Car trouble and changes of circumstance

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

The following violates my single topic per post rule. I blame myself for not updating more diligently.

Offered to drive my sister to the station on Monday, as she'd just missed her bus. That was how we found out the car wasn't working. Bit of a worry, as I had an appointment Tuesday with my case manager.

I was sure it was not the battery, as I had driven the car just a few days after I got back and it was fine then. Plus that excursion was in the middle of the day, making it very unlikely I could have left the lights on.

As it turns out, the battery was flat. Still don't know how that happened, hoping it won't repeat itself. Took a few hours charging.

On the next day I went out to my meeting, only to be told I had misremembered and it was actually on Wednesday. Wouldn't have minded so much, except for the temperature being 40 much of this week. Took the opportunity, anyway, to poke around nearby shopping centre to see if I could find any items I considered urgent. Didn't find a good new water bottle, nor a new wallet. Did find that HDMI cables are expensive enough to make me question the worth of purchasing them.

I returned on Wednesday for the actual meeting. Due to the difficulty I have had securing sufficient mandatory volunteering hours it seems I shall have to do 30 hours/week at a nearby charity shop, if that too does not fall through. Expected to start after final arrangements settled in a couple of weeks and continue until mid-May.

It also came out that my case manager was not aware of my autism diagnosis. My first case manager never noted it in my file, and I do not recall if that was by agreement or not. So now I have been presented with an option.

I can have that noted on my record and possibly (or possibly not, at the whim of Centrelink) be moved to disability employment services, with a new case manager and presumably more focused assistance, and only be required to obtain part-time employment. At the moment, Centrelink doesn't intend to leave me alone until I find a full-time job.

I am concerned accruing official disability labels might hamper my immigration potential to other countries. I am also worried that I am very bad at being concrete about things I might benefit from, and what if I don't actually need any of those services? It seems like what I need help with is what anyone struggling to find a job could probably stand to be helped with.

My worry is I will either not benefit or suffer some long-term harm from the categorisation. But of course I also wonder if I would benefit. Might be something I could gain from which I don't realise or know how to express.

Clearly what I need to do is some research on the possibilities. I have a few weeks to think about it anyway, and my current plan is to try several weeks of the planned enforced volunteering first and see how I handle it - one of my concerns about myself is whether I can handle full-time work or whether I will collapse under it. The library placements I did were great, and I performed well, but so emotionally draining at the time I wondered whether I could handle a full work week of that every week, when two days a week were draining me so much. But I have to try a fuller schedule to find out.

Afterwards, another visit to the shopping centre. I picked up a copy of Clocks by Elena Kats-Chernin and, by serendipitous good fortune a secondhand copy of Metroid Prime Trilogy, which game had been discontinued over a year ago and which at that same location I'd been unable to find a copy despite diligent scouring when I tried. Also, some more looking around revealed HDMI cables to be more expensive than I thought.

Back not quite to work

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

Got a call a couple of weeks ago from the toy library, asking if I would be returning to volunteer again this year. Definitely yes; in fact my first day back was yesterday.

I was very nervous to begin with because, as usual, I arrived well before the librarian herself (she has to travel around between multiple libraries during the day and often is delayed) and so it fell to me to open up the toy library for the day again.

[in case I have not previously explained, the toy library is a subset of the larger council library network, with its own little corner which is when not a toy library part of the library where children's books are found, and run fairly separately from the rest of the library.]

I had to ask for the key from one of the regular librarians, of course, as it is Not Done for non-librarians to help themselves to the area behind the circulation desk, especially when they are not wearing name tags! *sound of horror* But I did help myself to back there later.

Another reason to be nervous about opening up the toy library: the area which it inhabits, during those times it is an actual library rather than a potential area, was infested with parents and / or adults reading to children who were presumed their offspring. It seemed a shame to disrupt that. Especially as once I unlocked and opened the toy cabinets the children quickly lost interest in the books.

One thing I love about librarians and working with them is that in my experience they are constantly striving to improve their libraries in utility, accessibility and efficiency. At one point I was taken aside to be shown an example of the new shelves and draws which have been ordered to improve the handling of missing or extra toy set components. Plus there was newly a metal sandwichboard to put out for promoting the occasional existence of an active toy library.

I managed to make a suggestion too, about improving the signs around the area. Currently the ones up on the wall are small and crowded and very easy to overlook.

In a couple of weeks I will have to handle the Thursdays entirely by myself, as the toy librarian (trying to avoid using names in situations like this, and saying 'my supervisor' doesn't feel quite appropriate either) will be unavailable for several weeks. Has said several times how much my volunteering there is appreciated and useful, including the coming in on Tuesdays to deal with the backlog of toys needing cleaning. I suppose I am fortunate I am not doing Wednesdays as well, which is much busier although at least has a team of volunteers.

This is something for me to feel good about, even if I am still learning the details.