Since I was late

I thought I'd write 2 blog posts. 

I went back to see what I had been writing about in February and realized I could continue from there. 

So January we had the fire in the Zamboni room, got through 3 weeks of restoration work, heating unit for the temporary area died and we suffered through the 3 coldest weeks of the winter with no heat. In April the heat comes back on. Only it turns out the unit had never been fixed and as a result my boss gets carbon monoxide poisoning. It took 2 days to convince someone there was wrong. I was the only one who didn't get exposed but that is only because my boss had to close the library due to the high levels. 

So we're back to no heat which isn't terrible because it is finally spring and not freezing anymore. At this point there has been a decision to replace the units instead of fix them & the job is out for tender. We're pessimistically thinking it should be fixed about the time we move into the renovated building. Which we tentatively think will happen in September. Maybe.  

Okay I'll admit to becoming jaded about the whole project. One day I will have windows again. Some day, in the future. 

June is Blogging Month

I had intention of starting yesterday but of course...  Getting back into blogging after several months away from it is a challenge. I've come to the conclusion you need to have a schedule or routine to be successful at writing, whether writing a blog or a book. You also need courage to write and keep writing. Let's see if I can dig some up.

Just Keep Moving

So we're still in our temporary location, 18 months or so. The library has been delayed for a variety of reasons, none of which are under our control. We get a lot of visitors and members asking us when the library will be done and we can only give them what we know. Of course we also hear things off the record that remind us not to hold our breath.
On the last Sunday in January there was a fire in the zamboni room in the arena. This is just outside our temporary space under the bleachers. The fire was quickly detected and put out, but not before some severe damage was done. While the library area was lucky not to have any noticeable damage we are still affected by the restoration work in the arena.
We have had our ducts cleaned, the chairs cleaned and every shelf wiped down. (The non fiction section will eventually get put back in order.) Now they're replacing all the ceiling tiles. Of course they took them all down BEFORE they put up plastic to protect the books and recently cleaned furniture from possibly contaminated particulate matter. I know I shouldn't bitch, but that seemed like a backwards move to me.
To make matters worse the furnace for our area broke down and the required part will be 2 to 3 weeks getting here. We're supplementing with space heaters, although that can get tricky as certain ones pull too much power and end up throwing a breaker.
I have no idea how my boss is remaining so calm about this. I was luck and missed the nauseating, headache producing fumes from right after the fire. I've missed the coldest days in the library. All of this was happening during an extremely cold period (-30C anyone?) I've even missed the demolition of the ceiling. She hasn't. A lesser person would have closed the library and waited it out. Unfortunately we've lost business being in our out-of-the-way temporary location. Being closed for anything less than a complete gut job has been out of the question. So we continue on.

On the funny side I was reminiscing with a colleague about the "old days" in the library (currently being renovated and expanded) when it would regularly be below 12C during the winter. How soft we've become lol.

Time

The last few months have been... hard.

It has only been 2 months since we put T down. It seems much longer somehow. I'm not as 'haunted' by her absence as I was by Misty's, but that might be because we knew we were on borrowed time and so were more prepared.

It has been the remaining cat and dog that have missed her more. T had always been their 'momma kitty' having raised them both. She had been the arbiter and peace maker. We are still settling in to the new normal and some days are harder than others.

In November both my sis-in-law and aunt were in hospital for life threatening issues. Things stabilized for both of them to go home but there was a lot of "let's just get through Christmas" going on. And we did get through Christmas.

Sis-in-law was finally able to have her procedure which has improved things for her health. Unfortunately my aunt returned to hospital shortly after Christmas where she declined rapidly until her passing. Bro was able to bring dad out for her funeral. This was dad's last sibling which made it very important for the family that he be here.

I miss being able to talk to her. She was the third call I made each Sunday after talking with my parents, then brother and sis-in-law. It will take some time to recover. She went out on her terms, with everything arranged to her liking. I hope I have her strength when my time comes.

If you are lucky, your job and place of work are supportive and personally fulfilling. I have been very lucky to have worked with some fantastic people over the years. Janeen has been one of those rare individuals that I just clicked with. Right from the start we worked well together and I always knew she understood what I was getting at even when I wasn't sure myself. Life brings changes and she was able to grab the opportunity to be a stay at home mom. It has been a great opportunity for her and her family. I miss her even as I'm excited for her.

That of course meant we needed to hire a new person. We waited till January, thinking Christmas was not the right time to advertise effectively. We are now through the hiring process and have started training the new person. I keep catching myself being "old and cranky" lately. Am I getting less flexible as I get older? Where did my enthusiasm for my work go? Oh I haven't lost it exactly, it just seems weaker than it use to be. There is so much stuff to teach this person. Being a small library means everyone needs to be able to do most everything. She has the enthusiasm to learn it. I need to find the enthusiasm to teach it.

The last few days I've felt overwhelmingly tired. Not so much physically but mentally. Today everyone else has been at work and I have been left with the dog, cat and silence. Sure I've done the basic chores but most of the time has been devoted to reading. Reading has always been my go-to activity for pleasure and stress relief. I haven't been doing as much reading for fun as I want, or NEED to do. I feel better today for taking the time to do what I need to do.

It's Time

 ...to say goodbye. T had a great summer but since then she's experienced a slow decline. She no longer grooms herself. There have been symptoms of dementia and her vision in low light situations is not good. The vet says she has signs of cataracts & possible retinal damage. Her arthritis has even kept her from the couch. She's been chewing on her front paw & will not let it heal. She experiences little pain with it which makes the vet suspect something else is going on. Our vet has been very good. She could see I wasn't ready to say good bye today so gave her an antibiotic to keep the paw from getting worse. But let me know that she was on that last slide. We have an appointment in 10 days so we'll all have time to say goodbye. 

It is just over two years since our dog Misty died. She and Tiger were a team & I know Tiger mourned her terribly when she passed. We have another cat and dog left. I'm not sure how they will act when Tiger is gone. 

As for me, I know I'll mourn long and hard. I've had Tiger for 18 years, almost as long as my kids. She's always been Momma Kitty, taking care of everyone, even the other pets. She's been my shadow for a long time. I'll miss her greatly. 

Make It Stop!

There are weeks, and there are weeks. This has been one of THOSE weeks. Hubby & I are both one holidays right now. So we went away for a few days just to get out of town. While we were away we received an email from our Internet service provider that our IP address had been reported for malicious activity. Great. We contacted our eldest son and sent him to check what was going on. 

We are a geeky household so we have a lot of Internet connected computers  and devices. He found some viruses on our youngest son's computer and dealt with them. 

In the meantime we also received an email from Adobe that our account with them had been compromised (which it turns out is true). So how do we spend the first 24 hours once we recent home? We do updates, scans and change ALL passwords. On top of that my laptop has started telling my that the battery is going. :( 

So we deal with all this and things seem under control. I get up this morning thinking it will be a low key day where I can get caught up on homework for the MOOC I'm involved. Instead I get an unpleasant surprise when I put the dog out...the shed door is open and the winter tires are gone!  Trying not to panic, I go and wake my husband and find out he had left the shed door open when he took the tires. I knew he was having the truck's oil changed etc. he didn't mention he was having the winter tires put on too. Then to top it off, I'm doing my regular morning wipe downs (flu season has started here) and I accidentally hit the Emergancy button on the phone which calls 911! Of course I don't notice until I hear someone talking! Good going Ang. On top it off, when I get panicky I lose all ability it talk clearly. So all I can do is repeat "sorry, sorry, I hit a button" . Yep, really clear and precise.

It is now 9:30am. What else could possibly go wrong now?

What Have I Done?

So a few months ago there was word going around Twitter about this MOOC (massive open online course) that would be starting in the fall called The Hyperlinked Library. It sounded intriguing and with Michael Stephens involved, it could only be good. So when the invitation to participate in the trial run of the course came out I submitted my name. So did A LOT of other people which meant that when I didn't get in to the MOOC I wasn't surprised.

Several days ago I was surprised to receive an email stating that due to drop outs and other issues there was now a spot for me. OH. (Looks at calendar, reviews MOOC schedule for next 12 weeks...) I had to think long and hard about joining now because, of course, I had other commitments I had made in light of the previous decline. What swayed me to go ahead and jump in are the same things that attracted me in the first place - the ideas, the people and the opportunity to try something new. Being free had a little to do with it too.

Having worked in my public library for over 10 years now, but without a degree, certificate or diploma makes me a rare bird in learning opportunities such as this MOOC. Many librarians are not very accepting of library clerks, often seeing them has competition, especially in the US, for their jobs. They have no experience with the homegrown library clerks who end up doing the jobs because small rural libraries can't afford, or attract (for various reasons), qualified librarians.

As I said in my course blog, I feel like the new kid in the class, looking cautiously around for a friendly face. I'm hoping once they get to know me it'll stay that way. I'm sure once my nerves settle down things will be fine.

Now to work out a schedule that will let me get everything done.