friday freakiness

Library celebrity Itchy Butt Man was in today. I heard all about the One Laptop Per Child program in China and some underdeveloped countries thoughout the world. There was one particularly great rant against building libraries and schools because children will be going to kindergarten at Harvard soon. I actually got some spittle on my face from that one but I'm not sure if that's because he is fervent about the program or because he's missing all four teeth up front on top between the canines. It's a tough call...he did tell me to visit "wiksipedia" to learn more about it and I linked it above for your reading convenience.

In other news, a young lady in her early to mid 20's brought in a man suffering from some form of mental retardation and left him with us for a couple of hours. Aside from the occasional and random screaming fit in the bathroom and intermittently stumbling over him lying in the aisles, it was a pretty uneventful visit. She finally came back for him and he seemed quite glad to see her. Is it fair that she no doubt got paid for several more hours of work than she actually did...no, I don't think so. I'll tell you that I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for her in the future to try and make sure this doesn't happen again. This was a grown man physically speaking....what if he'd gotten scared or angry and started a ruckus? It was irresponsible of her to the extreme. Many libraries have unattended children policies, but what about unattended adults who very obviously NEED attending? I'm going to have to investigate that policy-wise. I don't know what I would have done if he'd just started running, yelling, and hitting people. What if he'd just walked out the front door. If it were a child, some staff member would have stopped them and helped them find their parent/guardian/caregiver but what do you do in the case of some one of age? We have a kind of radar for noticing little kids headed towards the door, but I don't notice every move an adult makes up here. I guess it's navitee on my part to assume that adults know what business they are about. Questions, questions, questions and no answers as of yet..........

On the health front there have been a veritable herd of phlem-ers in today. Is there really anything more repulsive and grotesque than that choking/vomiting noise people (99.9% men and most of them older gentlemen by my observation) make while getting snot moved around in there. There's clearing your throat, then there's this other thing people do. I just don't understand how you can reach a sociable age and still make this noise. It is GROSS! I see guys do it and think, "blech! and someone will probably be kissing him later too!" I've had to resort to drastic measures to get some airflow when I've been sick and congested, but I'd never do that in public. Ick.

I have sustained a petsitting injury from Rudder. Twice yesterday, due to my inattention, he ran behind me and away (no worries, retractable leash) and hyperextended my right elbow. Ooooh, I was so mad and of course he just bounces around snapping at dust motes, butterflies and falling leaves so I can't yell or anything, but ooooh I was so mad. A 5lb Schipperke is going to make me have to take Aleve!

In technology news, a lady called wanting "to reserve a novel"...it was so cute, no one ever calls a book by that name anymore. It was cute up until the point when I asked for her library card number and she spat at me, "I didn't know you were going to ask me that!" I just sat there quietly and she said, "Okay, let me look. I have my walk around telephone so I'll just go look in my purse." Wow, the walk around telephone! I wonder if it's any relation to the Walkman?

afternoon ya'll!
htw