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Back streets are almost empty as I ride to work, this Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend.  It might be a quiet day at the library.

Working with MF today, MC is Super.  Go down to get money.  Helga's vacuuming the Friends Shop carpet.

My display, "Mind Games", is ready.  I am going to put it out at the end of the day.  Normally, it would go up on Monday, but I won't be back until Wednesday because of the holiday.  I install the Magical Mystery Tour font from my folder on the G drive on the PC at the service desk, so that I can print out my poster on the color printer in the workroom.

10:00  Open.  Australian Myrna comes up first off the stairs.  Brent in a Braves t-shirt.

People can't get sessions w their cards.  SIRSI down.  Issue manual reservations to all.

Phone:  Buddy at MIS, transfer to MC.

Phone:  B. at BL Perry branch.  Any word on SIRSI?  Not yet.

10:13  PC for Brett.  PC for Chris.

Phone:  Mayo Clinic Diet & Nutrition book?  Tell her catalog is down, but try OCLC Worldcat.  We're supposed to have a 2010 book, The Mayo Clinic Diet.  Check shelf, don't see, but find Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight for Everybody.  She says that sounds good, will pick up this morning.

PC for Clara.
PC for Paul.
PC for Robert.

10:32  Not very quiet, so far.  Media appears to be passing out generic numbers.

Persuade girl to shift her laptop to another table so her cord is not a hazard.

PC for Tim.
PC for Maria.

Man wants help looking at and printing diagnostic scans of his spine on a disc.  Viewing app is something called Media Ambassador.  Yikes!  We get it sorted after some playing around.

Is Ken Burns's Civil War DVD set available for him yet.  Sorry, system's down,  see if they're holding it for you at the checkout desk.

Sorry, self-checkout not working, go downstairs.

11:05

"Ah jus wanna grab one yo pens, phonebook."

Jackie Gleason-like man, badly winded from climbing the stairs.  Peers at my badge, addresses me as Mr. Castleberry.  Chris not working today?  No.  Wants Writer's Market, Complete Poems of Robert Frost, Frost criticism.  Fetch for him, glad that I know where they are likely to be.

Phone:  Can I tell her where she is on waiting list for a book.  No, sorry, catalog's down, try later.  What is name of Russian who wrote The Long Walk?  Look on Amazon.  Slavomir Rawicz.

Unjam printer.

PC for Robin.

11:30  SIRSI's up.

11:45  Harried Mercedes kids me about my "quiet day".  But now it actually is.  PC's were full at 11:00, but half dozen vacant now.

Remember to look up Mayo Clinic Diet title.  Yep,  checked out.  I see we own series of DVD's, Mayo Clinic "wellness solutions".  "Wellness solutions", sounds so...what?

Phone:  JT at Northeast Branch.  Pull Love, Medicine & Miracles, trap for pickup here.

R. brings me my lunch.  Yay!

Where is Psychology section?  Take her to 150's.

Call MC to open 3rd floor room for English tutor.

12:00  Lunch! 

1:04  Back from lunch at 12:35.

Helping woman start session, kept hearing loud cartoon "boing" sound.  Man w laptop at table in reading area.  No sound w/o headphones, I tell him.  Drop dead, says he.  No can do, is library.  Those people over there are making noise too, he whines.  Am talking to him.  He doesn't want to talk to me.  I leave him.   No more boings.

Took me twenty minutes to write previous para.  Busy.

Where is he on list for Turow's Innocent?  76.  Baldacci's Deliver Us From Evil?  103.  Asks to reserve also Preston's Fever Dream, for which he is now 24th in line.  Ah, bestsellers.

PC for Celeste.  You lucked out, I say.  Got one now.  She doesn't want one now.  Huh?  Wants to wait.  Give it to other patron.  See if we can more greatly inconvenience her, I say.  All right, 35 min. wait!

Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom.  Take to shelf.

Today's NYT, take id.

Celeste wants Greek mythology.  Take to shelf.

PC for Christy.

1:37  Thunder outside.

Wailing boy downstairs.

Books on cleaning house.  Take to shelf.

1:51  A lull.

Can copy pages from house cleaning book?  MF helps her.

Who Moved My Cheese?  Take to shelf.

Mandela woman now wants Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief by Pauline Boss.  She can't find on shelf.  Take to shelf, find book.  She rolls eyes and laughs.

Long-limbed black man solemnly gives me thumbs up on way to rest room.

Can photocopy little flier about local music show?  Yes, but won't be in color like his original.  Would take several tries to get 4 images on single sheet.  Then could get 4 per sheet after that.

Phone:  Mr. L wants some company addresses.

Sorry, no second session w/o card.  No, can't look up your number.

Today's paper.

Pen or pencil.

Woman asks for help w food stamp form.  It says his info doesn't match their records.  Not much I can do.

Practical Intuition by Laura Day.  Not on shelf, find in check-in room.

Nourishing Traditions, a cookbook by Sally Fallon.  Came back yesterday.  Check cart up here, find in check-in room.

Another request for Practical Intuition.  Copy on bookmobile.  MC fetches it.  Woman glides about with dance-like steps as she waits.

Very upset woman w little girl who have waited 40 minutes, only to miss their sessions.  Thinks the people there now "have our computers".  Doesn't really understand how it works, that they have only five minutes to log in.  I'm not getting anywhere with her, others are waiting to be helped, pass her to MC.

Request for Terry Fator: Live from Las Vegas on DVD.  Send to Interlibrary Loan.

3:25  Currently 40 min. waits for PC's

PC for Rick.

Feels like the right time to put up my display.  Take MK's down, move books to pre-shelving carts.  Cut down number of book stands.  I am afraid my books will go too quickly.

Man wants to see weather forecast.  Show him radar on my PC.  Rains all up in Georgia.

Phone:  Needs directions to library.

Woman & girl need business and economics dictionaries for girl's homework assignment.

4:04 

Phone:  Number for Hazelpeppergood.com.

People keep asking if we have computers any earlier than they have reservations for.  We have sessions beginning at ten minutes to closing at this point.  It's bad.

4:14  PC's are booked solid until closing.

Already four books are gone from my display.  It won't last a week, I'm thinking.

4:25  Waiters are thinning out, was able to get sessions for a couple of people.

Travel guides to Amsterdam.  Take to shelf.

Count money.

Paper for copiers.

Paper for printer.

15 minutes to closing.