Crazy patron!!!

We occasionally get weirdos in the library (okay, frequently), but they're generally quiet and harmless. Yesterday, however, we had a real lulu. She (I'll call her Crazy Lady - CL for short)looked pretty normal, but as soon as she opened her mouth, we knew that was not the case.

Here's a rough idea of the conversation that followed:
CL came up to the reference desk where Eva was working.
EW: May I help you?
CL: I need a book on paralegals. (she pronounced it pah-ra-legal)
EW: What was that?
CL: PAH-RAH-LE-GAL
EW: Okay, I'll look that up for you. If we don't have it here, would you like me to order it from another library for you?
CL: I don't have a library card. I used to.
EW: I could look you up -
CL: In North Carolina.
EW: Oh, so you're not from around here?
CL: Oh, I'm from here - from this planet. What planet are you from? (to me) Maybe you have a decent brain in your head.

I looked at the computer screen and noted the call number of the book Eva had just looked up, and took CL over to the shelf where the book was located.
CL: That woman was terrible!
Me: I'll pretend I didn't hear that.
CL: Oh, but she was!
Me: She found the book for you, didn't she?
I handed her the book, and walked away. I did not want to have a conversation with that woman!

A few minutes later, she called me over to the table where she was sitting.
CL: Do you have a private study room here?
Me: No, I'm sorry, but we're hoping to in the new building we're moving to in April.
CL: Because you're sending me to a strange and secret place.
Me: No, we don't do that here.
CL: Do what?
Me: Send people to strange and secret places.
CL: Oh, yes you are - to Guantanamo Bay, I'm sure!
I thought for a moment - yeah, that would be nice - but said, "No, I don't think so."

About 20 minutes later, she came to the desk again.
CL: Please. For. The. Ladies.
Me: Huh?
CL: PLEASE. FOR. THE. LADIES!
Me: Uhh, did you need to use the restroom?
CL: Yes! (looking at me as if I were the crazy one)
Me: The restrooms are upstairs. You'll have to get the key at the desk up there.
CL: Oh those ladies are wayyy too busy with all those kids up there! They won't be able to help me!
Me: The key is hanging on the front of the desk - you can just pick it up.
CL: (sounding exasperated) But I don't know where the bathrooms are!
Me: (pointing) They're along the wall on that side.
She stomped off, making loud frustrated noises. The patron that Eva was helping at the time said,"Wow! I thought you guys had an easy job, but not if you have to deal with people like that!

A little while later, one of the managers came downstairs and said they had to ask her to leave - she had told some kids that if she had a knife, she would use it on them. Fortunately, she left without a fuss, after telling the manager she was not schizophrenic. Eva and I were greatly relieved that she was gone. What a twilight zone moment!

Music, music, music

There's always lots of musical stuff going on in our lives. Last month, the Master Arts Chorale performed with 3 groups from Biola. It's always interesting to hear how other choirs interpret music. Right now, we're rehearsing for our December 8th concert. The main piece we're doing is Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna, which is really challenging. All the parts have to sing out of their ranges. I sing alto, and we're singing from the F below the staff to the G above. Most of us don't mind that low F, but the G is a killer.

Jacob sent in an application (complete with photos and demo CD) for the LA Opera, but was rejected with a one-sentence email. How disappointing! But tomorrow he's auditioning for the Palm Springs Opera. He had completely forgotten that he applied for the audition, since he sent it in several months ago, and just found out about it this week. First place is $5000, so I really hope he wins. At least he'll get to sing for them - LA didn't even give him a chance.

Joseph has been learning to identify composers - he likes (ugh!) Radiohead best, whic he calls "Roadahead," as well as Verdi, Bach, Charles Ives, and a few others. The other day, I was sitting in my room when Joseph came toddling in. I asked him what kind of music was playing, expecting him to say something like "happy music" or "people singing," but instead he said, "Rachmaninoff!" Jacob was playing the Rachmaninoff Vespers, which we've sung parts of in concert. I can't wait until he starts singing with us.

Fall is here ...

... but it sure doesn't feel like it yet. The Santa Ana winds are keeping the temperatures up in the 90's in the daytime. We bought 2 cords of eucalyptus firewood, but have only been able to use the woodstove a couple of times so far this season. I like warm weather as a rule, but I'm looking forward to sitting in front of the fire with a cup of tea and a knitting project. Or, as is usually the case, a grandson in my lap with a pile of picture books - "Read it, Grandma!"

Joseph is growing up so fast. He talks all the time, and we can actually understand most of what he says. He tries hard to say the words correctly, and eventually corrects himself if he learns something wrong at first. People's names are very important to him - he wants to learn and remember the names of everyone he meets. Unfortunately, if he doesn't know someone's name, he points at them and says, "What's that?" very emphatically. I guess he can get away with it now since he's only 2, but I sure hope he learns to ask more politely soon.

Last weekend, I went to the CLA (California Library Association) conference in Long Beach. I had only intended to stay until 6 or 7, but I ended up going to dinner with three colleagues and we talked for a long time after dinner. I gave one of them a ride home (she lives in Victorville), and I didn't get home until after 11:30 that night. It was worth it, though. I ran into a lot of old friends, and learned a lot about some of the databases we currently use at the library. I also found something I wish we had - AquaBrowser. This is a really cool adjunct to the library's public catalog. You can try a demo of it from their website. The vendor at the conference had me thoroughly convinced that we need this for our library system, but as I am a lowly library assistant, second from the bottom of the food chain, there's not much I can do. I did talk with my branch manager when I got back - he's used it before, and knows what a valuable tool it can be. Also, he said that Riverside County, which we are affiliated with, may be getting it. If they get it, we'll have to have it too so that we can keep up.

Another booth that I spent a lot of time at was the Big Cozy Books booth. I'd like to have them build a toybox-sized bench for the bus to replace the junky toybox we have now. The hard part will be talking the bosses into spending the $450 or so that it will cost. It would look cool, though, and it would last forever, unlike the $75 piece of crap we have in there. If I was rich and had the room, I'd buy a bunch of their stuff for home. I love the big pink eraser.

I haven't gotten my Kamaka back from Marc yet, but I did meet another ukulele player and collector. He's a 5th grade teacher at one of the schools here in Fontana, and has about 55 ukes in his collection. He goes by the name Diesel on the Flea Market Music site. When I visit his school with the bookmobile at the end of the month, I'm going to bring a few of my nicer ukes to show him, since he let me play his 1927 Harmony soprano (in mint condition).

Well, I should probably head for home now. I'm sitting in a Panera Bread bakery, eating a crumbly scone, drinking tea, and enjoying the free wifi. The rest of the family, including Kevin and Cheryl, are visiting Brian's mom to celebrate the October and November birthdays. I had to work today, so was left out of the festivities. I'm enjoying the free time, though, and everyone sang happy birthday to me over the phone.

It's been a busy summer

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. All summer long, we took the bookmobile out to parks in the evenings. Now that school has started, we're doing school visits in the mornings. I've gone from working 12-9 shifts to working 7-4 some days.

Jacob and Rachel have both posted extensively on the flash floods we had over Labor Day weekend, so go check out their blogs to see some pictures and even a video. Also, Jacob posted a cute picture of Joseph in his pirate outfit in August.

Brian bought me a couple of 1950's soprano ukuleles a few months ago - a Martin style "O" and a Kamaka pineapple. Both of them are in well-used condition, so he got them at a fraction of the price of the same ukes in mint condition. I'm having the Kamaka restored right now by Marc Donner - it should be done soon. I'll probably leave the Martin as-is. It's amazing to me how much more sound these old instruments put out, as compared to a newer, cheaper, and heavier one. My Oscar Schmidt concert uke sounds muted next to the Martin, even though it's much bigger.

What a Week!

I'm still recuperating from the three events we participated in with the bookmobile last week. Each event was exponentially more intense than the last. On Tuesday, we spent a few hours cleaning the bus for the ribbon-cutting ceremony that was held in the evening. The ceremony itself was short but very busy - about 150 kids and a few adults waited in line for a brief tour of the bus, then went inside to watch the magic show while we sat in the bus. A couple of families visited during the show, but otherwise it was pretty boring.

Thursday was spent at a local elementary school, which we had visited about a month ago. This time, we were there to see the kids who were off track last time. Ten classes came out to see the bus, one class at a time for 30 minutes each. We had a craft outside and storytime inside, and each kid got to participate in both. Jorge and Sonia, our new part-time helpers were there this time, and they were a huge help.

On Saturday, we set up at the Fontana Health and Safety Fair, which I have taken the bus to every year. Unfortunately, Jorge and Sonia were drafted into helping at another major event, so it was just me and Eva. The crowd was bigger than ever, and there was no time after it started that we had less than 6 kids in the bus. I didn't actually count them, but based on last year's figures and the crowd this year, I estimated about 1300 visitors in 5 hours. We nearly lost several puppets - a woman and her kids took them off the bus. I got them all back, and all she could say was, "Well, I didn't know!" and "You should thank the kids, at least they brought them back." People never cease to amaze me. Other than that, all went well.

New bookmobile pictures

I know I promised to post pictures of the "new and improved" bookmobile, and here they are! What do you think?

I've been pretty busy with this new job. Last weekend we took it out for Fontana Days. I drove it in the parade Saturday morning, then parked it at Veteran's Park, where the carnival was being held. We parked right next to the City of Fontana's Mobile Rec Unit, and one of their guys helped us with the awning, since ours is just like theirs. He made it look so easy.

Several staff members from the other two Fontana branches came to help out, and our branch manager dressed up as the Cat in the Hat for the parade. We had a simple craft for the kids to do, and our Youth Services manager held storytimes at a booth nearby.

We left the bus at the park overnight, and returned late on Sunday morning. We had help from the other branches at first, but they left by 2:00. I sent Eva home at 8:00, because I thought I'd be able to pack up and leave soon after that, but I didn't get the bus back to the yard until 9:45. It was a long day, but not that difficult.

Our next event will be the county employees picnic on Saturday. That should be a relatively easy day, compared with the Fontana Days carnival or the Health and Safety Fair coming up on the 23rd. And, we've hired two new helpers who will come with us to all our big events! That will make life much easier. The only problem with Saturday is that I'll miss our dress rehearsal for the concert that evening.

Last Day at Apple Valley

Today is my last day at the Apple Valley Library - on Monday I start full-time in Fontana. It should be interesting getting used to a new library. Even though they're both branches of the same county library system, they have different ways of doing things. I'm looking forward to developing a new program for the bookmobile, which is right now getting a facelift. I'll post pictures of it when it's done.

Trip to Amador City

This is the first night I've had at home since we got back from our vacation. I tried to post while we were gone, but the wireless internet connection in our room was too weak.

Anyway, we had an uneventful drive up Hwy. 99 last Wednesday, stopping for lunch in Tulare, then took the scenic route up Hwy. 49 all the way to Amador City. We stopped in Angels Camp to stretch our legs - visited a few antique shops and the little music store there, and looked at all the jumping frog plaques on the sidewalk. We got to the Mine House Inn at about 6:15 and checked in - Rose, the proprietor, was very cordial and welcoming. She loaned Brian a book on the history of the local mines, which he devoured over the course of our stay. We put all our stuff in the room, then went to Jose's Mexican restaurant in Jackson and had a great dinner. I realized halfway up that we had forgotten our camera, so we stopped off at Wally World and picked up a 5-megapixel Vivitar for $100.

This is Amador City:


The Mine House Inn was cozy and beautifully decorated:


Here's the view from outside our room:

Thursday was spent sightseeing and shopping (mostly window-shopping) after a huge gourmet breakfast prepared for us by Rose. We were the only guests at the Mine House, so she was able to give us all her attention. We walked into Amador City and looked at the little railroad, which was very elaborate and detailed, then took a tour of the Sutter Mine. We had lunch at Burger King, then walked around Sutter Creek for a while. The library was closed, which was disappointing, but we saw all the antique stores and the cemetery. After our walk, we had dinner at Bellotti's, then headed back to our room.

On Friday, we walked around Amador City after another wonderful breakfast. Brian spent quite a bit of time in the little museum - I was done before he was, so I checked out a couple of stores that I didn't think he'd like. We had lunch at Andrae's bakery, then went shopping in Jackson. I bought a couple of old rolling pins to use as turning blanks - they're made of well-seasoned hard maple, and work up beautifully on the lathe. I showed Brian the little music store, and bought some yarn and beads at the yarn and bead store (go figure!). We went the the Kennedy mine tailing wheels park, and walked around for a while taking pictures. I caught a small tree frog there, which we put in a big plastic cup to take home for the pond. We had a hard time finding a place to eat, and ended up at Mel and Faye's diner, which was crowded and noisy. Brian bought a flashlight at K-Mart so he could look for more frogs, but he couldn't find any.


Saturday was our last day - Brian really wanted to see the Kennedy Mine, so we went there right after breakfast. We ended up being the only ones on the tour (was it our deodorant?), so we had the tour guide to ourselves. Brian had fun learning about the gold mining process and teaching the tour guide about assaying - we must have spent an hour in the assay office. There wasn't enough time to visit Daffodil Hill, so we got some lunch and headed for home.

Okay, just for Rachel

Here's the latest picture I have of Joseph. We were at Master Arts Chorale rehearsal on Tuesday, which Joseph attends with us. Usually, he behaves pretty well, but does tend to be a distraction, especially in the alto section. He loves all the attention from the ladies. This week, however, he fell asleep on the way to the college, and stayed asleep through the whole rehearsal. He ended up rolling under Doc's computer desk, where I got this cute picture of him in a classic pose, fingers in mouth and blankie wrapped around him.

I'll have to get Jacob to take more pictures of him - there are no really recent ones on the computer as far as I can tell.

Brian and I are getting ready to take a short vacation. We'll be staying at the Mine House Inn in Amador City, in the same area Rachel and I traveled to last spring. Hopefully, we'll be able to see the daffodils this year. I'm thinking of bringing my laptop so I can blog while I'm there - if not, I'll tell you all about it when I get back.

I worked two days at the Fontana library this week, Monday and today. On Monday, I spent some time in planning meetings with my new bosses and Eva, my new co-worker. The rest of the day was spent working at the downstairs reference desk. A lot of things are done differently at this library, some of which I like better and some not. I'll just have to get used to it, I guess.

Today the library held their spring carnival. Eva and I spent the morning turning a book cart into a puppet stage, with help from a volunteer and another staff member. The carnival started at 12 noon, and we wore our voices out trying to do a puppet show over the Fontana High School's jazz band, which had to perform inside because of the wind. Duh! It's always windy in Fontana! At least we had help from a guy from the district supervisor's office. The kids weren't interested in being read to by him, but he did a great job with the puppets. The carnival only lasted two hours, but we were glad when it ended.

An interesting coincidence

I was looking all over the internet for a picture of the Wilson School in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, where I had attended kindergarten. I found lots of photos of the interior and some students, but only one of the exterior. And it just happens to be from the year I was there! The date on the picture is May 1967. So, here it is:

I just think it's interesting that the only picture available is the one I'd want most.

New Job!

Sort of - I'm being transferred, along with my bookmobile, to Fontana, where they're building a new library. Apparently, the city of Fontana is willing to foot at least part of the bill for my bus, and they want to use it to promote the new library. I'll be working full-time down there by April 1st, with a few days spent there in March to get ready for the switch.

Here are some pictures of my bookmobile, for those who haven't seen it:


These were taken at the Fontana library's groundbreaking ceremonies - I guess the city officials saw it there and liked it.

I thought I was unique, but ...

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 3 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?