Afterthoughts : This Past July

This month had a lot of drama that I was thankfully able to stay above.  But that's a story that you will find in this update.

Saturday, July, 1, I slept in this morning, so I wanted to get something quick and easy for breakfast.  Taco Bell!  The last time I ordered food from there my aunt picked out the eggs from the breakfast burrito.  Well, she did it again.  I guess she doesn't like the eggs.  I wanted to just laugh while watching her pick the eggs out.  Like why?

When I got home yesterday I noticed that my box fan was really making a lot of noise, because it had been set to high.  I don't like setting it to high, but I know that my aunt thinks it's a good idea.  Sure enough, my security camera caught her messing with the fan speed.  Why can't she just leave my stuff, and me, alone?  She always has to meddle where she isn't wanted.  Jeez.

There was talk around the water cooler that mentioned that the show The Price is Right was coming to Glendale.  Ah, what?  I don't know that Glendale has any studios, but perhaps the old Quixote warehouses would be used, I thought.  Well, the city manager sent his weekly update, and inside the update was the actual news.  Looks like the show is going to be Glendale adjacent.  Here's what the city manager wrote.

In the past few days, a few new stories have circulated regarding the relocation of the filming studios for The Price is Right and Let's Make a Deal.  Despite the news stories making specific reference to Glendale as the new home of the filming location, the actual site is located in Los Angeles, adjacent to Glendale.  Economic Development staff have spoken with Fremantle (production company for The Price is Right), and they have confirmed that the new filming location will be at 4561 Colorado Boulevard, in Los Angeles and not in Glendale.  Economic Development will continue to track the story for any potential changes.

There you have it, it's actually in the area to the West of Glendale, which is a tiny slice of Los Angeles that runs along the river and the railroad tracks.  The railroad is the border between the two cities.  As you can see, the dropped pin is on the Los Angeles part of the map.  That area has a lot of warehouses and industrial things.  It's close to two major freeways, so it can be easier for those who work on the show to get to the studios.  Maybe.  Either way, Glendale isn't getting the shows.

I used to login to the library's account in order to get some things done, like uploading pictures and checking people in to various projects.  Because of that I had the login on my phone.  Sometimes I'll get a pop up saying something about the library's account.  Like today, I got a notification of a new review.  The person was not happy with the library not having working USBs on the computers.  The IT guys did this on purpose because they feared someone might introduce a virus to the computer.  Like THAT happens all the time.  Also, it's a public computer at a public library.  I don't know ANY OTHER library that disables the USB on their computers.

I really have to get a hold of my weight.  I know that much of the weight I have put on the last few years is because of my drinking.  Drinking packs on the pounds, for sure.  It also doesn't help that I eat a lot.  So I'm trying to control my portions.  It also helps me overall, because when I overstuff myself with food I get bloated and I get acid reflux.  So eating smaller portions has helped me with that, a lot.  Today that meant getting a Junior Whopper rather than the regular Whopper.  I know, it's still fast food, but I think it's half the calories of a regular Whopper.  Next week I'm thinking of having turkey sandwiches for lunch.

It was twelve years ago today that I bought my car, Crockett.  It's been a great run with that little car.  Here's to dozens more years to come with that little car.

Sunday, July, 2, We had some potatoes left over from making potato quesadillas a couple of weeks ago.  My aunt wanted to make something with them.  I suggested that she make some country potatoes.  You know, cut them into quarters, season them up, those them in oil and cook them up in the oven.  For some reason she boiled them, and then cut them, and then seasoned them (no oil), and THEN threw them into the oven.  I just don't get her.  Of course the dish is a mess.

I went to the market and the pretty self-checkout lady wasn't there... again!  It's been three weeks since I saw her.  Sigh.

I'm going to work tomorrow, but I won't see Marie from treasury.  The crew at treasury told me they would be working from home tomorrow.  So there's that.

Monday, July, 3, I've said it before, but here I go again.  The weekend crew is trash.  They always overfill the book bins, for no good reason.  I always have to fix the bins before I start the route.  Trash.

Last week Shannon from Brand asked me to move a pedestal from Central to Brand, and to take one at Brand and take it to Central.  Despite the fact that she wasn't there today I still made the move on my own.

This weekend I went to the market with the idea to get the proper ingredients for a good sandwich.  I bought: turkey, salami, cheese; lettuce, avocado, and bacon.  The various flavors came together well, but silly me should have also added pepperoncini.  Next time, which will be for my Wednesday lunch.

I had lunch with Stacie at Brand today.  She was telling me about the changes she's making to her house.  She posted a picture on her social media where she goes and gets gasoline wearing a bikini (pictured above).  What a cute body she has.  She has a pretty nice chest.

Whenever the library has an event DrDeath will laundry list all the people that worked the event, using everyone's full name.  I think it's bad form, because it takes a personal thank you and turns it more formal.  That's exactly the opposite of what I think is DrDeath should be doing to at least give the appearance that he knows these people that work under him.  Doing a laundry list opens things up for mistakes, like in today's email.  TheNewCute has a hyphenated surname, which everyone seems to get wrong.  San Marino misspelled her name badge by changing a "C" to an "S."  This misspelling by DrDeath is certainly the funniest.  He changed her surname from Rivera-Cereno to Rivera-Gomez.  Ha ha!  I wonder how that came about.  I also wonder if anyone other than me will catch the mistake.  For her part TheNewCute said that she didn't know she got married.  I told her it was in secret.

Tuesday, July, 4, My aunt made a potato dish on Sunday that looked perfectly awful.  Sure enough, tasting it today confirmed that it was as bad as it looked.  My aunt must have doused the potatoes in Mrs Dash, because that's all I taste.  Also, she didn't salt the potatoes, nor did she follow my instructions to fucking pour a little bit of oil.  I already said it, I told her to make country potatoes, but she boiled them instead and made this awful dish.  That was the first and last plate I'm having of this dish.

Wednesday, July, 5, Treasury was closed on Monday, so I had seven money bags for them today.  Marie had to help the new guy with the money bags, so I got to see her prance around for a bit.  She had a sports coat on, so she was covered up a bit.  That sucks.  I like checking out her behind.

I don't remember any other new employee getting cards from the city manager's office.  But, who knows, maybe it's not a love not to USC.  It's just strange that this guy has had the red carpet rolled out for him.  Typical.

On my way home I saw this awful driver, who was sitting at the red light waiting to turn left.  That's OK, but he was doing it from the opposite side of the street (as seen above).  There is a pandemic of bad drivers all around town, but especially Glendale.  Every day drivers are doing more and more stupid things.  And stupider things as well.  I would say that Covid turned people stupid, but what it ended up happening is that people just went nuts when they were quarantined.  Their minds turned to mush, and now these are the consequences of those brains being eaten away.  People ain't right.

TheGirl and I went to Don Coco's for dinner tonight.  I have to say that their margaritas feel like they are getting weak.  I do have a high tolerance now, so there is that.  Believe me, I drink plenty.

TheGirl asked if she could introduce me to the bartender there by another name.  We picked Diego.  So the bartender comes out and I'm introduced as Diego.  No problem.  But then TheGirl said she felt guilty changing my name.  I didn't think anything of it, at the time.  Now with some distance from that I think to myself that while I don't mind my name being changed, I really don't see why I had to be introduced to the bartender.  It's like TheGirl was trying to establish another time line for when she hangs out with her ex-husband.  She always claims to hate him, but then why does she spend any time with him?  I don't spend with people I don't like.  I avoid them.  She doesn't.  I know they have a daughter together, so you have to sometimes hang out for family events.  Anything other than that is social, and I do wonder why she continually tells me that she hates him, yet she still goes to the bar with him.  I would rather go alone, but that's me.

So yeah, when we go to Don Cuco's I have to remember that I'm Diego.

Thursday, July, 6, Today was a slog at work.  The day went very slow, and I was super sleepy after lunch until around 5pm.  Several times I I could feel my head tilting forward.  It's the worst when you can't stay awake at work (or school).  I'm not even sure why I was so sleepy today. While I didn't get as much sleep as I usually do, I still got about 90% of my usual amount of sleep.  Oh well, maybe it was the booze.

After dinner I came home and drank some more.  Maybe that did it.  Who knows.

Friday, July, 7, The elevator guys were at the library this morning.  It surprised me because they finished up the elevator a few weeks ago.  Yet, here they were again.  Turns out the elevator had about two inches of water in the shaft.  The elevator guys were not sure where the water was coming from.  Just another black eye on this old building.  I really wish they had just bulldozed the old building and designed a new one.  Because the renovation was done so half assed we are still living with the problems that the old building had pre-renovation.

I arrived at Casa just as the dinosaur event was finishing up.  I waited a few minutes for the crowd to disburse.  While I was navigating around the dwindling crowd my coworker Vivian ran outside.  I noticed that the security guard was outside as well.  That made me pause and go outside as well.  Turns out they were looking for a bird that had hit the window.  The woman that was sitting next to the window said that the bird hit so hard that she was surprised that the window didn't break.  I jumped into the plants and found the bird on the ground.  The poor thing was breathing really hard.  I told the guard to get me a towel that I have in the back of the van.  It's the towel I use when I eat in the park.  He brought it to me and I wrapped the towel around the bird.  The poor thing was still breathing hard, but it really didn't fight me to escape.  While Vivian called Central to see what we could do I noticed that the bird was starting to breath slower.  There was a moment when the poor thing started to shut its eyes.  Sure enough its eyes closed and I felt that it might be dead.  I waited a little time and then tried to move the bird from side to side.  Its neck didn't stiffen up, its head just followed my leaning.  I knew that it had died.  Poor thing.

TheNewCute told me that she and Misa were going to stay after work to check out the lawn concert at Brand.  Earlier in the week Misa made the point that I shouldn't be a hermit.  She's right.  Couple the Misa advice and the invite by TheNewCute and I told myself I had to go to the concert tonight.  I'm glad I did stay, because the music was good.  So was the company.  I bought some booze and put it in a Tommy's cup.  But I didn't put enough in my cup, so I had a little bit of a buzz.  However, TheNewCute had some booze.  One of those soda and booze thingies.  Gotta say, it hit the spot.

Saturday, July, 8, The Brand gallery show had its opening reception tonight.  I was motivated to go because one of the old timers from Central was going to play music.  I was also motivated to go because Stacie was going to be there.  Wink.

While I was mingling through the gallery I bumped into Stacie.  I got some nice quality time with her.  She looked really sexy in her dress.  When I was driving home I did something I never do.  I started to imagine Stacie naked.  I imagined what her body would look like in different sexual positions.  Damn.

Sunday, July, 9, TheGirl and I went to beautiful downtown Burbank to check out the Joel Magee Disneyland memorabilia auction.  Here are some of the items that were there.

After the auction I needed to go to the market.  There is a Vons near TheGirl's place, and I thought about going there.  But, then I remembered that if I went to that store I wouldn't have the chance to see the pretty self-checkout girl from my local market.  She hadn't been there on my visits for the last few weeks.  Today she was there.  I got to talk to her for a few moments.  It was a capper to my good day.

Monday, July, 10, Marie is usually seated when I go to treasury, but today she was up and about.  Her body reminds me of one of those statues you see at the natural history museum of female figures that are exaggerated to be almost all butt and breasts.  I like everything about her body, and its exaggerated features.  I'm not sure how I can make a pass at her.  It sucks that I'm older as well.  If my horrible looks wasn't already a huge obstacle, then there's the age and the big fat belly.  Sigh.

Tuesday, July, 11, Not much to report on today.  The day went by pretty fast.  I was asked to work until 6pm today.  My Casa supervisor had to deal with a sick cat, so I was asked to go to Grandview after I finished up at Casa at 3pm.  It was pretty chill.  Grandview is dead when school is out.  I think four people came into the library while I was there.  I like days like this when I make easy money.

Wednesday, July, 12, A few weeks ago TheNewCute and my friend Greg gifted me three cameras.  I tried them out, but sadly the three of them don't work well.  The one TheNewCute gifted me had a shutter curtain that didn't work.  OK, that's fine, I still had two other cameras.  The Pentax Greg gifted me has a mirror that gets stuck in the up position.  Which makes it impossible to rely on, because I literally can't see what I'm shooting.  Meanwhile, the Nikon he gave me doesn't seem to want to turn on.  It might be the rechargeable batteries I'm using.  Which is why I set them up to recharge last night.

My aunt had an appointment with CityRide to take her to Smart and Final this morning.  Having her wake up early means she's going to step over my morning routine.  It's partially my fault, because I let her have that power over me.  I should just do my thing and ignore her.  But it's hard when she jumps in the shower before I even wake up.  I wanted to have ice cold water for the route.  But because of my aunt I forgot to fill the bottle with water, and I forgot the ice as well.  Thankfully I have both at my disposal at Central.  But still, it sucks when she disrupts my routine.

Marie was prancing around the last couple of times I've visited treasury.  Which is fine by me.  She can just keep prancing in front of me.  If only I could take her out on a date.  I'm certainly not sure if we would be compatible, but I would surely like to try to find out.  I've talked about the age difference, but I will say that the scenario that I would think would be the most realistic would be for us to date while she looked for an Armenian fella to marry some day.  I wouldn't even have to be known to anyone but her.  In other words, we could be together until her obligations would take her away from me.  Sure, I would be sad on the day she would turn to me and say, "I found a potential husband."  But at least we would have that time together.  I don't know, is it a stupid idea to think THAT is the best case scenario I could hope for?

It was just under a year ago that I was working at Brand and I helped out Erin with her tie dye program.  Now she's gone, but it's time for tie dye again.

Speaking of Brand, in the same patio that we had the tie dye program this year and last, there is now three bird nests.  Two of them are birds that I can't name at the moment.  But the other bird in the triad is a humming bird.  I've never actually seen a hummingbird's nest in person before.  It's tiny.  When I think of all the work that the bird put into making this, while also knowing how much time they have to devote to feeding themselves, it's incredible.  The whole process is incredible.  Hummingbirds are the best.

Last week TheGirl and I walked by the Yard House in Burbank.  She suggested we try eating there one night.  I agreed we should.  Fast forward to this week and I told her that we should go up there, and end all debate.  The weather has turned hot and humid now, so wherever we go it's going to be warm.  As per usual, we sat out in the patio.  The food was pretty good and so was the booze.  The plus of the Yard House is that they do have a variety of food options.  I chose the Korean BBQ cheese steak sandwich.  Which was, as I said, pretty good.  The food is better at other places we've been to, but I can't say the food there was worse than say Novo cafe.

My aunt is probably a net positive in my life, but I would say that's thinking big picture.  Small picture, the day to day little stupid things she does makes me feel down.  Like tonight, I felt completely down after getting home.  The combination of having the fan on full blast in the back doorway, coupled with my A/C trying to cool my room and the outside air that's whirling though the house, made me so angry.  I purposely kept my door closed, because I had planned on turning on the A/C unit to cool down my room before I arrived.  Well, my aunt opening the door completely thwarted my plans, and made for arrival to be turned into me walking into my ice cold room in the total opposite.  Thanks, stupid.

Thursday, July, 13, I tried out the camera after the batteries were recharged, but the results were inconclusive.  The meter was going haywire.  Never having had a Pentax I don't know what the meter alternating flashing negative and positive means.  I took a picture without any film in the camera, and it snapped a photo.  I tried it again and it didn't take another photo.  Hmmm.  I had to go to work so I didn't get to try things out.  If this camera doesn't work then I'm three for three in busted cameras.

Thursdays are my longest work days of the week, but today actually flew by.  I'm not sure if it was because we were busy today, but I'm going to hang my hat on that statement.

Friday, July, 14, I was given some signs to take to the branches today (above).  The catch line says, "Ask at the desk to add your favorite word to our display."  I immediately had some choice words that I could give this place.  Everyone that saw this poster thought this was not the best of ideas.  How many dummies are going to submit the "F" word?  How about other words that may be summited, like LGBTQ words that may or may not be insulting.  I guess we'll see what happens.

I grabbed my camera in order to take another picture of the hummingbird nest, but the hummingbird wasn't in the nest.  But, TheNewCute noticed I had my camera in hand and said we should take a picture together.  And here it is.

Sunday, July, 16, The other day my aunt's friend called up.  She had been trying to call for the last month to six weeks.  That was when our telephone went out.  She finally got to talk to my aunt.  I felt bad that they hadn't talked in so long that I told my aunt that I could take her to her friend's house for a visit.  So today that's what we did.  It was a nice visit.  I had planned on just dropping her off, but I ended up staying with her the entire visit.  It was good.  We got to talking about a great many things.  Maria, that's my aunt's friend's name, also knew my mother.  Whenever I meet people that knew my mother they always tell me about how she was so clever and good.  I tend to forget how she was, because it's been over a quarter century since she passed away.  I do think about her, but I forget the day to day things she did.  I remember more of the stuff from work than I do of her.  It's a shame.

Monday, July, 17, I was jerking off last night and I found a porn star that looked like what I think Marie might look like naked (see above).  I mean, of course I don't know for sure, and she's not a perfect match.  But, I think this porn star is a close approximation.  ARGH!  How will I be able to take Marie out?  And what about Stacie?  I'm interested in both of them.

The weather has turned humid.  It makes what would be a nice day into a torture chamber.  It feels like Florida around here now.  This is California, dammit, not Florida.  I hate this change in the weather.  It's not even that hot, but the humidity makes it feel that much hotter.  I told dopes that this was going to be a brutal Summer, but people kept on saying stupid shit like "Oh I hate the cold and the rain."  Fuck those idiots.

I was over at TheGirl's place for my usual Monday visit.  When I was there Cheyenne placed her legs on me.  Awwww, so cute.

Kvon started texting me out of the blue.  But not so much out of the blue.  TheGirl told me that she reached out to her.  He asked if she stills saw me.  She said from time to time.  Ha ha!  People always wonder about us two.  Anyway, TheGirl went on to say that he asked her if she could say some good things about working with him on his LinkedIn page.  She said she would.  He was really chatting on text with me this afternoon.  I like that.  I didn't like the silence.  He didn't tell me anything about the job.  He's been gone since November of last year.  It's a long time, for sure.  I asked him to get a margarita some time soon.  I might be busy this weekend so I wasn't sure to ask for this weekend.  But, it turns out I'm not so later in the week I'll ask if he's free on Saturday.

I know I post many pictures of Talia from the past, and now I seem to also be posting a lot of pictures of the Silmarillion.  Well, here's another one of her from 2007.  We went out for breakfast at Jinky's that morning.  Boy, was I a dope back then.  I'm still a colossal dope.  Just look at how I can't ask Stacie out.  Kvon asked me if I was interested in her.  Yes, yes I am.  But I'm a big chicken.

Tuesday, July, 18, Last night I got a Teams message asking me if I could work until 5:30pm today.  I would do my regular shift at Casa and then drive over to Grandview and work there until 5:30pm.  Buuuuut, then there was talk of Grandview being too hot to open.  I figured that meant I could just leave at 3pm, as the is the new normal.  Buuuut, again, Grandview was closed today.  Buuuuutt, then I was asked to stay until 5pm at Casa.  So that's what I did.  The day went pretty quick though.

Around midday a tall MILF came in with her two kids to play around with the toys and get some books.  She was wearing the tightest bicycle shorts.  These things were so tight that they went up her whole butt crack.  She's pretty thin, but with a nice set of curves.  I saw all of them.  To illustrate just how tight her shorts were, let me just say the following.  I could see the outline of her vagina.  Full camel toe.  Vagabundo and I always talk about how these women come in and bend over at the waist right in front of us.  This woman today did that several times.  Vagabundo and I often wonder if these women know what they're doing.  I know that most of the time it is not a premeditated move.  Buuutt, then there are those times when I sure do wonder if they aren't purposely pointing their butts at us.  I tend to think it's just a coincidence, but I do wonder on days like this where I got to see this woman's goods.

We were kinda busy at Casa today, but it was mostly people studying, not a lot of circulating items going in or out today.  This meant I pretty much just sat at work today.  They asked me to start later, 9:45am to be exact, because Gitmo wanted me to work until 5:30pm.  That would mean I would go over forty hours this week.  He pushed back my start time in order to be just under forty hours for the week.  But then the thing I mentioned before happened, with the broken HVAC at Grandview preventing them from opening that location.  They asked me to stay until 5pm anyways.  I was ready to go home early, but thought why not take up the offer.  But since it was slow I needed something to do.  I grabbed my iPad and got to editing some of my old pictures.  I scanned most of these pictures back in 2020.  Yes, that far back.  I have worked on a few here and there, but today I figured I would bust though as many as possible.  I am not done editing them, but I did the preliminary editing of contrast, color correction and and dust repair today.  I'll move those to Photoshop and finish up the editing.

Wednesday, July, 19, Today the library celebrated the departure of Nicole P as assistant director.  No one knows exactly why she's leaving, but she said that it's not for another job.  She said that she was looking forward to "Fun-employment."  OK.  The talk around the water cooler is that she just got fed up with the situation here.  Someone told me she said that she didn't get any support.  Welcome to the club, lady.  None of us get that.  The difference is that she has the ability to walk away from a job like this.  None of us can just up and leave until we find another job.  I think Nicole P was OK.  I don't now her well enough to say either way.  One of my coworkers was crying about her leaving.  OK.

Back during the renovation, back in 2015, the temperatures in the circulation offices would easily reach ninety degrees.  Not that the administration cared.  But, there are these pesky things called laws that say you just can't roast an employee in their place of employment.  Some first generation air conditioning units were installed in circulation to cool us off.  These things were loud.  Yes, cool air would come blasting out of one side, but hot air would come out blasting the other side.  Not only that, there was a tank to capture the water that came out of the process of the water condensation that occurs during the cooling process.  Yes, these things did cool down the room, but only enough to keep it from being illegal.  Well, Grandview's HVAC died and they had no A/C in the building.  Also, the temperatures are now in the nineties and will soon reach the upper nineties and above when it really gets hot in late summer.  Keeping the library cool is a necessity.  So they dragged my old friend the portable A/C unit and installed it.  They hadn't finished installing it when I visited Grandview today, but I'll have more pictures by the end of the week, for sure.  I was telling Gitmo about my experience with the machines.  Telling him to empty out the reservoir before it went past half full, because the tank is so heavy if you let it go past that point.  All he could do is laugh.  Hell, that's all I could do is laugh.

I took pictures of the unit and sent them to Vagabundo, TheDesire, and anyone else I could think of that lived through the days when we had to deal with these monsters.  We are bonded by shared traumas.

I forgot my lunch at home, which means I had to get some fast food.  I decided to get the Snoop Dogg combo at Jack in the Box.  It was so much food though, so it was a good thing that TheNewCute and Stacie helped me by eating the curly fries.  TheNewCute also ate the taco.  I was full from just the sandwich, which was made of two chicken strips, fries, and two types of sauce.  It was yummy.

I ride up on to Montrose and Emma and Desire tell me, "Guess what?  Someone found the time capsule."  When I was working up there about a decade ago I noticed a plaque that said there was a time capsule buried in the front lawn area of the library.  I didn't think anything of it until recently when I was told that it was supposed to have been dug up this past year, 2022.  Well, they tried and couldn't find it.  The powers that be figure it must have been taken out at some point and never replaced.  Perhaps someone was doing repairs to the sprinklers or something, and they had no idea that it was a time capsule.  Knowing dopes it's true.  Someone found it and then didn't have the slightest clue as to what it was and it's purpose.  I contend that said dummy probably just buried it somewhere else, but who knows.  I don't know what has been done to find this thing.  I would hope, but I know this didn't happen, that someone was asked to scan the area with one of those fancy metal detectors.  That's just me thinking.

Now that being said I was like, "Wow, they found it."  Emma was gleeful to show me the "time capsule."  (see above) Yeah, THAT is not the time capsule that was buried in front of the library.  The box contained some interesting things, like a mini bible (throw it out), and some other religious trinkets.  It had a memoriam card with someone's picture on it.  But there you have it... problem solved.

This is interesting because the dope that put this together was either trolling the library or genuinely thinks this is the time capsule.  There is nothing in that box that would be appropriate for a time capsule.  Except the woman's card there is nothing that speaks to history here.  I think the person that gave the library this box is disturbed.  Working in the library you come to find out a lot of people are just loons, and are off their rockers.

TheGirl and I went to the Smokehouse for dinner tonight.  I was craving the Reuben sandwich.  Actually, what it was is that we had plans to go up to Wood Ranch tonight, but TheGirl mentioned that it was going to be warmer up there.  The area where the Smokehouse is located is in an area that is generally cooler.  Smokehouse it is.  After we finished I don't know if it was me or TheGirl that looked up and saw a spider.  And then another, and another and yet another.  There must have been a dozen spiders all above our table, each making their web.  There was one big one, a couple of medium size ones, and a few tiny ones.  It was funny because the big one was making its web right above TheGirl and she didn't like it when it would climb down its web towards her.  I told her it was just the process.  It wasn't going to do anything to her, it just wanted to catch some bugs.  She would have none of the explanation.  She wanted to get out of there, but at the same time she could appreciate how fascinating it was how they spin their web.  Meanwhile Cheyenne just wanted attention and a treat (see above).

Thursday, July, 20, It's been a year since I left San Marino.  A year ago I worked my last shift there.  At first I missed the place, but the people in charge made being there feel like I was being exploited.  I'm too old for this shit.  Not when I'm making nearly eight dollars more an hour at Glendale.  So yeah, I do miss part of it.  I was there for nearly fifteen years.  It meant nothing to them.  It's a lesson in caring about yourself.  I gave that place all of me when I first started.  Was it a mistake?  I don't think so.  I loved working there.  But as time went on it was like a bad marriage that I keep trying to save.  At the end I had to walk away.

I often talk about pictures that come up from the past on my feed.  Like the many pictures of Talia and the Silmarillion, for example.  Well, I rarely post pictures of my Grandmother.  I think it's because it was the early days of my digital camera.  Maybe it was because reasons.  But here is a picture of her sitting next to me in my room.  She would be dead in just over a year.  I miss her so much.

To continue with the feels, here is a picture of Thom and Kvon up at the Huntington back in 2012.  Kvon sent me this picture.  He is resentful over this whole process that he's been going through for almost a year.  He is resentful that the piece of shit administrators didn't attend Thom's memorial service.  Yeah.  I know what he means.

Friday, July, 21, I'm not sure why my aunt likes to fuck around and move thins around the house.  I don't like the bread being placed on the closer side of the dining room table, because that's where I put my lunch pail when I'm getting ready for work.  My aunt always moves the fucking bread to the edge of the table.  Every fucking day!  I moved the bread to where I want it this morning (see above).  Guarantee she will fucking move it back to the edge when I get home tonight.

I need to find out who is the person that sorts the books into the book bins on the days before I drive the route.  I say this because whoever it is does a piss poor job at their job.  I've said it before, I end up taking about ten minutes in the morning to fix the mistakes made by others.  Dumb.

I mentioned the old friend the portable A/C unit the other day.  Well, today I got to see how they installed the vent.  They had to take out one of the windows in order to vent the hot air.  Well, I will say that as silly as it looks it is doing a better job at venting the air than the Mickey Mouse job they did back in 2015.  At least I don't feel hot air blasting out of the side anyway.  It wasn't doing a great job of cooling the room, because it was still eighty degrees.  But, I guess it's going to keep it from rising to eighty-five and above.  It really is an uphill battle, because of the rising outside temperatures.  The HVAC is going to need a new coil, which means that it's going to take some time to replace.  Sucks to suck.

When I got to Brand TheNewCute was telling me about her morning excitement.  When she and Misa arrived this morning she smelled smoke.  They started to look around but could not find where the smoke was coming from.  Eventually they ended up going down to the basement, where TheNewCute saw smoke in the hallway.  She opened the elevator equipment room and sure enough, that's where the smoke was coming from.  The first thing she did was call someone in charge.  Later they told her she did good, but that she should have called the fire department.  Oh well, live and learn.  The repairman showed up some time later and saw that someone had placed some paper towels at the bottom of the elevator motor.  No one knows who did that, but that's clearly what caused the fire.

Because of the events from this morning TheNewCute smelled like smoke.  I grabbed a coffee filter and put some ground coffee in the middle and then pinched the end.  I told her to pat herself all over to get the smell off her.  She asked if this would help and I just said, "No, I just want to tell people that I got you to rub coffee all over yourself."

TheNewCute bought a camera that has a thermal printer built in.  I took the above picture, and she took the one of me below.  It's a cute little camera.  There is something cool about having a physical picture to keep.  It's printed on thermal paper, which is why the resolution is so low.  But, at the same time it's still pretty cool.

When I got home tonight the first thing I saw when I was going to put down my lunch pail is exactly what I said would happen.  My aunt moved the bread to the edge of the table.  Fuck her.

Saturday, July, 22, For the last few weeks I've noticed that the water coming out of the shower has been lacking in pressure.  So I went ahead and bought a new shower head.  I figured that it wasn't just the shower head that was the problem, but most likely the sediment.  Sure enough, when I took the shower head of and the washer a whole mess of sediment came out of the pipe.  I installed the new shower head and viola, nice stream of water.  I guess I could have done without a new head, but I do like this new one because it has adjustments.  Now if it wasn't so hot out that I instantly start sweating after I get out of the shower that would be a good thing.

I picked up some food from IHOP this morning, and I saw the cute waitress that I used to always see before going to work on Sunday.  She still looked really cute.

I took my aunt to see her friend.  While there Maria, that's my aunt's friend, told her that she wanted to get rid of her things because she doesn't have long to live.  My aunt told her that she wanted her wheelchair after she dies.  WHAT?!  Why would my aunt say that?  I was livid that she said that to her friend.  Well, fast forward to Thursday and my aunt tells me that her friend bought her a wheelchair, and that she wants me to pick it up as soon as possible.  She knows I work late on Thursday, and that I'm completely pooped on Friday.  Which is why I suggested Saturday.  But she really wanted me to go on Friday.  So I convinced her that Saturday would be best, and I run off to pick up the chair.  Jeez, it was hot and it was so silly of my aunt to say such a thing.  Thankfully my aunt isn't in need of a wheelchair.  I mean, it could be soon that she will have to have one, but not at the moment.

Speaking of my aunt, while we were eating she tells me that she has no energy.  Well, if she took her meds properly that might help.  Granted, this heat is awful.  It's taken my energy away as well.  But I know that with my aunt it's not just the heat, it's that she is taking half or less than half of what is already a lowered dose of her meds.  Whatever, she knows what to do.

I was inputing my hours from the work week when I thought to check something.  If I continue working at my current pace I will make $52,000 before taxes this year.  I can't believe that myself.  Last year I worked both jobs, Glendale and San Marino, until just before August.  So this will be the first calendar year that I will work all my hours at Glendale.  This is assuming they keep me at this pace for the rest of the year.  They will likely have to, because dumb asses don't hire anyone.  I hope they don't hire anyone, because then I can continue making more bucks.

Sunday, July, 23, I got to talk a little bit more to the self-checkout lady today.  She was wearing a long shirt, so I didn't get a chance to check out her body.  She has a nice behind, as I've said so before.  But I did get to chat with her a bit more.  How do I get to know her better?  I should have introduced myself.  Dope.

The heat was pretty terrible today.  OK, actually to be clear it was more the humidity that put me down today.  I pretty much slept all day today.  I had the A/C on almost the entire day, and yet I was still sweating.  I so hate this heat.

I only own one tank top, and with the temperatures going up even at night I wanted to wear a tank top to sleep.  But, that one tank top is completely shredded.  So I bought myself a new one (see above).

Monday, July, 24, When I went to treasury I found that Marie was wearing a cute sundress.  Swoon.  She had it covered with a wrap at first, but then she went to the restroom.  That's when she took off her wrap in order to go to the restroom, and that's when I got a view of her.  Her cleavage was not out completely, but a smidge was showing.  Her legs were the same way, just a peek.  And then there was her figure, which I am loving more and more.  Jeez, how can I go out with this girl?

I was asked to help with the Reflect Space gallery today by Stacie.  It turned out the crew was taking out the sand from the previous exhibit and was chucking it.  I was told to pick up some sand bags from the Chevy Chase fire department.  I made a special trip up there, because I usually don't go to Chevy on Mondays.  When I came back from the route I told Stacie that I had sand bags for the cause.  But she said we didn't need them, that she had trash bags that we could use.  I was not too happy having had to make a special trip for bags that were now not going to be used.  I went ahead and listened to Stacie and used some big Hefty like trash bags.  I think I filled about a dozen of them to the point where I could not lift them.  I didn't want to make them too heavy, so I ended up putting about eight shovel-fulls of sand in each.  After that I still had some time.  I told Stacie I had no idea where we would put the sand, and she said we could just dump it at Adams Square park.  So we drove over there and sure enough, the children's playground has a rubber surface.  So we went to where she was told where to take them in the first place, Chevy Chase.  They had the bags and sand.  As we drove up there I pointed out to her, and pulled into, the auxiliary parking lot for the library.  I told her that a big pile of sand that was there was the sand that they used for the sand bags.  But she didn't believe me, so went drove up to the fire department.  Sure enough, the guys there told us to to take the sand to that pile we had just left.  So we went back and dumped the sand there, but we didn't take it out of the bags.  I thought that maybe later in the week I could go there and do that, if I remembered.  There ya have it.  I'm not sure why Stacie made it harder to do this task, when we could have just filled the sand bags with the sand and taken it up to the pile and left it there.  That way someone could just take it all in one if they needed it.  Not that it's raining now.  But you know what I mean.  Oh well.

Tuesday, July, 25, I was running early, so I went to the 99 cent store in order to buy some windshield washer fluid.  I usually don't need to refill that reservoir, because the car dealer usually takes care of that.  But I guess they didn't last time I went.  I'm close to going again to get an oil change, but the other day I could barely see out of the windshield.  While at the store I saw some frosting, and it reminded me how I wanted to start a side hustle with Talia based on Talia having food on her body.  I wish she would be more amenable to the idea, because it would mean more money for both of us.  Instead of her going out and stealing the recyclables from the recycling bins she and I could make some real money selling food porn to the masses.  Because I thought food would be a different thing that people could latch on to.  But, she never wanted to do it.  Well, to be fair, I didn't push it that hard because of how she is.

While at the store I noticed that there was already Dia de los Muertos merchandise on the shelves.  It's nearly three months until then.  Oh well, that's how things are nowadays.  In a couple of years it will be a week after new years and the Thanksgiving merchandise will be on the shelves.

My coworker Tony brought in some sparking water so we could deal with the heat.  But, I'm not a sparking water fan.  I haven't had one that I've liked yet.  It's usually blah, and that goes for the stuff Tony brought today.  I don't know what people like about the taste.  I feel it's salty, which negates any feeling of refreshment on my part.  I took a sip of this and took the rest and poured it down the sink.  Yuck.

When I'm on the first desk at Casa Verdugo I always need a spare outlet to connect my phone to charge it.  Around 10am, when we open, my phone is usually close to 50% charge.  I'm on my phone a lot during the morning.  I use it to steam the Stern show in the morning when I shower.  Then on the way to work I use it to stream voice messages to Ilsa.  And then I'm listening to stuff while I pull the holds on Tuesday.  It's doing a lot of heavy lifting.  So, of course it's down by the time I get to lunch time.  The outlet is hard to get to when I'm on the first desk, so while at the store I got a multi-outlet thingie.  Now I can use the outlet that's closest to my seat.  Problem solved.

Wednesday, July, 26, There is a box in circulation that has been there since someone delivered it back in November of last year.  On it is a sticky note that reads, "Leave here - Nicole coming back to ship."  Huh?  I went ahead and texted her and she responded that Junior was emailed instructions on how to return the box.  I asked what is inside and Nicole told me that it was a bunch of carpet swatches for the eventual installation of new carpet.  Yeah, sure, new carpet.  Not in a million years.  Anyway, Junior was all confused by the instructions.  To be fair it just looks like Nicole just forwarded an email that she got from the company.  The instructions had the invoice for the items.  I told Junior we could just dump them in the trash.  It would be easier.  I may have to do it.  Either that or I'll have to figure out how to send them back.

There are some really pretty wildflowers outside of the Perkins building.  I took a picture of them not only because they were pretty, but because I wanted to send a picture of them to Marie.

TheGirl wanted to leave Cheyenne at home because of the heat.  But, we had to do a 180 because TheGirl said we couldn't go to Don Cuco's.  Besides, she hoped that the Smokehouse would allow us to eat inside.  Thankfully they did.  But, once again we ran into the old, "You can't split a check" deal at the end.  Fine.  They ended up letting me pay for the drinks, but no separate checks.  Whatever!  At least Cheyenne got to be inside.

Thursday, July, 27, Mala called me last night while at dinner to ask if I could help out with the Reflect Space installation today.  I of course said yes.  I have worked with Stacie in little things, but never WORKED with her.  Today was an eye opener.  I think she's a great lady, and of course I find myself attracted to her, but today was a glimpse into her world, and I'm now not so sure I want to be in it.  She's intense.  Nothing wrong with that.  But... well, anyway, I'll just leave it at that.

I felt like I couldn't get anything right today.  I was tasked with setting up the monitors, and it took me the entire day.  I couldn't find all the pieces, and then there was the matter of the hardware for each TV seemingly missing some crucial parts.  It turned out the parts were all there, but I just couldn't see the forest for the trees.  I did work through it and when I was called upon to help with the videos I knew this is where I could contribute.

By the end of the day the monitor situation had been figured out, as well as the video situation.  So my part was all set.  It felt good to get done what I was able to get done today.  Stacie and the gang got a lot way on their assignments as well.  There is still a lot of work to be done.  I won't be helping them tomorrow though, I'll be on the route.

I think the term is "Shart," when you push a little hard on a fart and a little bit of poop also comes out.  I fart a lot during the day.  But, because I was around the company of people today I had to hold my farts in, until I have a private moment.  Then I can blast away.  Sometimes not all that is inside me comes out.  And so even though I released some of the pressure, there is still a lot more where that came from.  And sometimes in these situations I push a little to get all the gas out.  Well, as mentioned before, that can bring some unintended consequences.  When I got home I went to the bathroom and found that my pants had some poop on them.  Clearly I pushed too hard.  I went to the sink in the wash room and took some detergent to get as much as I could off my underwear before throwing it in to the hamper.  Well, it's almost as if the "gods" were working against me.  For some reason my aunt woke up in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT and decided that was a good time to take all the colored clothes out of the hamper and put them in the washing machine.  What the actual fuck is that?  Who is the god of butting in and who is the god of embarrassment?  I'm sure you can throw in a couple of other "gods" in the mix that all conspired to have my aunt go through the hamper like that in the middle of the night.  Fuck me.

Friday, July, 28, My aunt took the liberty of taking one of my hot dog buns and eating it.  Not sure why she couldn't just the regular slice of bread.  Mind you, she didn't eat the corresponding hot dog.  So I was going to be one bun short when I decided to eat that last hot dog.

On Wednesday TheNewCute was telling Misa and me about how this coming Tuesday was going to be her seventh anniversary with her boyfriend.  She was wondering what she could give him as a gift.  Today TheNewCute texted me if I wanted something for lunch, because she was going to order something.  This came up because I texted her last night that I was too lazy to make my lunch, and I was tired of salad.

I show up to Brand and we're in the kitchen and for some reason I mentioned something about people confessing to me.  It was some joke, because lately a lot of people have been saying, "You can't tell anyone this," just before telling me some secret.  That's when TheNewCute says, "I have a confession for you."  She went on to tell me that her boyfriend broke up with her last night.  She broke down a little when she was saying that she looked at this bowl that she had and all she could think about is how was she going to take this home in her car.  All her things.  She said that she looked at her make-up and just dumped everything into the trash.  It didn't matter if it was new or old, it all went into the trash.  There's a frame that has pressed flowers that she took down from the wall and turned it around so she couldn't see it.  She did that with several frames.  I told her it was understandable that she was thinking of the things and getting emotional, because those things represent the good times they had together.

She's not sure what happens from this time forward.  She's still going to live with him for a bit.  She's not sure if she wants to go back home to Chicago, or what.  She is just about three weeks away from her six month probation in this new full time job being over.  After that she's a "made" woman.  Granted, she doesn't make enough to take over the lease in her apartment, even if she wanted to stay there.  Her whole life is shattered.  At one point she said, "Seven years... seven years of my life... wasted."  I know she feels that right now.  Love is looked at as a long term investment.  But love is not like a money investment.  You can't expect something at the end.  When love ends you can think of that time as wasted or you can think of the good times and just leave it at that.  I know I've been there, dumped.  It fucking sucks.  It's one of the worst feelings, because it's almost like dying.  Something special ends, and when you're the one getting dumped it comes out of no where.  Yes, TheNewCute did say that she had some bad vibes from her boyfriend lately.  She ignored the signs, just like I did.  And even if you acknowledge the signs, there isn't anything you can do to dodge the train coming down the track.

I, not surprisingly, thought of what this means for our friendship.  I like TheNewCute.  She's just something special.  Everyone sees it.  That's why people like her.  But if she moves away that specialness goes with her, and my life will be diminished by her moving back home.  I know, me, me, me.  After all, this is MY journal.  I can't lie and say I've never had any romantic thoughts about TheNewCute.  She's the new cute, after all.  But what does that mean going forward.  I know she likes me as a friend, and maybe as a father figure.  But as a romantic partner, probably not.  I say that because I'm pretty sure no lady sees me that way.  What if?  I can't say that this isn't some opportunity that I didn't hope for in the past.  Now that the door is open, am I going to make a play for her.  Am I going to show her that I'm interested in her?  What are the long term stakes for us?  I have no idea.  As with everything, I'll play it by ear.

I was meant to only be at work until 3:30pm today, because to work until my normal hour would mean I would have worked forty hours this week.  The dummies upstairs think I need to only work thirty-eight hours a week.  Even that's too much, but since they don't hire anyone I'm it.  Anyway. I was nearly on my way out the door, when I decided to take the last ten minutes of my shift and check out what progress they had made in the reflect space.  It just so happened that I ran into Anahid, who was trying to figure out how to word the instructions for turning on the monitors at the beginning of the day.  I told her Raffi and I take care of that stuff during the week.  She pointed out that we still needed instructions for the weekend crews.  Those weekend crews are the worst at everything, so I know what she means about wanting it to be simple.  We walked over the Reflect Space and went inside to check out the remote control situation.  Well, our presence wasn't welcomed there, or at least Anahid's presence wasn't appreciated.  She asked Jennifer, one of the installers, a question about the remotes.  She said, "Could you take a picture of the remotes once you figure out which one goes with which TV?"  Simple question, right?  Jennifer answered, "If we figure it out."  Hmmmm.  And then a moment later Stacie says that it's best if we leave because she and Jennifer need to be without distractions to figure things out.  She was up on a ladder trying to figure out the situation with the projector and the media player.  Anahid responded, "I guess there are too many energies in here."  I was half way out the door at that point, and I nodded for her to follow me out.  Once outside she talked to me about the situation, and what was that all about? 

I happen to know a few things.  Stacie and Jennifer don't like having an "Audience" when they are working.  They think that Ara and Anahid are just there to butt in.  With the time crunch Stacie has been complaining about not having enough time.  She told Caley that the other day.  So to them a moment like that is a huge distraction.  It also goes that Stacie and Jennfer don't think Ara and Anahid know what they're doing.  Maybe they don't, but that's no reason to be rude.  As we stood outside talking Jennifer came out of the Reflect Space and walked up to Anahid and while pointing her finger at her says, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"  Anahid said yes and they went to the "Annex."  When they both came out of the room Anahid was steaming.  She wanted to call Caley, who is Jennifer's supervisor, to talk about what just happened.  She finally got Caley on the phone, and boy oh boy the shit is going to hit the fan next week.  I had to tell what I saw happened in the room to Caley.  Poor Caley isn't one that likes dealing with this kind of interpersonal problem.

When I got home the bread had migrated to the edge of the table.  I'm so sick of what my aunt thinks that she's doing.  It's so annoying.

TheNewCute posted something on social media about the break up.  Nothing explicit like I'm single now, or got dumped.  She did put up this meme, which I'll try to translate.  The caption in front of the boy says to the effect, Me on an average day feeling calm.  The caption in front of the girl says in effect, My mind, for no reason, remembering the people that loved very much, but that are now out of my life.  Yeah, that pretty much covers it.

Back in 2005 I was going to CSUN to finish up my degree.  I took a photography class and there I met Lynelle, she was a grad student and my professor.  She was super cute.  One day she was showing me a camera with eight lenses on it.  It would take eight pictures sequentially and put them on one frame of 35mm film.  When printed it would look like a grid of pictures (see above).  Lynelle saw that I posted a picture from her class and I think that made her want to go back and explore her pictures.  She posted the above picture, which she showed me all those years ago.  She even took a picture of me with that camera.  Here's what she said on her post about the picture.

I recently revisited a bunch of #film photographs I took between 15 and 20 years ago, around the time I was getting my MFA.  Be prepared for a super nostalgic photodump!!  This is from a lomo camera I had that took 8 mini images to each 35mm frame, but the edges of the frame were damaged in the scan so I had to crop.  I would LOVE to buy another one of these, I don't think they make them anymore?

Lynelle was another one on the list of "the one that got away" in my life.  I remember she sent me an email that said she loved me, but that she knew that it was wrong because she was my professor.  I never got a chance to respond to that email.  Next thing you know she's dating some other dope.  Now she's married and has two kids.

Saturday, July, 29, TheGirl and I didn't get to see anything at the Hollywood Bowl, but we did get tickets to the Starlight Bowl in Burbank.  And you know, it was really cool.  Sure, the Starlight Bowl isn't going to have the acts that the Hollywood Bowl does, but it's fine.  It's a nice venue, and with the wine flowing it was perfectly fine.

The two acts were both tribute bands.  The first was a tribute to Linda Ronstadt and the second was a tribute to the Eagles.  TheGirl liked the Eagles band more, but I have to say both of them were pretty good.

Sunday, July, 30, I moved the hummingbird feeder to a place where the sun won't hit it that much during the day.  I've been wanting to do it for a while now, because I think the sun is messing with the nectar and making it go bad faster.  I don't know that for sure, but I have a feeling.

I got to see the cute self-checkout lady today at the market, and she was wearing the cute black pants that clings to her butt and makes it look so fucking delectable.  The dilemma still remains... how do I get to talk to her more?  How do I get to know her?  How do I get to sleep with her?  The answer is most likely that I won't be able to figure any of that out.  I'll just like her in secret until she moves to another market, or something else happens.