Jimmy Buffet

it's been too hot to listen to books in the car so i have taken Taking out and slipped in some Jimmy Buffet (and some Shonen Knife). there is no better convertible music than Jimmy's.

Margaritaville lyrics

Nibblin' on sponge cake
Watchin' the sun bake
All of those tourists covered with oil
Strummin' my six-string
On my front porch swing
Smell those shrimp they're beginnin' to boil
Chorus:Wasted away again in Margaritaville
Searching for my lost shaker of salt
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame
But I know it's nobody's fault
I don't know the reason
I stayed here all season
Nothin' to show but this brand new tattoo
But it's a real beautyA Mexican cutie
How it got here I haven't a clue
Chorus:Wasted away again in Margaritaville
Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame
Now I think
Hell, it could be my fault
I blew out my flip-flop
Stepped on a pop-top
Cut my heel had to cruise on back home
But there's booze in the blender
And soon it will render
That frozen concoction that helps me hang on
Wasted away again in Margaritaville
Searching for my lost shaker of salt
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame
But I know it's my own damn fault
Yes and some people claim that there's a woman to blame
And I know it's my own damn fault

the other day, during a visit, Maniac Mike went on and on about Margarita's; the best Ft Meyers bar, how to make them, how many he's gonna have when he gets out, blah, blah, blah. he should get together with the library staff; they can go on and on about Margarita's, too. i wish i were a drinker.

i've got the keys

heh heh heh...i've got the keys to the library. hmmmm. shall i sneak in tonight and and mix the mysteries with the nonfiction? should i load the place up with streamers and balloons? put glue on the directors chair? the sad part about having the keys is i will have to be the first one there since the secretary and the circhead will be late and the boss does not arrive until 9:30 (per usual. how do you like that?) so, it ain't no fun having the keys.

will she kill off Harry?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/08/01/people.rowling.reut/index.html?section=cnn_topstories do you want Harry dead or alive? i want him to be the boy who lived!

Heat

it just so happened the director called right in the middle of the goose fiasco and asked our PIC if it "was dead". PIC wondered how the director found out about the goose so fast. well, she was not calling about the goose. she was calling to find out how many patrons were using the building and if it had been busy. infact, it was dead for the night. no one at all was using a computer, which is rare and only a handful of patrons checked out after 6pm. we did not have to scoot anyone along.

the reason behind her call (get this): Town Hall thinks there should be a facility open to the public later for the people that have to get out of the heat! and they think the library might be it! they are fucking crazy. CRAZY! they have a senior center, a town hall and several schools. why pick on us? i do not have air conditioning but i don't want to stay any later than my scheduled hours. did they think the union would just allow them to make us stay open later...til 9 or 10? WTF? i'm sorry. we are a library, not a shelter. we are not even designated as a fallout shelter because we have no basement. we are not considered a shelter for natural disasters because we are surrounded by large windows. the designated shelters are the high school, several other schools and the TOWN HALL! i'm just really pissed tonight. really pissed.

Dead Goose

everything was going fine tonight at the library. we had few patrons, no crazies and then, all shit broke loose. our maintenence guy went out to check the lot at 7:40pm. he found a dead goose on the hood and windshield of someone's car. he came in, told us at the desk and a couple of us went out to check. i got the license # and paged to see if the car belonged to one of patrons. we all thought all the staff cars were at the opposite side of the lot. turns out the car belonged to our male circworker. according to another patron who witnessed the event, a couple (or 3) "kids" got out of their car, slammed the dead goose on the passenger side of our staff member's car and threw it on the windshield. nice. so, did this citizen (bitch) get any info, like color of the car or plate number? NO! we have her name and our person in charge called her home and left a message that she may be contacted by the police for information. seems this patron saw the event but did not even bother to come into the library to tell anyone. we are wondering if she knows who these kids are. to make matters even worse, if they could GET worse, the cop told our staff member that, since animal control was closed, he (staff) would have to clean it up himself. the cop would not help. i do not know if a report was filed, i assume so. they took pics of my bullet hole and i wonder if they took pics of this vandalism. after my incident, the second in our lot, the cop promised me that they would drive by the library atleast once a day and keep an eye open. right. i know they can't be there every second but if they had more of a presence, this might not be happening to us.

now, i also found out that Town Hall, which is in the same building as the police station, has installed video surveillance in and outside. this just fucking pissed me off even more. the library is surrounded by woods, poorly lit and we have nothing. Town Hall has the entire fucking police department on their ASS!

in our union contract it says that we are entitled to a safe and secure working environment...and clearly, with the parking lot incidents and the middle school kids causing trouble and vandalizing the property, we are not secure. i can picture any one of those kids bringing a gun to the library to use on other kids or staff. they are THAT fucked in the head. if these kids can do what they did to an animal and another person, they should be considered dangerous. this is not a little prank. what happened tonight was sick.

Wizard's Hall

currently reading. this is the author who tried to sue JK Rowling for stealing her ideas from this book. okay, so the pictures talk and a misfit kid goes to a wizards school. big deal. JK Rowling blows this little book away. there is no comparison between the very rich series of HP books and this tiny little paperback. and what the hell is that quilt-thing?

The Last Vampire

i didn't realize that The Last Vampire was not out in mass market PB yet. i found out today when i ordered one from B&N. do out august 6th according to the salesperson.

busy day

well, it was just a busy day off. did a lot of running around and had a visit at 4pm. it is so hot outside and it is freezing in the visiting room. there is no happy medium. Maniac Mike is now taking Celexa in the morning and Trazadone at night. why the psych put him on two drugs at the same time puzzles me. my psych started me on one to see if there were side effects then added more, one at a time. so MM is having some weird symptoms and there is no way to tell which one is causing the side effects because, of course, the side effects reported on each drug are nearly identical. the Trazadone is for sleep yet he has to take it at 8pm. so, he still wakes up early in the morning like 3am. i used to take Trazadone and i had no side effects from it, but we are all different. he looked like hell today.

so now he is on five different meds, 3 over the counter and two prescribed. he still has a way to go to beat me. i hope he doesn't ever have to take more than me. someday, i hope i will only have to rely on Tylenol.

the nice guy, Dan, at Auto Zone said that HE could hook up my car and fing out why the check engine light is on but it has to BE ON in order to check it. today, the light did not come on at all and my car drove just as well as usual, happily playing Jimmy Buffet with the top down. i don't know why i have a vitamin D deficiency since i do get sun (but i rarely drink milk). damn, it is supposed to be in the 90's tomorrow and reach 100 on wednesday. what the fuck? this is New England not Arizona. i really am getting sick of the heat (like everyone else). and i bet BIG BUCKS that it will rain all september and october AGAIN this year so we won't have a happy autumn which is my favorite season, the days i wait for all year. hurumph.

Blob is the biggest thing in the universe!

right here! http://space.com/scienceastronomy/060727_largest_object.html

The Taking

currently listening to The Taking. i borrowed it from the library and just noticed that the seventh CD is missing (out of eight). aaarrghh! now i have to try and track down disc 7.

Grave Peril

currently reading. Harry is joined by Michael "a Fist of God" to battle a demon who is torturing people and ghosts. Michael is Christian, married to Charity and really gets under my skin. not my favorite of characters. Michael objects to Harry's magic, yet they work together to conquer those from the Nevernever and other bad guys. these novels are entertaining but i still cannot say i like Harry. the series hasn't grabbed me like others have, yet they are a good enough read for the summer and there are 6 paperbacks, i think, though the latest is a hardcover. i would not pay for a hardcover.

i did buy the hardcover of the latest Laurell K Hamilton book, Danse Macabre. i got a really good deal at Barnes and Noble, the bookstore i frequent most. i have a membership that allows me to get 10% off and i had a coupon for an additional 15% off and the book was already 30% off so, i actually paid less at the bookstore than i would have through the library. i am contemplating buying the new Strieber hardcover The Grays through Amazon because it will come with a signed bookplate if i pre-order.

as for The Book of the Dead, it was AWESOME! a must read for Pendergast fans. oh, Diogenes! sniff sniff

The Hunger

last night i finished reading The Hunger by Whitley Strieber. i have read all his non-fiction but only one novel in the past, Majestic. Maniac Mike had read The Hunger before me because i bought it for him when he was in Florida. he liked it. i liked it, too but it left me wanting. MM has also read the sequels, The Last Vampire and Lillith's Dream. so, it is my turn to read them, too. then i'll read the rest of Whitley's fiction. i really would like to read The Wolfen next. someday, i'll watch the movies.

Banana Pancakes

there is a patron that frequents the library (like every single day) that really drives me nuts. she's a large woman, about 39, with little or no teeth. i have not looked long enough into her gaping maw to count just how many teefs she still has. sometimes she comes in with a guy that i think may be her son. she is a computer user. she'll stay in the library for HOURS doing who knows what on the computers. every day, she purchases 2 floppy disks. we offer them as a courtesy for 50 cents each which does not make us a profit. we think she does not know how to erase and reuse the disk space.

she annoys me because she has absolutely zero social skills. non. nada. none. the very first time she came to the library, she sat at a computer and yelled out (to no one in particular) "I needs paper!". i happened to be closest to her so i said, "pardon me?!", then i got her the paper. since then, she singles me out for her, um, yell-age. that is why i try to put her on the computers in the back of the library near reference and not near circ. the other day, someone put her on the computer right in front of circ and again she singled me out. i was binding (gluing) books, my back to her, talking to someone at circ and i hear behind me, "do you like banana pancakes?!" i ignore her and keep talking to my coworker. patron yells even louder, "have you ever heard of banana pancakes?!" aaarrggh. so, i turn and say, "pardon me!". she repeats her question i answer 'no' and turn back to my work. she then blathers on about banana pancakes for 5 minutes while i pointedly ignore her.

now, as most of my coworkers have had some kind of anti-social experience with her, she is usually stuck down in the back. the other day, she requested 2 disks and a coworker lied and told her we didn't have anymore. she did this because the director was miffed that the disks have to be replaced every week and this has been costing us money (the Friends of the Library supply the disks) and we are running out of stock. this is because the toothless patron and her buddy buy 2 disks each and everyday. what the fuck could they be doing? she must have a massive collection, but i never see her bring a disk IN and use that one. once, she gave me a twenty dollar bill for a 50 cent disk and it nearly sent me over the edge. far and away, the regular computer patrons are the most annoying to deal with. it's the same faces everyday. if i were rich, i'd buy computers fro the most annoying as long as they promised never to darken our doorstep again!

Raynham Flea

Hino and i had plans to go to the Raynham Flea market saturday (yesterday). so, he calls me up at 9:30am and picks me up around 10:30ish. he drives. he has the GPS computer on and a very friendly female voice told us when to turn, bear right, stay straight, and when we were off course. Maniac Mike wanted to know if it was a sexy female voice. this makes me wonder if he has some kind of computer voice fetish.

anyway, when we got to the flea market we found that it was CLOSED! seems Hino did not read the website well enough. i got up early for nothing on my day off. bummer. the good news was i didn't feel weird being the passenger. he drove really well and i only had to apply my invisible brakes once.

so, today we set out again now that we know it is open on sunday. this time Hino was too tired to drive so we went in the convertible. it was very nice when we set out, but the drive home was fucking hot. i got home around 2:00pm.

Hino bought computers and computer parts, a jade turtle and a pair of scissors. i bought a pair of scissors and a set of Sharpies (for work), a bat cartoon necklace that flashes red lights, a Dale Jr hat for Maniac Mike, a black leather wallet on a chain for MM, two cross suncatchers for mother-in-law and a pengiun one for me. Hino also bought a tiny little porcelain skunk and a blown glass castle for his aunt. he had a coke and i had a nutty buddy. it was an okay flea market but a lot of the stuff was 'new', drugstore items, tools and lots of incense (which i like but i have enough). i think we were both a little disappointed. i guess we both like junk.

now i have taken a shower and i am listening to Art Bell as i type this.

Hino thinks my car needs a tune-up. that could be why the check engine light goes on. he heard the idle race or rumble or do something. so, i think i'll go to Sears and see what they can do. not today, though. i am all pooped out. the heat really zaps my energy...as i'm sure it does for everyone. i knew Hino was very hot and tired. since Art Bell's guest is not very interesting, i think i'll read Grave Peril by Jim Butcher, the third book in the Dresden Files. or i'll take a nap.

www.raynhamflea.com.

taxes return!

my sister helped me with my taxes this year as always. this was the first year i could not claim Hino, so i knew i would end up paying taxes since i had nothing taken out. well, Maniac Mike paid our taxes of $732.00. does not sound like much but i only make 17,000 a year. well, seems sister and i royally fucked up and today i got a CHECK in the mail for $639 plus $5.00 interest from the IRS. seems we overpaid. a lot. i'm wondering if this is some kind of set up. give me back money and whoops! heehee we want it back. but, a letter explained what we did wrong and why i got the money back yet i still don't get it. i'll take it, though.

i have to say, seeing a letter from the IRS in the mailbox is quite a shocker. i thought we royally screwed up and i owed them hundreds more. it's way worse than getting a cut off notice for the electricity, but not so bad as getting an eviction notice.

who's driving?

now that i feel better, Hino and i are supposed to go to a flea market saturday or sunday. i don't yet know who will be driving. he has space, but i have a convertible. if it's really nice out, i should drive. infact, i should drive just because. just because. basically because i am one of those people who cannot let another person drive without feeling...out of control. i sit in the passenger seat and press the invisible brakes. i clutch the door handle. i have terrible visions of mangled wrecks. i feel sweaty. Hino has a BIG van...like you could dock the space shuttle in the back and still have plenty of leg room. i am not used to this. i don't know what i will mentally DO with all the room. and the windshield is as big, i swear, as the view screen of the Starship Enterprise. i don't need to see that much road. and i know he is going to touch things and fiddle with things and have talking GPS satellite telemetry and it will just be too much for me to handle. maybe i'll just lay down in the back with a cool cloth over my eyes until we get there. i'll just pretend i'm in an ambulance and he can roll me out the back when we arrive. i'll be the one twitching and shrieking.

iron

i saw the hemotologist Dr Nadeem and no big whoop here...i am anemic. so, i am back on iron pills but unlike the last hemotologist i went to, this doctor told me to take over the counter ferris sulfate 65mg. i bought it at Walmart 100 pills for $3.76. the last doctor had me buy behind the counter iron pills that cost $32.00 for 60 pills. so, i am perplexed. this doc said that i was probably not absorbing the iron before because of the Prevacid and pernicious anemia. the iron pills need acid to work. i am supposed to drink orange juice with each pill on an empty stomach, and not near the Prevacid dose either. fuck. this is too much fucking thinking. i get the morning routine and the midday routine of pills and the night pills but now i have the 3times a day iron with all these caveats. i like my psych who says, "take 'em all at bedtime". easy to remember. but now i have to stand under the light of a waxing moon, spin around three times widdershins, spit on a frog and then take the iron pill with Florida orange juice cause the California stuff is too Blue State. just let me be freakin' anemic, thank you!

spook

a wonderfully funny book from the author of Stiff. Mary tries to be a skeptic but she's funnier than any skeptic i have ever read. good stuff and a quick read.

Gecko adhesive

i htought Hino might like this article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5217240.stm

skinny kid eats!

remember the two really skinny kids? the other day, the girl was sitting on the mom's lap, bent over and the mother was actually counting the girl's vertebrae and laughing about it!

well, today, the skinny boy was not with them. another, healthy looking boy, about a foot shorter than the girl but weighing more, was with the mother and the girl. he must have been 7 or 8 and he had his own money. at one point, he tried to get some candy out of the bubblegum machine, but the girl stopped him.

in the visiting room, the mother and father got their usual and the girl got a bag of chips! the other boy, probably a nephew, got a drink, chips and, according to Maniac Mike, who could see their table, a whole shitload of stuff. he had his own money. kudos to his parent who had the foresight to send him with money probably knowing that the skinny kids' parents never got them anything! but, guess what? later on, the girl got her very own bag of skittles. woo hoo! she was pigging out, the poor thing. we are SURE that if that other boy was not there, the girl would have had nothing as usual. we feel that the mom did not want the other boy to report back to HIS parents that the girl never ate or drank throughout the visit, but the grown-ups did.