Drama update: one month later

Good news: no more leaks! We've had several rather massive thunderstorms and my bedroom remained dry! w00t!

Bad news: Remember that patch of carpet in front of my bedroom door that was removed? Yeah. It's still missing. They haven't replaced it yet, so the subfloor (plywood) is still exposed. Nor have they replaced the lock on my bedroom window from the break in. Nor have they started to deal with the fact that the gas company removed the gas meters from the property back in JULY so they heat won't work (gas powered furnace). Needless to say, I'm seriously considering typing up everything that hasn't been done and mailing it with my next rent check. If they cash the check, then I'll know they have the list.

In other news, the previous tenant in my apartment took my landlords to court. Why? From what I understand (hearing from both the previous tenant and my landlord), it's because they withheld a large amount of his security deposit related to replacing/repairing/patching the upstairs carpet. Well, that was never done. It wasn't even cleaned before I moved in (trust me...it was NOT cleaned). So the previous tenant sued them to get his money back and won. Now there's some legal arrangement whereby my rent is garnished by the courts to repay him. An officer of the court has been trying to deliver the paperwork to me since early August. Apparently he was told by my neighbors (my landlord's family!) that I had moved. This was about the same time that the flooding incident happened in early August. Yeah. I don't know the details of any of this, just what the previous tenant and my landlords told me, but I'll find out on Friday when I meet the officer to get the paperwork that tells me what to do with my rent (I had to call him to make arrangements).

OMG the drama just doesn't end. And this is in addition to an ongoing battle I have with them about them entering my apartment and NOT TELLING ME.

Last week (Wed., Sept. 9) I came home to find that someone had been in my apartment. How did I know? The lights were on AND my bedroom door was closed. What's worse they had trapped the cat in the bedroom when they shut the door. I called my contact and basically let her have it via voice mail. This was at about 4:30pm. I had heard nothing from anyone about WHY or WHEN they had entered my apartment. And then I waited. And waited.

Finally, at about 8:20pm, four hours after I called, my contact returns my call. Apparently, in preparation for the annual fire inspection, they were working on the fire alarms in the rest of the building and set off the alarm, which meant they had to enter my property to turn it off (the panel for the alarm is connected to the electrical panels, and access is via my bedroom). Great. That still doesn't explain why no one notified me promptly that they accessed my property (emergency - so no reasonable notification prior to entry). They're in violation of their own lease. I even read the relevant parts to her on the phone. This is the third time this has happened. I explained to her that it was UNACCEPTABLE and that I'm tired of having this conversation. I was told last time that it would never happen again and yet here we are, having the same conversation less than 2 months later (previous incident was around July 16th). She said she was unavailable so that's why no one called...I told her that was bullshit, it doesn't matter: four hours is NOT "prompt notification" by any definition and clearly they need to fix their communication issues because it's unacceptable. Someone has to contact me. If she's not available, there should be a backup plan. I should NOT be calling them to find out what's going on and WHY they've been in my apartment. There are no excuses for this. I repeated that they're violating their own lease, making it null and void (also per the terms of their own lease; violation = nullification). She acquiesced, and said they're meeting about it. I have yet to hear the report of said meeting, one week later. I'm not holding my breath.

But I have no doubt that when the rent garnishing begins that I'll receive a prompt phone call about it. Gotta love the drama. It's to the point now that it's ridiculous, like a bad sitcom. I'm just trying to weather the storm (so to speak) and not let it get to me too much. Some days I'm better at it than others.

Low-Car Diet Challenge surprises

I've been doing the ZipCar Low-Car Diet Challenge for a month now (we're coming to the end!), and I've had a few surprises.

1. I really had no *need* for my car the entire month. In fact, I was trying to come up with reasons to even use a ZipCar. I was able to get everything I needed either by foot, bike, or public transit. Yes, things took longer, but it was actually more enjoyable to not be stressed out driving in the city. I could relax. I was able to see more of the city that way, too, observe my surroundings and see things I may not have noticed before. Yes, being stuck on the bus that's the proverbial "slow boat to China" on a Friday afternoon was less than ideal, but I just put on my iPod, relaxed, looked out the window, and made mental notes about things I saw that I may want to go back and visit at a later date.

2. It's forced me to be more relaxed about things. This actually is the opposite of what I expected. I expected to have to plan more strictly. What I found is that while I have to plan ahead, I also have to be more relaxed about the outcome of those plans. Adhering to a strict schedule wasn't realistic. So it forced me to relax and just be. To just sit and be in the moment while riding the bus/trolley. This is a good thing for me, really.

3. Pooling resources and running errands with friends is much more enjoyable than doing it alone. Getting a few friends together when I actually needed the car was both more economical (theoretically we would have split the cost if it wasn't for the generous ZipCar credits!) and fun. Made the errands less onerous and gave us an excuse to hang out for awhile. I liked running my errands that way.

4. The concerns I had at the beginning never really became reality. I never "missed" the convenience of using my own car. I never felt restricted or worried that I couldn't access a vehicle (there were so many available!). Nor did I really miss my personal vehicle. That has really surprised me. For all the time I've spent in my reliable Subaru (multiple cross country trips, etc.), I didn't miss it, or miss driving it, or miss even being in it. I didn't miss being in a car at all, in fact. I didn't feel that I had lost that sense of freedom I've always associated with a vehicle. If anything, I ended up feeling more free because I didn't have to worry about all the stuff that comes with just owning a vehicle. And that was the biggest surprise of all.

So now I'm faced with the decision of whether or not to sell my car. And contrary to what I thought at the beginning, I really can let it go and become officially a car-free individual. I don't feel the attachment to or need for my own personal vehicle anymore. It's time to move on in life without a car. Of course, whether or not I'm actually successful in selling my car remains to be seen, but that's another post for a later date.

Drama update

They came and laid new carpet last Friday. Poor Capri had to spend her first full day back in the house locked in the bathroom, this time with the window shut (the damaged screen she escaped through was finally replaced, only a little over a year after I reported it). Needless to say, she was displeased when I got home and let her out. But she was still here, so I was not sympathetic to her grumpy mood.

The carpet is a nice shade of neutral, and it's in. Well, all except for the small patch in the hallway in front of the door and extending to the bottom of the stairs. They cut a small square off of what they took out to try and match the color. So when the hall carpet gets patched is all dependent on when they can find something to match. So right outside my bedroom door is the plywood sub-floor for now. I need to find a small area rug...

Anyway, so about my bedroom furniture. It was offered for them to come move it back into my room on Saturday, but unfortunately my plans weren't working with their schedule. And I'll be damned if I was going to sit around and wait for most of the day for them to show up. Sunday didn't work either (they weren't available). Or Monday after work. Today, Tuesday, my furniture is finally back in my bedroom. My bed (and mattress!) is back where it belongs. And I can't wait to put fresh sheets on the bed and sleep in there tonight instead of my living room.

My bedroom is pretty simple. All I have in there is my bed and my clothing (in dressers). That's it. No radio besides my clock-radio-alarm, no TV, no electronics beyond a phone. And I did that on purpose. I've had a really hard time sleeping this past week. Partially because I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor, and partially because there was just too many distractions upstairs in my living room. I had a very hard time quieting my mind so I could sleep. Blinking lights, electronics, stuff. Too much stuff.

The drama is nearly over. There's been no more leaking when it rains. Believe you me, I've been freaked out with each thunderstorm we get. The new carpet is still dry. And I am overdue for a good night's sleep.

Trying something new

Today I tried something new. I used a ZipCar for the first time. And it was great. It was easy. It was even fun.

I needed to run some errands, specifically I needed cat supplies (food and litter). So I asked a couple of friends that I know don't have cars if they had any errands they needed to run and wanted to come with me. Turns out one friend, EM, needed to go to Ikea, and Plum and Seuss needed pet supplies AND a trip to Ikea. A plan was born. I figured having friends along might make the errands much more fun, too (and I was right!).

I made the reservation on Saturday evening for the following afternoon. There were several cars nearby to choose from, and I decided on a Mazda 3 4-door sedan. Plenty of car options. I liked how the system showed me when a car was available, and when it was already reserved, so I could choose one that gave me plenty of flexibility. Seeing the whole day laid out allowed me to pick my time so I wasn't butting up against someone else's reservation.

We all met at the car on Sunday afternoon, and just like that we were on our way! The car took a bit of getting used to (hello, jerky stop and start), but once I got the hang of how it handled, it ended up being really fun to drive. I've been so used to my Subaru it was striking to drive a different car. And I enjoyed it.

We went to PetSmart for supplies, and then on to Ikea for a late lunch and some wandering. I had given us lots of time so we didn't have to rush. Still, despite my generous reservation, we realized we weren't going to make it. The lines at Ikea were insane (way worse than normal...guess the horrible humid heat drove everyone inside for the afternoon), and then we hit traffic from the baseball game on our way out. Sitting there in stadium traffic, I started to try and calculate if we had enough time or not.

I had turned on the text alerts, so 30 minutes before the reservation expired ZipCar let me know. We were still sitting in traffic. The text alert helpfully told me how much longer the car was available (i.e. when the next reservation started). We had plenty of time to extend the reservation. So I had my friend EM text ZipCar back to extend by 30 minutes. A couple of seconds later we got a confirmation, DONE. No problem. It was so incredibly easy and convenient, and instantly I was able to relax and stop stressing. I love that not only did the text alert tell me that it was available longer, it even included the instructions on how to text for an extension.

And just to make my ZipCar experience complete, we hit the 1/4 mark on the tank of gas when we were in the home stretch. Since we were passing a couple of gas stations, I figured OK, let's fill 'er up. I used the card provided, plugged in the mileage and my member number, and filled the tank. Easy peasy. Really. Other than the challenge of remember a number long enough to punch it in, it was painless. I dropped off my friends, and returned the car with 10 minutes to spare.

I had never thought that using a car-sharing program would be this easy. It was convenient, simple, and very user-friendly. So kudos to ZipCar. I could get used to this.

CAPRI IS BACK IN THE APARTMENT!

The cat is back. Safe and sound. Capri walked through the open door into the kitchen at about 11pm. I managed to slam the door behind her. OMG SHE'S BACK IN THE HOUSE. About 20 minutes earlier I had seen her eying the open door to the kitchen, and the wet food sitting on a dish in the middle of the room. Guess the hunger and temptation finally got to her. As soon as I slammed the door I collapsed on the floor and just shook with relief.

She doesn't seem too apologetic about being gone, and won't let me touch her at the moment (needs to settle back in?). She's just been enjoying eating the wet food, and right now, I'm OK with that. She can eat the whole bloody can. I'm just so very very glad she's back in.

Whew. It's been a hellish experience and I hope and pray she never gets out again. I'm exhausted from being so worried about her. I'm going to go collapse with relief and joy and sheer exhaustion now. Right after I eat something (I've been too stressed and worried to eat tonight).

And I swear on all that is holy, as soon as I can get close to her I'm putting her collar back on whether she likes it or not and never taking it off of her again.

And the drama goes on...pt. 2

[continued from pt. 1]

Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009

I get up and get ready to head into work. My landlord promises to be here when they come to spray, so I don't have to wait. All I have to do is lock my cat Capri in the bathroom so she's out of the way. I do that, knowing that I will pay for it in the form of cat retribution when I let her out that evening. I head into work.

At 4:30pm I call my landlord to find out what's up. They came and sprayed around 1pm. They also left an industrial strength fan in my room to help dry things out. They will be back to pick up the fan on Thursday evening (so they say). The floor should already be mostly dry, it's just the walls. Still, it is recommended I shut the door to the bedroom to keep the cat out. No problem. I head home.

I get home, change, and shut the bedroom door. I then go to let Capri out of the bathroom. She's not there. She's not anywhere in the house. PANIC. I discover that she escaped via the bathroom window. I had left it cracked due to the heat, and she pushed the window open farther and got out. The screen in that window wasn't secure. It needed to be fixed. I reported this to my landlords LAST YEAR when I moved in. It was never fixed. So she escaped. Because ONCE AGAIN they didn't fix things in a timely manner (or, in this case, not at all, which is also not unusual...there are several other things that were never fixed too). Clearly basic maintenance is not something they actually do consistently, if at all, and now it's caused two major problems: flooding and my cat escaping. I am livid. And terrified. I have no idea how long she's been out or where she is. She's an indoor cat, just over 2 years old, and I've only had her about 11 months now.

What's worse I took her collar off of her before locking her in the bathroom. Why? Because the last time she caught herself on the corner of the cabinet and freaked out (fortunately I was home so I freed her promptly). I didn't want that to happen again, so I took off her collar. So now she's outside, running around gods knows where, with nothing but a microchip. MORE PANIC.

I call my friend Plum and freak out. She comes over and as soon as I see her I start crying in the middle of the sidewalk. I've been walking around the blocks near my place calling for Capri, meowing (she actually answers to my meows, really), and shaking a treat bag. I can't find her. Then we hear her meowing. I meow back, and she responds (typical, we have regular "conversations" in meows). So we start trying to follow the meows. Plum and I start looking in the neighbors' backyards and Plum spots her up a tree. OhMyGodsThankTheLordShe'sOK. I coax her down, and right as I'm about to grab her (I even have my hands on her), a car alarm goes off and she bolts. SH*T!! Plum and I take off after her, cursing the car alarm as we run. Capri runs for the street. Fortunately a nice woman out for a run (happens to be running in our direction) heads her off and the landlords' kid (elementary age boy) keeps her from going into the street and she turns around and runs back into the yards behind my place. Whew. She goes back up the same tree, only even higher this time, clearly scared and now panting slightly. DAMMIT.

So Plum and I camp out in the yard where the tree is. My ankles are a buffet for mosquitoes (really, they are now polka-dotted with bites and I'm using anti-itch cream like lotion). We wait. I try tempting her down with treats. No dice. So I try milk which she loves and is notorious for trying to trip me when I get the carton out of the fridge and shake it. Also no dice. Capri sits up in the tree, and looks at me, quite comfortably, meowing periodically, from her branch (a good 20 feet off the ground). After a bit, Plum goes to Fu-Wah Mini Market nearby to get tofu-hoagies for us to eat for dinner. I continue my stake out of the tree, fighting a losing battle with the mosquitoes. [Side note: the tofu hoagies from Fu-Wah Mini Market are fantastic. Definitely recommended...it's a vegetarian banh-mi sandwich!]

After waiting for over an hour, watching Capri move around on the branch 20 feet off the ground with no movement downwards, we give up around 7:30pm. Plum heads home to take care of her own 4-legged furry brood, and I head inside. I go back outside to the tree to check on her at regular intervals, and she keeps refusing to come down out of the tree and back inside. I try tempting her with wet cat food (a major treat) but still no dice. At one point when I look up the tree she's descended to a lower fork in the branches (now only about 10 ft. off the ground) but still looks far to comfortable. I am also alarmed to see a raccoon in a neighboring branch. They are ignoring each other and quite calm. I'm freaked out. I decide to not try another food temptation for fear I'll get the raccoon instead of my cat. Yikes.

Around 10pm when I check on her she's out of the tree and lying on the ground, but as soon as I walk towards her she runs from me. She climbs another tree, this one right in my backyard, and meows at me. For the next 3 plus hours we have regular conversations of meows, her in the tree and me on the ground, but she won't come near me or come inside. I call my mom and freak out at her on the phone for 2 of those hours (good thing she lives in Australia where it's mid-day...I can always call my mom at midnight and not worry about waking her up!). At nearly 2am I finally give up and try to get some sleep.

Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009

I wake up after only about 3 hours of sleep, and still no sign of her and now no meowing. She hasn't tried to come in. It's also raining. I head into work, hoping that when I get home later she'll be waiting to let in where it's dry and there's food. I spend the day surprisingly productive, fueled by coffee and worry.

I get home shortly before 5pm, and look for Capri. She's nowhere to be found. I meow. No response. I let my landlord (the father who owns the property) know that I'm extremely displeased with them because my cat got out because they never fixed the screen on that window that I reported a year ago. He looks shocked. I explain again that she got out because they never did a repair I reported several times and I'm really really upset about that and it's inexcusable on their part.

[Side note: I also notice when I get home that the Stanley Steamer people haven't been back and their fan is still in my bedroom. Wonder when they're going to come get that...]

I go inside and retrieve the milk carton, take it out back and shake it, hoping to tempt her. Nothing. No sign of her. I try shaking the treat bag. Again no sign of Capri at all. I meow. Nothing. I decide to walk around the block once, shaking the treat bag and meowing. There's absolutely no sign or sound of her at all. OMG. I'm afraid she's decided to go exploring farther away from home, has gotten trapped someplace, or someone has trapped her. I can't stand it! I just want my cat back home and safe!!

Now there's really nothing else I can do besides wait for her to come home. And it's killing me. I also print out signs to put up on the corners near my house, hoping people see them and if they've taken her in they'll call me.

My landlord (my regular contact) comes by to measure the bedroom for the carpet. She tells me people are supposed to be coming tomorrow to actually lay the carpet and then they'll put my bedroom back together. I also take the opportunity let her know about the window screen (since she's my "official" contact), and how upset I am that pretty much all of the recent problems could have been prevented if regular and basic maintenance/upkeep was done on the property, such as cleaning the drains/gutters, repairing exterior windows/screens, etc. All the little things you have to do when you own a house just to keep it standing. And I tell her I hope that they can see that specifically the flooding, etc. that's happened this week is an indication that maintenance is needed and I hope they use it as a learning experience and start doing said regular maintenance. We shall see. I'm not holding my breath. But I'm *this* close to putting a hex on their entire family, I swear.

I know all I can really do is hope and pray that Capri is OK and comes home soon. And try to get some sleep despite how worried I am. She's got to get hungry eventually, right?

And the drama goes on...pt. 1

There's no lack of drama around here lately. The Sunday flood issues (see previous post) are still being resolved.

Sunday evening my landlord finally called me back and said they'd be by again on Monday to work on drying the carpet some more. So at 9:30pm, I drag my mattress (futon) upstairs to my living room and put it on the floor. Somehow I manage to do this without getting the mattress wet by dropping or dragging it on the wet bedroom carpet. Chalk one up for anger-induced strength. Sunday night I sleep upstairs in my living room. This is strange, and confounds the cat, who keeps meowing at me to go downstairs to bed. On the other hand, she is also quite happy to have a giant soft surface to play/sleep on, so I don't think she quite understands that it's the mattress.

Monday, Aug. 3, 2009

Monday I wake up and call my landlord before 9am. I spend a bit of time explaining why the wet-vac ain't gonna cut it at this point. I convince her, and she's going to call professionals to come in and dry it and make sure all is well. I also have to provide her with the names of several companies (mad librarian search skillz FTW!) because she has no idea who to call. I give her three names and numbers. She makes calls and we settle in to wait. A little after 11am she tells me someone is supposed to be here between 11am and 1pm. OK. And we wait. My bedroom is now so musty and muggy I can hardly breathe and it's triggering my asthma (I keep coughing uncontrollably...a bad sign for me). It's been over 24 hours so I know the carpet is toast and will have to be replaced at this point. Cleaning it is no longer an option...the mold has set in.

At nearly 2pm we are still waiting. She calls back as well as calling the other places. She tells me all three work together and the first one she calls knows she's called the other two and is pissed off at her for calling them. Well, duh. If you don't show up as promised naturally people will look for other options. At 6:30pm I get another update from my landlord. They are still coming, the question is WHEN? A little later, the first company calls and says that a., they won't be coming until tomorrow now (but again, won't give a time) and b., they need at least $2000 just. to. show. up. OMG really? Landlord tells them to forget it, and she ends up calling Stanley Steamer. It's now after 7pm. Stanley Steamer doesn't come that night. Landlord brings by a dehumidifier to try and control the damp air if nothing else. I sleep in my living room again, my bedroom carpet still soaking wet and the air very musty/muggy, to the point I can no longer breathe in there at all (all I do is cough, which, again, is BAD and a sign my cough-variant asthma is kicking in).

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009

I wake up and brace myself for the waiting game. Email various people at work to let them know and settle in with coffee and my remote desktop connection to get some reports and indexing project work done. Landlord calls Stanley Steamer people again and they say someone will be out that afternoon. I tell my landlord that the carpet is not salvageable at this point, it's been too long and there's no way to effectively clean it. What's more, because of my asthma any remaining mold could put me in the hospital with a severe respiratory infection and could kill me. She says let's wait and see what the professionals say. Grumble. I don't think she's really listening. MOLD = POSSIBLY DEADLY to an asthmatic, not to mention people with healthy lungs. No lie.

I see pictures of the flood in Louisville that devastated the public library via Twitter. OMG. The pictures make me gasp and are shockingly terrible. It's just an awful situation. And it certainly puts my issue in perspective. Still, I know my flood, while minor by comparison, needs to be resolved too.

Stanley Steamer shows up around 2:30pm. And thank the lords they back me and immediately tell her that the carpet needs to go. That they can smell the mold that's already growing in it. It's been wet too long now to be cleaned/dried and salvaged. It needs to be ripped out, along with the padding, and trashed. I am relieved. They want the room cleaned out, the baseboards, carpet and padding removed, and then they will spray the entire room and lower walls with an anti-microbial agent to kill any mold that's there. Once that dries, we are free to lay new carpet. OK. Sounds like a plan.

Landlord's dad (one who actually owns the property) shows up to get the estimate from them. He gets the estimate, and tells them they (landlords) will pull out the carpet. They make an appointment for them to come back on Wed. afternoon to do the anti-microbial spraying. The Stanley Steamer guys leave.

My landlord then offers me some lovely unsolicited advice in the form of a website promising a "natural cure" for allergies and allergy-induced asthma. I politely thank him and explain that my asthma isn't allergy related, but rather a portion of my lungs just don't work and I'm extra susceptible to respiratory infections and that said infections can get very serious and even deadly very easily if not taken care of. So, um, NO. Thanks but also "natural cures" like that one, well, it just doesn't work that way. Grrr.

He leaves and then people (more of landlords family, including my usual contact person) come in to move the furniture out of my bedroom. My bed is dismantled, and it and my dressers are placed in the hallway. Good thing it's a long hallway. They pull off the baseboards. I am disturbed to see mold on the backside of several of them, so I point it out and say that is NOT coming back into this room. Period. Landlord's daughter (my usual contact), says OK and promises they will be trashed instead (I'll be checking when they reinstall baseboards to make absolutely sure). They rip out the carpet, padding and tack strips, and clean up the resulting mess. The dehumidifier is put back in the now empty room in an attempt to start the drying process before they spray.

I realize my entire bedroom will be in the hallway and I'll be sleeping in the living room for the rest of the week. They won't be able to lay carpet for a good 36 hours after spraying, so the earliest new carpet will go down is Friday. GAH.

I go to sleep in my living room, cranky, but glad that things are finally getting done.

[To be continued...]

Time to build an ark, me thinks

I've been in my current apartment just over a year now. In that time I've been besieged by water issues. A useful detail to understanding things: I'm in a split level 2 bedroom apartment. My living space is upstairs, and the 2 bedrooms are downstairs in the finished basement. There are two baths, one upstairs and one down. My landlord is the member of the family responsible for this property, so "landlord" is somewhat misleading as it's not just her that I'm ultimately dealing with. She's just my specific contact person. Her family owns several properties that they manage.

Now back to the true tale of my water woes.

First it was a leaking pipe from the upstairs bathroom that was dripping into my bedroom right below it. It showed up within 2 weeks of me moving in. Various holes were created either by the water itself or to track the leak. I lived with holes in my ceiling and a bucket (plus a trash can at times) in my bedroom for a good 6 months until they found the source. I didn't use the upstairs bathroom either because why would I want to make the drip happen?!? So for the first 6 months I lived in this apartment I basically only had one bathroom, despite paying for two. Then I lived with the holes in my ceiling until they *finally* patched the holes over 6 months later.

Then the leak in the kitchen ceiling appeared. It was leaking from the same place it did previously, evidenced by the patch already there, so clearly there's been a leak in the roof before. For several months I had a bucket to catch the drips. Then the leak spread. So I added a trash can. And another. You can see the set-up here on Flickr. Eventually they fixed the hole in the roof (or I'm assuming they did as the drips stopped), but not before the drywall tape on the patch fell down so I had it dangling from my ceiling. When they finally patched the bedroom ceiling they put the tape back up.

I though things were finally calming down and the water issues had been finally resolved.

I was wrong. So very very wrong.

Now we have a new water problem. The Friday I got back from ALA (July 17th for those keeping track), we had a terrific thunderstorm. The drains outside the house couldn't handle the deluge. But instead of just sitting outside until it had a chance to drain, the water found someplace to go. It seeped through the foundation (or found a hole), and made a nice puddle on the floor of my bedroom. Specifically it soaked the area under my bed, and spread into the middle of the room. I called my landlord. The next day they brought a wet-vac along with the other supplies to make the final repairs as planned. They vacuumed up the water, and moved my dehumidifier into my bedroom along with an extra fan I have to help finish the drying process.

I lived with the dehumidifier in there for a week. Things seemed to dry out sufficiently.

Then we had another deluge. This morning (Sunday, Aug. 2nd, for those keeping track) we had a fantastic thunderstorm, just like the one a few weeks ago. The skies opened up and it just poured. I watched the water build up outside by the drain. So I went to check my bedroom. And my carpet was wet again. The water was clearly coming in along the base of the wall, so essentially through the brick/stone foundation. I curse and run down the hall to get the rag towels to try and soak up some of the water. I spread them out under my bed, specifically around the bedposts, and along the wall where it's coming in.

I head back upstairs and call my landlord. She starts making phone calls and sends someone over with the wet-vac. It's still pouring. I go back downstairs. OMFG I HAVE A SMALL LAKE THAT IS NOW COVERING HALF OF MY BEDROOM. The towels are completely overwhelmed by the amount of water and are useless. It's coming in all along the wall now, not just in a few small places. What's worse, when the water came it, it also brought debris, so there's dirt and crap all over the place.

I go back upstairs. I call my landlord back and let her know the magnitude of the problem. I let her know that this problem clearly needs a professional to come in, clean up the water and fix the foundation. This is way way beyond what a general handyman can fix.

A couple people from my landlord's family come by with the wet-vac. Since I had last called my landlord I notice that there's water coming in behind the fridge in the kitchen. I point it out and they pull the fridge out from the wall (partially blocking the doorway). One person goes outside to find out where it's coming in. The two young dudes head downstairs with the wet-vac and start vacuuming up the water. The rain is still coming down. The guy that went outside to inspect where the water upstairs is coming from finds that it's coming from next door. He then starts trying to speed up the drains. One is has debris partially blocking it. Debris that ran down the steps from the yard. The other is pretty much completely blocked in the pipe so there's no speeding it up.

The rain finally lets up. The dudes are still vacuuming. They leave around 2:30ish, saying they'll be back later to do another pass. I call my landlord to check in and find out what's going on. She tells me she's talking to others in the family and they're going to find someone to come deal with this and she'll let me know.

It's now 8:00pm. No one has returned to do another wet-vac pass. My landlord hasn't called me. So I call her and leave a message letting her know that that's NOT OK. I need to know what the plan is. And this needs to be fixed by a professional within the next week. One week is a reasonable amount of time given the magnitude of the problem and the amount of water that came in this time. If the water keeps increasing, eventually the entire basement will flood. Not only that, if the water keeps coming in every time we have a major thunderstorm (it is that time of year, mind you), things will never dry out, which will beget mold, which could potentially kill me given my asthma. And I'm really not exaggerating.

So now I wait. I wait for them to respond. I wait to find out the plan. I wait for some kind of action on their part. I #$*@%! hate waiting.

Oh, and to add insult to injury? My kitchen light is not always turning on. Sometimes it works when I flip the switch, other times it comes 1/2 way on, and sometimes nothing happens until I flip the switch off and on a few times. That makes me nervous. There quite possibly could be some sort of electrical issue stemming from the leak in the kitchen roof. Yeah, that's freaking me out a bit.

Library Day in the Life - Day 5

Friday, July 31, 2009

6:30am: Wake up. Shower, prepare lunch and thermos of coffee, give cat small amount of milk as treat and appeasement for the upcoming daily abandonment. Grab granola bar for breakfast (still wary of opening cereal after the ant incident earlier this week). Take trolley into work (rain and I don't feel like biking in it).

8:10am: Arrive at work.

8:13am: Login to work network. Login to email, calendar, other various and sundry programs. Open up Voyager cataloging and acquisitions modules and OCLC Connexion. Check voice-mail (blinking light). Staff person out sick today. Make note on calendar and update HR spreadsheet accordingly. Other staff person on vacation. Looks like it's just me today. Pour coffee.

8:23am: Email. Forward and respond to necessary messages. Catch up on news feeds, Tweets (TweetDeck FTW!), work email listservs. Scan subjects and then delete mass numbers of listserv messages. Start this post.

9:00am: Gave tour of library, had coffee, and chatted with a representative from my library school. Nice break to walk around and just talk about where I work and the kinds of things we're doing here.

10:51am: Back at desk. Check email.

11:23am: Editing and finishing my ALA reports. Must be done by the end of the day today.

11:36am: Look into question from colleague about if something is a title change or not. Yes, in fact, it is. Sigh. Means more work to do for both her and me.

11:47am: Back to editing my reports. Can you tell I can only focus for short periods before I have to take a brief break?

1:02pm: Lunch break. Nearly done with first report (lordy there was a lot of information in that session!), only 6 more to finish! But need to refuel.

1:39pm: Update my Remember the Milk: complete tasks, add new ones. Read comics.

1:58pm: Finish eating. Back to report editing. Wondering how I'll get them all done today. My rough drafts were really really rough this time and it's taking much longer than I expected to make them reader-worthy.

2:46pm: Finish second report. Check email. w00t! Email that we can extend my intern's appointment until the end of the month so she can finish her project!! That means we won't have to distribute the bits to various people for completion since she'll have the time to do it! YAY! And I do a happy dance in my chair like the dork I know I am.

2:56pm: Start on editing next report.

4:16pm: Finish third report with a few interruptions during editing by IM chats with colleagues. Send first three off to colleague for next round of editing before publishing and let him know the remaining three will be in his inbox Monday morning. I will have to clean up the remaining rough drafts over the weekend.

4:23pm: Last review of email and deletion of various listserv messages. Log off of various and sundry programs. Schedule the publishing of this post. Shut down (restart) computer. Pack up. Pouring nasty rain. Accept fact that I will be completely soaked even if I take the trolley home just by walking out the door and across the street. Head home anyway, hoping to not discover more wet apartment flooding woes when I get there.

UPDATE (5:39pm): Arrive home, shoes completely soaked through. Inspect apartment. Absolutely NO FLOODING/LEAKS!! w00t!! My apartment is dry. Relief! And bonus, the rain really cooled down the humid heat. :)

Library Day in the Life - Day 4

Thursday, July 30, 2009

6:30am: Wake up. Shower, prepare lunch and thermos of coffee, give cat small amount of milk as treat and appeasement for the upcoming daily abandonment. Take trolley to work since I left my bike there last night due to weather.

8:02am: Arrive at work.

8:07am: Login to work network. Login to email, calendar, other various and sundry programs. Open up Voyager cataloging and acquisitions modules and OCLC Connexion. Check to-do list made yesterday before I left. Check daily calendar and remember that I am doing some hands-on training for staff this morning (yay for calendars...if it isn't written down it doesn't exist!). Realize I forgot granola bar breakfast (*&%#@!). Go through stash in desk to find something to eat for breakfast. Decide on honey-sesame almonds and raisins.

8:13am: Check in with staff person. Remind her that the training is this morning, bring her handout, and it's starts at 9:30am.

8:15am: Read email. Forward and respond to necessary messages. Finally get around to pouring coffee from thermos and drinking it. Catch up on news feeds, Tweets (TweetDeck FTW!), work email listservs. Scan subjects and then delete mass numbers of listserv messages. Start this post.

8:43am: Pull up file of records our system kicked back into an error file during a MARC record set load. There's only 5 of them. Decide to load records individually and notify Metadata Specialist. Find titles in OCLC, import into our system. Done. Send email to Metadata Specialist with the system IDs.

9:01am: Pull out training materials for session this morning. Review my notes. All I need now is the login information for the machines in the electronic classroom from our tech people so we can access the library staff software on them. Serials Librarian opens chat with me and tells me he still has code we used last time...hmm...decide to test and hopefully it will work.

9:15am: Find 4 computers where we can log on and use the catalog! w00t! We got "run time" errors on the others. Still, four out of 16, while not great, are enough to do the training session. No more postponing!

9:30am: Hands-on training session for staff on how to search our local system more effectively. Stress that they must always do more than one type of search for a journal in our catalog - giving up after one search is NOT an option due to issues with how current our records are, typos, search errors on the part of the user, etc. End with a discussion with staff about online versus print, ISSNs and other fun serials related peculiarities.

11:18am: Return to desk. Check email. Check in with staff and answer questions about ebook records and duplicates in OCLC (the provider neutral record won't be implemented until Aug. 3rd). She gives me a large stack of duplicate ebook records in WorldCat (same vendor, 2 records) to report for de-duplication. Other staff person gives me several print titles that need help via CONSER work. My staff are trying to bury me in paper, clearly.

11:57am: Back to reviewing my intern's original cataloging serial records. Must. Finish. Today.

12:07pm: Draw on khaki pants with red pen. *%$@#! Find Tide-to-go pen in my desk drawer and use. Red ink gone! [Note: I spill things on myself regularly enough that I have a Tide-to-go pen stashed in multiple places at work, in my bag, and at home. And quit laughing. They work.]

12:08pm: Back to reviewing.

12:38pm: Quick break to walk the printout from OCLC for a title I want over to the Monographic Acquisitions librarian. Ask nicely. She agrees to order it. No arguing or temper tantrum on my part needed! She also promises to hand deliver my copy of Notes for Serials Cataloging, 3rd ed. (edited by friends/colleagues of mine!) to my desk when it arrives. w00t!

12:48pm: Back to desk and reviewing. Realize I need to eat lunch soon...right after I finish this stack.

1:08pm: Finish stack. Return to intern for corrections and final processing. She gives me back a whole new set of titles for review. Will tackle those tomorrow.

1:11pm: Lunch. HUNGRY. Also, need coffees. Go outside to find iced coffee. Hello, humid Philly summer. Think my hair grew outwards a good two inches in frizz during the 1 block walk to *bucks.

2:16pm: Settle in for an afternoon of report writing with an iced coffee and my iPod (to block out the mumble-grumbles from my neighbors in cube land). On tap: ALA reports, Committee reports, and a letter of recommendation for a colleague. Periodically checking on HandHeld Librarian Online Conference tweets via TweetDeck (tag = #hhlib). Technology problems mean I couldn't get a connection to participate in the online conference if I wanted too...so I'm monitoring instead and will track down presentations if anything seems applicable to my job. Also engage in amusing twitter conversation regarding difficulties of explaining RDA and the impact that may have on training. And yes, I said amusing. Really. We're thinking RDA shouldn't be a text, but rather in picture-dictionary style. The text is too confusing.

3:16pm: Take break and visit Serials Librarian in his office to discuss withdrawing of a large number of back issues of cataloging journals (online now) and the next steps in staff training follow up on searching the catalog more effectively/accurately.

3:32pm: Return to desk and writing.

4:01pm: Check in with colleague about a project I'm giving to one of his staff people. Am given go ahead to send her the spreadsheet and instructions. w00t! Have him read over and edit the recommendation I'm writing. He offers several excellent suggestions for clarification/enhancement of my letter.

4:13pm: Back to desk to finish up letter of recommendation.

4:37pm: Recommendation for colleague done and submitted (after a few error messages when attempting to upload a .doc file, I finally just copy and paste into the box on the screen instead of uploading). Email copy of recommendation to colleague for her records. First drafts of ALA reports done. Will review/revise drafts tomorrow morning and send them to colleague for possible publication.

4:50pm: Update to-do list for tomorrow (does it ever get shorter? apparently not!). Update/sync desktop work calendar with online Google calendar. Last review of email and deletion of various listserv messages.

5:16pm: Log off of various and sundry programs. Schedule the publishing of this post. Shut down (restart) computer. Pack up. Bike home in awful humid Philly summer heat.

Library Day in the Life - Day 3

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

7:35am: Wake up. Alarm still going off. LATE!! *%$#@ neighbor boys were moving furniture out of their apartment at midnight last night and woke me up with they dropped the couch outside my bedroom window (with much cursing and loud banging, of course). Didn't get back to sleep for sometime and clearly didn't wake up to my alarm when it went off at 6:30am. Shower, prepare lunch and thermos of coffee, give cat small amount of milk as treat and appeasement for the upcoming daily abandonment. Grab granola bar for breakfast (to be eaten once I get to work) and ride my bike into work.

8:25am: Arrive at work. Run into staff that arrives early while locking my bike up as she's on her way to her weekly shift at the Information Desk (a directional desk located by the library entrance).

8:30am: Login to work network. Login to email, calendar, other various and sundry programs. Open up Voyager cataloging and acquisitions modules and OCLC Connexion. Check to-do list made yesterday before I left. Debate eating key lime cookies (a gift from my staff person who was on vacation last week) for breakfast. Decide to be good and eat granola bar.

8:50am: Read email. Forward and respond to necessary messages. Finally get around to pouring coffee from thermos and drinking it. Adrenaline from bike ride wearing off and need to caffeinate appears. Catch up on news feeds, Tweets (TweetDeck FTW!), work email listservs. Scan subjects and then delete mass numbers of listserv messages. Start this post.

9:21am: Check in with second staff person who just arrived. Turns out she was out because she had to put her cat to sleep...I nearly start crying for her (the pain of losing my dog in early June is still pretty fresh).

9:30am: Back to email. Catch up on messages and create new email folder for a semi-new project I got roped into courtesy of the decision by collection development to participate in a cooperative print preservation project. And what do you know...they need input from tech services, specifically the serials cataloger about bibliographic and holdings records fields for containing preservation decisions. We're now onto phase 2; I commented on phase 1 and thought we were done. Apparently not. This is a "short term" project (this phase to be completed by December). I have no doubt we'll have a phase 3.

9:50am: Sort through folders on my desk, separate into "committee/project" pile, "daily work" pile, and "library/department" pile. Put appropriate folders into vertical rack. Realize folder for electronic resources record sets is large and unwieldy and needs to divided into sub-folders for various vendors/collections. Will tackle that monster later.

10:05am: Asked about withdrawing entire print run of several cataloging/tech services related journals by librarian head of original cataloging. We have a procedure for this. Explain procedure. Make note to discuss stamping of issues and physical removal with Serials Librarian and/or librarian head of Quality Management.

10:19am: Return to reviewing my intern's original cataloging serial records.

10:55am: Chat with a friend who shared some very exciting news. Congratulations!! (And no, I can't be any more specific than that.)

11:00am: Respond to email from librarian in charge of copy cataloging regarding the electronic series my intern has been working on. Meeting about the process and the impact of the provider-neutral e-monograph record (to be implemented August 1st, PDF of final report) will happen early next week.

11:08am: Drop off information about a class separately publication (i.e. analytic) with the Serials Librarian so appropriate notes about treatment can be added to the serial record.

11:18am: Meet with intern. Review stacks of problems/questions/issues remaining on her desk. Promise to have all the original records reviewed and returned to her by end of day today so she can process/finish them tomorrow.

12:02pm: Return to desk. Check voicemail (blinking light on phone). Message from Hebrew cataloging librarian looking for documentation. Return call. Walk her through webpages via phone to documentation. Also discuss current stack of serials in Hebrew script she has that need to be processed. Some are fine, some need edits. Determine plan of attack. She'll email me when they're ready for me to process.

12:09pm: Check email. Respond to a few emails that had quick-answer questions.

12:19pm: Read email with weird ISSN problem described. Sigh deeply as I realize I just finished updating that title recently and the ISSNs and cataloging are correct. Respond to email explaining how ISSN work and that each serial title gets a unique ISSN and in this case the publisher just hasn't caught up and has printed the previous title's ISSN on the new title in error. Also explain why we don't use non-English language cataloging records and that the Dutch language record in this case has the wrong ISSN b/c I checked with the ISSN Center. Assure him the cataloging in our local catalog is correct, nothing to see here, please move along and keep your hands and feet away from the edge of the path at all times.

12:43pm: Lunch. It's Wednesday which means there's a small farmers' market on campus 1/2 a block from the library. One stand is for the "fruit guys" who typically have fantastic fruit. Decide I need to go find out what they have. And get a whoopie pie from the Amish stand for dessert. Yum.

1:12pm: Return from farmers' market. New farm stand and they were selling giant cucumbers at 3 for $1. Purchase three with plans to make my grandmother's cucumber-dill salad this weekend. Get plums from the fruit guys. And then tragedy! No chocolate whoopie pies! Only pumpkin. But I want chocolate. So I am forced, forced I tell you, to purchase a slice of chocolate-raspberry cake instead. I ignore my mother's voice in my head to eat dessert first and am good and eat my fruit and tuna-green bean salad first. I even split the rather large slice of cake with my pregnant colleague (feed the pregnant lady...for your own safety and the safety of all your colleagues/friends, trust me).

1:29pm: Finish lunch, check, respond, forward emails.

2:09pm: Realize I'm a doofus and forgot to change my GTalk status. Apparently I'm still at lunch. Oops.

2:10pm: Return to reviewing intern's original cataloging serial records.

2:12pm: Colleague stops by to express his regret that he will not be able to attend the Supervisors' Group meeting this afternoon. *smack forehead* Profusely thank him for telling me because it reminded me of the meeting. A meeting for a group I'm chair of and have to run. Hurriedly print out various documentation for the meeting and review notes. Fortunately our head of library HR and I meet regularly to plan the agenda for these meetings ahead of time. Today we're facilitating a discussion on the University's computing policy.

2:20pm: Leave desk to go unlock door and fire up computer for meeting. Bring up various online documents for discussion.

4:10pm: Supervisors' meeting over. Shut down computer and lock up meeting room. Return to desk. Good discussion on creating a "best practices" document for all staff covering use of computer workstations in the library to supplement the University's computing policy.

4:15pm: Check email. Brief discussion with tech services Director about use of development server by bibliographers to preview the electronic resource record set loads. Also inquire about extending my intern by a few weeks to complete her project. Get go ahead to ask HR about intern policies. Promptly send email to person in HR.

4:31pm: Update calendar. Schedule 2 planning meetings for August Supervisors' Group meeting. Sync work desktop calendar with Google calendar (it's a manual thing...no auto-sync yet!).

4:57pm: Update to-do list for tomorrow. Last review of email and deletion of various listserv messages. Log off of various and sundry programs. Schedule the publishing of this post. Shut down (restart) computer. Pack up. Look outside and made decision based on nasty rainstorm to take the trolley home. Bike can have a sleepover in the library (we have a bike rack in the staff area so it's secure). Leave work.

Library Day in the Life - Day 2

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

6:30am: Wake up a little on the late side. Shower, prepare lunch and thermos of coffee, give cat small amount of milk as treat and appeasement for the upcoming daily abandonment.

7:15am: Eating my cereal. Discover ant carcass floating in milk. Feel nauseous. Throw out cereal in bowl and remaining cereal in tupperware container (can ants really get into tupperware?!?). Opt for granola bar instead.

7:45am: Biking to work. At one point, going uphill, a cab passes me, then abruptly turns on hazard lights and starts to pull in front of me less than 10 feet away. PANIC. I brake hard, making my brakes squeal and leaving a skid mark with my rear tire(again, going uphill), and scream/curse at him. He quickly pulls away and speeds to the next light. I catch up at the light, look at him through his open window and say "SERIOUSLY, dude?!?". He shrugs. What the &*$#@ does a shrug mean?

7:58am: Arrive at work. Slightly sweaty from humidity and very very annoyed and slightly shaky from cab incident. Not a good way to start the day.

8:00am: Login to work network. Login to email, calendar, other various and sundry programs. Open up Voyager cataloging and acquisitions modules and OCLC Connexion. Make to-do list. Check in with staff that arrives early. Check voice-mail (blinking light). Other staff person out sick today. Make note on calendar and update HR spreadsheet accordingly.

8:20am: Read email. Forward and respond to necessary messages. Curse when discover that a colleague ignored my request to send all emails to a particular vendor through me as we work to resolve a problem. He sent his own message without notifying me first. Grrrr. Send polite email reiterating request that all communications regarding catalog records for that collection are sent through me to prevent duplicating information.

8:40am: Finally get around to pouring coffee from thermos and drinking it. Adrenaline from bike ride wearing off and need to caffeinate appears. Catch up on news feeds, Tweets (TweetDeck FTW!), work email listservs. Scan subjects and then delete mass numbers of listserv messages.

9:00-10:00am: Meet with Rare Books Cataloging Librarian to discuss a plan for addressing rare serials in collections and up in rare books stacks. Starting with an existing project as a test case. Will start training staff on what a serial record is and recognizing good copy next week. Later I'll train her on editing existing copy and eventually basic original cataloging.

10:15am: Oh look! A locally done latest entry catalog record sent to me by the Serials Librarian for updating/splitting into successive entry. And even better, it has a title of "Journal". Yup, just "Journal" in the 245. That's helpful (NOT). Print out bib record and give to staff person to update/fix. Fortunately, record in OCLC is for successive entry...apparently we invented the need for latest entry on this title locally. Fabulous.

10:30am: Take some time to read the comments on the ALA Connect Event Planner survey post and then add my own comments. Have ALA Connect and the Event Planner talk to each other and pre-populate my calendar with required meetings at conferences? YES PLEASE!

10:45am: Install the Voyager development clients, AGAIN. First install (done several weeks ago) seems to be borked. Delete old clients. Find instructions/link email to reinstall. Test...and it works!

11:10am: Start reviewing problems associated with record set loaded into development server for testing by Metadata Specialist. She also sent an email highlighting some of the obvious issues. Problems include: URL problems (what?), record merges (hmm...) and general mayhem/weirdness. Compile email to Metadata Specialist as I identify and find solutions to various issues.

12:45pm: Send completed email response to Metadata Specialist with instructions how to fix some of said problems. Others, unfortunately, will have to be fixed by hand (including 16 problem URLs with no conceivable reason for existing).

12:46pm: New email from "fixopac" that an ebook is not actually available in the collection it says it is. Detective work needed. URL in record actually points to a completely different title in the collection that's not in our catalog. The title in our catalog isn't on our custom collection title list on the website. Clearly we have an issue and need to reconcile the records in the catalog with the custom title list maintained by bibliographers. Forward email to bibliographer in charge of custom collection title list for clarification: which title are we supposed to have?

1:05pm: Response by colleague to earlier email from Director of tech services that no one has responded to her request to lead a training for tech services department staff on the University's online email client. Colleague has volunteered himself and yours truly. Training set for end of August. Now must find tutorials and teach myself webmail (in depth...I can use it, but I don't use it regularly) so I can teach others.

1:12pm: LUNCH. OMG hungry. Also, need to seek out soda or other caffeinated beverage. Catch up on feeds, Facebook, and other social networking stuff while eating. Also, read comics. Visited by and received grief from the building manager (no clear reason why other than he felt like it - word to the wise, make friends with the building manager where ever you work, it will be to your benefit, grief from said building manager is an extra bonus). Confirmed dinner plans with friend at the Indian place near us both (it's Dining Days - price fixed meals at restaurants in my neighborhood!).

1:45pm: Colleague stops by with idea for webmail training for tech services staff. Do a staff survey (SurveyMonkey?) to find out what exactly they want info about so we know how to target our training session.

1:58pm: Finish lunch. Check email.

2:08pm: Staff person informs me she was stuck in the elevator. We have three elevators at this end of the building. Right now one is completely out of service, one works (but takes forever), and the third is erratic. It's elevator roulette in the library! Good times.

2:12pm: Going in search of caffeine as I didn't go during my lunch. Give colleague grief that it's his fault since he stopped by to chat about training while I was noshing.

2:20pm: Find email I thought I had sent to vendor, and told bibliographer I had sent to vendor (which the bibliographer sent email supposedly duplicated), sitting in drafts folder. Send mea culpa email to bibliographer. Edit email to vendor so as to not duplicate what bibliographer sent, as well as answer other vendor questions. Sigh. And grrr at my sieve-for-brains self. Actually SEND email at end of day this time.

2:51pm: Email technology department inquiring about login and password combo for electronic classroom computers that will allow the Serials Librarian and I to do some Voyager training for staff on Thursday morning. There's a separate/different login needed to access library staff programs (like the catalog) on those computers as they are generally used for bibliographic instruction sessions for students. However, it is the only classroom of computers in the building so we also have to use it for hands-on staff training on various library programs.

3:00pm: Begin reviewing intern's original cataloging serial records again. Must. Finish. Today. My intern's last day of work is this coming Tuesday. OMG PANIC. I thought I had her until mid-August!! How I am going to suddenly absorb 20 more hours worth of work into my already full days is a complete mystery.

3:05pm: Realize that a colleague needs to prep her staff to take over cataloging of an online book collection my intern has been doing (no set of records available for download/purchase, so must be done by hand individually). Email to colleague in charge of copy cataloging, reminding her that my intern is leaving and that someone in her department needs to be lined up to take on the individual title by title cataloging of an ebook collection we subscribe to via new-title alerts from vendor.

3:08pm: Back to reviewing my intern's original cataloging.

3:25pm: Break to check email, Facebook, TweetDeck, etc.

3:35pm: Back to reviewing my intern's original cataloging.

4:24pm: Submit single ISSN record upgrade information to the ISSN Center webform.

4:30pm: Give up on reviewing for the day. Will finish in the morning before I meet with my intern at 11am. Yet another day taken over by electronic resource issues.

4:37pm: Brief chat with dinner friend about pre-dinner beers at Local 44. I'm so in. Beers at 5:30pm, dinner at Desi Village at 6:30pm, and roasted peach ice cream for dessert at my place. Oh yeah. Happy foodie librarian!

4:45pm: Update to-do list for tomorrow. Last review of email and deletion of various listserv messages. Log off of various and sundry programs. Publish this post. Shut down (restart) computer. Pack up and leave work. Bike home to drop off bike before the food and fun activities of the evening begin.

A new and car-light approach to shopping

Not using my car has caused me to change the way I shop for pretty much everything.

Before I used to make lots of trips, going to whatever store I needed on any given day. I didn't think twice about running to a store one night, and then the next night driving back to the same shopping area for another errand (either to the same place or one nearby). Each store was viewed as a separate element.

Not so anymore. For example, now my food shopping trips are smaller, more frequent. I also buy less and smaller sizes knowing I have to carry it home myself. I still do the "stocking up" kind of shopping, but in smaller batches. I'll stock up on pasta one trip, and on cereal/grains the next time. It's just more staggered now.

I'm also doing my grocery shopping in different places, places closer to home or convenient to biking/public transit. I do the bulk of my fresh fruit and vegetable shopping at the farmers' market, which is walking distance from home. Things I can't get there (admittedly, there's not much...I even get beans, pasta, milk, meat, cheese and yogurt at the Clark Park farmers' market because it's all kinds of awesome), I get from my neighborhood store (biking and walking distance!) or by taking the trolley down to Trader Joe's.

It's actually impacting my approach to eating as well. It's no longer easy to stock up on frozen meals/ice-cream/anything (they'd never make it home in the humid Philly summer heat!), so I'm being forced to eat only fresh or make my own frozen meals. Refrigerated goods travel in a soft sided insulated bag. I talked about the general shift I've made to eating fresh foods in this post, but the having to make changes to how and when I shop has only solidified my shift to primarily fresh and homemade foods. Ice cream I'm making myself, thanks to the Christmas gift from my grandmother of the ice cream bowl for my KitchenAid stand mixer (which rocks, FYI). Frozen dinners are now portioned out and frozen servings of homemade soups, stews and other meals. And believe you me, it all tastes SO much better when it's homemade.

Frankly, shifting the way I shop for food was easy. I was already half way there thanks to my CSA (I signed up for a summer 1/2 share) and the close proximity of the farmers' market.

The challenges I'm finding to this new approach to shopping are things that I have to buy in larger quantities, such as cat litter, and bulky items, such as paper towels. I'm also having to plan trips more. No longer am I running to the same shopping area more than once in a week. Now I'm waiting until I have a major list of things before I hit the stores. Now I'm planning so I go to multiple places at once. And making lists so I don't forget anything. There's no just hopping back in the car to retrieve what I forgot. Shopping trips are no longer viewed as a individual elements (each store individually), but rather one big trip with multiple pieces.

I'm coming up on the need to run errands for cat food, cat litter, and other such items that require a trip farther away than my bike can take me (and for not really bike friendly purchases) and not really accessible by public transit. Since I've never done this before, I'm planning my trip for Sunday and will most likely grossly overestimate the amount of time I'll need. Ah well. It's a learning process, right?