Friday, June 27, 2025
Bird's foot trefoil (and ant)
Last Sunday at church the pastor asked the congregation if anyone had prayer requests. One man piped up "Ask him to turn the spigot off. I've got hay to put in." The Lord has other plans though 'cause as I drove to the library for my volunteer stint it was raining hard. I arrive at 4 p.m. and the Summer Reading Program starts at 6. I have a couple of hours to record stats, put away books, pull books, and other tasks before the children arrive and activities begin. Around 5:00 a woman came in and asked to see the cemetery records. She explained she was new to the area and wanted to find the grave of her grandfather. I said that the village has those records. I gave her the village contact information and hours they would be open. She asked how to get to the cemetery so I told her to go up one block, turn east, go another block, and turn north. The road would dead-end (so to speak) at the cemetery. She sat at one of the library's couches and looked out at the pounding rain. I finished up my immediate tasks, volunteers were busy setting up for the Summer Reading Program, no one was browsing the stacks so I asked Librarian Trevor if I could have 15 minutes off. He said he'd watch the front desk for me and I went over to the lady and asked if she wanted to ride w/ me to the cemetery so she'd know where it was. She brightened up and immediately agreed. Even in a small village it's not the easiest thing to find your way around. We drove in my car to the cemetery. I asked the name of her grandfather and drove slowly through just in case we saw the name. Actually found the gravesite. Back at the library, I deposited her next to her car in the lot. Still raining. Would any children show up for tonight's activities? They certainly couldn't walk the block to the Historical Society to get the time capsule as planned for tonight. It had been created in 2000 by children and helpers at the library. Someone took a bolt cutters, went to the Historical Society, and soon came back w/ the capsule. Not a huge crowd but the back area was filled w/ people for the opening. For the event all of the former librarians were invited. The capsule was filled with notes written by each person about what they thought they would be doing in the year 2025. Each note was read aloud and I could hear gales of laughter. I was busy at the front desk. Those little kids dropped off a ton of books to check in and put away. At 7, I didn't announce the library was closing. People were still talking, eating, and drinking punch. Some who don't usually visit the library were looking around. Kids were playing. I was finishing up putting away books and didn't have anything else to get to. People eventually started to leave until it was just some of the librarians talking. I closed up, left one light on where they were and asked them to turn it off when they left.
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