise in staying away though a boring presentation.  You can see from my coworker's reaction on the online meeting that the presentation was just riveting... not!  I hardly even listened to it.  I was busy taking pictures that were taking from the event on Saturday and picking the best ones of the bunch to be listening to these boring ladies.  Later Shannon, who is the one pictured above, told me the main presenter was very dry and monotone.  This I did notice.

She told me that most of the stuff they were talking about twas already things we knew and common sense.  From what I did hear it was just the same old same old.  I asked how much these ladies got paid for this presentation, because it was pretty useless.  But, because I logged in I got credit for attending.  Suckers.

Vin Scully is dead.  For millions of Dodger fans Vin Scully is how we got to know the Dodgers.  He was the best at his job.  Everyone that followed copied some parts of his delivery, if not copy the entire thing.  His way of calling the game was not just to say what was going on on the field, but to bring you in with stories about the players that weaved a tapestry every night.  For nearly seventy years he was the voice of the Dodgers.  Unlike Chick Hearn, who didn't retire, Vin retired and walked away from the broadcast booth to enjoy his last years with his family.  It's a beautiful thing, despite the fans not having that smooth voice to accompany them as the game went on.  We lost the best, and that's saying something.

Wednesday, August, 3, Although I worked at the Brand library last week today really is my first day working there as a page.  Perhaps the most expensive page in the system.  Misa was there after being out due to illness last week.  She told me that she had Covid.  I texted her last week and asked her if she had it, and she didn't answer me.  She told me that she thought she was not allowed to tell anyone that she had it.  I corrected her that this whole "HIPAA" thing applies to health care professions, not to "civilians" like her and me.

Anyway, Misa showed me the ropes, aka the opening procedures.  After getting the flags up I went to pick up the books from the bookdrop.  After that I spent my time pulling the holds.  And then 11am neared and I went to the recital hall to have my interview with the assistant city attorney.

Today was the day that I was interviewed about the whole Kvon and Janette thing.  He was being investigated for saying the remark, "Hola, mi amor," to Janette in the circulation room.  I was asked about three times to tell the story. This is a technique used to see if I'm telling the truth.  I told the the story as I remembered it, and that was that.  The interview was about half an hour and for my part I didn't get why they were taking this to the assistant city attorney.  To me it seems like overkill.  But, I think they have some sort of target on Kvon.  I think they must not like him for some reason, and so they are on this whole campaign against him now.  To me the remark was just a flip remark that I didn't think it rose to this sort of investigation.  If they mean to deprive him of his job or or some sort of possible promotion later on this may be the motive.  I guess time will tell.  If this doesn't stick then these dopes upstairs showed their hand too early in the game.  Kvon for his part has already said that he may explore filing a lawsuit.  Time will tell.

I honestly don't know why I think that I continue to think that I can get anything started with Talia.  She's a fucking mess.  I drove for three quarters of an hour to make it from the Brand library to her house in WeHo.  Never again.  I should ask Chan to pinch me the next Wednesday that I say, "Let's go visit Talia."  I arrived at just past 2pm, and I was out of there in about an hour.

I do this to myself.  I think the best of people, and it always fails me.

I had planned on staying at Talia's until 4pm.  After which I was to drive to TheGirl's for dinner.  But since I left an hour before that I figured I would go take some pictures at Travel Town.  But, on the way there I realized that I haven't visited my Grandmother's grave in a LONG time.  Not only her grave, but also my Godmother's grave, which is right around the corner from my Grandmother.  It's kinda strange how those two were born about two years within each other in a little pueblo in Mexico and they end up buried less than forty feet from each other in Los Angeles.

On my way to Forest Lawn I saw one of those guys that sells flowers on the side of the road and slammed on the brakes in order for me to buy some flowers for my Grandmother.  EVERY... FUCKING... TIME.. that I visit my Grandmother I tell myself that I need to get flowers.  EVERY... FUCKING... TIME... I DON'T get her any flowers.  And I mean for YEARS.  I think now that I have those free hours on Wednesday that I'll probably be spending more time at my Grandmother's grave.

TheGirl and I went to the Smokehouse in Burbank for dinner tonight.  We were treated to a little show tonight when an angry couple came in to argue with each other.  Well, it was mostly the lady that was talking, the douchy looking guy was just sitting there listening, while he ate a steak.

I could not understand what the woman was saying.  For one, she was not loud.  And for two, it was in a foreign language.  Her body language showed that she was not happy.  It was quite a show.

Friday, August, 5, Today is the last day of the school lunch program, and I'm so glad it's over.  This year it was easier than in past years, but it was still a bit of a hassle.  I'm happy that it's over, that's for sure.  No more wasting food. On Tuesday the cafeteria lady asked me to find out how many meals were given away on Monday July 25th.  Yesterday they asked me again, and I followed up with the children's desk crew.  I was telepathically sending a message to just make up a number.  They finally did that yesterday.  Today the cafeteria lady gave me the paperwork for the 25th so that someone back at Central could fill out the numbers and then sign it.  Thankfully one of the librarians followed my lead and signed the paperwork.  Because at first she said, "Oh that has to wait until Monday," so that the person that takes care of the lunches on Mondays could input the numbers.  I told the librarian that I was going to fudge it, and she took my lead and said that she would put the imaginary numbers.  Done, and done.  Now the paperwork will return to the school district on Monday.  Mission accomplished.

There was a point after I dropped of the lunches at Grandview where the ladies there had their ukuleles with them and started to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  TheNewCute didn't have a ukulele, but did have an electric guitar.  They serenaded me.

I went back to Grandview later in the day in order to pick up the lunch bag that needs to be returned to the school district next week.  When I was there they had not taken the lunches out of the cooler bag.  Laurel mentioned that it was wrong to throw away all those lunches.  She suggested we send them to some charity.  We told her that today was the last day anyway, but that perhaps we can float the idea for next year.  She then offered to take the leftover lunches, of which there were twenty-two since no one showed up today, and take them to a charity down the street from the library.  She went ahead and called to see if they could take them and they said yes.  She wondered if they would be open when she left at 6pm.  I told her right away to just take them.  It's like I was the boss or something.  Meanwhile her actual boss said it was OK.

I sat down on the couch in the kitchen, feeling good that I suggested she go and initiated her going to give those lunches away.  That's when TheNewCute sat right next to me, and I mean close to me, because there was the cooler bag covering the rest of the couch.  People will talk, I thought to myself.  Sigh.  She got up at one point, but then sat next to me again.  Lovely.

As I was having dinner Annie from San Marino sent me a text telling me something about what's going on at Crowell.  Here's what she said,

"Jeff just told us that Linda is going to reduce our hours from 19-18/week. It is mandatory and start after next week."

She continued:

"Jeff said this idea comes from her, not city hall, she told Jeff that she wants everyone save 1 hour and prepare when library needs you work extra hours."

Another "great" move by Linda.  What a piece of shit and petty move.  Boy, I got out of there just in time.

I'm going to have brunch with Annie and the former city librarian on Sunday.  Annie says she's going to tell me more details then.  Can't wait.  Linda, the new city librarian, has made awful move after awful move.

Saturday, August, 6, I hung out with my buddy earlier this week.  We get to talking about life and such, since we're both fifty years old and the days ahead are less than the days behind us.  Strangely we lead parallel lives in that both of us spend a lot of time watching stuff on our iPads.  Only he has a nice iPad pro, the big size.  I would love to have that to watch my videos in the backyard.

Neither of us have ladies in our lives.  Honestly, at this point I put zero energy into finding a lady.  Why bother?  Thank the maker for porn.

I got an email from the Arboretum yesterday and I told TheGirl if she was interested in going.  She said yes, so I bought us some tickets for December 10th.  We're going!

Sunday, August, 7, I went to brunch with my old boss and former coworker Annie from San Marino.  Annie wanted to hang out and tell Irene (the old city librarian) about all the shit that's been going on at Crowell since they fired Irene.  It was a good time, and you already know most of the stories we shared with Irene.

Annie still wants to make a food cooking channel.  I think it's a good idea, and I need to find the time to do this.  Seeing as the whole thing with Talia fell apart I'm just going to focus on things elsewhere.

I heard my aunt coughing last night.  Not good.  A while back her specialist prescribed her some 20mg pills of her usual prescription.  But, my aunt old her that it was too high of a dose.  Because of course my aunt's extensive medical knowledge let her know that it was too much.  Well, the pharmacy filled that prescription a few weeks ago after her stay in the hospital.  My aunt didn't want to take those, so I just set them aside.  Tonight I slipped one of those 20mg pills into her pill box to take tonight.  Her doctor told her to take extra doses of her meds when she was feeling sick, like when she had a cold or a cough.  Of course she won't take them.  So I slipped her one for tonight.  If it does the trick then I have a bottle of them to give her when she's not feeling well.  Basically when I see her looking run down, or hear her coughing.  I sure hope that I can get a refill on that 20mg version of her regular pills.  Her regular pills are 5mg.  Her doctor told her to take 10mg in the morning and 10mg at night.  But my aunt, again with her medical degree, said no.  So the doctor told her 10mg in the morning and 5mg at night.  If this works to make her through this couching fit then I hate to say it, I'm going to keep those 20mg pills in my pocket for moments like this in the future.

Monday, August, 8, Over the last month or so I've noticed a lady that walks her dog in the mornings as I'm leaving for work that looks quite attractive.  Our only interactions have been when she's waved that I should go first, and when I' waved back that she should go first.  Oh and this morning when she was walking in front of my house and she stopped for a brief moment to check for cars that might be racing by the house.

Now the question for me is... how do I ask her her name and such?  Not that it will go anywhere, but you know me.  I'm a hopeless romantic.

I told my supervisor Kvon that he has a target on his back, and that he needed to do all he could to keep the focus off his work.  But, then he pulls this stuff about not assigning me to a specific task on my Mondays at work.  I joked with one of my coworkers that I should just sit in the circulation office and sit there since I don't have an official duty.  Yeah, but with my luck someone would ask where I was and boom... next thing I know they find me asleep in the closet, aka the "sound space."

One of the new library assistants, that just started working last week, said she accepted the part time librarian job at San Marino.  Well, today one of the other library assistants is leaving.  Luz started about three weeks ago, and is now leaving for Burbank.  She got the library assistant job that I tried out for earlier this year.  I was told that the library hired about ten new library assistants.  Well, now two of them have left.  It's so hilarious how people get hired and leave in such a short amount of time.  I wouldn't be surprised if I find out that more of the new people hired will be leaving soon.  Just watch.

It was just three short years ago that I took the above picture of TheLooker.  I guess that will be the only set of pictures I will ever take of her.  Here stupid me thought that I had any little change of being with her, seeing her naked, sleeping with her, all that good stuff that comes with dating a girl.  I'm such a deluded fool.

This great photo of Talia was taken back in 2005.  Nothing like that will ever happen again.  It was great, because Talia would get naked at the drop of a hat.  This is why I have so many nude pictures of her throughout the years.

Tuesday, August, 9, One of our resent trouble patrons went to the Casa Verdugo branch today and was subsequently kicked out of the library.  I think he was trying to play off that he didn't know that his ninety day ban meant being banned at all Glendale library locations, and not just Central.  Vagabundo seemed to think he was playing dumb in order to see if he could stay at Casa.  That is his method, so I wouldn't put it past him to try to manipulate the situation like that.

Never the less, he is banned from all locations.  Ignorance of that fact, be it on purpose or for real, is irrelevant.  Vagabundo told me that they called the police, but that it took some time for them to arrive.  When they finally did Ryan, the guy banned, used racial epithets at the police and the manager of the branch.  But, at some point he mentioned how he was "half" Mexican.  Sure.  Sure.  His ban has now been extended for a year.

And then, back at the ranch.  AKA, Central, a new dope was getting a one day ban.  This is the same idiot that called me stupid on Monday.  I don't really care if it's only one day, because I know he's going to go the route of Ryan, see above.  He's such a dummy that he's going to quickly go from one day to ninety days like that.

The window to get a reservation for the Blue Bayou opens up tomorrow.  Ilsa said she would wake up at 3am in order to go online and try to get us a reservation.  Cross your fingers.  What gets me is that she keeps on insisting that it's too early.  The Disneyland app has the date of October 8th already available.  That means tomorrow October 9th should be available.  Ilsa keeps on insisting its too early.  No, it's not.  Not if the app is showing you can make a reservation for the 8th.  Hope she has some luck.

Wednesday, August, 10, Well, both Ilsa and I tried to get reservations for the Blue Bayou for our Disneyland trip in October, and failed.  She was good enough to wake up just before 3am in order to get the reservations, because I had heard from one of those Disney experts that Disneyland opens up the reservations at that time of the morning.  Sadly she woke up and it didn't work.  She did say that the app and the website were acting strange.  Oh well.  I was looking forward to it, but there are plenty of other places we can go to eat that day.  Sigh.

Last night, in a drunken stupor, I broke the little table that I have next to my chair, in my room.  I decided to take the time, in between the time I'm off work at Brand and the time I'm to show up at TheGirl's for dinner, to head up to the IKEA store in Burbank to buy myself another side table.

And so I did buy myself a side table.  And there it is, in the picture.

TheGirl suggested we go to dinner at the Dog Haus, because that place has a tall building next door that blocks the sun from around 1pm on.  Which means it's cooler than other places we frequent for dinner.  We had wine from little cans, but that wine has a nice amount of booze, because I get a nice buzz off the little can.  Lately we have been having two cans each on our little trip to Dog Haus.  I ordered up something called the Uncle Morty, which is a burger consisting of pastrami and some white cheese.  It was good, but I think if I'm going to a hot dog place I should stick to hot dogs here.  I do love their corn dogs.

During our dinner TheGirl mentioned that Cheyenne can't have too many tater tots.  They are bad for her.  But, she did give her a couple, and made Cheyenne work for them (click above picture of short video).

Thursday, August, 11, Well, for the first time in a long time I was wrong.  Yesterday I said that both Ilsa and I tried to get reservations for the Blue Bayou in October and we both failed.  But, Ilsa persisted.  She got up at 3am this morning and not only got us reservations, but got us two time slots.  See, this is what's wrong with America.  We are hoarding reservations now.  Tisk tisk.  I have yet to talk to her about this, but I guess it's good since we can toss one reservation back into the system.  I never through we had a chance via the reservation system.  It thought we would have to be like those poor saps that show up to the reception area thinking they can just walk up and get a slot for the day.  Bloody good luck with that.  As you can see, it's not even September and we're already having to book for October.  What luck does some dummy tourist have to just walk up and get a table?  Slip to none.  But, now we have two.  Ha!

It was finally payday.  My last paycheck was last week from San Marino.  It was barely $200.  I knew this would happen in this transition to one income, from Glendale.  Finally I got paid from Glendale and it was a nice fat paycheck... $1,800.  But, minus taxes it was $1,400.  That includes one week of still working at San Marino, and one week where I didn't.  So my next paycheck should be a little fatter.  I had to borrow from my other fund in order to make some payments earlier this week.  I'm hoping this is there only problem I have with the new paycheck timing.

I asked Krishna about how much longer I would have to cover lunches at Adams and she said that she didn't know.  She won't be getting anyone new until perhaps September.  ARGH!  This means more Thursdays at Adams.  I think I'm going to modify the route for Thursdays to weigh more of the route to the front part, and only have a couple of other stops after going to Adams.  Actually, it's probably a good idea to not have any stops after Adams.  I'll have to think about this.

Friday, August, 12, I was killing time checking my email at the end of the route when I noticed there was a text from Mala on the Teams program we use for internal city chats.  She says to me, "Good afternoon. Eric I see that you're on the phase 3 schedule for this Monday but not assigned to service points Are you working on a special project or would be able to cover in admin?"

Of course I'm not working on any special project, Kvon just plumb forgot to assign me to anything.  I told him on Monday that this was missing.  I told him to just make it easy on him by putting me on the desk on Mondays.  Jeez!  I literally did his job for him.  He has a target on his back and time and time again I give him not only advice but guidance.  Like this scheduling thing.  But now Mala saw I was not scheduled for anything and snagged me.  This is only going to look bad on him.

Saturday, August, 13, TheGirl and I went to Downtown Disney a few weeks ago.  We walked by this restaurant named Naples on that visit and TheGirl said she wanted to come back and try it.  I ate there back in 2018 or 2019, I can't remember, with Emma.  This time around we sat outside, and it was warm but nice.  I had two Manhattans, and they really hit the spot.

Now we have to try other places to eat there.  Oh, actually, I mentioned that I wanted to go to Knott's chicken dinner restaurant next time.  Hmmm, Mmmm.

Ilsa texted me this morning that she didn't want to go to work at San Marino today.  I joked with her that today was probably going to be her last day.  Well, she made a prophet out of me by quitting today.  She said that she just had enough.  Her resignation letter literally said today was her last day.  Good-bye!

Monday, August, 15, Mala texted me on Friday asking if I was on some sort of special assignment on Monday.  She asked because Kvon didn't schedule me for anything.  She took advantage of that to ask me to cover the phones in admin.  It was soooooo boring.  I fielded three phone calls.  One was for one of the reference librarians, but I didn't know her extension.  Another was about renting out the auditorium.  I told that patron we didn't have any idea when we would start doing that again.  But she insisted on talking to someone.  Well, that someone was off today, so I told her I would relay her information to him.  In short, I emailed him.  Lastly I got a call from the reference desk about some one leaving their stuff on the back steps.  Looks like someone just abandoned their things.  Who knows.  I was able to get some Foundation work while on the desk.  And when I wasn't doing that I watched a little YouTube.  All in all a long day, but also easy money.  Can't knock that.

I was upstairs in admin all day today.  I had a thought that I should take Chan with me so I could make sure nothing happens to hims.  I should have taken my own advice.  When I came down for lunch I immediately noticed that Chan was facing a different way.  He wasn't harmed, but I did wonder who the fuck would move hims.  Violeta works right under hims and said, "I felt like he was watching me."  Chan does have kinda expressive eyes for a stuffed monkey.  I have to have a debate on whether I should leave Chan in my car in the garage, or bring hims into the library and place him over the lockers, or somewhere else.  I have said that Chan is more important than most people that I know.  I don't want hims harmed by stupid humans.  I may either not bring hims with me on Mondays or find a place where he is going to be safe from stupid humans.  I feel that his story is the same as many monkeys in the wild.  That humans intrude into a monkeys habitat.  I know that Chan is just a stuffed monkey, but I also feel that a part of me is a part of hims.  Perhaps it's because I grew up as an only child.  Perhaps it's because TheGirl gave hims to me.  Perhaps it's all of the above and a hundred other things, but I love that little stuffed monkey more than I do most humans.

For some reason my aunt moves this loaf, and any loaf, of bread to this spot on the dinning table.  At night I will often move it out of my way, because I'm trying to get things done in the morning like get my breakfast on my serving tray, and also getting my work lunch in the pail for me to take to work.  The fucking loaf always gets in my way.  But every fucking evening, when I get home, I find it back in the same place where my aunt likes to place it.  Like why?  Why does she insist on moving it to this particular area?  I fucking hate it.

Tonight, as I was driving home, she called me twice.  The first time to tell me that my cousin was coming over to pick up some piece of mail from the school.  I really wish she would stop using our address for this shit.  I don't remember how much later but she called to then say that my cousin wasn't coming over tonight, she was coming over on Thursday.  I just lost it.  I told her in a stern voice, "I don't care," and hung up the phone on her.  Fucking shit, why can't she just WAIT until I get home to tell me this shit?  This isn't pressing.  I don't need a minute by minute update for this shit.  Also, I'm driving and I don't have my ear buds on, so it makes it hard to hear what my aunt is saying.  Whatever.  When I got home I just told her I was home and she left me alone for the rest of the evening.  I'm so tired.

Tuesday, August, 16, My phone had a message today that reminded me of something I already knew... that Chan will be ten years old this year.  Ten years old!  How can that be?  I know I say it, and other says this same thing, but how can it be that long?  Life is crazy.  I love my little stuffed monkey.  After being moved yesterday I feel I need to put hims in a more secure location when I go to Glendale on Mondays.  He's safe at Brand, but there are too many dopes at Central that think it's OK to mess with hims at Central.  I may just leave Chan in the car for his safety.  Which sucks because I want to bring hims into the building precisely because his safety is a concern.

Wednesday, August, 17, When I first started working with Misa so many years ago I thought she was cute and maybe single.  I found out she wasn't single, but I still thought she was cute.  Over the years we have both put on some pounds.  Today I noticed she looked a little thinner.  I told her so.  Maybe it was the Covid she had that caused her to not eat as much or whatever, but she did look thinner to me.  I've always had a little thing for her.  She's looking nice today.

We ended up going to lunch down the road to Burbank.  We would have eaten there, but she promised the librarian that we would come back with some food.  I ordered some taquitos, but I think next time I'll get a burrito.  I've had this food before, only it was in another location.  I thought I got a picture of both the food and the place, but I guess I didn't.  For some reason my phone takes pictures a little slow.  I'm already moving when I noticed that the picture wasn't taken.

Since I wasn't going to have much time to go to Little Tokyo, like I had originally planned, to take pictures after work I decided to go to Pasadena to get some booze.  Some much needed booze.  After getting some booze I still had some time to kill before going over to TheGirl's place for dinner.  I still haven't told TheGirl about my new schedule.  She knows that I'm not working at San Marino anymore, but she doesn't know that I get off work at 1pm on Wednesdays now.  She doesn't need to know.  At least not yet.

To kill time I went over to Travel Town to take some pictures.  But stupid me forgot to charge my Polaroid.  Which means I packed the film for no reason.  I put it back into my lunch pail and went into Travel Town to film a little segment with my video camera.  But, I didn't want to even do much of that without having the pictures to show for a potential video.  I took a few short videos, used the restroom there, and then just went back to the car and drove over to TheGirl's place.

Originally we said we were going to go to the Counter to have dinner tonight.  However, the Counter doesn't offer as much coverage from the sun on these hot days.  This is why TheGirl said we should go to the Smokehouse.  I was OK with that.  They have good food there.  Though the last time I was there the burger I ordered was meh.  To be fair I shouldn't be ordering a burger at a steak house.  This time I ordered baby back ribs and tri tip.  Their tri tip is super yummy.  I also ordered a lemon drop.  Well, two lemon drops.  It all hit the spot.

I mentioned how Chan is nearly ten years old, well Cheyenne is nearly ten years old as well.  These two ladies, and Chan, changed me life.  I love all three of them so much.  I enjoy the time we all go out together.  These Wednesday dinners are something I cherish.  I've said it before, but it's true.

Thursday, August, 18, TheNewCute turns twenty-seven on Sunday.  Our coworkers at the branches she works asked me to take some things over to Grandview to celebrate her birthday.  It turned out to be some Mexican pastries.  I usually don't like these kind of pastries, because they're so dry.  But, I ate half of one.  Not my favorite.

I ordered some new light string for the side of the house by my room.  I put them up pretty quickly.  They are SUPER bright.  I'm wondering if I should leave these here or perhaps move them to the backyard.  I'm putting these lights on this side so I have more control of the lights in this area.  My aunt sometimes forgets to turn on the lights on the side of the house.  When I'm out I want to know that those lights are on.

Friday, August, 19, The new manager at Montrose/Chevy Chase was formally at the so-called "makers space."  Waste of time space, is more like it.  Anyway, she's moving from Central to Montrose now.  Today I saw a lot of bins going up to Montrose.  When I started loading them onto the truck I noticed that most of the bins didn't have books, rather they had junk.  Someone at circulation told me, "Oh, Isis was putting those bins together... they're filled with her stuff."  What the fuck!?  Why do these dopes do this all the time?  They always have delivery take these crap around the city.  ARGH!  Mind you, she's going up there herself.  Why doesn't she just take her things with her herself?  It wasn't a lot of things, which makes the case all the stronger for her to take her junk with her.  Whatever!

I was asked by Vagabundo to pass by Casa in order to give me a gift for TheNewCute.  She was happy to get a gift.  I mean, who doesn't like gifts?  I got her a coupon for wine.  I was going to tell her that I wanted to get her drunk, but that never happened.

I was really tired after work yesterday.  No surprise I was tired from the start of today, and by the end I was exhausted.  The heat really beat me up this week.  I hate that.  The last week of August I'll be driving the entire week.  I've never done that.  Vagabundo did it a few times, but I've never driven five days in a week.  That's pretty crazy.  How tired am I going to be after that?  ARGH, I'm not looking forward to that.  But, hopefully I'll get big bucks for that.  After the route today I laid myself down on the delivery table in order to rest before going home.

Annie has been updating me on the bullshit that is going on at San Marino since I left.  It looks like I got on the last lifeboat just in time.  The library is sinking more and more each day.  Annie told me that Linda is asking Jeff, the circulation manager, create a schedule for the clerks to follow.  I partially like that, since some people need to know what to do during the day.  Otherwise they'll just do nothing.  Anyway, one of the tasks that will have to be done by the clerks now is shelving.  Annie told me that she wanted to just shelve all day.  Jeff said that wasn't possible.  So I do like the idea of a schedule.  I'm sure that the way Linda wants it is all wrong, because she seems to get everything wrong.

But tonight I checked this online chat client that we recently started using at San Marino to check on some things.  The following is what I found on the chat.

Today a patron gave Tera a recommendation regarding the Friends Book Shoppe.  This may happen from time to time because many people don't realize the Friends are a separate organization.  Should someone approach you with a suggestion or comment about the Shoppe (not a compliment, but a suggestion about how the Shoppe is run) feel free to politely let them know the Book Shoppe is not city run, and the patron can make their suggestions at the Book Shoppe itself.  You can also get a supervisor if you feel more comfortable doing so, or of the patron is not satisfied with your answer.  If you have any questions please feel free to let me know!

Ah, what?  We can't take suggestions for the book shop?  What if the book shop is closed?  I took comments from about the book shop all the time.  I did add, like she said, to mention that the shop is not run by the city and therefore doesn't fall under the control of the library.  They are a separate entity.  But that doesn't mean we can't take a compliment or suggestion for them.  Most of the time people just want to say something positive and that's it.  They don't want to repeat it, or have to say it to ten people before something gets done.  I've noticed in all my years of customer service that often a person will want to say something positive but will swallow their words because it becomes a hassle to say it.  There are so many compliments that die in patron's throats.  Oh, but complaints never die.  So yeah, Linda's statement is a partial fail in my mind.

Annie was telling me that Jeff said that he doesn't care what Linda does, that he is just going to go alone with anything she asks because it's easier.  Jeff is just going to acquiesce to Linda's every stupid, or good, idea.  I only wish that there were more good ideas rather than the mountain of bad ideas she has.  I think that Jeff's plan is a bad one in the long run.  There will come a day where Linda's awful ideas will change things for the worse that can't be taken back.  It would be good for Jeff to at least question Linda on some of these changes, if only to make her go back to the drawing board sometimes to REALLY think what she's doing.  Because it feels to me, from what I saw before I left, that she has an idea but doesn't logically follow through with the planning of that idea.  Like the one desk BS.  That shit was not given a thought after, "We're moving Reference to the circulation desk."  Zero planning was done after that.  That now infamous meeting where we told Linda we thought using the computer by the pillar was the best place for Reference was shot down immediately.  Even though we all said it was a better spot.  And now because of that we're in everyone's way.  I ever told her that I felt I was an intruder at the circulation desk.  But did she want to even try to change and see how the other desk worked rather than the check-in desk?  NOPE.  Fuck her and her stupid ideas.

Saturday, August, 20, A picture came up on my feed from back in 2015.  It's a picture of the corn flake encrusted chicken strips.  Those things tasted SO GOOD.  They came with a honey mustard dipping sauce that was made in house.  I know because I got to know one of the kitchen guys, because he regularly goes to the library.  Sadly I can never have them again, because Jax closed down a couple of years later.

Sunday, August, 21, Last night I got my ducks in a row in order to jerk off.  I first turn on my computer connected to the TV.  Then I brushed my teeth and pissed.  As I was turning on the TV and settling in I hear my aunt stirring in the other room.  What the actual fuck?!  I see on the security cameras that she's not only in the other room, but she's also going outside for some reason.  11:36pm and this moron is going outside.  I don't know what she thinks she's going to do out there if she heard something, or someone.  If it was someone she would be murdered.  So again, I don't know what she thinks she's going to accomplish by going outside.

I'm not going to bring this up to her tomorrow at all.  Because of her actions I wasn't able to start jerking off until after midnight.  This is literally the only thing I look forward to on my weekends.  Yes, I love not being at work, but I love jerking off more.

I went looking for different corn chips.  I usually get the store brand, which tastes really good, but they fall apart so easily.  And at the end of the bag I had a lot of little shards.  No bueno.  I found a band that was supposed to be the best tasting, called Xochitl.  Well, I went to the market and sure enough, they were sold out.  I guess that means they must be good.  Oh well, maybe next time.

When I got home my aunt said that the washing machine was dead.  She's said that before, but this time she was right.  The whole drum was completely off the axis.  Not sure how that happens.  Well, after cleaning up a little of the water that was left I went ahead and bought a new one online.  It's scheduled to be delivered next Monday.

Monday, August, 22, Despite the fact that over two weeks ago I told my supervisor Kvon that I wasn't assigned to anything he still didn't assign me to anything this week.  No problem next week, since I'm driving the entire week.

Anyway, by default I ended up answering phones today.  Kvon even told me at one point how come I was not scheduled to be not be on the phones next week.  I reminded me that I'm driving next Monday.  However, it's sad that I have to remind him of these things.  I'm getting tired of covering for him.

In short, I'm just tired.

Since I wasn't scheduled to anything, and the full timer was scheduled to answer phones, I just sat in circulation playing music from my computer.  It was good times.  If Kvon doesn't assign me to anything I'm just going to do the same thing I did today.  Fuck this shit.  I told him... I literally volunteered to be on the desk for six hours in the morning to the middle of the day and he didn't take the hint.  Now I'm not going to mention it.

Tuesday, August, 23, On my way home yesterday I saw a giant hair coming out of my ear.  ARGH!  I tried to pull it out, but of course it wouldn't budge.  But, I thought that I did get it.  That is until this morning when I looked in the bathroom mirror and saw the fucking long hair sticking out of my ear.  I got a pair of tweezers from the medicine cabinet and plucked it out.  Finally, the nightmare was over.  For now.

Wednesday, August, 24, I was telling Vagabundo that every time I go to Brand to work I encounter a bunch of pretty ladies in the park.  As I was raising the flag poll I encountered one on the lawn in front of the library (pictured above).  Sick... sick, sick, sick.  BTW, none of these girls ever want to talk to me.  Typical.

On the agenda today was a program involving photo sensitive liquid and some cloth.  First we had to create the "negative" in order to use the liquid.  The librarian had my coworker and I paint something on some acetate using black paint.

The process basically makes a "negative" that doesn't allow light to hit the light sensitive liquid that has been brushed on to some fabric.  By this the image on the acetate will "transfer" to the cloth with the liquid on it.  See above for my masterpiece.  It was a good day at work today.

TheGirl told me about two weeks ago that a restaurant we used to frequent was going to reopen after being renovated.  The restaurant had a fire back in February 2020, right before the pandemic closed everything.  Well, the restaurant finally reopened about two weeks ago.  I had some good meals there, and some OK meals there.

Tonight it was a good meal.  The problem is that the prices have gone up, as well as the prices of the booze.  Now a Cadillac margarita costs $16, and I had two.  The total came out to $91 for the both of us.  The food is good, but next time I think I'll only have the one margarita.  Oh, and it was also weak sauce.  Womp, womp.  We will definitely return, but I have to know that next time I can maybe do without a weak margarita.  I told TheGirl that the margaritas at that place, El Sol, in Montrose are really strong.  As always, it was good times.

When I got home from dinner I noticed a smell of smoke in the air.  It didn't take long to see that the source of that smell were my new neighbors two doors down.  That's a lot of smoke.

Thursday, August, 25, We use money bags to transport money from the branches to the treasury department.  There are bags that the friends of the library have that are exactly the same as the ones that go to the treasury department.  The difference is that the treasury department doesn't have keys to the friend's bags.  Well, that's why treasury rejected the bag today.  Tony took the bag to city hall.  I told him when he got back that those bags were only for friends money, and wondered "what dope" sent the money in that bag.  It was the Montrose dopes.  I emailed Montrose and told them that this bag needed to be swapped out.  I later followed up with them saying that perhaps they need to retire the bag, since no one has the key for it, except Montrose.  Done.

It's been really hot these days, and when I get home my aunt usually has some fans on.  She claims that she turns them on just before I arrive.  But I've told her not to just have fans running, because supposedly they just throw around the hot air.  When I got home I turned the fan around and pointed it to suck out the air rather than into the house.  Within a few minutes the house was significantly cooler.  My aunt just needs to realize that turning on a fan isn't automatically going to cool a certain area.  It's about airflow and getting hot air out and cool air in.  Maybe someday she'll get it.

Friday, August, 26, My aunt is back to her stupidity.  This morning I got curious and went to check her pill box to see if all the pills she's supposed to be taking were there.  Nope.  She once again cut her essential pill in half.  Now what gets me is she cut a pill in half and then kept two halves.  I think she was doing it to fool me into thinking was still taking two pills.  I've said it before, she's supposed to take two 5mg pills in the morning.  Cutting a pill and half and taking that means she's taking one 5mg pill.  Like I said, I think she did that to try to fool me.  Not fooled.  Now I can't be here to see if she takes her two pills, but I can at least put the right amount of pills for her.  So I went ahead and replaced the two halves with two whole pills.  By the way, she did that for today's dose and tomorrow.  I want to have a talk with her about this, but it goes against my belief that a person can do whatever they want.  But, I know what I have to do as well.  I have to replace those 5mg pills with more 20mg pills.  Might be time to talk to the doctor to see if she can give me more of the 20mg pills to give to her.  So even if my aunt cuts them in half she still gets her full dose.  Fucking hate these games.

In the morning I'm in a rush to get out the door and head to work.  I turn on the news in order to get the weather and the traffic information.  An added bonus is that I enjoy watching the gorgeous weather lady prance around and looking good.  The other day my TV updated and for some reason channel 11.1 was not on be list of channels available.  I tried manually changing the channel but it wouldn't work.  I didn't have time to mess with the TV last night, but I did have time to download the app.  This morning I opened the app and then cast the app to my TV.  Oh the things I do to watch Maria Q in the morning.

When I jumped into the van this morning to start the route I noticed the A/C wasn't on.  When I went to turn the knob I noticed it was on, but no air was blowing.  I tried switching the knob from on to off and back again.  Nothing worked.  ARGH!  I took the van to the garage and of course today is the day there's no one there.  Well, just one guy by himself.  He was not helpful at all.  He told me I would have to come back on Monday.  Yeah, but how was I going to survive today without a working A/C?

I tried seeing if it was one of the fuses.  I noticed that the little air that was pushed out of the vents was coming out cold, so I suspected that it was probably the blower's fuse.  I couldn't find it on the panel, so I just suffered.  The only good thing is that there was a breeze today.  It's the only thing that saved me.

Saturday, August, 27, I was thinking about busting out my old Canon ELPH camera to use to take some pictures, because it's tiny, and has a zoom.  I think it's time to take it out of retirement and bring it along with me, because I'm missing a lot of pictures by only having my iPhone with me.  There is something about having an actual optical zoom.  Maybe I'll get some good pictures.

I received a phone call from Samy's in Pasadena on Thursday, two weeks and one day after I dropped my film off.  If I had been called on Wednesday I could have picked it up then, but that obviously didn't happen.  Today, I figured I would kill two birds with one stone.  I figured I could go to Pasadena and pick up my photos and I could pick up something to eat.  I decided to buy my aunt and myself a pair of sandwiches from the Hat.  They have some really great pastrami sandwiches.  They are not the best in town, but, for me, they are top five for sure.

Anyway, I got pictures and they came out pretty good.  I will add the pictures to a small album here.  I'll link it to the photo at the start of this paragraph.

I'm happy with the results of the Chinatown pictures.  The film I bought really makes reds pop!  I'm buying more film for future use.

Sunday, August, 28, I used to go to get gasoline for the car on Mondays when I would drive to San Marino.  But, now that I drive to Glendale I had decided to get gasoline for the week on Sunday.  This is mainly for the price.  The cheap gasoline that is on my way home isn't all that cheap now.  So today I went down the road from the market and went to the Valerio station.  The thing is, when I got there there were mixed signals, or should I say mixed signs.  The large sign on the corner still said Valario, but the pumps said Vred.  Also the prices were strange.  Online they said a gallon was $4.87, but when I got the pump that said $4.97 a gallon.  Ah, but then the sign (see above) said $4.77 per gallon.  Well, as you can see, that price is the cash price.  And luckily I had cash with me, so I got to pay a full twenty cents less than the sucker next to me that was paying with credit/debit.  I always take out cash after I get paid in order to have gasoline money just because this happens.  The price of credit/debit is almost always higher.  Every little bit counts.

I'm going to be driving delivery all this coming week.  On Monday and Wednesday I have to figure out where I'm going to leave Chan, since he's not going to be with me in the van, nor do I want to leave him unprotected in circulation.  I guess I'll have to leave hims in my car.  I REALLY don't want to do that, but I have almost no choice.

Monday, August, 29, After my coworkers moved Chan last week I don't feel like it's safe for hims to be at Central by himself.  This is why I made the difficult decision to leave Chan in my car in the parking structure.  I wasn't too happy leaving hims there, but I hid him in plan view (pictured above).  I didn't leave him in the front seat.  During the day I checked to see if the tracker that he has on hims had moved, and it hadn't.  Cool beans.

I mentioned that the delivery van's A/C wasn't working on Friday.  No one helped me out on Friday, but this morning I took the van to the garage first thing.  They said they needed to keep it, so they gave me a loaner.  The good thing is that the loaner has good A/C.  It doesn't have much room, but that's OK.  I can deal with that.

When I got home Chan and I went to check out the new washing machine.  My aunt already used the machine to wash the whites, and she said she would let me do the color after I got home.  Chan helped.  The machine is super quiet, and uses such a small amount of water.  This can only help with the water bill in the long run.  I went to the backyard to chill, and before I knew it the wash cycle was done.  The clothes came out pretty dry, but not completely dry.  I only had to run it in the dryer for a little bit.  I'm loving the new machine.

Tuesday, August, 30, I drove the loaner van again today.  The guys at the garage told me that they had to order a switch.  The switch that controls the fan melted, so they ordered a new one.  The only thing is that they have to wait for the switch to arrive.  Maybe it will be ready tomorrow.  Oh well, as long as the loaner has good A/C I don't care.

TheLooker had come in for her books on Friday.  Oh yeah?  Who cares.  I'm obviously not on her radar.  I'm obviously a person that she has to avoid now.  So whatever.  It's OK.  I'm done.

Wednesday, August, 31, TheGirl said we should find a cool place to go t dinner where Cheyenne would not be hot.  We first decided to try going to the Dog Haus, because they usually have shade most of the day.  Which means it's not that warm there.  That would be find on a normal day.  But today the heat was extraordinary.  This is why TheGirl decided to go to the Smokehouse for dinner tonight.  But when we got there the hostess mentioned that the patio was 109 degrees.  I can't even imagine how that could be.  She was nice enough to seat us in a corner booth, away from everyone else.  It turned out to be the perfect spot.  We were away from everyone.  We should ask for this booth every time from now on.

Anyway, Cheyenne was an angel tonight and didn't beg too much from TheGirl or myself.  When we left this one lady, that was at the reception booth and wasn't too keen on having Cheyenne be inside the restaurant, came up and praised Cheyenne for being such a good and well behaved dog.  Cheyenne is much like Chan, they both make friends wherever they go.

Last night I work up around 1am with horrible acid reflux.  I mean it was so bad that the acid went all the way up to the back of my throat.  In the past I've had some acid reflux that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but this did a lot worse than ever better, because it burned.  Not just burned but left me with a sore throat sore.  It was the absolutely worse.  I hope never to have that again.  But, I suspect it has something to do with me drinking booze late at night.

Wrap-up: This month was the month I started working at Brand on Wednesdays instead of working at San Marino.  For that reason alone it makes it a significant month.  Like every month it was jammed packed with stuff going on.  I try to write about everything, but I end up just trying to keep up.  There are always things I can't write about, or can't write enough about.  Suffice to say this was a unique month, but a good month.  Because the good times definitely outnumbered the bad I have to give this month a B grade.