hawing

This isn't my favorite, but just to diversify the responses a bit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_the_Umpire 1950 comedy about a guy who reluctantly attends an umpire school but then takes to the work, with hilarious results. Early in the Miller Park era, the videoboard crew would show a clip from the movie while the umpires for the day/night were being introduced. We got a kick out of the clip and I emailed the team to find out what it was from, then located a DVD copy on Amazon. I enjoy Major League, but primarily because of its County Stadium scenes. Not really because of its plot.

I am not an expert on unemployment either, but the federal $600/week (for those who qualify for it) is currently scheduled to last through the end of July. If I were idled from a job that I like but wasn't reactivated yet, and/or I had kids at home who'd otherwise need child care, and/or were among those at higher risk for bad COVID complications (or had people in my household who are)...taking the extra $ in the immediate term might make sense for reasons other than "I like a handout."

** knocking on wood ** (Or if you're kalle, touching iron)

If you're up for a south central Wisconsin road trip, Monroe's Sky-Vu drive-in is still rolling, and plans to open for the 2020 season in June: http://goetzskyvu.com/SKY-VU/SV_SHOWS_%26_TIMES.html

No, it deserves what it gets because it NEVER has long enough sleeves. Counterpoint: The sleeves are ALWAYS comically long on me.

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/fred-willard-dead-dies-1234608658/ I would not have guessed he was born before Uecker, but here we are.

I'm not going to lie. I'd have to see what measures my library can take to reduce contact with visitors before I'd feel entirely at ease returning to work. I can imagine a lot of our patrons saying "I just want to stop in for a few minutes and get some books," which I understand - but if 50 people per day do that, that's 50 people with whom I'm interacting "for just a minute."

My pandemic sleep pattern has devolved into a "Midnight Deep Thoughts" pattern where no matter how tired I am, I'm up around midnight wondering about things like this. I can't believe the level of minutiae that occur to me. Besides handshakes: - Casual hugs? I'm in the non-hugger part of society, so for me that's like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, but I know plenty of people for whom that would be a tough adjustment. - Paper coupons. I'm a coupon clipper, whether from the Sunday paper (the only print one we get) or the coupon books that come in the mail for something like a deal at Rocky Rococo. I've stopped even looking for them because who would want a piece of paper from my wallet at this point? Plus they've been kind of on the way out anyway. - Think of the sheer number of retail outfits that were already considered to be hanging by a thread pre-pandemic. How many of those won't be back? This clearly applies to businesses of many sizes, and some which weren't hanging by a thread, but I'm mostly thinking of big box stores like Penney's or Kohl's or Bed Bath and Beyond. - At Brewers games, those season seat holder pregame opportunities to have your photo taken with a player. I am a total sucker for those, even when it's a dude at the bottom of the roster like Boone Logan. If that resumes, it won't be soon. - Along those lines, how the heck do you have an event like Brewers On Deck going forward? The last few years have been at the level of crowdedness that would put me off if it weren't my main chance for a mid-winter Brewers fix. Now I look at the FSWI highlight reel from this year's On Deck and kind of cringe at the sheer volume of people. - At ballgames, the post-pandemic era might be the Brewers' golden opportunity to just ban bags and purses altogether. Being a bag checker there seems trying enough under pre-pandemic conditions. Imagine staffing one of those lines and having to be in contact with oodles of bags while hundreds of people pause right next to you. Who is going to be willing to do that? I'd hope there could still be a provision for bringing in factory sealed water/soft drinks and snacks - if only because I do not know how eager I'd be to buy concessions at the park for the time being. I'll check back in after a few nights' worth of additional midnight deep thoughts.

I realize this is likely one of those cases where if you have to ask the question, you don't want to know the answer...but why would the feds do this?

I was sad to see that. I didn't always agree with his columns but I appreciated his voice.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around RoCo's statement that Frostie Freeze in Janesville is operating. COME ON, PEOPLE. At least Culver's (and some Dairy Queen locations) offers food that could qualify as an actual meal. *facepalm*

Lockdown? What lockdown? My library and our archives are closed to the public but we're expected to report. Our building houses other agency functions, most of which wouldn't typically bring more than 10 people at a time together. SO the building is open to the public in case anyone wants to utilize those functions. Anyone can wander in, use the restrooms, etc. As far as I can tell, I'm there primarily in case the phone rings, or in case an email inquiry comes in that requires collections access to answer. Which barely happened last week. It's important to my supervisor that someone be here for that function. There are six librarians who take turns covering the reference desk. Three have school kids who are now at home, so their attendance is uneven at best. The librarian who had agreed to cover Monday-Thursday afternoons just announced on Friday that her doctor was advising her to stay away because of the health threat. (She is older than 60.) Another librarian over age 60 who is set to retire in July has kept coming in but mostly just works on stacks projects. She has spent most of the last year loudly reminding us how eager she is to retire, so that doesn't surprise me much, and the stacks projects are useful. Our supervisor is pulled in all directions all the time, so we rarely see her. That leaves two of us, and reference isn't what I'm trained for. But someone with keys has to be there until 5:00 to lock the doors that no one but other staff are supposed to go through. We can request work-from-home time by filling out a Department of Administration three part form in which we state our plans down to the hour. It's a "short term telecommuting" form which was designed for up to two weeks of use. It's painfully inadequate for this situation, but I imagine DOA needs to exert its control somehow, and this is how they are doing it. I filed the form last week and planned to be in the library roughly half-time, and working from home or taking leave the rest of the time. That was before the afternoon person's late week announcement that she basically isn't coming in, indefinitely. So I have no idea what's expected or desired of me at this point. What I'd like to do is just have the governor (I'm not calling him out to make this political - he's literally the person who can change this) close nonessential agencies to staff so I could focus on just the WFH and leave time issues. I see video clips of him telling Wisconsinites to stay home and stay safe, and I kind of want to yell at him. Complicating matters for me is that my anxiety disorder most often manifests itself in terms of health anxiety, and I've got a 60+ diabetic SO at home besides. So I'm on edge most of the time lately. I do have some better living through chemistry keeping me most of the way together. (In contrast, for whoever is still reading, the SO is a UW-Madison employee who was encouraged to work from home. He only had to verbally tell his supervisor his general plans for what he hoped to accomplish at home; she said Okay, and that was that.) Anyway - I've got it much easier than many, and I'm grateful my work unit is closed to the public, but I'd much rather hole up at home.

Hahaha, I just had to post about this 90 minutes before that announcement went out. Thanks for asking. UW-Madison is not shutting down fully. They're suspending in-person instruction from the end of spring break (the first day back would have been Monday 3/23) until at least April 10. The dorms will be closed to most residents during that time. (Some such as international students may be allowed to stay.) They'll decide in early April whether to extend the disruptions past April 10. So every service provider on campus now has to decide what services, if any, to provide during that time. That includes the campus libraries, but doesn't include my specific library because mine is part of a separate state agency. Typically my building could only close or reduce operations with the governor's approval. I had already planned for short staffing during spring break, but an additional two weeks would be difficult if we have to maintain our normal spring semester schedule. The closing of the dorms affects about half of my group of student employees (and I don't think I can require the non-dormsters to return to Madison sooner than April 10.) So I'm hoping we can continue spring break hours past spring break - but again, that's up to the governor or his designee. We'll be getting plenty of calls soon enough from people wondering if we closed down or what. I'd like to go take a nap now.

I find myself alternating between various degrees of alarm over the coronavirus. For the most part, I don't fear a lot for my safety (though I know plenty of others who are in an age group and/or whose overall health status put them at greater risk). I'm more wary of having to manage reactions at the library. UW-Madison starts spring break in two days and many people will leave town for all kinds of destinations...and then come back. If one of my student employees returns with a cough, do I have to send them home? If I clear my throat and an elderly researcher freaks out, how do we calm them down? If one of my students has helicopter parents who are all YOU'RE NOT GOING BACK TO THAT CAMPUS UNTIL THIS BLOWS OVER, after how much absenteeism can we actually alter library hours so I'm not working 13 hour days? There's virtually no way UW-Madison isn't discussing contingency plans, but whatever they're discussing is being kept close to the chest. I'd prefer to have at least some idea of what they're considering. My agency is separate from UW and they're not saying much either, if they are making plans. I also hate the idea of having to wait longer than two weeks to get an in-person baseball fix, but in the big picture I realize that's secondary. If the opening homestand is played without fans and I miss out on chc and stl people, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

What's not bugging me today is baseball on my birthday. It's not something I can assume on February 25.

Our March tickets (1 exhibition and 3 season) appeared in the Ballpark app as of yesterday (February 20).

I am pretty sure (let's say 90%) that you can't exchange SSH tickets for a special ticket package. You can exchange them for ordinary tickets to the same game, and see whether buying a separate voucher is an option - but as others have said, that wouldn't be as sure a thing.

The theme nights not about Star Wars will be announced in February. I don't know when, but with single game tickets going on sale 2/15, you'd think before that date. My extended family has been wanting to save the date for Bark in the Park night for a while. Be nice to know whether/when it's happening.

Extra (negative) credit for waiting until you're at the front of a full lane of traffic to notify the vehicles behind you that you're turning left.

I'm guessing Connor is just trying to find a job, any job for 4 months. I would think you would be happy if he shows up when he's suppose to, on time, and capable of doing whatever task he's suppose to do. That would probably be more important than your common interests. The Connor update you've all been waiting for (right?): It took three rounds of email back and forth-ing, but he does have work-study funding and is so far the only applicant available both Tuesday and Thursday mornings. So because that's how the universe rolls, I have invited him to an interview. BSC is correct that personal interests aren't the biggest key in hiring someone. (If they were, I would have avoided the Cardinals fan of a few years back like the plague). The first question I ask of every applicant I interview is "what made you decide to apply for this job?" and I might be extra interested to see how Connor responds. Some people do simply reply that basically "I need a job and you have a job," and that's a perfectly valid reason. It just seems like Connor could have his choice of business-y gigs and on paper he doesn't present as a library guy. HOWEVER, I realize that's why we don't live our lives on paper. I may also look into what Swift means as a personal interest. Stay tuned!

Haha, he is the risk manager for his fraternity! (He's a risk management major) It's not Phi Beta Kappa, though. That's the academic honor society. Since I really doubt he's a baseball guy, I feel safe listing his first name here. It's Connor. Which honestly fits the resume, at least. And I promise to give this guy a fair shake if he actually has a compatible class schedule. Do you suppose listing Swift means he's into Taylor Swift? or would that be something else? I mean, he spelled out Dave Matthews Band and not just DMB.

I'm...going to be that "guy" and add that we have had cauliflower-crust pizza, and have bought frozen cauliflower crusts and topped them ourselves. It erases the SO's carb concern and honestly tastes fine to me. The consistency is different, but it's a reasonable alternative for us.

The Rocky's out at Mineral Point and Tree Lane doesn't deliver? I suppose maybe not because they have the theater and game area? The Roman Candle just closed its Monroe St location last month. They're still in Middleton and on Willy though.

I'm recruiting for a few student employees this spring semester. One of the applicants lists this in the Interests section of his resume: Dave Matthews Band, Golf, Entrepreneurial Ventures, Collegiate Football, Grilling, Boating, Law, Swift, Traveling It leaves me with questions, among them: - Why are you interested in a library job? - Do we have any common interests? I'm not saying it couldn't work out (though he's graduating in May and I'd rather hire someone who can stay longer than 4 months), and it could be less stressful than the time I hired the Cardinals fan. But dude, you and I have zero in common other than living in this city.

It is still there! We've never stopped because we pass it basically on the way to ballgames, but it is still there. I think the sign says Since 1957.