First of the last days of the library keeper...

Well, I did get the inmate payroll done, reports started and numbers crunched. On the email is a wild flurry about a RIF presentation by HR, can you make it, well they will send you a DVD of it. Apply early for benefits, or they may be gone.

A casual conversation on the ferry, asking about my military experience, have I found a new job yet. Nope, I don't know the man except by sight, think he works with the Special Commitment Center (rabid rapists). I pick up three mail bins, funny trying to keep them from tumbling as I go up the steps, just an old man with too much on his hands. I am angry at the criminal stupidity I have to work with, either from my workers or the patrons coming in the door. Part of that is the separation adjustment, needing to distance self from this link and get on with happier at another place and time, part of it is frustration with how they never get smarter. I need to back off - there isn't any confrontation needed - they have to stay and get on with their lives the best they can, I get to leave and do other things.

I did have a loud conversation with an inmate that wanted a different 1040 form, he had requested EZ but then couldn't get his wife on it, so he wanted a 1040A, so I told him to have his counselor email me and I would send them to her. He tried to pretend his counselor would have called, that it was his mistake, that I could bend the rules just a little and he wasn't listening to what I had already told him twice. So the third time is was louder with emphasis - and he told me I was disrespecting him. Yep, and I am going to be that way for a long time, no respect for people that don't act better when they should, no respect for behavior that isn't in keeping with his growth as a better Child of God.

I did have some success finding some reading material for some of the other patrons, and was moving (circulation) items around and out to other libraries, training the inmate clerks in their current duties, new year new duties. But I was glad to turn off the computers and head out the door, lights off, locked up library behind me.

The GPS Navigator tells me when to turn in the wet (raining constantly now) darkness, except I do make her recompute by taking roads she hasn't picked. Isn't there an alien voice for computers? Do they use a women's so I don't get angry at the little machine?

Vegetables, chicken and salad await me, and a smiling wife. She is concerned about the job, not enough to lose any sleep over, just enough to encourage me to take the easy way if offered - the part-time job at McNeil Island - but two problems there, they will want forty hours of work in the twenty hours, they will close that job down as soon as they haven't the money to pay for it. Although no one has said that, that is the way the Office of the Secretary of State and the Washington State Library have run in the past and there doesn't seem to be a reason for change, no matter whom was elected. I am laughingly looking at retirement, my father did at sixty-too old, but he had had two heart attacks and had his mortgage paid off and lived on cash not credit (so much smarter than I am). Had nine great years boating and being Dad, Don and Grandfather in retirement.

In the mail are bills I will work on Wednesday, and a large manila envelope from Colorado, my Certificate and ID card saying that I am a Range Safety Officer and Rifle Instructor, a very nice way to close this day down - the stuff of my future fun and adventures in shooting stuff. Thank you very much Riflewoman and Fred, pleased as punch to be a part of the Revolutionary War Veterans Association. Is pleased as "Punch" from the puppet character?