![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Today's Keyboard Smash
Jul. 23rd, 2020 08:08 pmOh, hm. Fixed the one thing on truck #2--now something else is going out. It's, like, three things in three days at this point. That's impressive even for it, a thirty-year-old hunk of rubbish held together by duct tape and sheer bloody-mindedness. I-- *hands*
I needed to return a few things to my local library today and found out they are actually open-open. I was informed I could come in and "browse briefly" if I wished. (I...did not wish, but cool.) When I got there, a couple of the staff, including the one who may or may not be the head librarian, were at the door to greet people and enforce an occupancy maximum and mask-wearing.
They actually had masks available for those who don't have them! I haven't seen a single other establishment in the area doing that. Admittedly, my excursions haven't been extensive of late, but still. I choose to believe this is an effort to make the library accessible to the poor and homeless population, who hang out there a lot under normal circumstances. My area has, as far as I can tell, done fuck-all to help the homeless population at any point. I'm always glad to see the library making them welcome. (Even if I really wish The Couple would take their hissing, passive-aggressive arguments outside.)
I have complicated feelings about the library being open. I'm glad of it, mostly. The librarians talking out front were saying (to each other, not to me as I slunk in and out again) that things were going well in some nebulous way. They sounded happy to be there. Of course, librarians are generally terrifying stock who laugh in the face of danger and budget cuts, as far as I can tell.
I don't...love the idea of them having to work? Or of a room full of communally accessible (read: lovingly grimy on the best of days) books full of random strangers. I normally don't think too much about the inherent grossness of libraries, through an effort of willful obliviousness. That's more difficult now.
In any case, as much as I would have liked to randomly wander through the stacks, I did not. I would have LOVED to sit in my usual chair, set my ipad to downloading something to watch later, and read a lightly out of date issue of Bon Appetit magazine. I don't think that would have qualified as brief browsing, and in any case, it still feels too much like blithely sticking my head in the lion's mouth just to see if it bites down.
I needed to return a few things to my local library today and found out they are actually open-open. I was informed I could come in and "browse briefly" if I wished. (I...did not wish, but cool.) When I got there, a couple of the staff, including the one who may or may not be the head librarian, were at the door to greet people and enforce an occupancy maximum and mask-wearing.
They actually had masks available for those who don't have them! I haven't seen a single other establishment in the area doing that. Admittedly, my excursions haven't been extensive of late, but still. I choose to believe this is an effort to make the library accessible to the poor and homeless population, who hang out there a lot under normal circumstances. My area has, as far as I can tell, done fuck-all to help the homeless population at any point. I'm always glad to see the library making them welcome. (Even if I really wish The Couple would take their hissing, passive-aggressive arguments outside.)
I have complicated feelings about the library being open. I'm glad of it, mostly. The librarians talking out front were saying (to each other, not to me as I slunk in and out again) that things were going well in some nebulous way. They sounded happy to be there. Of course, librarians are generally terrifying stock who laugh in the face of danger and budget cuts, as far as I can tell.
I don't...love the idea of them having to work? Or of a room full of communally accessible (read: lovingly grimy on the best of days) books full of random strangers. I normally don't think too much about the inherent grossness of libraries, through an effort of willful obliviousness. That's more difficult now.
In any case, as much as I would have liked to randomly wander through the stacks, I did not. I would have LOVED to sit in my usual chair, set my ipad to downloading something to watch later, and read a lightly out of date issue of Bon Appetit magazine. I don't think that would have qualified as brief browsing, and in any case, it still feels too much like blithely sticking my head in the lion's mouth just to see if it bites down.
