aesmael

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

New skill acquired today: pricing books. Got to use a thingy[1] and everything. I had been worried about running out of books to stock on the shelves, but now the main worry is whether people will be buying enough, after two large arrivals this week. A small steady stream of purchases, half a dozen or so books sold each day. Not bad.

I couldn't help a woman find any space books for her son. There were none worth the calling, a disadvantage of relying on donations for stock. Similarly I tried to find some books to get my mother for Mother's Day (I am sure there are better gifts I could give, but I don't know what they are, so books are safe), thinking to try getting a few on the theme of 'detectives she watches on television', but most of the ones available I've never known her to watch. If she were to read this, she'd find out I intend on Saturday while I am working to buy for her the one Kathy Reichs book in stock and a couple of Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters. I have a good impression of those, and would love to give the series a try myself someday, although being honest it seems unlikely I will get to. So hopefully my mother will get to enjoy them instead.

Also have my eye on a nice, cheap formal dress for myself which I may attempt purchasing under some guise. Then all I will need is everything else.

Speaking of alsos, today I carried a rug the counter for a customer, and then out to the boot of her car. She shocked me by handing me a $5 note as a tip, I hope I managed to convey appreciation as well as shock, but really it took me long seconds after walking away to realise someone had given me money. So I suppose that is my total lifetime income from work as yet: $5. Do I need to report that to Centrelink? Will have to find out.

Lunch was a slice of unexpectedly tasty local pizza, so I am trying to track down that place in case I can ever afford to buy pizza for a meal.

Later at the toy library, it looked to be an unusually quiet session. At first only the two children of the other volunteer showed up, and a woman whose child was not present but whose questions I cheerfully answered (yes, you can borrow the toys, they count exactly the same as any other item from the library, and you just need to swipe the barcode at the self-checkout). Not long afterward it become much busier.

Despite the cabinets being fuller than we've ever seen them, there are also unusually huge piles of returns in need of cleaning, despite the two hours I put in on Tuesdays.

Hey, speaking of that: a couple of weeks ago I had an inspiration. See, the reason I have to volunteer at the charity shop is there are not enough hours of work for me at the library to satisfy Centrelink's requirements. But since the toy library was closed over Easter and toys still needed returning, so I decided to stay through the day and return as much of the accumulating backlog as I could. Headed home after seven hours, having made a big dent in it but not having finished. Discovered a parking ticket on my car, because I'd forgotten the parking lot was only for three hour parking. So that was unexpectedly expensive and I haven't done it again.

We did the best we could again and ended up slightly ahead, I think.

If I ever have children, I may be in for disappointment. So far my experience, toy library derived, is that children are very friendly and helpful when it comes to putting away toys, doing their best to make sure everything is neat and tidy.

One of the children built a tree out of Duplo blocks taller than himself, which was fun. It had a pterosaur nesting in the crown. Another (or maybe the same? I have trouble with... humans) I had to disappoint early on by telling I couldn't give out marbles unless the toy was being borrowed, because they would be a hazard to other children, and he wasn't allowed to borrow the marble run. Not forbidden by me, mind.

It went well, yepyepyep. Another triumphant day.

Non-chronologically, my copy of Veganomicon arrived shortly before I had to leave this morning. Am looking forward to getting to grips with it. Should be another interesting source of cooking ideas and knowledge.

That's about enough, yep.

[1] May actually be called a pricing gun. May not.