May 20, 1992

Considering how much I'm cutting into library time with personal business -- taking care of a sick Eddie last week for example -- I'm surprised I can find time to continue weeding the fiction.  I do find time to review the long range plan, where I feel that changes can be kept to a minimum (i.e., I can save myself some work here) and the overdues section of the circulation policy.  Now if I could just find time to revise my basic reference syllabus and start coming up with a structure for the children's reference workshop.

I get a lot of exercise today since my threat to have nothing to do with getting the van tun ed up proves to be nothing but hot air.  Big surprise.  I'm first in the service line at Russ Darrow.  I walk home without stopping for breakfast at IHOP or Denny's, not wanting to risk a violent case of IBS along Gammon Road.  A minimal staffing level at the library forces me to postpone a planned return walk after lunch to the late afternoon.  I pick up the boys, Eddie first.  When JoAnna returns home, the boys and I are playing on the hammock.

May 18, 1992

Already a short week is looking much shorter, with a scheduled Friday departure date to Pennsylvania. The trip is threatening to cut into my work time in a big way.

During the morning, I'm preoccupied with the tentatively schedule visit from the appliance repairman.  When the previous stated time frame of 9-11 passes, I call to see if there might be a problem.  He arrives when I'm home for lunch.

After picking up the boys at their respective daycares, I begin the.....

May 7, 1992

JoAnna has a series of evening meetings, including county board, so I pick up the boys at daycare.  Andy has gone a second day without choking anyone, so I reward him with a cheeseburger kids' meal at McDonald's.  Eddie gets the chicken McNuggets, and Dad opts for three chicken fajitas.

May 1, 1992

Great day.  It's almost as though I were single, but of course, if I were single, I wouldn't be contemplating yard work.  I'd've fired up a mega-doobie and baked my bare back in the hot sun as I pedaled around Madison and environs.  After dropping off the boys at daycare, I drive to the credit union and cash a check that is half what I expected.  I stop at Mickie's Dairy Bar for breakfast, parking the car within view of Larry and Martha's.  I think about going to visit, but my stomach leads me elsewhere.  As I'm sitting at the counter, I imagine what a sense of deja vu this place must have for UW grads (and dropouts from my era).  Remodeling and renovations have been kept to a minimum.  So anyway the rest of the morning and afternoon is spent planting peas, lettuces, spinach, and radishes.  I pick up the boys and stop at McDonald's to get them supper.  As soon as we get back to the house, I make a path between the picnic table and the boom box trying to retape tunes from the British Invasion era.

April 24, 1992

A mediocre opening weekend

The WAPL conference is very successful and well-attended.  The final is 257.  I make it to only one program.  Otherwise, I spend most of my time talking with Dale Bartkowiak and Mike Cross. Throughout the day, I think ahead to next year's conference and how it will be mounted.  I leave the Dells at 2:40, an hour before the actual conclusion of the conference, so I can take a leisurely approach to picking up the boys.  In other words, I have time to cash my check at the credit union and pick up some reading matter at Pic-a Book.

April 3, 1992

One of 4 new movies to make the top 10 this weekend

JoAnna takes the day off to concentrate on her campaign.  I take both boys to daycare and then try to speed through a long list of tasks at work.  Outside of a review of my notes for next week's ETN, I'm quite successful.  Unfortunately, it's not the big tasks -- like long-range planning, staff performance evaluations, budget forecasts -- that I concentrate on.

Once I get home, JoAnna's not feeling well, but I'm sure it's just  pre-election stress.

March 9, 1992

TIME

Late Sunday evening, I spend a few hours calming down a feverish Eddie.  I'm almost ready to volunteer to stay home, but we decide to take Eddie to daycare.  We get no calls during the day, most of which I spend at the WLA office for the Finance Committee meeting.  I pick up Andy, and JoAnna drops off Eddie before attending a meeting at City Hall.

Wednesday, March 4, 1992

I cruise through the day, taking a little side trip thru the first two sections of my Nuts and Bolts notes and relieving the anxiety of being insufficiently prepared for March 23 and 24.  I still need to spend a lot of time meditating, becoming more familiar with the main points of each of my five or six sections.  I may be doing some major cramming that last weekend.

After work I pick up the boys at daycare.  Today is the first chance that Andy has to see Eddie's new place.  He doesn't seem overly impressed, and the more I see of this Steppingstone location, the less impressed I become.  After turning onto Vernon Road, I realize that I've forgotten Eddie's coat so we circle back.  After supper, Eddie goes to bed early and Andy and I watch Dick Van Dyke on Nick at Nite.

Wednesday, February 19, 1992

JoAnna's a bitch this morning, figuratively whipping a recalcitrant Andy in submission.   His dawdling while getting dressed is more than she can handle.  I spend the entire workday at Madison Public, reviewing the RFP with other system staff and consultant Hank Epstein, who 20 years ago would have been the perfect lead for "What Makes Sammy Run?"  I pick up the boys and fix their supper.  I get Andy to bed at 8:30 and then read Sara Paretsky's Guardian Angel.

Tuesday, February 18, 1992

Tuesdays @ 8:00 p.m.  We occasionally tuned in.



At least I didn't pass out last night before JoAnna returned home, but I am dead to the world once I fall asleep.  Eddie wakes up squalling around midnight, and I don't respond to JoAnna's rousings.  She's up with him for nearly two hours.  Then around 4, I feel a rumbling in my bowels that demands my attention.  For the next 2 hours, I made 5 trips to the bathroom.  Each time the diarrhea gushes out of my system.  At 7, when I should be getting ready for work, I feel too tired and weak and disoriented to proceed with the day as planned.  I call Jane Robbins and cancel our 8:15 meeting and then sleep fitfully until 10:45.  I consider blowing off the entire day but decide that being active will be the best antidote for my minor physical ailment.

After a trip to the post office, I arrive at the library at quarter to 1.  During the nearly two hours that I'm there, I'm actually quite productive.  At 2:30 I leave to pick Eddie up at daycare.  JoAnna and I think he might have another ear infection, but after a 45-minute wait to see Dr. Ellis, that turns out not to be the case.

I do go back to the library but not until 6:30.  A slow evening is interrupted by a very brief council meeting.  Sandy Allen calls on me to report on how the board responded to a complaint from one of Jim Wexler's constituents.  Then Don Damon volunteers to raise the money through the service clubs after I give him the price info.

Monday, February 17, 1992

TIME

The main focus this week is to find daycare alternatives for Andy and Eddie.  Kids Play is shutting down at the end of next week.  If nothing else, this unfortunate event forces us to consider local options and will give us the opportunity to put the boys with children they'll likely be going to school with.  

At the library, I find it hard to work up any enthusiasm.  I notice the carpeting in the area of the stairs seems to be in need of a serious vacuuming and lately Don has been cleaning the building. What happenin' here?  

I pick up the boys, get their supper ready.  

Thursday, February 13, 1992

I'm looking forward to the end of the day.  No more interviews and a decision made.  I spend most of the morning organizing my notes, handouts, and other materials for April's Reference Interview ETN.  I realize what a breeze this program is going to be.  Except for a couple of exercise sheets, I have all the material.  During my lunch break, I go on what amounts to a wild goose chase for JoAnna.

The afternoon starts out on a positive note.  Vincent conducts a very strong, albeit overly dramatic, storytime.  He does songs, fingerplays, and a flannelboard story.  The two books he reads are almost an aside, incidental to his otherwise supercharged performance.  Then comes the interview. Vincent holds us hostage for two hours.  I didn't we were ever going to be able to leave the conference room.  Here is a candidate who on the verge of blowing away the competition talked his way out of a job.  No way could I work with such a motormouth.

I left the library with a severe headache and drove to Kids Play to pick up the boys.  Eddie has adjusted so well to his daytime surroundings.  No more teary greetings.

While JoAnna is conducting a campaign committee meeting, Andy and I seclude ourselves in the master bedroom.  I let a couple of martinis melt away the frustrations of an uneven day.  A high point, though, is calling Eve and leaving a very enthusiastic message on her answering machine. She calls back within an hour, obviously pleased with our choice.  At bedtime, I tell Andy the story of the three bears for the 326th time and then we act goofy and giggle until JoAnna looks in on us. I keep Andy up until 10.

Monday, January 27, 1992

I get to work early and complete the list of questions we will use for the interviews.  It's not as agonizing a task as I though it would be.

After a fairly productive day, I pick up the boys at daycare.  JoAnna has a series of evening commitments and isn't expected back until 10 or so.  After giving both boys a bath -- separately -- I lose myself on the computer.  When JoAnna returns home, Andy is still up.

Wednesday, January 22, 1992

The interview schedule is finally starting to take shape.  Diane is willing to move up her time by three weeks.  After having two candidates decline an interview because they had already been offered jobs, I feel a desperate need to speed up the entire hiring process.  Vincent sound somewhat effeminate over the phone, but I can't let that color my judgment.

Today I provide round-trip taxi service to daycare. When I pick up the boys, Eddie appears to have just run out of patience.  He scrunches his face and lets out a wail as soon as he sees me.  Once I hold him for awhile, he's his usual and happy charming self.

It's dinner preparation time once we get home.  Later on, JoAnna and I discuss Don Damon's and Julie Brunnette's opinion of libraries.  They still see the building as Julie Sherman's library, the type of juvenile thinking you'd expect from these two troglodytes.

Tuesday, December 17, 1991

I use a free morning to do chores:  laundry, vacuuming and dusting, tidying up the kitchen, as well as taping the Four Seasons, mostly.  And do those guys sound good after all these years.

I sorta coast through the afternoon.  A few minutes before 4, I leave to pick up Andy and Eddie. Eddie doesn't look good at all.  Red eyes and such a forlorn look on his face.  It's been a rough day for him.  It's fine during the first half of the drive home, but then he fusses the rest of the way. We pick up Jesse and supper at McDonald's.  Food seems to settle Eddie down.  Jesse reports that he goes to bed early.  Since JoAnna's at the Capitol Christmas party, Andy and I stay up and watch Green Acres together.