October 3, 2016

 This morning I woke up early so I could get ready early and then make phone calls before I went to work. Waking up and getting ready was successful but the phone calls were kind of a fail. At eight o'clock I tried to call my first option for radon testing. I got a voicemail and didn't want to leave one because if it didn't work out and I decided to call someone else, I didn't want to deal with the awkwardness of explaining that. So I waited. Around 8:30AM I tried again, and again got voicemail, so I moved on to the next name on my list. He wasn't able to do it until next week, which doesn't work because it has to be done by next weekend, but he suggested another company because they have multiple testers. That company was also on my list so I went with them next, and they were able to start the test on Wednesday and pick up their stuff on Friday, which is in my window. Once I finally had that figured out I was running out of time but decided to call my insurance company. I thought they had to send someone out to look at the roof to see if they would insure it. Instead, I just had to give them information on the house and they gave me a quote. So that was easy.

But I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit. I called to set up the radon test before work but she said she would have to call me back after she found out what times were available. And when I called my insurance company she also said she would have to call me back. And they both got back to me after I had gone to work. I was on desk for the first two hours of my shift but after that I went into our little break room and started making phone calls. I started with the radon test, found out about the Wednesday time, and agreed to that. My insurance company actually texted me after I didn't answer my phone and I was able to give them my email address and they sent me the quote. Finally, I was able to call and schedule a termite inspection for tomorrow. She ended up needed to know a bunch of information that I hadn't brought with me to the break room so I had to go grab it and come back. At one point I was certain she was going to ask for the name of my first-born. I ended up paying for the inspection over the phone because it was $25 if you paid up front or at the time of the inspection, or $75 if they had to send you a bill. That is really good incentive to pay first.

So many adult things were done this morning. Once I had all that figured out I text my realtor so he could make all the necessary arrangements with the house. Also, the house is finally listed as off the market online, which makes things all the more serious. I just hope the radon and termite inspections don't find anything expensive or deal-breaking.

I once again ate lunch in my car while driving back to work because I spent my lunch break at the bank. The bank guy had been sent my contract stuff so he was able to update my estimated costs and show me what my monthly payments would look like. He also locked in an interest rate and my fingers are crossed that it does not drop significantly before I actually close on the house. My realtor has said in the past that has happened and he has taken his client to another bank to get the lower rate. I learned that if I took the current rate the bank would pay me several hundred dollars or I could pay them $150 to take a fraction of a percentage off that would save me $8 a month. I asked him to do a little more math and it would take me nine years to break even and make the lower rate a better deal for me. I may or may not still be in the house in nine years but I don't plan on living their forever and I decided that several hundred dollars now is better than paying $150 for a benefit that I won't see for nine years. It would be nice paying a little less each month but I'll survive. Hopefully.

I also managed some work related things today. I worked on some statistics stuff, wrote and turned in my monthly report, pulled all the books for the Romance display for this month, took down all the Romance books from last month and replaced them with mine, pulled most of the books for the return of my Whimsical & Witty display, emailed the newspaper about printing the wrong name on my column, and helped patrons.

Turns out you can't throw a stone in the library without hitting a romance novel. They're all over the place. I ended up filling most of the display with books that weren't actually on my list because I kept running into books as I was walking through the stacks. They're pretty easy to spot just by the spines. I tried to change things up a little and include paranormal romance (because Halloween is coming up) and stories that are about love, not just erotica. We'll see how it goes over. One book had already checked out by the time I left work but I'm not sure what type of romance it was.

I emailed the newspaper as soon as I got to work. I wrote the email last night and sent it to myself. Then I had my boss read it before I sent it just to make sure it was coming across correctly. The lady I emailed wasn't working today but she apologized for the mistake and said she would look into getting me a PDF copy of my column with the correct name tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed on that.

Instead of coming up with another display idea for this month, I am bringing back Whimsical & Witty because it was supposed to run for two months anyway. There was just a brief intermission for the Banned Books display. Much like Romance, I got a little distracted while browsing the stacks and ended up with a lot of books that weren't on my list. And I meant to go half-and-half with non-fiction and fiction but it is definitely going to start out non-fiction heavy because I have over twenty books pulled already and I didn't make it down to the fiction section. I should be able to put the display up tomorrow.

For a few hours this morning part of the non-fiction section was blocked off because they were replacing a very large air conditioning unit on the roof and just in case something went wrong, they didn't want anyone crushed when it fell through the roof. Due to the size of the unit, they actually had to bring a huge crane from another town that could lift it onto the building. It looked like a real-life Transformer. It was nuts. Thankfully, nothing fell through the ceiling. Also sadly, nothing fell through the ceiling. I didn't want that to happen but how cool would the story be if it had happened? We need good stories every now and then to keep things interesting.

Tonight I watched YouTube videos, clicked around the internet, and now I'm listening to Nickel Creek while writing this entry. Very soon I will be going to bed because I am tired and I open tomorrow. I need to get on a better sleep schedule. One that will allow me at least seven hours of sleep each night. Preferably eight.