Someone slammed this closed Chinese restaurant on Finchley Road with graffiti over the past few days. I just noticed it yesterday afternoon walking home from work. Here's what it looked like before.
I'm surprised that this prime commercial space on a major north-south artery just sits vacant month after month. As I've written in the past, I will never understand commercial real estate and the lack of any urgency to find a tenant to occupy a property.
I don't have a lot of news today, but I sure am glad this week is ending. It has been brutal. Just busy as all heck and lots of needy people. I mean, I'm a library assistant, so helping people is my job, and I certainly don't mind it -- especially when they're kids. But I am always puzzled by adults who can't manage to use a catalogue to find out whether we have certain books, or can't figure out shelf signs to locate them, or who can't make their own copies, or who want us to essentially redesign our summer reading promotional materials to fit their own demands. I know I sound like a bitter crank. I think my quotient of patience is maxing out.
And overdues! Don't get me started! We only have three more days with students and I have 17 PAGES of overdue materials still out. (Eleven pages of students, the rest teachers, parents and faculty.) I have never, ever had such a terrible year for collecting stuff.
Just one more week. And really just four days, since I'm out Thursday for a colonoscopy. As I told Dave last night, you know it's bad when you would much rather have a colonoscopy than go to work!
I'm surprised that this prime commercial space on a major north-south artery just sits vacant month after month. As I've written in the past, I will never understand commercial real estate and the lack of any urgency to find a tenant to occupy a property.
I don't have a lot of news today, but I sure am glad this week is ending. It has been brutal. Just busy as all heck and lots of needy people. I mean, I'm a library assistant, so helping people is my job, and I certainly don't mind it -- especially when they're kids. But I am always puzzled by adults who can't manage to use a catalogue to find out whether we have certain books, or can't figure out shelf signs to locate them, or who can't make their own copies, or who want us to essentially redesign our summer reading promotional materials to fit their own demands. I know I sound like a bitter crank. I think my quotient of patience is maxing out.
And overdues! Don't get me started! We only have three more days with students and I have 17 PAGES of overdue materials still out. (Eleven pages of students, the rest teachers, parents and faculty.) I have never, ever had such a terrible year for collecting stuff.
Just one more week. And really just four days, since I'm out Thursday for a colonoscopy. As I told Dave last night, you know it's bad when you would much rather have a colonoscopy than go to work!
I'm not saying the graffiti is an improvement, but the shop doesn't look inviting in the old photo.
ReplyDeleteIt is terrible when you are counting down the days before a break, and then again as the break nears an end.
Definitely graffiti not wall art!
ReplyDeleteAnyone taking that on would have massive expense to bring it back up to scratch. Even more expense and time if they wanted to change it's classification from food outlet.
I'm not surprised that no-one wants to take it on in the present times.
You need an assistant to deal with the adults!!
How do instill in people of all ages that "borrow" means that it has to return?
Perhaps you could arrange to have a colonoscopy every day though some days you might prefer a semicolonoscopy! Does your almost new boss have thoughts about the overdues? Maybe she has higher issues to contemplate.
ReplyDeleteSorry work has been so unpleasant. And I DO know the feeling of preferring a colonoscopy over work! That mess on the closed Chinese Restaurant would drive me crazy. We have vacant spots like that, too. I always wonder if there’s some kind of legal problem involved.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the preparation for your colonoscopy, that is always the worst part. I remember a faculty member who had so much checked out and overdue to our library that her borrowing was suspended until all fines were paid and materials returned. She could not locate all of it at once so it took two months for everything tp come back.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a frustrating time. Added pressure to get everything cleared up before the end of the school year. I understand students not being organized but faculty? it's not their personal library!
ReplyDeleteI imagine there are efforts, unavailing, to sell that property. I wouldn't assume the owners aren't trying to unload it.
Your last line says it all!
ReplyDeleteSometimes a colonoscopy IS better than work. I can see why you're frustrated. And even worse when the teachers have so many of the overdues! Good luck this week -- hopefully you can get a bit of a break in a few days.
ReplyDeleteIt does indeed sound like you are very ready for your summer break!
ReplyDeleteThe end is near. And I am not stalking about your colonscopy. Tim's is Friday. It is so nice that the 'prep' is so much easier than it used to be. At least you do not feel as if you are turning yourself inside out.
ReplyDeleteJack keeps asking me about graffiti, we see a lot of it on the train cars that we drive by once a week on his way to his mom's apartment. I don't know how to explain it, it's part art and part illegal expression, sometimes it's very good and sometimes it's just ugly. A bit too nuanced for a five year old:)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the books.
Hey! I get it. At least with a colonoscopy, drugs are provided.
ReplyDeleteAt least you know it will be over soon (school AND the colonoscopy). Hang in there, Steve.
ReplyDeleteThe outstanding books will find their way to you, or they wont. Maybe some of them will turn up over the summer, and others in the fall. Either way, it's out of your control. Breathe, my friend. They're lucky to have a library assistant as conscientious as you are.
ReplyDeleteat this point, I'd much rather have to go to work than undergo another medical procedure.
ReplyDeleteSteve, This is off topic but you seem to be the most computer literate of the blogs I follow so
ReplyDeleteIs there a way to get back to the beginning of a blog without having to scroll back page by page?
Good luck on Thursday and hope you enjoy your time off once school closes.
With absolutely no data to back me up, I still contend that people are more and more careless about libraries these days. And of fellow humans - you know, the people who won't have access to the books because you, the narcissistic borrower, can't be bothered to return them.
ReplyDeleteOh, I so remember ranting not just about students at the end of the year, but the behavior of adults--other staff members, parents, admin, etc. It was enough to drive me over the edge although I don't think I would prefer a colonoscopy. Hope that everything settles down and all or some of it gets resolved!
ReplyDeleteThey make so much on realestate rentals that they can float for a while. the end of the school year is chaotic and I can tell you that and I wasn't in the library. I was probably one of those people who had an overdue book.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the outstanding books find their way back to the library. You'll start to enjoy the summer when school is out and the colonoscopy is over.
ReplyDeleteYeah , what MER said- the drugs are great!
ReplyDeleteAnd POO POO on your job, it's the end of the school year , you should just call in-"NOT coming"!
As you know I also can get pretty grumpy with our employees - some of them are so helpless. I can usually handle it, but sometimes some pour soul gets Cranky Dana.
ReplyDeleteI think many of us have had weeks like that! Good luck with those over-dues but, enjoy the weekend first.
ReplyDeleteAndrew: Yeah, it's a terrible-looking shopfront. They need to strip off all that awful pink granite (or whatever it is).
ReplyDeleteGZ: Yeah, and who knows what it looks like inside? I DO need an assistant! LOL
YP: Of the four of us, I'm the only one who really works to get stuff back. Maybe I should care less.
Mitchell: Yeah, or the building has structural issues, or something like that. Who knows.
E: Thank you! Fortunately the prep is not as bad as it used to be. The modern drugs are "gentler."
Boud: The teachers are just as bad as the students. We have some teachers who have had books out for YEARS.
Bob: That about sums it up!
Jeanie: I am so looking forward to it!
Michael: Definitely!
Debby: Yeah, the last one I had, I was surprised at how easy it was. It used to be quite uncomfortable, as I recall.
Pixie: Yeah, don't let him get any ideas! LOL
Ms Moon: Exactly! LOL
Ellen D: I will be glad for that. Depending on what the colonoscopy finds, of course.
37P: That's how I'm looking at it. My need to get everything back is really MY need, self-imposed. If it doesn't happen, I'm just going to roll with it. I can't control other people.
Ellen: Yeah, I'm sure you've had enough for the time being! Understandable!
Shyleigh: If you scroll to the top of the page and hit the banner (like where mine says "Shadows & Light") it usually takes you right back to the most recent post. Is that what you mean? Or do you mean "beginning" as in the OLDEST posts? Because in that case I think you just have to scroll, if there's no blog archive in the sidebar.
Marty: I think books are so commonplace and relatively inexpensive that they aren't seen as the objects of value they once were. I mean, people throw them away, for God's sake!
Margaret: I guess it's a universal feeling among those of us who work in schools!
Red: Ha! RETURN YOUR BOOK, RED! :)
Susan: Yeah, I am looking forward to that time, for sure.
Linda Sue: I wish I could do that! Yeah, the drugs ARE great, though I prefer being knocked out. I'll just be in a twilight for the colonoscopy.
Bug: I mean, I try to be patient with people who need assistance, but it's hard not to want to yell "WHY CAN'T YOU HANDLE THIS YOURSELF?!?!"
Sharon: If they don't come back, they don't come back. It's out of my control!
Shyleigh: An additional thought! If you know when a blog began, and you're using Blogger, you can type in a URL that includes the date of the earliest posts. For example, in my case, it would be:
ReplyDeletehttps://shadowsteve.blogspot.com/2006/05/
That takes you back to May 2006, when my blog started.
Hope this helps!