Afterthoughts: This Past Month

This is issue three hundred!  I started this journal/newsletter thing twenty-five years ago.  Hard to believe that it's been that long that I've been doing this.  I told myself all those many years ago that this was going to be something that I did.  It's literally the longest thing I've done, been doing, in my life.  Nearly half my life in digital form.  Happy Anniversary to me.  Here's to another twenty-five years.

Wednesday, July, 1, I bought my car fifteen years ago today.  Another lifetime ago.  She's been a great car for those fifteen years.  It currently has just over 235,000 miles on it.  The average distance to the moon is 238,855.  I'm close.  I want to drive my car to the moon and back.

Speaking of cars, I got the delivery van today.  The side door is shipshape.  But what other thing is going to go wrong with it?  Time will tell.  I just know that I'm not going to get a new vehicle for a long time.  What with all this budget stuff.

After plateauing for a several months I'm happy to report that I've been using the forth notch on my belt for the last couple of weeks.  Now I hope to continue losing weight.  For a while I was wondering if I would ever break the third notch barrier.  Hopefully crossing from forth notch to fifth notch won't take as long as crossing from third to forth.  If it does that's fine, actually.  I want to maintain this "life style" and be thin for life.

For dinner TheGirl and I went to Broken Compass Tiki.  TheGirl wanted to have their fish tacos.  We couldn't take Phoenix in with us, so he had to stay back at her place.  He was not happy to see her go.  He's very attached to her, because she's the only one that cares.  Oh, and the only reason TheGirl had to go pick Phoenix up again so quickly is that her brother told her he was still going to be out of town, and his wife was going to go to Vegas for a few days.  A few days?  And then she's going back up to San Francisco.  TheGirl will end up adopting Phoenix mainly because she won't have a choice.  Her brother and sister in law are taking advantage of TheGirl's heart and generosity.

Dinner was super delicious.  I was going to only eat half of what was on my plate, but I just went for it.  Sooo good!  The navy grog is super good, and packs a nice punch.

I had mentioned the other day that we could walk Phoenix after dinner.  So we headed back to TheGirl's place and one of us suggested walking to Forman's on Riverside drive to have another drink.  I'm cool with that.  I start work on Thursdays at 10am.  So we walked some of our meal off by walking to Forman's bar.  Round trip was about three miles.  I got a Manhattan and TheGirl got a Mai Tai.  It was nice.  We had Phoenix in tow, which means people are going to want to pet him.  TheGirl struck up a conversation with a couple of guys while I went to get the drinks.  It was a nice night.

Thursday, July, 2, My aunt said something about the gardeners doing I don't know what with the trash bins.  I go outside to find that these idiots brought in the recycling bin without it being emptied.  I put it out, but my effort was mute.  The trash truck in the picture took the green bin items.  I don't know what they were thinking.  Maybe they assumed the blue bin was empty because the black bin was.  I don't know.  I'm sure they were trying to be nice for my aunt's sake.

The other day my dick was all out of place in my underwear.  I mean it was pointing down, and it felt bunched up in my underwear.  Not a pleasant feeling.  The reason, I had come to deduce, is because of my weight loss.  After plateauing I've now started to lose weight again.  Which is a great thing.  But just like last time I might have to get some new clothes and underwear.  I think.  The underwear I now buy costs about $18 to $20 a pair.  I can buy some, but I can't replace my entire collection overnight.

I don't usually check my stock app on my phone, but I checked it shortly after storytime ended and I got a nice surprise.  Not only was most of my stuff up, but McDonald's stock was up $6.  Checking on the week view showed me it was up over $10 for the entire week.  I wish I had more money to buy more shares.

My aunt called me to say something something something your cousin something.  I honestly didn't know what she said.  I really hate how she can's talk correctly.  Thanks to the security cameras at home I got to see what she kinda meant.  My cousin was visiting.  I think from now on I'll just let the calls from my aunt go directly to voicemail.

I got a couple of strange text messages saying, are you busy, and how are you?  I figured it was spam, but I still asked who this was.  Then came the picture above.  Blocked!  Yeah no.  I'm not Junior, that's going to fall for something so transparent.  How do dummies fall for this?

I need to start applying for jobs that I have checked out the last few days and weeks.  I saw a car service advertise that they needed drivers.  I also saw a cab company, and one of those paratransit vehicles also have signs on their cars.  I guess I should just apply for all of them.  I am going to pick up some hours on the 18th due to working Cruise night, which is over eight hours.  That basically puts me back to my old amount of hours for that week.  I was also asked to work an outreach program, but these are not permanent solutions for my hours being cut.  I need a second job.

Friday, July, 3, I took a picture before putting on my belt after I showered to illustrate how my clothes are big on me.  Believe me, it's a good thing.  I was carrying so much extra weight.  I still am, to tell you the truth.  I still want to aim for my high school weight, if possible.  Not going to starve myself, but I like eating smaller portions now.

Whenever I bring up Tony's funeral almost everyone I talk to gives me some excuse for not attending.  It's either they are out of town.  Which is a legitimate reason since plans are made in advance for summer.  Or they say that they have a thing at that time.  We all have things.  Well, except me since I lost my Fridays.  It's OK to not go, but the excuses are just too much.  I'm not going to bring it up anymore.

I ran out of booze last night, so I wanted to get some today.  But, I didn't want to go to my local market.  Because I buy a bunch of booze there already.  I went out to the Vons on Ventura and Reseda, and they don't carry the Woodford Reserve rye.  What the hell?  I went to the Ralphs down the street, and they also had their liquor behind glass.  Sigh.  I ended up just going to my local market.  Dumb.

The other night I once again reached behind me while I was on the toilet to get a baby wipe from the dispenser only to once again find the fucking thing out of its groove.  Every other time I fix it, only to have my aunt break it again. You know what?  I give up.  I'm not going to fix it ever again.

Saturday, July, 4, Nearly twenty years ago the Silmarillion and I went to my old high school for an Armenian festival.  Back then we used to hang out nearly every weekend.  When I took the above picture we were watching a basketball game.  The Silmarillion joked that I could change my name to Gomezian to play the game.

The city sent out a general email to the entire city about Tony's passing and details about his service.  There was a file attached that was probably the announcement sent out by his wife.  The Teams app likes to convert JPEGs into some other file format that no one else uses, not even Teams itself sometimes.  So no one could see the announcement.  Good job, everyone.

There was a bad crash late last night, just before I was going to bed.  I found the details online.  Apparently some dummy was driving super fast and hit a couple of cars and then ended up upside down in the bushes.  Probably drunk.  It sounded terrible.

This is a picture of Chandaka from years ago.  Call me crazy, but it really looks like hims smirking.

Sunday, July, 5, More tomatoes are ripening on the vine.  I don't know how many in total we'll have.  I also don't know what to make with these tomatoes.  A sauce?  Ilsa sent me a video of a guy sun drying tomatoes, but I don't trust the environment here to leave tomatoes out in the sun.  He made a simple dish with the sun dried tomatoes and butter and pasta.  Looked amazing.

Tony used to come in to work on holiday weekends to empty out the bookdrops.  Since he passed I knew they would ask me.  Sure enough, I was asked last week to come in and clear out the backdrops.  In the past if a full timer needed to go into work they would pay that person a four hour minimum.  Even if they only showed up for ten minutes.  Well, it was kinda like that for me today.  I knew I wouldn't take four hours to clear out the bookdrops, but they paid me four hours.  Makes up a little for the time I lost this week.  A little.

I forget who told me about the job, but I went ahead and applied for a job in Azusa to work the bookmobile.  I'm already doing that here in Glendale, so why not try for another bookmobile job?  Of course I'm not going to hear from them for a few weeks.  If ever.  But, I had to apply.

Monday, July, 6, Tony did a lot of tasks over the years.  I knew they would ask me to do some of his task, that they know of.  I was asked by my supervisor to make sure the Impala that was in the parking garage got turned on from time to time.  I didn't do it last week, but I figured I had some time today to do it.  So, I went down to B2 and turned the car on for five minutes.  I drove it to the other side of the parking structure and back to its spot.  On Wednesday I have to move out the trash bins that are in the basement, so they can be collected.  Tony.

TheGirl still has Phoenix.  She was telling me how her brother and his wife are staying away from home because they don't want to deal with things like Phoenix.  They both know she cares, even though she doesn't want another dog.  But she's a responsible dumb dumb.  So, she'll have Phoenix until July 28th.  I think that's what she said.  I remember her saying three more weeks.  Phoenix deserves better than these "owners" of his.  Boo!

Tuesday, July, 7, I was getting ready to sleep when I saw that the light in the other room was lit.  I could see on the security camera that my aunt was sweeping her foot across the floor.  Why?  I have no idea.  Something stupid.  But why at nearly midnight?  My aunt keeps the worst hours.  She often sleeps during the day, so of course her rhythms are all off, and she's up when she should be asleep.  ARGH!

I had my telephone follow-up with the doctor this morning.  He said I make his job easy, because everything is where it should be.  My A1C is within normal range.  I'm no longer considered pre-diabetic.  He said keep up the good work.  The only thing he said the bloodwork showed I was a little low on B12.  He suggested a supplement.  I feel my clothes are hanging off me now.  I mentioned my underwear not being the right size, but now it's really getting to be a nuisance.

Today is my cousin's nineteenth wedding anniversary.  My plus one was the Silmarillion.  I remember loving every moment with her by my side.  After the wedding we went to a nearby country club for the reception.  I was loving every minute there too.  At one point the Silmarillion wanted to leave, so we left.  We spent some time just chilling in my room, talking.  It was a wonderful day.

At 5:45pm tonight I went around to tell the patrons that we were closing in fifteen minutes.  Everyone was surprised.  Sorry, new hours I said to them.  One of our regulars, and a champion of the library, said that he was in the process of writing an angry email to city council.  I think it's going to be a little late for Casa.  They're going to respond that they already passed the budget, and that they will revisit the hours next year.  Yeah, not good.

When I got home tonight I could smell the scent of a bug killer spray that I bought a while back.  And I saw the bottle on the table.  I think what my aunt was doing last night was spraying that stuff on the floor.  I think she might have been spreading it out to kill roaches.  I saw a roach last week, and I killed it.  Sorry, I won't kill spiders... but roaches are open season.  I didn't ask her about it.  It's annoying even talking to her, because I can't understand a thing she says.

Wednesday, July, 8, I was tasked with taking out the recycling bins.  Tony usually does this, but today it was my task.  Well, the people upstairs apparently received a call from the trash company.  They failed to tell me that they told the trash company that we didn't need a pick-up today.  So I did all the prep for nothing.  Thanks, for nothing.  I'll ask before I take action next week.

The new hours for all libraries started this past Monday, but were there any signs for the branches to display?  Nope.  Not until today.  And this despite Meryl telling me that the signs were ready yesterday.  But when I got to the graphics department nothing was there.  I knocked on the door and didn't get a response.  I went to the second door and again nothing.  Third door, same story.  Just then Bobby was rushing out the door.  I called out to him about the signs.  He tells me he just got a call from the dock, and it might be our signs.  Sure enough, there they were.  Ready indeed.

I've been negligent in visiting Cheyenne's ashes while visiting TheGirl.  I told myself that from now on I will visit Cheyenne when I go past her to change my clothes for dinner.  Miss that pup.

We still have Phoenix in tow, so we went to Dog Haus for dinner.  Shortly after starting to eat TheGirl tells me that she is feeling dizzy and next thing I know she's fainting.  She was out for a few moments.  I took care of her until she was feeling better.  By the time we got home she was feeling much better.  That was quite a scare.  How did this happen?  TheGirl told me that she gave blood today, but she had an incident where the technician poked her with the needle, but she missed the vein.  Another tech came by and moved the needle, instead of restarting.  TheGirl said she felt really bad then.  I read online that fainting can happen after a bad extraction.  It didn't help that she had wine.  Scary stuff tonight.  After TheGirl recovered we walked Phoenix around the block.

Thursday, July, 9, I got into work and a new fan was sitting next to the desk.  It was super loud.  I don't usually complain about these things, but I couldn't hear myself think.  The city put it there for more air circulation, but I wanted to turn it off.  Finally Vivian turned it off before we opened.  Whew!  I have my own fan, thank you very much.

I was listening to the videos on YouTube like a podcast this morning when I noticed that the video I was listening to had finished and another one started.  I disabled auto play, but I guess in the latest update YouTube turned it on again.  Nope.  I know what they're doing, and I won't have it.

I was scheduled for work from 10am to 4:30pm today.  Yeah, probably due to cost cutting.  Whatever!  I'll have the same schedule next week, but then two weeks from now I'll come in at 1pm.  The thing that's going to save me next week and beyond is picking up extra hours here and there.  First thing is Cruise Night.  That will keep my hours right at normal.  The following week I'm doing a full shift on Saturday.  After that, who knows.

My aunt showed me that we have more tomatoes.  Just like last time, I don't know what to make with them.  I think I can make some huevos a la Mexicana this weekend.  But even still, it's a lot of tomatoes.

Friday, July, 10, TheGirl and I went to Tony's service this morning.  Not much more to report on that.  We got to see some of the people who retired from the library.  It was good catching up.  I gave Stephanie a huge hug.  I gave Solomon a huge hug.  After the service it was stated that the interment was going to be for family only.  So TheGirl and I went back to her place and walked Phoenix.

After leaving TheGirl's place I went to the Smoke House in order to get a drink.  But, I couldn't find a parking spot close by.  I didn't want to walk in the sun today.  So, I went back to Forest Lawn to see if I could find Tony.  By the name I knew that he was in the same area as my Grandmother.  Sure enough, he's about two hundred feet from my Grandma.

After leaving Forest Lawn I traveled close to where Tony's celebration of life was happening.  I figured I would search for a bar nearby and have a drink.  Well, nothing can be easy these days.  I went to a bar/restaurant named Limericks, which is significant because Ilsa used to work at the one in Fontana.  I forget where it was.  Anyway, I park the car and go out and find that they don't open until 3pm.  ARGH!  I checked online and found a bar two blocks away.  I went, got my drink and then it was time to head over to the celebration of life.  It was good.  They had a taco guy who fixed me a huarache.  It was OK.  I was hungry, so it hit the spot.  I stayed for a while and took off.  Tony has a good family.  His widow Maria has a good support system.  She told me that she's going to move in with one of her brothers.  That's good.

Saturday, July, 11, My coworker Teresa told me about the special event happening today at the LA central library.  One thing that interested me was the world's largest pop-up book.  So I drove all the way out to downtown.  I should have known it was going to be a cluster fuck when I drove up and there was a million dopes outside.  But, I pressed on and found parking down the street.  I walked up and I knew I wasn't going to be spending too much time at the library.  I think I was there for twenty minutes.  Everywhere I went there was a line for something.  No thanks.  I needed to get home early, but my curfew of 2pm was blasted.  I was on the road by 1:40pm.  I didn't want to miss out, but having the fear of missing out is sometimes a good thing.

The show we went to tonight at the Starlight bowl were two tribute bands.  One was a tribute to ABBA, and the second was a tribute to the Bee Gees.  That's the one we wanted to see.  Honestly, they should have just done all Bee Gee songs.  They have a great catalog of music.  Oh well.  The ABBA stuff can be fun, when you know the song.  I know the usual suspects, but nothing too deep cut.

We had plans to park outside the parking lot on the street.  We did it two years ago, and before that.  But, this time someone got wise and blocked all that off with no parking signs and posts.  I told TheGirl we had no choice but to park at the parking lot.  $15, but oh well.  It actually turned out better, since we were closer to the entrance.  And getting out wasn't so bad.  There were only two cars blocking us, and we didn't have to wait too long before they showed up.

Sunday, July, 12, I woke up this morning to the smell of something burnt.  My aunt was already awake, so that's already suspicious.  After going to the bathroom I found out that my aunt tried to make beans sometime during the night.  From the security footage it looks like she started making the beans around 4:30am.  Yeah, because that's the best time to make beans.  Of course she puts them on the stove and goes back to bed and falls asleep.  Maybe don't start something you can't finish.

I came home from the market to find my aunt in the wash room running the dryer in a start and stop method.  Like what could she be doing warming something for about ten seconds.  That's not enough time to dry something.  I see that she is folding my underwear after taking it out of the dryer.  Putting it in the dryer is something she always said not to do, because it, "Ruins the elastic."  Now she's doing it?  I think I need to do my laundry on Saturdays, because that's the sabbath and she can't do any labor.  I need to use that to keep her mitts off my stuff.  I'm tired of her dumb ass moves.

When I went to the market the weather was muggy.  After making my lunch and salad for the week I went outside to chill in my backyard.  I feel asleep, and when I woke up the mugginess had turned cool.  It was actually cool out, with a nice cool breeze.  The weather liars said it was going to be really hot this coming week.  I would like it if it stayed like this for the rest of the week.

Monday, July, 13, Today's delivery route was predictively busy.  It's almost as if me not doing delivery on Friday still didn't prevent the books from piling up on Saturdays.  Because of course they did.  I told my supervisor that no delivery on Friday meant twice as many books on Monday.  Bingo, that's what we got.  At every location there were more books.  Especially Montrose and Casa.  But surprisingly also Adams.  I told the managers that if they wanted they could tell the people upstairs, but I know they won't. 

There is a new lady that comes into the library on a pretty regular basis.  Not every day, but multiple times a week.  She is tall, and is overly polite to the point that I wonder if it's some sort of defence mechanism.  Anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is that she's a hoarder.  Her car is so full of stuff that it's practically dragging on the floor.  It looks like a lowrider.

When I do my laundry on Sundays often times I will be chilling in the backyard when my aunt takes it upon herself to fold my clothes.  She will fold my whites all together, placing my socks in with my grocery bags.  I don't know, to make it easier I guess.  This morning I needed a bag for something and out pops a pair of socks that I missed.  I just want peace, but that's too much to ask.  I can fold my own laundry, but if I do my laundry on Sundays my aunt will interfere.  I think I might have to start doing my white laundry on Saturdays.  I already do my colors on Saturday.

Tuesday, July, 14, In an effort to pick up some hours I agreed to work today's lunch at the library at Pacific Park.  It was pretty chill.  I don't put too much of an effort into many things at work these days.  I do the work, but I'm certainly not killing myself.  And yet I still go above and beyond.  There isn't much to report about today.  I helped the camp kids make terrariums.  Heather had me put some rocks in a mason jar and then had the kids put dirt following with a plant.  Tada!  Easy.  And we got through it with only two mason jars breaking.  Not bad, I think.

After the park I went to Casa to have my lunch before my 2pm start.  I didn't think I was going to have enough time, so I actually ate my salad for breakfast.  That's fine.  It was a quiet shift.  Mainly because the trouble makers weren't in the library.  Even one of our regulars came up and said it was nice and quiet today.  Ha!  I took some time to fill out my aunt's annual reevaluation for her medicare benefits.  It's kind of a waste of time, since her income isn't suddenly going to go up so much so many years into retirement.  I mean, I think she's been retired for a decade now, and she's not suddenly going to get a new job and make more money.  Win the lotto maybe.  But I would take the money and share it with her under the table.  Fuck that.  Anyway, it's pretty simple.  They just want to know if she has a ton of money so they don't have to pay her medical care.  Surprise, her income from SSI isn't that much more this year.  It's literally one dollar a month more.  So yeah, $12 more a year than last year.

In my personal life I've only ever had one woman sit on my face.  I liked it though, and I wish I had the opportunity for more women to have done that.  Now that I'm off the market there might sometimes be a desire to have a nice lady sit on my face, but there is a zero percent chance since I won't pursue.  Enter the "Facesitting Girl" channel on YouTube.  It's part AI and part supposedly real interviews that sometimes look like some creative editing was done.  It's kinda funny, but it was something that I wanted to try in a future now past.

Wednesday, July, 15, I wrote yesterday that my YouTube feed had a channel come up where women were saying they wanted to sit on a man's face.  Cool, to each their own.  I had that thought in my head of, if ever possible, who would I want to sit on my face.  Ha!  First lady I thought of was Stephanie, when I saw her this morning at work.  Yeah, that would be nice, she has a great figure.  Even though her butt shrank a bit after losing a bunch of weight.  It would still be good.  One thing about the videos on YouTube is this idea of putting the lady's whole body weight on a man's face as he performs.  I guess that's a thing.  Anyway, I was going to say more, but that's not the only technique talked about.

I then went to Treasury saw Marie is another good candidate.  Her chest is huge, and wonderful, that is not to say that her butt is not up to par.  She has a really nice behind.

While in the same building I saw Nora walking around.  Another good candidate.  She has great legs, and I think has a curvy figure.  Finally Krishna has a big behind that I'm always checked out.  It's obviously a fantasy that isn't going to happen with these or any ladies, for that matter.

Phoenix is going back to his house on Monday, so this is the final dinner out with him.  Until the next time we go out with him.  Ha!  TheGirl is being taken advantage of because she cares.  She wants the best for Phoenix, or any dog for that matter.  This one happens to be in her orbit.  But she doesn't want to, and can't financially, keep Phoenix.  She devoted her life to Cheyenne, especially when she got cancer.  She wants to live and do some of the things she couldn't do because Cheyenne needed care.  As is her right.  Anyway, time will tell.  We had a good walk after dinner around Toluca Lake.  It wasn't super hot, but it was still a little warm.

Thursday, July, 16, TheGirl texted me that she met with her brother's wife about Phoenix, and of course the dates of her being here in Los Angeles versus being in San Francisco have changed yet again.  Originally TheGirl wanted Monday to be drop off day for Phoenix so her brother could take care of him.  But now they switched the dates where he and his wife are going to be in town.  Why buy a dog if you have zero intentions of taking care of it?  And this hurts both Phoenix and TheGirl.  Both are bonding.  Hell, he's bonded to me now as well.  And Chan.  I know there are many reason why TheGirl doesn't want another dog?  The pain of losing them is the biggest one, but not the only one.  She has come to like some of the freedom she didn't have because she couldn't be far from Cheyenne.  Because Cheyenne wasn't well.  Phoenix is younger, but in a few years he's going to be older too.  The both of them kinda need each other, but it's only going to delay the inevitable.

When I left work this evening I took the above picture to see how much difference I have on Monday.  This is for Casa Verdugo only.  I suspect I'll have a lot of outgoing books.  Typical.

I was gifted a computer monitor and I had this bright idea to use it in the backyard to watch movies from DVDs.  Because there are movies that I can't watch online because it requires a subscription.  And I don't want to spend cable subscription money per month when I have a library full of movies that I can watch.  But, my wannabe set-up didn't work, because the DVD player wants to send the monitor a signal at 24hz, but the monitor wants it at 60hz.  I'll have to find out if the DVD player can be switched to that signal.  For now, my wannabe movie watching station is a fail.

Friday, July, 17, I had last week off from work, the first Friday under the new scheduling.  But I didn't do anything fun because I was attending Tony's funeral, and celebration of life.  So this is my first Friday adventure, and I picked Watts Towers as my destination.  But first, I had to get my steps.

I went to the mall and walked for three miles.  It was good.  I saw that lady from a few months ago, the one that was speeding through her walk.  She looks pretty much the same.  She's still fast, but I like to think I've lost a lot of weight since then.  Her, not so much.  But, no judgement, she's trying. 

Today's adventure was to Watts Towers, which was somewhere I've wanted to go for a long time.  Pretty much since the last Olympics.  Well, today was the day I went.  And I have the loss of hours to thank for this freedom.  Tuesday adventures are somewhat limiting.  Either because I start at 1pm, so that limits how far I can go.  Or I have the entire day off, but the places I want to visit are closed on Tuesdays.  So Watts Towers was pretty cool to visit.  It's not in the best of neighborhoods, but I got to talking to a guy named Jose.  He works the grounds, and tends to the garden.  He told me some great stories about the community.  It's a modest neighborhood full of working class people.  Not sure when I'll be around there again, but the towers were pretty cool.

I figured that I would get something yummy to eat for today and tomorrow night.  So I took myself to Claro's and grabbed a Grandpa Joe sandwich.  I ate half of it and saved half for tomorrow night.  I don't know why the meats here are so much more flavorful than any other place I've been.  I love their sandwiches.  They are now my favorite.

Saturday, July, 18, I woke up around 5am this morning.  Not sure why I woke up so early.  Maybe it was the heat.  While it cooled down outside, there was zero breeze to carry that nice air into the house.  So it was hot and stagnant in the house.  Perhaps that kept me from oversleeping this morning.  Blah!

When I got to Central instead of going straight to the basement I went upstairs and ran into my supervisor Nancy, who commented that Monday's delivery was huge.  I told her this would happen.  The machine keeps going even if I'm not there.  All the items from late Thursday, Friday at Central, and Saturday at the branches are going to pile up on Mondays.  And all the Link Plus are going to pile up on Wednesday.  It's predictable.  Maybe this will encourage her to have me drive again on Fridays.  I can only hope.

Cruise night was cruise night - long and hot and hectic.  But, I didn't put in a huge effort and that kept me sane.  I paced myself, and my water.  Mission accomplished, another Cruise night is in the books.  It wasn't as busy at the start as it was last year.  Oh, but it got busy.

Salbi was one of the "ladies of the library," as Vagabundo and I labeled them.  Which meant they were attractive and nice.  Salbi is still nice, but she has gained so much weight.  I know from losing weight it's not easy.  Well, I'm not in her orbit anyway, but it's just sad to see an idol fallen.  The same happened to Serena, who also came by the bookmobile.  To be fair, Serena was a little thick when she worked for the library.  She's thicker now.  Still pretty, just thicker.  Hey, I get it... food is yummy.  Kids wreck a woman's body.

When I got home I wanted to use the restroom, but of course whatever time of the night I want to use the restroom my aunt will be ensconced there.  Because, she can't use the restroom in just a couple of minutes.  Her production can be ten minutes of washing hands.  Because I hear the faucet going on and off repeatedly.  It didn't get so bad that I had to use the bushes in the backyard, but it has in the past.  That's why I have my piss jug in my room.  Thankfully she got out in a few more minutes.

Sunday, July, 19, I saw these new sodas at the market today.  They looked interesting.  They don't have much added sugar.  About nine grams of added sugar, which is a lot less than say a Coke.  I bought two, and drank one today.  It was yummy.  Different, but yummy.  Actually, it's funny because it tasted really good after drinking it.  The flavor lingered and only got better.  Interesting.

The backyard was covered in birdseed this morning.  I try to buy two different types of seed, but these birds don't seem to like the one I get from the market. They are less wasteful with the brand I buy at the bird shop.  But that one ain't cheap, and I don't have a lot of expendable cash these days.  So, I went to recycling the birdseed that was on the floor today.  I need them to go through it more, so I put it back in one of the bird feeders.

I received an email from IHOP advertising a new breakfast item called "BreakFeast."  Quoting Yahoo dot-com news about this item:

IHOP has introduced the Pancake Flight BreakFEAST, a new breakfast offering that features six silver dollar pancakes in three flavors: Strawberry Banana, Double Blueberry, and Mexican Tres Leches.

The limited-time menu item is served with bacon, sausage, ham, eggs, and hash browns, combining sweet and savory breakfast options in a single meal.

According to the company, the Pancake Flight BreakFEAST is designed to give guests the opportunity to sample multiple pancake flavors in one order, expanding on IHOP's lineup of signature pancakes.

I don't know about this.

My aunt stopped me and told me that she couldn't get her insoles into her shoes.  I walked up to the dryer and thought about why she couldn't get something as simple as an insole into her shoes.  I took them out and there it was... she had the right insole in the left shoe and vice versa.

Monday, July, 20, Predictively there were a ton of bins outgoing today.  This is now the new normal on Mondays.  And of course I predicted it.  You know, I'm not going to kill myself to finish the route on time if these are the conditions I have to work with.  At the end of the day I try to sort the bins for the next day.  There were so many bins just for the branches that I only got through half of the bins.  When it turned 4:30pm I got my stuff and left.  Half of the work was done, but I only had enough time to do that much.  There need to be consequences for this work load doubling.  So, someone else will have to finish up my work on Mondays.  Hell, it's something I do.  But it's not really a mandatory thing.  I could just walk away from sorting all together.  Fuck it.

The above picture is an example of how many bins I'm taking on Monday to Montrose.  As I told my supervisor, the work is still there.  It's now just moved to a different day.  But oh well, what do I know?  What I do know is that people are preparing to walk.  Abby told me late today that she was done.  She's been cutting hair, and when she's able to get more hours doing that she will leave the library.  Good for her.  She is currently working a three hour shift in the late afternoons.  Three fucking hours.  That's borderline not worth even driving to work.  You end up spending nearly what you will make.  The economics of truth.  I gave these dopes three weeks until they reverse things, and I already see some things changing.  But not quite.

Tuesday, July, 21, I had to pick up some meds for my aunt from CVS.  While there I looked for an arm brace, because my arm was killing me yesterday.  I tried KT tape, but that only worked a little bit.  Hopefully the brace will help with the pain.  It did seem to help today.

After CVS I went to the mall to walk.  I saw the lady that blew me away a few months ago.  I told her that she was my inspiration.  How all those many months ago she blew past me, and that made me want to get faster and better.  Mission accomplished.  And I have to add, I was as fast as her today.  I worked up a good sweat.

I was sitting at the desk at Casa Verdugo today and I got a buzz on my phone that denotes an email has arrived.  I check and it's an email from my supervisor asking me to cover three Saturdays in August.  Effectively shifting my route hours on Friday to desk hours on Saturday.  Make it make sense?  I knew this would happen.  Now I'm waiting for them to realize they need me to do the route on Fridays again.  Maybe that will be in September.  Time will tell, but you heard it here first.

TheGirl dropped off Phoenix at a friend of her brother, who is going to take care of him until TheGirl's brother decides to return.  Being irresponsible who knows when that will be.  Anyway, she felt bad about leaving him on Monday, but he seems to be in good hands.  A couple of weeks ago TheGirl decided she wanted to get away for a day and head up to Solvang.  She picked going at the beginning of the week, because it's cheaper.  So she was there today.  Seems like she had fun, but I guess we'll see what stories she has tomorrow night.

Wednesday, July, 22, I went upstairs to do my usual delivery day routine of checking the outgoing mail in administration when I saw a bunch of the people from Brand in the children's room.  Later in the day Albert told me that the Brand people are going to be working in the children's room.  Confirmed.  I know, to a person, that that is the last spot any of them wanted to be.  Sucks to suck.

I've mentioned the pretty aid from Montrose before, but it's been a while since I interacted with her.  Today I had three interactions with her.  And yeah, she can also sit on my face.  Ha!  I have seen her around, but no interactions.

The girl from the fire station, Lana, told me today that she's moving on to fire inspection.  So I won't see her.  She has a kicking body, but I don't like her personality.  So yeah... bye.

Growing up I dealt with summer days that were north of 110 degrees, but not with humidity.  The last couple of summers have been mild in that we don't get a lot of days that are over 100 degrees.  But now the summer is more humid, and I don't like it.

TheGirl and I went to Yardhouse for dinner tonight.  I usually get their cheeseburger, which is yummy.  I didn't ask TheGirl why we didn't go out for a walk tonight.  Maybe it was too hot for her.  It was too hot for anyone to be walking.

Thursday, July, 23, It's funny, yesterday I was checking out ladies and the thought in my head was, would I like her to sit on my face?  Ha!  I guess that's the standard now.  It's just the running joke in my brain right now.  It's not even my thing... the sitting on my face thing.  Sounds funny though.

Speaking of sitting on my face, I do invite the newest MILF at Casa to do so.  She came in on Tuesday and created a library card, so I know her first name.  Well, she came by today looking really nice.  I would definitely invite her to sit on my face.  She has a really nice figure.  How did a throwaway thing now become my first thought when I see a lady with a nice behind?

Today was supposed to be the first day that the library fees for printing were supposed to go up from ten cents to twenty-five cents a page for black and white, and one dollar for color.  I mentioned it to Gitmo, and he said we needed to test it out.  So, I sent a job to the print queue and sure enough it was still charging the old prices.  Ya think anyone upstairs knew to change this?  Of course not.  Someone later said I shouldn't have brought up the discrepancy to see how long it would take them to notice.  In hindsight, I should have not said a thing.  But I also like being the one that points out all the foibles.  The price had been changed by evening.

I'm working this coming Saturday at Central.  I was checking my schedule for the month and I see that I'm working every Saturday in August.  So they can cut my Fridays but then turn around and work me every Saturday.  I'm glad I got the hours but what gives?

Tonight was my ambassador orientation for CSUN.  I think this will be good.  It's right up my alley.  The first event isn't until October.

How do I even put this?  I keep telling myself that I'm done with my aunt.  Tonight I'm truly done with her.  I put a fan on the back door to let in some of the semi-cool air in from outside.  But dummy turned it off for whatever reason she has in her stupid brain.  So you know what?  I'm done looking out for her in ANY way.  She likes the heat?  Good.  You're gonna get no relief.  It's time to completely change things on my part.  I'm done.

Friday, July, 24, I woke to the weather lady, Belen, looking extra curvy.  I mean, wow!  Something about that dress clinging to all the right places.  But it's also all the right places being oh so right.  Sigh.

Today's adventure found us back in Rolling Hills estates near Palos Verdes to visit the South Coast Botanic garden.  I told TheGirl about the butterfly encounter they have there right now, and I told her I got us tickets.  It was hot, but our main thing was not going to be the gardens, we can walk those another day.  Our thing was the butterflies.  About a moment after we entered the enclosure with all the butterflies I notice TheGirl is super quiet and is just standing still.  She tells me and one of the employees that she can't move, because she's so moved from the beauty of the butterflies.  I called it her come to Jesus moment where something so beautiful moves you to tears.  I've had many of those moments in my life.  She has seen me break down when the beauty of something hits me.  Now she knows how I felt, and feel.  They schedule groups to be in the enclosure for a half hour, but somehow we were able to stay a full hour.  They lost track of us I guess, since we walked back and forth in the enclosure.  I took a lot of photos, over four hundred.  Now we want to go where the are more butterfly encounters.

After the garden I was really looking forward to lunch at the Red Onion.  Last time I had the taco burrito with that meat that was amazing!  I wanted to try the supreme version of that, but it turns out it doesn't come with ground beef.  So I went with the combination of enchilada with ground beef and the sweet corn tamale.  OMG!  The tamale was amazing!  I let TheGirl try and she agreed on how good it tasted.  Man, where has the Red Onion been all my life?

After lunch I drove out to Long Beach to deliver a print that I sold to this guy named Leo that TheGirl and I met one night in Toluca Lake.  We went to Forman's for a drink after dinner during our walk with Phoenix.  Leo liked one of my photos, and I printed it out.  When I got to his place I found that I had forgotten his print.  Then TheGirl needed to use the restroom.  That turned into a side quest.  We went to a nearby Burger King, but the employees said the bathroom was clogged with poop from the homeless.  Our next stop was the Super King.  There TheGirl got to pee, and I talked to Leo about forgetting his print.  I told him I would mail it to him.  How could I have forgotten his print?  I'm such a dope.

Saturday, July, 25, I've been listening to Sirius radio for about twenty years.  Specifically listening to Howard Stern.  But I'm done now.  I saw on the news that Stern fired a bunch of people.  Me leaving isn't a commentary on his firing people.  The show is only on two times a week.  Some weeks it's only on once.  Right now the show is on Summer break.  So no new shows for at least a couple of months.  I don't feel like I'm getting value off the price.  And since I need to spend less, I decided to cancel my subscription.  It was a good run, but from now on I'll just watch old episodes on YouTube.  I recorded a bunch of shows about ten to fifteen years ago.  I can listen to those.

When I got to work I started setting up the front desk for my start.  The first thing is to print out a bunch of the day passes for the computers.  The homeless need computer time.  Then I logged into all the applications I need to do my job: Sierra, print queue, email.  On the schedule I was to take the first shift on the desk, and then after 11am I was supposed to go back to circulation to man the phones until 2pm.  At that time I was then to return to the front desk for two hours.  But around noon Joseph came by and told me he was on phones.  I didn't argue with him, I just got my iPad and started working on my photos from Watts and yesterday.

The dummy who scheduled me today didn't schedule a lunch break.  So, I brought an apple and ate it while I was on phones.  I could have taken a half hour, but they need to learn a lesson.  I mean, they won't actually learn a lesson, but the good thing is they're paying me for that half hour that I did work.  So instead of seven hours they're paying me seven and a half.  Fine by me.  I'll take as many hours as I can squeeze out of these dopes.  While on my paid lunch I fielded a call from a patron that asked me, "Do you know that the outgoing message still has the old hours?"  Meaning the phone tree was saying we were open on Sundays.  I checked, and sure enough all the old hours were still being said on the spiel.  By the way, the outgoing message for a line that's supposed to be for renewals made me wait for nearly a minute while it gave me the wrong information.  If I were a patron I would have hung up.

Margo is a coworker I don't get to see very often.  She's super nice and thick, and pretty.  She tells me today that she's writing various things.  But the one thing she isn't writing about is her break up with her now ex-husband.  He came out of the closet.  So she wants to write about her feelings?  Because people still have this notion that you can be converted.  I later told my friend about this and I mentioned how I think you're born feeling those feelings, but you can't manifest them because of societal pressures.  I've given up on relationships, but as you would most likely know what I'm going to say... Margo can definitely sit on my face.  She would smother me.

During the pandemic a lot of people started making food out of their homes.  The founders of Yellow Paper burger started off just like that.  They now have a brick and mortar in Eagle Rock.  My friend Greg wanted to try it out tonight.  At first bite I was not super impressed.  But a couple of bites in and I found the burger to be something different.  Not the best burger in town, but up there.  Top ten for sure.  What is super good is the seasoning on the meat.  It's really peppery.  They had yellow chilies and that gives it a nice spice that I loved.  Those two things make this burger distinctive.  I will certainly have to come out here again.

Monday, July, 27, I drove up to Montrose a little after opening.  Outside was the group of special people and their aids.  I've mentioned the pretty aid many times in this journal.  Well, we had another eye to eye encounter today.  It's as plain as the nose on my face... she knows I find her attractive.  Because it's so damn obvious every time she's nearby.  Sigh.

The route was pretty chill.  It didn't get the onslaught that I did last week, but I still brought in a lot of bins.  I sorted as many of them as I could before it was time to go home.  I left two undone.  Like I said last time, I can only do so much.  They need to see that there are more bins now than before.  The reality is they just don't care.

When I got home I changed into some comfortable clothing and then went to the kitchen to warm up my supper.  On the way there I noticed that the answering machine was off.  Unplugged.  I also saw that the telephone was blinking the in use light.  But then when I looked at the phone line I noticed that it was disconnected, I don't have any idea why my aunt disconnected the line.  Also, if she was going to unplug the phone there was no need to then unplug the answering machine.  Nothing makes sense anymore.

Nudity isn't allowed on Instagram, but that doesn't stop some ladies from trying to get away with showing their goods.  Last year there was a woman that would splice one frame of nudity on her reel, challenging people online to pause at the right time.  It wasn't easy, but downloading it made the task that much easier.  Well, there seems to be a new wave of ladies showing off their wares, but this time they aren't hiding one frame in a reel, they're just cleverly maneuvering their hands and such to mask what they are doing.  I see it, it's not that difficult.  I wonder how long these accounts will stay up.

Tuesday, July, 28, I got to Casa and I'm told that there is no delivery today, because Grigor called out.  Now I don't know if he wasn't really well, or just called out to call out.  Doesn't matter to me, that's his play.  I've done all I can to lobby for him to be the other driver, but these jokers were pressing him to train someone.  Pretty soon they will ask me to train William.  I'm super sure William doesn't want to do it.  And anyone else in the library will do it because they need hours.  But they'll fold after two weeks.  It's a rough gig, but everyone thinks it's easy as pie.  Some days it can be.  Not in the summer, it's not.  But, whatever.  We shall see what happens next.

I originally was scheduled to start work at 2pm, but Casa people needed to attend some meetings.  Of course they asked the kid here to cover.  Who else they gonna get?  I'm already on my way there in the morning.  I didn't go mall walking, so it was easy to just go to work earlier.  At this rate why did they even cut my hours?  I'm literally going to work the same hours.  I hope this keeps up.

TheGirl texted me to say that her brother texted her to tell her that he wasn't going to return to town until December.  Originally he said he was coming home soon, like this week.  Now it's December.  Fucking idiot brother.  He always takes advantage of TheGirl.  I'm sure TheGirl isn't happy about this.

I went outside after dinner and Ziggy was there asking for peanuts.  After eating a few she went to the bench and plopped herself down.  Probably to escape the heat.  She didn't have a fan in front of her, like I did.  It's the only way it stays bearable.

Wednesday, July, 29, Grigor called out yesterday.  So naturally I have two days worth of book bins to deliver today.  But it wasn't as bad as the first Monday after I didn't drive on Friday.  Mondays have turned brutal, coming and going.  These dopes.  I'm pacing myself.

Someone cleaned out Tony's table in circulation.  There was a box in the corner which I think contains what was on the table.  Naturally, right?  I guess it's my table now.

When I was finishing up the route my supervisor asked me to train Adam on the route.  Ha, he's going to fold super fast.  One whiff of this job, and how it's so physical, and he's going to tell them to stuff it.  I know this because Adam was out for some time a couple of years ago due to a wrist injury.  My left forearm has been hurting for weeks now.  I don't have time to let it heal, so it's healing super slow.  I am favoring it a bit, but still.  I knew that William wasn't going to do the route.  He's not soft, but he's also not dumb.  If he does this there's no turning back.

TheGirl told me we were not taking Phoenix out with us to dinner, because it's too hot.  So many times we would go out with Cheyenne, and Cheyenne wasn't comfortable.  So she wants to keep Phoenix inside until we go out for our walk.  TheGirl confirmed that she's going to have to keep Phoenix until December.  I mean, she doesn't, but she feels responsible for him.  Also, she misses Cheyenne and needs this.  She's pissed at her brother, because he knows she's a responsible dumb dumb that will do this for free.  I told her she needs to have him pay for the job losses she has now.  She had to tell two dog owners that she can't watch their dogs now, because they were supposed to come over to her place.  But she can't have both dogs there.  Poor thing.  She really needs to tell her brother to stuff it, or take Phoenix to another home.  This is a huge burden on her.

Thursday, July, 30, Not much to report today.  The only exciting thing that happened today is that the really cute au pair came in today with her kid in tow.  Honestly, I don't even know what the kid looks like.  The au pair is gorgeous.  Yes, she can definitely sit on my face.  Ha, ha!  For a LONG time.

Not much to report today.  The only exciting thing that happened today is that the really cute au pair came in today with her kid in tow.  Honestly, I don't even know what the kid looks like.  The au pair is gorgeous.  Yes, she can definitely sit on my face.  Ha, ha!  For a LONG time.

She's so casually gorgeous.  Every time she comes in to the library she looks like she's in a modeling magazine.  Sigh.  As for sitting on my face, it would be such a pleasure since she has this amazing bubble butt.  Once again... sigh.

Friday, July, 31, Today I went on my Friday adventure downtown to the L.A. Plaza de Cultura y Artes right across from Olvera street.  I got there just before 11am, but the place doesn't open until noon.  I then decided to walk up and down Olvera street.  I also checked out the Metrolink gate in order to figure out if I can get the AAA discount.  Every time I've gone to test it out the stupid app says that I'm not at the station, when I clearly am.  Also, a train station isn't small, do I have to be standing on one specific square inch to get the discount?  The guy at the ticket window was ZERO help.  He tells me, "With all that I have today I don't have time to look that up for you... you can use the website."  Yeah, thanks for nothing, dude.  Customer service... zero.

I had killed enough time with my side missions that I could now go to the museum.  It was cool.  My favorite was a replica, simulacrum, of First street in Los Angeles early in the 20th century.  It had stores that one could enter and see what was there before they closed in the name of progress.  There was a photo studio, as well as a library and a pharmacy.  Pretty cool.  One of the stores was closed.  Next time.

I was feeling thirsty and tired from being in the heat, so I took myself to the one restaurant that remains open on Olvera street and ordered a margarita.  It was weak sauce, but I drank it fast enough to give me the slightest of buzzes.  The chips were passable, as well as the guac.  The salsas were good though.  I'll probably never come back again.  There are better margaritas in town.  Which made me think, who has the best margaritas in town?  Research needs to be conducted.