Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: library


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Can you do yoga with a broken foot? And other unrelated thoughts.

I went to my last physical therapy session this morning for that annoying crick in my neck. I haven’t had neck pain since I started PT, plus they gave me lots of exercises to do to keep the neck muscles stronger. And they reminded me about the importance of posture. In fact it feels good to be doing anything remotely athletic given I can’t run at the moment. Which makes me wonder just what I can do with a broken foot. I’m thinking maybe I can do some simple yoga? Do you think? I’ve got a few yoga dvds…I think I”ll dig some out and see what might work with a broken foot.

On another front I have two interviews scheduled for this coming week. One is tomorrow for holiday temp work at a bookstore. Another is later in the week for part-time library work. Wish me well, I’d like to try to do them both. Even with a broken foot.

Thirdly, Katie graduated from intermediate dog obedience this past week. She wasn’t particularly well behaved on our last day of class, probably because I didn’t work with her as much, and we only went to the park to practice our homework once during the week. But she still graduated. So next week we move on to advanced obedience. We considered for a moment not enrolling her, as a cost saving measure, but she loves school so much. And it certainly works out some of her energy on school nights, which works for me. Especially with a broken foot.


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Doing more with less

I was talking to someone this week about my search for public library work. She seemed to feel that I should have no trouble finding work, because she had heard that public libraries were even more busy in these trying economic times. That in fact is true. As the economy turns to mush more people recognize and begin to use the resource in their midst. And while public libraries are not “free” because the library is generally funded through taxes, they are still a pretty economical place to find information, music, internet access and programs. So in theory as libraries become busier, the demand for services increasing, there should be more need for librarians. And maybe there is more need, but a key thing is missing, and that is additional funding to support the additional requests for services. And in fact, just like everyone else, libraries are learning how to do more with less. In these economic times libraries are not exempt from budget cuts, layoffs, shortened hours and reduced services. It’s a sad comment on society that an institution that can provide support to those facing unimaginable decisions struggles to provide adequate services to meet increased demand precisely when it’s most needed. So I continue to look for work and hope that someday I can contribute again.


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Just a bunch of thoughts

To borrow a theme from a few blogger friends here are some unrelated thoughts, in no particular order:

Today I attended a half day seminar on oral histories put on by the Michigan Historical Society. It’s a concept I’m very interested in, and I thought the $10.00 fee to attend was reasonable for an unemployed librarian. I learned a lot, and am somewhat overwhelmed. Now I need to figure out what to do with the information and how to get more involved. I hope that, aside from enjoying working with oral histories, this may be a step to differentiate me from other library candidates when a position opens up somewhere near home. Plus it was fun to be in a library (it was held at a library not to far away) and be sitting with librarians!

**

Last night was week five of intermediate obedience. Katie and I had a good time, and we got to practice heeling OFF LEASH for the very first time! Good thing we were indoors! Still, it was stressful for me to think I didn’t have total control over her. But to be honest she did pretty darn good, except when she’d find a fallen treat along the way and stop to gobble it down. For a dog that initially wasn’t interested in treats while we were in school, she has certainly come out of her shell! I don’t think she even realized she wasn’t on the leash most of the time. And to top off our evening the instructor actually used her as a demonstration about a new skill because she knew that Katie already knew how to do a right finish (walking around me and sitting on my left side). So I got to watch Katie work from a ways away, which was enlightening. When I’m not concentrating so hard on getting her to do stuff, and when she isn’t sitting right next to me, with me looking down at her, I can see that she is a very pretty little girl! Rather than thinking how irritating she is when she won’t sit, or won’t stay, or won’t…well you know. And I know I’m still her favorite; when she got her treat from the instructor for doing the right finish, she glanced over, realized I wasn’t next to her and ran at top speed back to me. I could she in her face that she was saying “MAMA! MAMA! I got a TREAT!”

**

I haven’t finished staining the deck. It’s been too rainy. Oh darn.

**

I have started picking up “stuff” around the house. There is so much stuff it’s been overwhelming. So I decided to just work on one little part each night. Tonight while cleaning up a part of the closet I found a photograph of Bonnie, our previous sheltie, taken before she was so old. Gosh she was a cute dog! I showed the picture to Katie but I don’t think she cared.

**

I also found some lyrics to a song that I wrote down while I was in Alabama. The first evening I was there I sat at my mother’s piano. Randomly I opened a song book (Alfred’s Basic Adult All-Time Favorites) that she used to use when she went to senior housing to play for sing-a-longs. I slowly picked the melody out, then tried to play it with the chords. (I had piano lessons when I was ten, for one very long year.) I could sort of play this simple song. Then I went back and read the lyrics and wondered how I had come to open this particular book to this particular song out of all the music piled on her piano:

There’s a Long Long Trail, by Stoddard King, music by Zo Elliot

Theres a long, long trail awinding into the land of my dreams,

Where the nightingales are singing and a white moon beams

There’s a long long night of waiting

Until my dreams all come true,

Till the day when I’ll be going

Down that long, long trail to you.

I wonder how I came to play this piece, because sometimes I think it’s a long long time until I get to see her again.


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Catching you all up

I interviewed last Friday at a small library quite a ways away from home for a part-time librarian position. They are supposed to make a decision this week. As it’s already Thursday night and I haven’t heard from them I have to assume the news is not good. Which might be a good thing, you never know. If it’s meant to be, it will happen. Sometime. I interviewed yesterday at a library closer to home for substitute librarian work. This looks more promising, but budget/managerial work has to be done before anything can be offered me, so it’s not clear that it’s a done deal. And the number of hours, even if it gets approved to add me to the sub list, is not guaranteed. But it would be very good to be back in a library regardless of the number of hours.

Meanwhile, tomorrow I’m going to my local library for a bit, just to get my library fix!


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Rain, a new deck and a crazy sheltie

Since I’ve been back from Alabama it’s been raining, courtesy of tropical storm Gustuv which I dodged while in Alabama, but which apparently followed me home. I can’t complain, we need the rain. But still. Katie is getting antsy, no playing in the park because I’m too wimpy to run around in the rain with her. Not that she loves the rain either. So she’s been hanging around the house getting more and more wound up. Though if I get the camera out she will pose, being the princess that she is.

And, to keep her occupied we have hired two guys to construct a deck on the back of our house. This provides hours of entertainment for Katie, who barks at them pretty much nonstop for the first hour of each morning. Eventually she can be convinced that these are the same two guys that were here all day yesterday, but initially every day she has to warn us of the two interlopers IN OUR BACKYARD RIGHT NOW! It’s so hard being a Sheltie, always on alert. When she grows up she wants to be a Labrador, or maybe a Retriever, something more mellow. But she’s young…tomorrow she might want to be a Scottie! We, however, think she should be happy with what she is. Teenagers…

This morning she and I went out to explore the deck which is almost finished.

It’s a really big deck, and she is not sure what to make of it. But she has figured out it gives her a good view of the bird feeder, and that’s a good thing in her mind. They say it will be finished on Monday, too much rain to work on it today. So we’ll have a three day weekend without workers in the back. Good rest for her and for me.

I have an interview later this afternoon for library work. I think I’m prepared. I’ll let you know!


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Struggling with employment

I’m struggling with finding employment as a librarian in a library near where I live. There has only been one position posted so far that I have interviewed for, and I wasn’t offered that position. Now the library where I worked during school is posting a full time librarian position, and part of me thinks I should apply, and the other half of my brain is reminding me how horrible the commute down to Ann Arbor was. An eight hour work day will become a ten hour day at the least. Sometimes longer. The cost of the commute is escalating along with the cost of gas. I’d need to purchase a more fuel efficient vehicle…I might break even sometime during the first year. Maybe. Yet I enjoyed working for that library and would again enjoy working with them.

Now a full time librarian job has been posted at a town north of me. Forty miles north, the trip per map quest would be 45 minutes. There is no salary listed in this new posting, but it will be less than what is offered at my previous library, because this library is not in an affluent community. The commute would be better in the sense that I’d be going against the main flow of traffic, going north when most people go south in the morning, and coming back south when most people travel north in the evenings. When I first saw this posting I thought “GREAT!” a position just north of me. But I didn’t realize how far north.

So the question is, does it make sense to apply for the northern position for less money and about a ten minute shorter commute and NOT apply for the position that pays better but has a slightly longer (and overall more difficult) commute? Or should I not apply to either of them because they’re both too far away and wait it out to see what happens around here?

I just don’t know what to do.