only Thursday? and so much done already...

I uploaded records, linked books and the crew processed and only a little is left for tomorrow. Good crew almost working together can do it all, but they don't really work together, yet. I ride home on the motorcycle, and the day is good and hot, the Sun bright and the Interstate clogged and going so slowly no where. I do know that my better intentions melt away at dinner and after, I watch the grass get watered about all my energy level is good for, watching the sprinkler's slow water dispersion... the grass will grow and I will have to cut it, but that would be my job.

Ever feel the government is out of touch with you? I haven't liked James Carville since he made some stupid remark about dragging a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park, and I lived in one for some of the happiest part of my life, but it seems that he has produced a truth for all to read. I processed it into my prison library today, he does know trash.

40 More Years: How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation

Yep, that doesn't sit well with me, but he likes the idea of RULING, and I thought we fixed King George the Third about that concept. Americans aren't ruled, they do get riled. Now before you start thinking I think the Republicans are an answer - I don't. Seems everyone in Washington D. C. thinks they are in charge. They don't believe in serving the Public, nor really Representing their voters. There have been calls to broaden the bases of both parties, by labeling everyone something and pretending you are going to send something special their way soon. I don't like my doctor putting me in a box I will never accept political parties trying that with me.

About these Health Care plans circulating the Congress, why don't they post them so we can read them and decide? That wonderful bill they passed on without reading, we could have read that for them, honest there are some real speed readers out here in America. Hiding behind the words, the wonderful, excessive verbiage.

I have lost a blogger, it has happened a couple times before in my life, I need to get a lot more links and then not visit them daily. What is very nice is that sometimes they come back better and even stronger and always amazing. If it is time to go on, go gently, and remember the good times.

Well, since my coffee is gone, the evening cooling off and I am still short of sleep for the week, I will slide off the Internet and into the place where dreams dominate and maintenance of body and mind happen best. G'nite y'all...

The work week is done... fast!

I was watching some ants scurrying around in the heat and thought about how fast they get as it gets hotter, and it is getting hotter here. I seem to have dropped into that faster is better pace, walking to the dock today, longer strides more of them per minute and my trek over sooner. Maybe the doldrums from lolling in Hawai'i are in my past and the hamster wheel is spinning.

A short four day week, and we finished overdue notices today, added books to the collection, began to open and process books from the purchase orders, started training the clerks in new tasks and established a rotation of two weeks per station and job skills until everyone can do all the tasks. No more territorial rights, seniority dibs and been here longest. Our biggest circulation days were Monday and Tuesday, but we are open more hours then and were well used. I did inmate payroll and end of month reports, still waiting for a few missing numbers. I gave warning about my vacation (working out East) at the end of July first part of August - it will be fast, too. One of my older workers came back from court - he will leave when his address is approved, so I will lose two of the current workers in a couple of weeks or months and have to hire and train more, but that is a constant. I finished updating the Branch Manual, if you ever come to my library and want to know how to make it work, just look in the Branch Manual, everything except MY secret password is there to help you. Of course, I don't have time to read how anything is supposed to be done, I am too busy - which may be why they make me close and go off to learn, discuss and review how the library could be working if I read all the paper and plans that pass or plaster against me...

I was inspected this week by two fine men from Department of Corrections at McNeil Island, it was just a quick look around and talk to staff and inmate workers - giving the inspectors an impression that the library is fine and functioning, and the comment about needing one more worker was even in the report, I found out today that the Job Center lady is on vacation and who to contact if I had an emergency, I don't have one - we are full up again for a little bit.

For those that can't visit, we have two kinds of stands up along the roads in Washington now, one dollar for a basket of cherries (bumper crop and get them now!) and the fireworks stands everywhere - yes, you could buy totally noisy bangs for your bucks. Now I did catch World News tonight and know that the Stimulus Package isn't doing enough for the economy -- well, the President should take a lesson from a salesman in Puyallup, and he has Nearly Naked Fireworks stands, manned (or is it womanned?) by bikini clad babes. And those fireworks and the babes are moving, as opposed to America's economy. Although, I did catch that Ford is doing fine without the Washington leadership and oversight... The not so beautiful people are miffed about the babes, but they have been moving Latte for a long time in that costume, and the owner of the stands says next year there will be more of them.

I know that the world now thinks everything is new, but I have evidence that some things are forever, what was Eve clothed in before the Serpent ruined it all?




Those Greeks and Romans knew a lot about tile.

Don't want to go to work today...

Should just go back to bed and sleep until aroused... but then I would be adding to the overall economic failure of the Obama Administration, so get up and out and make the doughnuts. I caught the President making a remark about the steroid abuse in the Major Leagues, the tragedy is in the abuse in Pony League and High School not in the Majors where everyone was making lots of money for slow stupid death. And medically steroids are important for healing and growth. Now his thinking that the ball players are role models and should be above this was interesting, but didn't he just approve Federal Funding (more stimulus?) of embroynic stem cell research? Wait until you see the monsters we will get from that, amazing that he can't make the connection of good science and medicine used for all the wrong reasons by people for profit and pretty. Kind of like morphine and such - used properly a fine medicine, otherwise slow stupid death.

I liken the current frenzy to protect us from Economic Disaster, or Terrorist Attack, to the Body Armor of Knights of old, or those fine Infantry sitting in armored HMMVs. You aren't light on your feet, take too long to dress, spend too much energy in lift and motion and only work at thirty percent efficiency in combat. As the Federal Government protects us from all our follies and foolishness and failures - we will become less able to take care of ourselves - we will be looking for someone else to care for us. Well, maybe you will, I will be in hiding or just worn out paying for more taxes for all the wonderful protections in place.

No more credit? Delayed gratification rules...

I worked in high school, made enough money that I could buy a well abused Harley-Davidson as old as I was - seventeen years old. My father helped get it home and we tore it apart to rebuild it - he was flying corporate and could visit old Harley shops around the country and pick up parts - my only talent was sanding and removing old layered paint and holding stuff that needed two extra hands while a bolt was run in or through. It was one of the best things I was doing during those years, and it was with my Dad.

Funny, that threat of no credit to buy cars doesn't mean that much to me. My father bought his last car, used, and paid in cash I guess. His problem with the cost of the car wasn't the total price, what he had problems with was that it cost more than the home he and my mother lived in - inflation is an amazing thing. My first car was used, I was spending all my money on a new wife, not that we had a lot - I wasn't borrowing for that either, paid cash or waited to buy when we could afford it.

The thought of not having people trying to get me on a new credit card, a new car loan, and a new improved mortgage is wonderful. The idea that if I wanted to travel I would have to have a bunch of money in the savings account works well for my wife, she is going to her homeland next year to help rebury family, but it is all cash - she hates it when I borrow money.

Rumor from Asia, there was a general that took charge of his country, wanted to build it up like Japan had done after WWII. He went to America to get some financing, and the Democratic President said NO, there would be no money for dictators. Well, that was the rumor, and so the guy in charge went and gathered all the wealthiest men in his little country. He told them how much money they needed to come up with to start his industrialization program. They listened and thought about it, and then almost decided that they weren't going to find that money. But he was the guy in charge and rumor has it, that they weren't every going to leave that room if they didn't come up with the financing. So they put together a package and left the room and the industrialization began, and the exporting of talented people so they could send hard currency to the home country, the exporting of contractors, engineers, products and ships. They exported a couple of Divisions of military and gained cash from that. The economy grew and the country remade itself from sleepy agricultural to industrial manufacturing. Almost everyone wanted to own a business instead of working rice paddies. I knew he was in charge, but what amazed me was when he declared that rice straw couldn't be used for roofing anymore - they were a modern country and not that poor. So the straw came down and tiles, metal and other kinds of roofing went up. Yep, he was definitely in charge and transformed his country.

I am sure America is much farther along in the development cycle, and losing weight from our flabby self indulgence might be a very healthy thing. Forbes had a list of the 400 richest Americans, didn't it? How much are they going to pay to prop up the Banking industry? Much more than I can, I am sure, I am more consumer than investor. I will keep paying my bills and adding what I can to the Credit Union accounts so they can lend it out. If the man from Omaha can come out and invest money, I am sure some of those other names with too many dollars of worth could, too. Saving banks is a rich man's game, my job is saving my family.

I do know that a major Depression changed a whole generation into savers and 'do without' and 'make do' and pay cash. My grandmother wouldn't allow my grandfather the money for a new car, she was waiting until the bad times returned. Those that don't study History are doomed to repeat it. And for her, once was more than enough.

As I watched the media influence me for meds...

The news is on, it is Sunday, and I find the US Supreme Court is going to decide if the Second Amendent is an individual or collective right. I am betting the US Supreme Court already knows the answer to that question, and what they will be deciding is how to make it other than it really is because guns in the hands of law abiding citizens might be dangerous - they had an expert testifying to America that a gun in the house was twenty-two percent more likely to harm one of the family than bad guys. Yep, that kind of expert -- the one that they didn't ask how many guns are there in the United States, how many have been used in harming any humans, and what is that percentage of the total lawfully held. They never ask that, and the media didn't want you to think you should read the Constitution yourself, you do read it every year don't you, but that the learned justices must read the English language of the late 18th Century and tell you what the Founding Fathers really meant or how they couldn't have foreseen. It isn't Latin or Greek, folks, just English.

Okay, you think the media is reporting the question of firearms fairly, well, they followed with a story about doing away with the penny because it costs more than a penny to produce. Almost two cents per penny. So sway you to that side, get rid of the penny. I guess I won't get rich picking them up on my jogs, but do they tell you that the DOLLAR doesn't buy anything like it once did, that it has been steadily sinking in VALUE the last ten years? No, they want you to believe that it will be cared for by the Federal Reserve Bank and the Secretary of the Treasury. But if the Dollar were worth what it was in 1998, making a penny wouldn't cost one cent, it would cost less. What is truth? Why would I buy any medications advertised on television shows that don't really tell me the whole truth? Because I am old, gulible and plain old stupid? Well, maybe one day but not today and probably not on Tuesday when the Supreme Court deliberates about something even I read and do understand.

One of the stories I did like hearing prior to America's invasion and conquest or liberation of Iraq from Saddam, was that Saddam was about to start selling oil for Euros. Couldn't have been much truth to that, but it might have made American interests upset that another currency might share position as a standard. But then I like conspiracies unproven, and other fictions.

Not a Gun Free Zone... a Library for study...

David Simchon, head of the seminary, said the students had been preparing a celebration for the new month on the Jewish calendar, which includes the holiday of Purim. "We were planning to have a Purim party here tonight and instead and instead we had a massacre," he told Channel 2 TV.

Yehuda Meshi Zahav, head of the Zaka rescue service, entered the library after the attack. "The whole building looked like a slaughterhouse. The floor was covered in blood. The students were in class at the time of the attack," he said. "The floors are littered with holy books covered in blood."

Witnesses described a terrifying scene during the shooting, with students jumping out windows to escape.

One of the students, Yitzhak Dadon, said he shot the attacker twice in the head. "I laid on the roof of the study hall, cocked my gun and waited for him. He came out of the library spraying automatic fire," he said.

Police said an Israeli soldier in the area then shot the man dead. After the shooting, hundreds of seminary students demonstrated outside the building, screaming for revenge and chanting, "Death to Arabs."

The seminary is the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe quarter at the entrance to Jerusalem, a prestigious center of Jewish studies identified with the leadership of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank.

It was founded by the late Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook, the movement's spiritual founder, and serves high school students and young Israeli soldiers, and many of them carry arms.

Link to the story, my take is that should be an example to our students and reaction forces...

My State of the Union, at our kitchen table

My wife wouldn't talk to me, because I wasn't properly responsive over our nephew's impending divorce (which I am very unhappy about) but I don't want to know the details - and she wants to share (dumping all the dirt she got from her sister). Ah, women. Then I find out this morning that President Bush has been giving the State of The Union speech last night - and he was at our kitchen table (where I found out about the divorce) and he heard we were discussing the economy. Ah, he has a hearing problem, we are old long lived working folks (middle-classless) and we will get another job, cut back spending and pray harder. We won't be waiting on the government to make us feel better. We will talk at the kitchen table about people we love and care about, about strangers going through tough times and what we can do to help, and what the weather is like outside and can we safely go to work. Doesn't match the agenda of Presidents and those other guys and gals in Washington, DC. does it? Nope!

Okay, want to talk politics? Don't think the Republicans are conservative enough, there isn't a lot of freedom for adults in America and growing less all the time. Don't think the Democrats are about the little people any longer - only about the rich money lenders with guilty feelings for being so rich (and wanting to get richer). That is about enough, I am sure the NRA will tell me where gun owners should vote (they don't get to my kitchen table where I clean my guns either). I will vote, but only for the people that I think will do less harm and sometimes it is hard to know about that. And in Washington State if the proper Governor (Governess?) isn't elected on the first count they keep recounting dead and disenfanchised voters until they get the results that King County wanted. We actually had several counties that had the exact same number of ballots and same results in all three counts - but not in King County. Enough politics, may the best candidates win (that should be a prayer phrase, shouldn't it?) and I will do the best I can to be a good citizen and an independent freedom loving American. So should y'all. There is a War on Terror on, and our military needs our attention.

Getting up to think, getting up to think...

It isn't really fair, once I was young, gallant and could sleep anywhere, anytime and in perfect comfort, now I have to think and that calls me from the land of Nod. Oh, I can still sleep on floors (heated better than not), or ferry boat rides, or while driving down the long highway (watchout!!) but eight hours in my bed doesn't seem possible. I take four for the body and reptilian- animal brain and then the higher levels of mental activity go from just dreaming to demanding logical functions with permanent solutions... the dreams are better entertainment, and I don't dwell on them except to laugh, the real thinking I will be stoking the fires and fueling the waking in the middle of the night tomorrow. Do I wake more in thought because I am driven to complete my quest? and I am running out of time and feel it? If I became more hormone imbalanced would the dancing girls come back and the frightening logic kindly step aside?

Ah, the picture? young paratrooper preparing for the Yom Kippur War

"What? ME worry?" not when I was young and foolish, what were those hormones?

Holes, how do you fill the holes, and who makes them

I blame budgets, Library budget reality - not enough money and something has to give. Often it is the staffing of the library, and then the hours and the days. So I was hired to work here at McNeil Island in 1998 and there were three Full Time Employees (FTE) one librarian and two paraprofessionals, open over sixty hours a week providing service the the inmates and staff. Then the Governor decided that the Washington State Library must die - to save some dollars or the internet had arrived and the State Library was no longer needed. So he cut the library out of his budget and snarled at the State Librarian who hissed back and arched her back. Okay, maybe not that simple but I was in the trenches not under the center of the State Capital.

The ensuing political fight made the WSL a part of the Office of the Secretary of State (of Washington) and still under limited budget because the Governor still hated us (for whatever reason). The Secretary of State and his henchmen came to visit the Library and see what kind of creature they had adopted, they looked and questioned and were briefed and looked and questioned and were briefed. Then they made some tough, hard decisions - because there wasn't any money in the Library, it had too many employees, books, services and couldn't be folded up and carried around lightly --- so being from timber cutting country they took a chainsaw to it and pruned wildly but with purpose. For political reality shakeup they cut all services to government employees, added services (at the Library) for all citizens of the State, weeded all the frivolous books from the collections, and all the staff books and serials from the branch collections (hoping to get the other Agencies to cough up money for services they once had for free). Although the branch libraries at the mental hospitals and prisons had excellent hours and circulation and were important - they aren't very visible and so they chain saw hit there deeply, first cut one staff, then on another swing cut it all down to one staff per branch. Not Michael Angelo's David but still looks like a bear, and functions like a State Library under constraint. Where I was, the branch was open about twenty hours a week with one full time staff and I was out of a job - after taking a half-time position under the first cut.

I survived, was given a full time position at the State Library down the highway and daily commute, the branches adjusted, the State Library built up a stronger alliance with people that love libraries and use them. By hanging around and long enough the position at McNeil Island opened again and I was allowed to take it, get more training and personally things were good, the State Library is still limping along - still feels under attack - PTSD anyone? Ten years after I was originally hired, there is still a branch library at McNeil Island and providing services to the inmates but not the staff.

Today I took a day off, to go and interview for a position at a public library - where I know they have struggles with budgets, with unions, with management, with City fathers on budget matters - and they still provide a wonderful service to the public, and my inmate patrons through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Tomorrow I will walk to the dock, take the ferry ride to the island, open my branch and get back to important and not very visible library work with a underserved population - certainly not politically powerful, felons can't vote. If I took work at another library someone would eventually fill the hole, but not soon enough. There isn't an immediate replacement system for workers, only for executives... but I sleep well at night knowing I am needed. A square peg in a round hole is better than nothing in the hole to tie onto.

what the library and its services mean to you...

The Library is a little piece of sanity in the chaos and stress of prison life. I'm nearing the end of my fifth year with another eleven to go. Instead of looking ahead to all those years still behind bars I simply look ahead to my next library day.

With the help of a great librarian and the Interlibrary loan program each week I explore historic battles, humorous stories of growing up and experience exciting and interesting lives in the distant past or far future. ...

.... My only complaint is that it isn't open enough. I was in general population in WCC between 2004 & 2006. We had library 3 nights a week from 1st movement after dinner until recall. Having library only 1 night a week for only 45 mins and only for the first 40 inmates makes it difficult to get everything you want to done. ...

.... There are only 3 things I look forward to in prison - visits, my job in correctional industries and library day. Thank you!

Leader of the Free World...

Selecting a President, read about it at the Library!- the media only knows how to attract your interest so they can sell ad time (commercials abound). I have heard that Iowa doesn't represent the United States - but then I say that New York City, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles don't (thankfully) represent the United States either. I will vote in November, for one of the candidates groomed and well presented by the vested interests of their respective parties. And although I told one loud patron at my library not to offend my sense of harmony by using vulgar and obscene language, "when he decided that XXX would be elected", I think the candidates have sterling characteristics and are just the kind of people I would invite home, if I weren't a recluse and paranoid from surviving the Vietnam War and still confused about if I had been doing a good thing or I was the most evil pawn of that ancient nasty government. The term I have had the most problem with is "Leader of the Free World" and then thinking our President should be followed by free thinking people, freedom lovers everywhere and others if they know what is good for them. I don't, and haven't followed a President anywhere - I made a career of going where he pointed out I was needed, but I don't follow Presidents. They often impress me but I could never get away with their lapses of common sense and good judgement, and are then so easily forgiven by people I know would never forgive me, sigh. I sent my last political monetary contribution to a one legged Senator from the midwest when I thought he would be someone I could understand, it wasn't enough and some governor from Arkansas took the party's position, and I couldn't understand him not being brave enough to jog through Washington DC every day. How much he feared real America was all I could think, I didn't know how he would occupy his time stuck inside the Whitehouse all day. Yes, I have jogged in Washington, DC, and helped paratroopers march proudly there, walked the streets and all, but then no one depends on me to push the button on Nuclear Release between bimbos... we can do a better job of selection of a President, but somehow I think the money men will buy our next leader or the ones they can't buy won't get selected. Which maybe why the thirty thousand excellent potential Presidents don't even attempt to compete - they have a great life, and don't think the position of President is that critical, most Americans aren't following, most of us are out there living the best we can. Even my inmate patrons and library clerks are doing the best they can every day, no matter who is President or trying to become the next one.