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Thursday, May 24, 2012

Long weekend

The Ascension Day weekend was spent doing very little. We had Thursday-Sunday off. I went to a mall and got some small things. Apart from that, not much happened. The weather became noticeably warmer Sunday, and it was nice to sit on the balcony. We have summer now, and it was a long wait. The flowers on my balcony are still alive, but I have to water every day. I don't think I have ever had as many flowers there as now. I bought a corner shelf made of metal to have some of the flowers on, and it looks very pretty.

The change in weather meant that people are complaining about the non-existing air conditioning at the library. It usually takes a few days before you notice the heat indoors. My office windows face south, so I work in a hot climate in the summer. It's not that bad yet, it's about 24-25 centigrades outdoors.

The move is progressing. The young and strong guys continue their efforts to move our books. We got more carts today (the moving company had some), so I hope it makes the waiting times shorter. This is the time of year when the students return many of their books. We are very busy sorting and shelving right now, and it will go on through mid-June. I drove the storage round twice this week, and it was a challenge to retrieve books from the newly moved collection. There are no lists on the bookshelves (yet) indicating what books they contain. It's a guessing game. I work a lot in the old collection, but I don't know exactly in what order the call numbers are there (it's not alphabetical or numerical).

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Weekend at the summer house

The trip to Holland was unfortunately cancelled. My mother was not feeling well, so we couldn't go. She travelled down from Borås, so we took the train and bus to the summer house on Thursday instead. She was supposed to have moved there right after the trip anyway. We engaged in work in the yard (mowing the long grass was a challenge). We got the lawn furniture out and got the house ready for summer. Saturday we went by bus to one of the fleamarket stores in Åhus, and then we met two of my mother's friends there, who drove us home. We took the opportunity to go grocery shopping also, since they gave us a lift. My mother sold her car last year, so she will have to make it without one now.

Sunday I returned home. This is a short work week (3 days), but several things have already happened. Today the movers contacted me and said that they couldn't use the loading door because of asphalt work. They got stuck in the wet asphalt and couldn't reach the door with the truck. So now all seven of them are working at the main library, with some small projects. A few collections will be moved to other floors of the same building.

Yesterday was the first visit I made to the new storage since the start of the move. I actually haven't had time to see it before. The first thing I noticed was the fact that it needs cleaning. The floors were very dirty. This is because of the carts being transported back and forth in the corridor. The move seems to be going well. There are waiting times  in between deliveries, but there isn't much to do about that. They were running low on bookends (a very important detail), so I packed three boxes when I got back to the main library. I had a meeting with the one in charge of economy and budget here, and he gave me a chart with numbers on. Very high numbers. It's apparently very expensive to hire movers for such a long time as we have to. Not to mention all the extra costs (new carts, ladders, office supplies and so on) we have had. But he was happy to report that the rent for the new facility is lower than the rent for all the old storages combined, and that was good to hear. When the move is done the old storages will be empty, so we will no longer rent those buildings.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

New exhibit

Friday afternoon there was a new exhibit opened in the library entry hall. Some of my colleagues had worked with the displays for months. The theme was the 1980s - the superficial era of pastel colors, MTV, hairspray and the end of cold war. There were lots of things to look at: pop magazines, newspaper headlines, a walkman, the first mobile phone (weighed almost 5 kilos), the first home computer (with a memory of totally 5 kB), heavy metal album covers, popular books, Star Wars memorabilia, computer games and pink plastic earrings & sunglasses. I was a teenager during the 1980s and there were so many flashbacks in this exhibit. The main news items from this decade included the assassination of our Prime Minister, the tearing down of the Berlin wall and the explosion of the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. Almost everything else about the 1980s contrasted against these headlines. It was all about appearance. The fashion was, in retrospect, appalling with enormous shoulder pads and sharp neon colors, but back then it was completely normal to wear a bright orange top, headband, shiny tights, lace gloves, knitted leg-warmers/tube-socks and pumps (all colors had to clash). Rhinestone jewelry and extremely colorful make-up added to the look. What an era.

Saturday there was a local spring market, where the societies and clubs had their bake sales and tombolas to raise money for their activities. Also the political parties and the businesses participated. Didn't get anything, but had lunch with a colleague whom I bumped into in the main street. Sunday I was at the closest mall, and did some shopping. I needed a bigger pot for one of my house plants, and that has been very difficult to find. Finally bought one there.

This Thursday I will go on a four day trip with my mother. We are going with a bus company to see the tulips in Holland. I'm sure we will see some other things also.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Weather change

The four days off work I didn't do much. That's probably why I have back problems now.

The weather changed from Sunday to Monday, so it's pretty warm and sunny. I finally brought the winter coats up to the attic after a very long, but not so fierce winter season. I spent some time on the balcony, admiring the green and blooming yard (and flower box). There is a very high level of pollen out, and that has affected also me, even though I'm not allergic. Several colleagues have colds, but I'm still doing ok.

The first working day was Wednesday and I went with the movers to a storage to retrieve the books on botany (120 meters). They were moved to the new facility pretty quickly, and then they started with books on economy, back at the main library again. The movers are managing quite well, it's at the breaks between collections when they need assistance. My boss had opinions about my time report for April, but it has really been necessary to work that much. I was able to leave early Thursday, so I went shopping in town.