Real Time Abounds

Well, we're back to "real" time in multiple venues. My mother, who is quite bothered by the idea of mere mortals messing with time by implementing Daylight Savings Time, is I'm sure relieved to be back to real time. Myself, I'm just pleased to have had an extra hour of sleep. Actually, I forgot about the change last night, but happily remembered when I woke up this morning.

Even more important than the end of DST, for me, is the fact that someone fixed the library clocks, which have run anywhere from 1 to 3.5 minutes fast ever since I started working there. Hallelujah! Of course, that doesn't mean I'll be 3. 5 minutes earlier to meetings or desk shifts. But at least when I'm late, I'll be "really" and truly late!

Question of the Day

Will anyone notice, or care, if I manage to sit in my office all day without doing any real work?



photo: Chicago Daily News. (1924). Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Lynch [photograph]. DN-0077932, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved from Library of Congress American Memory < http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cdn:@field(NUMBER+@band(ichicdn+n077932)) >

Halloween is Yummy!

So, what immediately springs to your mind when someone says "Halloween"? Some may think of goblins, jack-o-lanterns, costumes, or apple-bobbing. Me, I think of two things:

See's Orange & Chocolate Wafers

Russell Stover Orange Marshmallow Pumpkins

So, you ask, what am I dressing up as for Halloween? Why of course--a candy-eating couch potato!

Heartstopping

Longtime readers may remember my girlhood habit of leaving my library card in the stacks when I was browsing for library books. Old habits, apparently, die hard.

Friday evening I was at work after we closed, trying to finish up some things for Monday morning so I didn't have to go in on Saturday. Part of my work involved a trip down to Reference to look at some encyclopedias. So, I armed myself with paper, pencil, flashlight, and keys (they turn off some of the lights at closing and the Reference shelves can be pretty dark). I went downstairs, did what I needed to do, and was ready to head back up to the office when I realized the keys weren't in my pocket.

Without keys, I had no way back into our office area or into my very office, wherein lay my car keys and ID to exit the building. For a second or two, I imagined how I could pass the night in the library until someone came to open up at 8am (I was going to find a novel and pass the time reading and sleeping. and being hungry). Then, I thought to backtrack through the Reference shelves, because I was CERTAIN I had checked my pocket for keys before I went downstairs.

Sure enough, the keys were on a shelf where I had stopped, and I was able to get back into my office and safely exit the building.

Sorry to say that's the most exciting item to report right now, but it is. Welcome to my world!

My TV is Broken, Or, an Adage Proved

I own an inherited TV with a universal remote. I'm not complaining in the least, but that piece of information may help you understand why I've never been able to turn on closed captioning while the TV volume is up. So, if I need to backtrack to see what pithy insult Greg House has just hurled at some deserving minion, I have to mute the volume. I often wished I could have captions and sound at the same time.

As they say, be careful of what you hope for, because it might come true. And so it has for me. I don't know what magic remote button I pushed, but now I have closed captioning all the time and I can't turn it off.

Any advice?