Feet Feats

After leaving a school site near my apartment, I noticed, "Hey, there's a library branch right there!"  Indeed, it is just about 1/2 mile from my place.  I have been there twice already.  It is small, but the price is right (free), and it allows me to read books I want to read but not buy.  More interestingly, it caused me to achieve, if not a record, a remarkable feat.  I now have three, valid library cards for libraries in three different cities (two states):  where my condo. is, where my mom lives, and here.  Thing One asked me if I had a library card from the Noog, as well, but I don't.  The school library patronage was so limited, the librarian just logged the books under my name in the system.

The first time I visited the library, I filled out the application, showed my proof of residence (bank statement), and showed my new, driver's license.  I picked some books off the shelf, but the other librarian couldn't find me in the computer.  "But I just put him in there," the first librarian said.  After much pondering, the second librarian suggested that, maybe, the first librarian hadn't clicked to submit my data to the system.  She went back to her computer and, sure enough, hadn't completed the enrollment process.  "I must have been distracted," she said.  Well, yes, my virile, muscular body tends to do that to people. :)

On my second visit, a different librarian handed me my books and the check-out slip, and I said, "But you haven't even scanned them."  No, she said, it wasn't necessary because all she had to do was place the books on that pad (similar to this one) on her desk, and it scanned all the tags instantaneously (even in one stack).  Wow, that's quite a technological advance to someone like me, who remembers card catalogs and libraries that didn't need scanners at the door, to monitor for pilfered books!

My other accomplishment was learning that I can walk to the post office.  (It's about the same distance, maybe a little farther than the library.)  I dropped off some bills this morning.  It's nice to know I have an alternative to taking my mail to the office and putting it in the outgoing mail tray, especially if I want to mail something on the weekend.  (It has to be pre-stamped letters, though, as the service section of this branch is closed on weekends, so no buying stamps or mailing packages on Saturday.)

During my walk this morning, I observed a variation on my well-documented ability to snuff out streetlights as I pass by them.  Apparently, I also turn off parking lot lights.  On my way to the post office, I turned off the lights in a church parking lot.  On my walk back, they turned off in a strip mall parking lot.  (Note:  this was well before dawn, and the sky was still black, so it couldn't have been a photocell system in either case -- unless both photocells are faulty.)