Stubborn

A woman came up to the reference desk this evening and a strange and brief conversation ensued.

Woman: Can I ask you a question?

Me: Sure!

Woman: Why don’t you list all the books in Clackamas County ?

Me: We do.

Woman: No you don’t. I know this book is at another library.

Me: Let me take a look. What’s the book?

Woman: No. I know that another library has this book and it doesn’t come up.

Me: Well I can look it up and take a look.

But by the time, the woman was shaking her head and making a beeline for the door. Frustrated at her stubbornness, I called after her, “If the book is in storage or is damaged…” but she cut me off, shaking her head and saying “No” as if I was wrong. “I can’t answer your question if you don’t give me all the information.” But she was out the door, racing away.

I’m not sure what the point of all that was. Why did she come up to me and tell me this and then refuse to let me clear up the situation? Was she so hell-bent on being right that she wouldn’t risk the possibility of me pointing out that maybe she was searching wrong. Maybe the book wasn’t coming up because it was in repair. We did, after all, just get a new catalog a few weeks ago, a catalog that most patrons are still adjusting to. And what if there was indeed some kind of glitch, where a book was on the shelf at a library but not showing up in the catalog? How would we fix this glitch if we didn’t know about it? This woman’s refusal to let me even try to figure out what was going on was frustrating, but what could I do?

Microwavable crafts

While weeding the craft books today, I came across this book.

I’ve never heard of using one’s microwave to do craft projects, so I took a look inside. Turns out the microwave is for drying fruits, flowers, peppers, etc. You then incorporate these objects into wreaths, birdhouses, Christmas ornaments, centerpieces, and other pieces of home décor. Very odd. You never know what you’ll find on the library shelves.

Knitting at the library

I was recently going through some old e-mails and notes and came across this unpublished blog post from two years ago. This is from my days of working as an on-call librarian, and I can’t remember which library I was at when this happened, but it doesn’t really matter.

I am constantly amazed at the kinds of questions people ask at the library. If I weren’t in this profession, it would never occur to me to call a librarian to find out the answer to some life’s more obscure questions (my favorite of all time in my brief career thus far: “Is there a clown college in Portland.” No, it turns out there is not). Not that it’s a bad thing. I actually find it quite entertaining most of the time. It’s just unusual.

Today, I had a lady who wanted to know if I knit. When I said that I didn’t, she asked if any of the other staff knit. No, they didn’t. Turns out she was stuck on a knitting project and needed some help. She already had a book, but it wasn’t helpful. She needed someone to show her. She agreed with my suggestion that the staff at a yarn store would be the best people to answer her question, but she was hoping to save a trip and was already at the library and thought she’d ask. How funny!

No more hole

The hole in my living room is gone. Yesterday they came and filled it back in with concrete. My apartment smells like a sidewalk during rainfall. I’ve also discovered that everything is covered in a very fine layer of concrete dust from the jack-hammering on Wednesday. Everything in the living and dining rooms was covered in plastic, but in the bathroom and hallway and kitchen I now have dust to wipe up. Oh well.

The hole in my living room floor

A few days ago I noticed a wet spot on my living room carpet. It didn’t smell like cat pee and I knew I hadn’t spilled anything there. Also, despite the warm weather, the wet spot didn’t go away. I feared a leak. I called the apartment management.

Sure enough, when they came yesterday to check on it, they discovered a leak. They called me at work to tell me. They said they had to rip up the carpet and the cement to get to it. I banged my head on the table. Fortunately, absolutely nothing was required of me. They would move the furniture and do all the work. And most importantly, they would pay for it of course.

So today I locked the cat up in the bedroom and went off to work. This is what I found when I came home.

Oh dear. At least they covered everything in plastic. My TV and most of my furniture is behind me in the dining room. It’s all covered in plastic too. There is no note and they didn’t call me today. So I don’t know if they found and repaired the leak or not. I’m hoping they did and hoping that they come back tomorrow to pour new cement. It will take awhile for the cement to dry, so they can’t lay new carpet until next week. The sooner this is over, the better!