August 4, 2017

 I actually had a little extra time this morning and didn't have to run around before work. That hasn't happened in awhile. Especially on a day I open.

At work, not a lot was accomplished. It was very much a Friday for everyone in the department. For most of the day it was just me, one other librarian, and the boss, and we were all doing all we could to do as little as possible. I think we were pretty successful.

My greatest success was being the first person to use the new pencil sharpener. It is the same model as the old one but it is quieter and sharper, more than likely because it's brand new. It still has a tendency to miss part of the pencil and I had to use my pocket knife to whittle that bit away. It also sharpens the lead in more of an oval-shaped cone, instead of a regular circular one. It's interesting.

I caught up on writing numbers on the last stack of prize tickets I had pulled. I also organized all of the staff prize tickets. For those I decided to try my idea for next year and I only wrote numbers on every twenty-fifth ticket, marking that ticket with a post-it note so they were easy to find. It was much faster to do that and even though we may have to count a little bit when a number is picked, it is still way faster than writing on every ticket.

Last night I opened up the library homepage and used my mouse to write “HELLO ME!” by tracing it across the page. I couldn't see it at the time but this morning I opened up the site that we use to record usability videos. One of the features is that it leaves a traced line wherever the mouse moves on the screen. I have always thought it would be funny if someone wrote a message, but patrons don't know about it, so I decided to write a message to myself. I thought it was pretty funny. And it turned out pretty well.

I read a few articles about the coming eclipse. One showed some of the earliest known pictures of a solar eclipse. The other was about NASA's suggestions for photographing the eclipse with a smartphone. I learned some things about my phone's camera.

I filled my DVD display a few times. Before I left I made sure it had thirty DVDs on it. I doubt it will make it through the weekend but hopefully someone will refill it. The audiobook display is still holding strong.

I talked with my coworkers a lot, mostly about work-related things but Friday sneaked in there every now and then and we talked about other random things. I also talked to the girl I think the teen librarian and one of the other people in the childrens department think I should go on a date with. She actually talked to me because I avoid talking to strangers. She stopped by the desk during one of her walkthroughs I think. Turns out she used to be roommates with someone I worked with for years at the theater. Small world.

When I went to lunch my car wouldn't start, once again. Thankfully I was able to jump it. After work I drove to the mechanic to see if they had an openings tomorrow. They didn't think they would have time for a full service but said they could probably check the basic things in between their other appointments. Better than nothing.

It was a bit of a mess getting out of the parking lot due to the traffic because it was around five o'clock but it ended up working out. In my frustration I ended seeing Freddy's and deciding their black bean burger was going to supplement my potato salad. I haven't had one in at least a year or three. I got two so I can have one tomorrow also, but I'll probably avoid them for another year or three because they are ridiculously expensive. It was over eleven bucks for two burgers. No thank you. I need to look for some good black bean burger recipes. I made them once but there are better recipes out there.

As for the potato salad, making it was a success but I was unimpressed with the recipe. On the plus side my house smells very zesty. I am hoping that day two will be better when I try it as a cold potato salad.

After dinner my Mom met me at the mechanic so I could drop off my car. Originally I was going to do it early in the morning but it made way more sense to do it tonight. Good call on my Mom's part.

I wanted to play games tonight but that hasn't happened. Dinner and car stuff take up a lot of time.

I may go down to the basement after I record my audio journal.

Tomorrow, I'm not sure what's going to happen yet. My Mom could pick me up at noon so I could do laundry at her house. If I hear good things from the mechanic before noon, maybe I can drive myself to my Mom's house to do laundry. Or if it's later, maybe I stay home and do laundry on Sunday. Time will tell.