Just keeping in touch
A quick entry before a book repair workshop I have to/am obligated to go to this morning from 9-12. Former director, the one who hired me in 1984, is doing the workshop. I'm forcing one of my clerks to go and she's all over it with resentment, but for some reason today is much more reasonable and amenable to the idea, realizes we have to go to support this man. This man has just been appointed director of the Platts. Pub. Library--at age 79. That library is next door to us and is our Central Library, so we channel more than $100,000 to them to offer extra services to our member libraries, hence we work very, very closely with them. No one in the whole world of North Country libraries can figure out a)why he wants this job and b)why they hired him. At least he's a very, very nice man. And he understands that the System matters.


Dinner with Fred last night. He was returning to Platts. after spending the afternoon closing his camp, saw me driving home, turned around and followed me until I finally noticed he was behind me. Flashed his lights, tried to get me to pull over, finally passed me and got me to stop so he could suggest we hit the diner for dinner. "We have to catch up." We turned around and drove the 10 or so miles back to Jingles, had diner food and caught up. He just spent 3 days in Quebec City, looking for a condo for his friend the millionairess to buy for her 3rd home. I needed to hear all the details, especially culinary experiences. Two dinners at good restaurants cost $500. Can't say "Canadian" as if it matters any more, now that our dollars match their loonies. Anyway, I love being with Fred and we had a great time. When I say things like "I have to spend time with Ken," or "I had to listen to this lady tell me her life story when I got coffee the other day" he ALWAYS tells me I don't have to, no one is making me. I finally told him that the lady who made me late for Saranac Lake put duct tape around my wrists and hobbled my ankles, so yes, I had to. Seriously, she (a complete stranger--is there an incomplete stranger?) spent 20 minutes telling me about the death of her ex-husband 2 days before (obese, a recent development, he grabbed his throat, dropped his head and BINGO! was dead--heart attack, yes, that's right, you guessed it), how she used to come here all the time, about the 400 acres her ex's family owns and blahblahblah. Twenty minutes, I timed it, standing by the coffee pots. And I was already late, made much later by this. But I'm a sociable person and a sympathetic listener.


Canine/feline relationships continue to make baby steps forward. Tess is always poised, ready to do something--I'm not sure what. Chances is only interested in the little metal bowl and what might be in it. Dottie Kittie is more relaxed and braver about walking around the dogs but still gives them a wide berth. I toss her outside each morning and she comes home after dark. Took her a long time to return last night, but sometimes she doesn't come when I call, but instead deposits herself between the screen door and the inside door, sitting there until I notice her. She looks very funny there. Anyway, she continues to be extreeeeemly affectionate and a bottomless pit of hunger. And without prey. What's up with that? Sometimes she sleeps downstairs, while the mice lick the peanut butter off of the traps without tripping them. Shhhh, don't wake the cat.


Payday today and I have a long list of things to spend money on, if there happens to be a dollar left after car payment, insurance payment, phone bill, electric bill, bill for privilege of living in America. I ordered some daffodil bulbs and iris corms to replace the ones that got dug up by recent "landscaping." Must get kittie supplies, am using borrowed litter box. Begrudgingly purchasing one, always swore I would NOT have one in my house. D's is for #1 only, no #2 allowed. Also must get carrier so I can carry her to kennel when I travel for Thanksgiving. I know, most people leave cats at home & have someone come to feed them, but I don't ask people to do favors for me, so there you go. No doubt this is why I have no money.


Peter continues to play with my land. Yesterday he scraped my driveway so it's now all dirt. Mud season will be a nightmare next spring, but I told him to do whatever he wanted to. He brought his dump truck over because he decided he wants my big rocks at his house. I love recycling, so I'm really happy he found a home for them. I'm used to the volleyball court that is my yard, but I don't think anyone else is.


Weather is great--warm. Slept with the bedroom window wide open last night. 50 degrees in the morning, supposed to get up to 70 on Monday. Would love to stay home and sun in the yard, but am taking Nov. 9 off to have stove pipe cleaned so will try to get work done. Am working on reports for member libs. (and us) comparing items in collections to number of circs by categories. Once again I've proven that our patrons don't read biographies. And that our non-fiction (even our cookbooks) don't circulate. The bookmobile stats are far more interesting, since that's our only direct service point. Anyway, the member library reports take forever to do--lots of manipulating cells and moving stuff around in Excel. I've pretty much got a rhythm going (although last night I thought of a way to tweak them to make them much more understandable, so will have to re-do the 12 I've already printed). Have to do 30 by the 29th. Plugging along.


I'm still going to Saranac Lake once a week to catalog their Adirondack Collection. Finding some really strange stuff, ask the curator why the books are included in the collection and sometimes even she doesn't know. I'm trying to give them subject headings to explain their relevance but it's not always easy. Like, how can you make it matter that they're from Robert Louis Stevenson's private collection but have nothing to do with the Adks?

Must look for broken book to use as example for workshop. This will not be hard to do.