Excuse me while I rant ...

...but I gotta!

Last night, one of our crazy old coots, who I thought had moved away, showed up to use the computer. He had been on the computer earlier in the afternoon, and we have a policy of one computer session per day. He complained that the computer wouldn't let him on, and wanted me to "fix it." I told him he had already had his turn for the day. He kept arguing with me that he hadn't used his full hour, that there were computers available, the "other girls" let him on more than once, etc. I will usually bend the rules for someone if they really need to use it again and they didn't know the rules, and if they're polite about it, but none of these applied to him, especially the polite part. He asked me if I wanted his name so I could "turn him in" for trying to use the computer twice, and I told him we already knew his name. He walked away, then came back and asked if I knew his name because he had complained about me before (for basically the same thing). Anyway, he finally gave up and left.

Today, when I came back from the bookmobile, I saw him again, sitting at a computer. Fortunately, he didn't speak to me - he just walked up to the printer behind me and started drumming his fingers on the desk. I ignored him and continued working, but someone else came up and helped him. I would have printed his pages out if he had asked, but I wasn't going to reward rude behavior. I was so relieved when he left after getting his papers.

Open mic night

Last night, Jacob and I played hooky from church and went to the open mic night at the Claremont Folk Music Center. We got there 10 minutes early, and there was already a long line of musicians waiting. When we got in, about 16 people had signed up, but for some strange reason the #2 slot was still empty. Jacob took that slot, and we sat down in the back.

The first singer was a girl who works at the Folk Music Center, playing a folksy tune she had written. Jacob was up next - he played his classical guitar and sang "Old Man River." The crowd (about 40 people) cheered loudly when he hit the low note at the end of the bridge, and again when he finished. Several people came up and talked to him during the intermission. One lady thought he sounded like he should have been 7 feet tall and 500 lbs.

Most of the other performers sang and played guitar, but there were a few exceptions, including a guitar-accordion duet, a guitar-banjo duet, a dobro instrumental, and a harp. We wanted to stay until the end, but there were still several performers left to go at 9:30, and we were getting tired. We hadn't eaten dinner yet and we were an hour from home. We stopped at A&W and got bacon cheeseburgers and ate them in the car on the way home.

Koroneburg preview

Koroneburg was open to the public this afternoon for a preview of the actual festival, which starts next Saturday. I went there, along with Brian, Betsy, Caasi, and Joseph, to see how things were shaping up. The weather was cold and cloudy, but it didn't rain, for which we were all grateful. It was great to see that the rat races will be there this year - with a nice new booth. There weren't as many vendors open as I had thought there would be, so I didn't buy anything, but Betsy bought a couple of inexpensive daggers and Caasi got herself a new bodice. Joseph was a big hit, smiling at almost everyone, except a big guy with a bushy black beard (he seems to be afraid of black beards). I ran into my old college roommate, Ann, and her family - I hadn't seen them in at least 5 years, so that was a really nice surprise. All in all it was a nice outing, in spite of the cold weather.

I love the internet!

There are some great advantages to the electronic age. I was just reading my email, and came across a discussion in one of my Yahoo groups about a knitting book, Knitter's Stash, that sounded really interesting. So, I immediately logged on to the county library catalog, saw that there were 5 copies available, and placed my order. I will have it in my hands in a few days - for free! I couldn't even order it from Interweave right now - it's out of stock. Anyway, looks like a neat book - I don't know why I haven't heard of it before.

Bookmobile troubles and singing

Last week the generator on the bookmobile wouldn't start, so I had the mechanics at the county garage where I park it take a look at it. So, when I picked it up yesterday, they told me what the problem was and that it had been fixed. Trusting them, I took it out to the school - a 45-minute drive - and parked it. The generator started just fine - but the lights wouldn't come on. Turned out the mechanic had turned off the breaker while he was working on it, and had forgotten to turn it back on. Fortunately, I was able to find the switch and turn it back on. That's all the excitement I've had at the library so far this week.

On a personal note, there are less than two weeks until our first big concert of the year. My whole family sings with the Master Arts Chorale at our local community college, and on April 29th we'll be singing a variety of opera choruses and arias, accompanied by the college orchestra. My favorite one to sing is "Va Pensiero" by Verdi - I sing it loudly in my car when I'm alone. I'm really looking forward to the concert.

Vacation!!

Okay, this post is full of links because I'm too lazy to rewrite what's already been written by lots of generous people. Rachel and I just took a short vacation to central California's gold country. We spent Wednesday night in the National Hotel in Jackson, which has been in continuous operation since 1862. It was definitely vintage. My first impression was, "Hmmm, a sleazy biker hangout," and I wasn't too sure about the place. The first floor lobby was basically a smoke-filled saloon with plenty of unsavory types hanging around.

Our room was cute, though, and since it was near the end of the hall on the third floor it was pretty far removed from the noise and smoke below.

On Thursday, after a hearty breakfast at Mel and Faye's Diner, we looked in all the antique stores in Amador City and Sutter Creek. We had lunch at Tea Eras and dinner at Bellotti's. After dinner, we drove to the tiny town of Volcano, where we checked in at the St. George Hotel. This was a much classier hotel than the National Hotel, so we decided to stay two nights. The rooms there have names instead of room numbers - ours was called Twain Hart.


Friday morning, we woke up and had breakfast in the parlor, then set off to check out Daffodil Hill. Unfortunately, it was closed for the season, so instead, we headed back into Jackson to spend the day shopping - more antique stores! We had lunch at Fat Freddie's and dinner at Jose's Mexican Restaurant.

After another night at the St. George Hotel, and another good breakfast in the parlor, we headed home Saturday morning. We spent a few hours antique shopping (no, really?) in Angels Camp and Jamestown on our way home. We also stopped briefly in Columbia. Rachel was disappointed that it had been turned into a tourist trap - she likes the more natural look. I had to agree with her.

All in all, it was a great trip. I'm thankful to have a daughter who likes antique stores as much as I do (or maybe even more!).

Pictures of Joseph

Okay, here are some pictures of my grandson. He's 7 months old now, and cute as can be. He's obviously going to be a musician.

Library nutcase

Yesterday, one of our weirder patrons came up to the desk and asked me for a screwdriver. I asked him why, of course, and he said, "To take something off the paper cutter." I was incredulous. How did he get our paper cutter and why did he want to take it apart?? Anyway, he said he wanted to take off the little bar that goes across it because it was in his way. I told him no. Apparently he was using it to cut cardboard into squares. I still don't know who let him use it.

Today, he wanted to borrow it again while I was at lunch. When the reference staff wouldn't let him have it, he called the police! I can't imagine why he thought that would do any good (It didn't). The man is clearly insane. He calls himself "Pastor Larry," even though he has no church. For a while, he was giving out the library's phone number and telling people he had an office here, but we put a stop to that. He also went through a phase where he tried to get some of the staff fired (he failed), and even tried to write to the governor to ask for keys to the library so that he could come in and run it properly. He's been pretty quiet for the past several months, until this incident, and spends most of his time typing words from a concordance, in large font, all caps, one per line, in alphabetical order. No definitions or references, just words. Weird.

Koroneburg Renaissance Festival

Koroneburg Old World Festival 2006
April 29 - June 11, 2006
14600 River Road, Corona, CA
Click here for map.

Sound And Fury has vacated their previous “Southern California venue” and will be performing daily shows. They put on an excellent show.

FREE Weekend RV camping will be available for Patrons! (no hookups and no tents)

Persons in Costume can purchase tickets at $10.00 ea ($6.00 off!) until 10:30am and will be allowed to enter Faire at 10:30am (Faire regularly opens at 11:00am).

Finally, THE INTERNET ONLY PROMOTION. 2 tickets for the price of 1! This promotion is only available through this link. There is no hyperlink on any page within the Koroneburg.com web site to this promotion. Pass it on to as many people as possible. Click here for coupon.

Of course there is more event specific data at the Koroneburg website.

I should be an advice columnist

Today I felt like a cross between Dear Abby and Dr. Laura. It seemed like everyone who came to the bookmobile needed advice, on everything from getting a diagnosis for autism to dealing with blended families. I don't mind helping people with stuff like this, especially when I'm not too busy. And everyone was pleasant and friendly today, which was good because this stupid cold has me feeling rundown.

The Bookmobile

I work the reference desk on Mondays, most Fridays, some Saturdays, and Tues. - Thurs. afternoons. The rest of the time I run a special bookmobile for preschoolers and their families. I used to work only on the bookmobile, but when the grant money ran out I had to spend at least half my time working at the branch. I prefer the bookmobile to the reference desk - the children are so innocent and eager to learn at that age, and, because I park the bus at subsidized preschools where I can reach the underprivileged families, the parents are generally grateful to me for bringing the library to them. I don't charge fines as long as I get the materials back, and I bend the rules to get them a library card. Sometimes I feel schizophrenic - I have to follow a different set of rules at the branch.

Yesterday, I redecorated the bookmobile with flowers, bunnies, and baby animals, even though it doesn't really feel like spring. The wind was blowing like crazy - it was really rocking the bus. Surprisingly, it's not hard to drive in the wind, even though it's nearly the size of a school bus. I just have to keep the speed down.

Today, my friend Anita accompanied me on the bookmobile to one of the Head Start preschools to assist me with a RIF book giveaway. Last month when I distributed the books, it was a total madhouse. About 150 people visited the bookmobile in 2 hours. One of the patrons alerted me to the fact that some of my library books had been taken off the shelves. I got a few back, but couldn't leave the bus to chase after the rest. When I told Anita about it over a cup of tea at her house the next evening, she volunteered to help me the next time I went there. Anyway, yesterday's wind brought in rain and hail today, which kept the crowd down to a more reasonable size. That, combined with Anita's help, made things much easier. I think I'll invite her again next time I go there.

I'm coming down with a cold - sniff. I think I'll go to bed now :~{

Moving the pack rat's nest

Brian has a sister, Julie, who's deaf and nearly blind. She and her husband, Armando (who's deaf) were living in an apartment about 40 miles from us. My mother-in-law lives about 40 miles farther down the road. She was concerned about Julie's health and well-being, so she decided to have them come share her 4-bedroom house. So, we volunteered to help move them on Saturday. We knew that Armando was a pack rat, so we tried to rent the biggest U-Haul truck we could find. Unfortunately, the biggest one they had was only a 17-footer, so to appease us they gave us two days and 250 miles for free. We didn't think we'd need the two days, but it came in handy - God was watching out for us.

When we got to the apartment, we were pleasantly surprised to see Julie's friend B. there - he's also deaf, but sensible and easy to communicate with, unlike J. and A. We tackled the garage first - it was only a one-car garage, but stuffed to the rafters with boxes and furniture. We filled the whole truck, and hadn't even gotten to the apartment yet. Brian's brother, Kent, arrived with two of his daughters and their neighbor just as wew were finishing up with the truck, and we loaded more boxes into his van. Some of the boxes were filled with empty cat food boxes and other packages, most of them neatly wrapped. Why on earth would anyone want to keep that?!? We threw away as much as we could while we were loading the truck, but I didn't want to overload the dumpsters at the apartment complex.

We drove the truck down to Mom's house and unloaded it in her driveway. Rachel and Matt joined us there, and all the kids set to work opening boxes and sorting trash from usable items. The pile of stuff was overwhelming. We had left Armando back at the apartment to finish getting the apartment ready to load - we didn't want him to see us throwing his "prized" possessions away.

We left Matt with all the girls to continue sorting junk while we drove back for the second load. We got almost everything into the truck and Kent's van, but there were still a few pieces of furniture in the garage. Armando was quite upset at having to leave a few things behind, especially his collection of mirrors. He didn't seem to understand that he wouldn't have room in the new place for all this stuff. When we moved the furniture out, we found a couple of real pack rat nests and showed them to him. The apartment was filthy and the carpet will have to be replaced - there's no chance of them getting back their security deposit.

When we got back down to Mom's house with the second load, we put everything they would need into the house - dressers, clothes, medicines, toiletries, food, etc. and left the rest out on the lawn. Armando rummaged through the boxes, looking for treasures to save. We left there around 9:30 p.m., leaving the truck there and driving my car 80 miles back home. We went to bed around midnight, sore and exhausted.

On Sunday, we drove 80 miles back to Mom's house and started going throught the stuff, looking for things worth putting in the 10'x10' storage unit he was renting. Jacob and Caasi joined us today - we were glad to have Jacob's help, and Mom was happy to see her great-grandson. We loaded the furniture first, and anything Armando brought to the truck. The whole process was pretty painful for him - he was hurt and angry with us, even though we were spending our time, energy, and money to help him. We filled the truck, then took it to the storage unit. By some miracle, we managed to cram everything into the storage unit. We went back to the house and stuffed the rest of the junk into the truck, then took it back to our house, where we put the obvious trash into our horse trailer and the stuff that needs to be sorted into the garage.

This morning, I had to get up early to return the truck before I head to work, which is what I'm going to do right now. Work should be a lot easier than my weekend was.