Well, yesterday was a whole lot of fun. Here's how I spent my time:
6-7 a.m.: Blogging
7-8 a.m.: Walk dog, get ready for work, breakfast
8:30a.m. - 12 p.m.: Work work work work
12:00-12:20 p.m.: Lunch
12:20 - 4:30 p.m.: Work work work work
5 - 6 p.m.: Visit Dave in hospital
6:30 p.m.: Feed dog, feed myself
7 - 8 p.m.: Read news, e-mail, etc.
8-9 p.m.: Zoom call with financial adviser
9:30 p.m.: Bed
If that sounds to you like a day with not very much joy in it, you'd be right. That door above was a bright spot.
Work was especially crazy. Apparently it's not enough for the high school English teachers to simply bring their students down to the library to choose books for the holidays. We need to pre-select about a hundred books and lay them all out on tables and write little summaries so the kids don't have to be troubled to read the book jackets themselves. I understand pulling books when they have to fit a certain profile -- all written in the first person, for example -- but some of the teachers don't seem to care what the students check out, and all this presentation just makes a million times more work for us.
I don't know why high schoolers can't be expected to find their own books. Why can't they simply use the catalog, read the book jackets and choose what interests them? That's what I used to do when I went to the library. Why all the spoon-feeding and hand-holding?
And there's more of it today -- as well as helping the middle school librarian get some projects together, and doing all the other stuff that normally falls within my purview. Literally not a spare moment.
When I went to visit Dave in the evening, I found that someone has smashed one of the elevator displays at the hospital. The resulting pattern looks like a gigantic tree, or maybe a mushroom cloud. This is normally a screen that allows us to select the floor we need, and then directs us to the appropriate elevator. This one isn't doing any directing.
Dave seemed subdued, but more or less OK. I think he's getting pretty bored. They've taken his oxycodone away and he's now on a different pain med that the nurses administer. He's still not on solid food, which I don't understand -- they say his bowel is fine, but they want to "rest" it. Doesn't he need nutrition? He says he's not hungry, and the food is terrible anyway, so maybe it's just as well -- but still.
On the way out of the hospital I bought my own dinner at the sandwich shop -- a turkey (or chicken?), cranberry and stuffing sandwich and some mango chunks. I brought it home, where Olga successfully begged for a few chunks of sandwich meat.
Afterwards, she took full advantage of the increased space on Dave's side of the bed.
I never quite get zoom calls, beyond during lockdown to see your friend's faces. Why would you want to see your financial advisor's face, and it see yours?
ReplyDeleteHelicopter parents want their children to be served with a full plate. I think what you have described is just terrible. But then again, anything to get them to read.
The food business seems strange after hernia surgery, but I am not a doctor.
Not the most exciting day.
ReplyDeleteShocking to see the vandalism there. Hopefully caught on cctv?
Yes, Dave will be bored..I don't blame him. He may not be getting solid food but he will probably be on meal replacement drinks..which will reduce the muscle work. I suppose having had to redo the surgery they are being extra careful?
Well done Olga for keeping an eye on you !
I’m surprised that you would be required to do all that for the high school students (and their teachers). What do you suppose got the hospital patron so angry? I hope there was no new blood on the floor. Olga had better make room for Dave when he gets home. His Crohn’s makes everything so much more difficult. I hope he’s better and home soon.
ReplyDeleteWriting little summaries: does not make sense. You already know how to summarize a book. It's the students who need practice doing this, not you. Good lord.
ReplyDeleteAs a former English teacher, I never had the audacity to ask a librarian to pre-select a hundred books and write brief summaries of them for visiting classes. Besides, everybody knows that librarians have much more important things to do like joking with each other, blogging and tending the plants. Their grumpiness is legendary - like that of receptionists in doctors' surgeries.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Only kidding!
High school kids and you have to do that? What's wrong with those teachers? Methinks they are probably helicopter parents too, (aka "Smothers") if they have their own kids. How in the world will these kids cope in college? And beyond. Sometimes I'm glad I'm aging because the future does look bleak. It does sound like a grim day; the sandwich and Olga time might have been the best of it! I'm sure Dave really wants to be home but probably good to keep an eye out, especially with the meds. Food soon, I hope!
ReplyDeleteWhy are the kids being babied into thinking they can't pick their own books? I don't get that; the library is a space to explore and find that thing that interests you.
ReplyDeleteI understand Dave being subdued ... hospitals and hospital food will do that!
Color me not surprised. At least around here, kids are coddled all the time by those around them compared to my generation. Our school had a single librarian who just came in once a week for a couple hours to put all the returned books on the shelf. We students were responsible for finding our own books, writing our name on the library card to check it out and putting it in a slotted box on the librarian's desk.
ReplyDeletesounds like the old saying" Give a student a fish and he eats for a day- teach the student to fish..." well, you know the rest. That is truly lame. Students are being made lazy and entitled which will do them a harm . But you know that already.
ReplyDeleteI love the smashed display! That would fetch millions at Sothebys. You could ask to have it, sign it and watch the cash roll in.
Yes, we all agree that the students should be taught to look for the books themselves. Even directing them to online summary sites would be an easy way to teach them how to find books using their phones or laptops. My grandson who is 8 says they use their own laptops in the school library center to search for books. There is an app on their laptop for it.
ReplyDeleteI think you are grumpy because you miss Dave. Your normal routine is changed and you need him home. Hopefully, all will be well soon.
Now I wonder if I should chronicle my day similarly! Yours sounds pretty typical. I don't get why the librarian does the
ReplyDeleteWork-wise, I'm feeling a bit lucky. My work seems to slow down at this time of year. We close the week between Christmas and New Year and it just seems like everything is slowing down these days.
ReplyDeleteI'm betting that Dave will feel so much better once he's home. It's just a better environment for healing. Snuggling with Olga will provide a big healing element.
I have to tell you that when I see a "command" like that when I'm having a particularly unhappy time of it I think, "Make me, motherf**ker."
ReplyDeleteI sure hope Dave gets to come home soon. Poor guy.