I’m on holiday next week, partly for Lady Mrs birthday, and partly because its that time of year again when PTSD likes to rattle the bars. It isn’t as dreadful yet as it has been in recent years, and I’m putting that down to keeping busy with as many positive things as I can.
So just this week to go, and if I can get all the paperwork concerning the new hires set up properly before I disappear I’ll treat that as a win.
Its been a good day today, albeit one with a lot of driving. myr s invited me down for breakfast, and this coincided with Lady B having arranged to pick up a vanity table from a friend, so we thought we’d make a day out of it, kidnap Lady J too, and bustle over to Eastleigh for the morning.
My sat available decided that with all the local roadworks on the motorways that it would try and ratrun us cross country, so we had an enjoyable bought of trying to work out where it was trying to take us and then willfully ignoring it based on my passengers’ local knowledge.
If nothing else it made for cheery conversations as people recalled past jobs, workplaces, or relatives in places we passed. We duly picked up the vanity table, tetris’d it into the car with only one seat needing displacement, and went on search of food before myr s could turn into the hangry hulk.
The last time I was there was for Pride a couple of years ago, so bits of the street layout started to come back to me, enhanced by Lady Best memories of working at a now defunct club that seems to now be an empty space. We allowed the mental stretch of imagining reworking it as a split use site with an LGBTQ+ coffee/bookshop space during the day and club/bar space for the evening. Maybe when the best sellers and/or lottery wins roll in…
Oh, and we hit Poundland, partly for sugary drinks, and partly to raid the Halloween supplies. We’re all cosplayers, it’s what we do…
I also got told that the cub had explicitly demanded I not leave until we’d picked him up from school, so we did that and treated him to McDonald’s for his supper before I headed home. The grins and hugs were well worth it.
And so home, with a bag of goodies for Lady M from myr s, for a curry, mindless nonsense on the TV, and more tinkering with scenario details for the next game.
Can’t complain really…
I had a brief chat today with a friend about how we’re each coping with everything going on, and how it is reported. We both agreed that we were each actively working on not letting ourselves get angry on a regular basis.
I went on to say that I was doing lots of focusing on being firm but kind with people that came in to the library, and helping where I can to at least make my small corner of the world less beastly.
What’s the alternative? Hopelessly screaming, shouting, and ranting is therapeutic to be sure, but helping keep everything stable for others helps me in the long run by requiring less sets of spoons to maintain after a while.
It just feels a lot of effort to be getting there. Being kind is full time work.
As ever, I’ve been drawing away fairly constantly during downtime. Some of it has even looked like things, while other times its been a bit abstract as I experiment. Sometimes the experiments work too…
I suppose it keeps me out of trouble
I’m not sure why, but today seems to have taken forever to pass by. Its not for lack of things to do, as its been a productive day all round, but the passage of time does seem to have stretched a little.
I’ve just realised I haven’t been doing any form of Inktober this year either. That’s purely down to losing track of time rather than any active decision. Its also not any indication that I’ve stopped drawing. You should all know me better than that.
Of course I’m now starting to think of all the things I haven’t got round to or had time to do now. Not helpful when I’m trying to wind down at the end of the day. Oh well, shall attempt to add some of those things in my list of things to do tomorrow.
Today has been quite a good day. Bit of shopping for birthdays upcoming, took out the recycling and bins, played some games, watched some TV with Lady M…
Yeah, worth noting the good days as they happen
Next week we’re celebrating libraries, and I got put in the spot to film a quick 60-90 second spot about amazing things in the library.
So I scribbled some notes, and recorded something this afternoon on the phone, as you do. I might share that at some point next week, but here’s the text of my notes:
Got time for a quick story? I pretty much grew up in my local library. I spent nearly every day in there, reading everything I could: Secret Seven, Famous Five, the Hardy Boys, Tintinhull, Asterix… not to mention all the Dr Who novels.
Life and my career took me elsewhere, but not as effectively as the stories I devoured…
And then I came back to work in a library. I was surrounded by books – old friends and new – but this time I’ve discovered the real treasure: the people who work and browse here.
There’s nothing like the buzz of a library full of excited children singing, or doing crafts, or just chattering with their friends.
Even better is the sense of being part of the community – whether on visits to schools and play groups, being spotted by children in the local supermarket, or talking to familiar faces who just want to say hello and know they’ll be missed if they’re not there.
There’s still lots of Dr Who novels though. I do like those.
In a not unexpected shift, the changes in legislation now mandate we wear masks when working with the public, and I have no problem with this. Quite aside from the actual protection of others element it also engenders confidence in us on the part of our more vulnerable customers, and that is a massive bonus.
In building works news, we can now tell when its tea and lunchbreak times as the nonstop jcb drilling ceased three times for that today before resuming. I may have smiled benificently in their direction when it started raining heavily.
On the creative side, aside from the sketch above, I’ve also been doing some more emoji designs for myr s’ twitch channel and am closing in on the final versions there too.
I seem to have spent portions of the last few days on the more pastoral side of management. You get weeks like this, where people are having a crisis of confidence, or have had problematic things happen through no fault of their own.
Thankfully my own wobbles from last week have passed, so I’ve been able to be present for people. Some of the support has been easy enough, where a listening ear and positive affirmation is all that has been expected or needed. Far more difficult have been conversations where there have been tears.
Still, we’ve pulled through so far so there’s something to be proud of. Now if we could have slightly less noisy building work next door tomorrow, that would be lovely.
Well, hello the weekend. We’re currently on a road trip to the North to drop in on Lady M’s sister.
Having had a bit of a grim Friday and productive counselling session I’ve had a generally chilled Saturday with only one injury from falling up the stairs and gashing my hand on the railing. As you do.
And now we’re driving into the night, streaming the first Critical Role episode via Bluetooth. Its reassuring to realise that the auditory chaos and laughter does sound like the DDC in session.
Traffic is light, the roads are clear
