My Library has the floatiest float and the cleanest carpets!

Hi everybody,

I am happy to report that everything is almost back to Normal here. It was a hectic weekend, but I survived!

My Library float won the Grand Champion of all the Floats in the Festival of the Turning Leaves Parade! The theme was "These are a few of our favorite things" and the Library's favorite things were Chocolate, Cats, Gourds, Smiles, and Books (not necessarily in that order) and that wad of tinfoil turned out to be a Sterno can and that card table turned into a giant Fondue Pot! (Sorry about all the ands. I'm a little excited!)


If you look to the right side of the shot, you will see the scary Imposter Tober lying (embarrassingly) face-down on a cushion. He is earning his place in the storage room by working as my Stunt-Double.

Here's the thing from the back of the Float of Excellence:


We also book-saled a LOT of books over the weekend. Over one half of the 80 boxes of books we put out for the sale found good homes, and people donated lots of moneys for the Friends of the Library to use for programs and things. (The moneys would also buy lots of Whisker Lickins.)

While my Staff and my Stunt-Double were lying around on an Award-Winning Float enjoying the parade, I was hard at Work snoopervising the cleaning of the Library carpets. To clean the carpets, my coworkers had to get all of the Stuff (except books & shelves) off of the carpets.

I took this literally:


This position made me very Tall and authoritative.


In other exciting news, my Library Staff discovered FURminators last week. Now, normally I wouldn't use this Esteemed Blog to advertise something unless I think it's pretty special. . . but I was quite impressed with the results of my FURmination last week, so my Staff ordered a box of FURminators so they can take them home for their house-dogs and -cats. I highly recommend them to all Animals who have extra furs they don't want.

The order arrived today, so if you fly over Indiana in the middle of the night, don't be surprised if you see a cloud of furs obscuring the Thorntown. That's a cloud of Happiness.

Proud and Recently DeFURminated Boss of TPL,

Tober

Carpet Cleaning = Bad News

I have been mulling over what to say about the cleaning of all library carpets.

This questionable (to My Mind) activity took place on the only Saturday the library is closed that is not a holiday: Sept. 27, the day of my Thorntown’s Festival of the Turning Leaves. I prefer carpet and do NOT like wood floors, even the “soft yellow pine” that was put into my library in 1914. I cannot see that it is soft at all. My Assistant Boss and Assistant Assistant Bosses seem to like it, however, and praise its "character" (how does a floor have character?) and the cut marks in it that show where the 1914 circulation desk stood. They found it when they tore out the carpet during the 2004 renovation. This was Before My Time at the library, so it really doesn't count. (In fact, it was before I was born, if My Readers can even grasp such an extreme concept!) Remember that I have no front toenails and no way to get a grip on wood floors. Tile is only a little better, but it IS better.

Back to that Awful weekend. My Assistant Boss Karen placed my privy and my food and water across the “soft” wood floor and by the fireplace. My staff then proceeded to move all loose furniture except wood tables and stacked it around my new space. They did this with a maximum of grumbling and groaning and made quite a racket. They do this to save money, as it lets the carpet cleaning crew come in the door and go right to work without having to first move furniture. I'm all for saving moneys, because that means more Treats for Me, but they should really warn a cat first.

I can tell you THIS: I am not impressed with the carpet cleaning process. I am NOT impressed with their cleaning of 18 chairs, especially my favorite chairs. I am NOT pleased that the carpet cleaning leader told my Assistant Boss Karen that he found cat hair on a few chairs she had not marked for cleaning and he felt MY Beautiful Hair should be removed from those as well. They cleaned all of my chairs and made them smell weird.

The cleaners were on both floors at once, they made noises, and THEN they left damp carpet, not the place I wish to put my Lovely Paws! To make matters worse, no one spent the day with me as they usually do on Saturdays. Instead of giving tummy rubs and treats to my Glorious Self, they built two floats for the Saturday parade, they ran a book sale on the TILE floors (ugh) in the meeting rooms, they held a gourd exhibition at the Sugar Creek Art Center, they gave tours through the Thorntown Heritage Museum, and my Karen cut 75-90 (she lost count) gourd bird houses and gave them away on the museum lawn.

Here I am telling the little green Festival of the Turning Leaves jar that I do not approve of what it does to my weekend:


I can only see One Good Thing about Festival Saturday: the children’s play area was right outside My Big Round Window. I watched some pretty scary stuff: bungee cord jumping, space jumping, swoopy rides that made me NOT want any kitty treats right then. Karen even fed me my Sunday supper on the copier table so that I could eat and watch Festival being boxed up, an activity that I found a little unusual. My staff store books in boxes and then huff and puff as they stack them in storage. The children’s games outside My Window were also put into very large boxes, but those boxes had wheels and just rolled away. I wonder there they go and when they will be back.

I guess I shall believe Assistant Boss Karen, who assures me that they will be back next fall and that on that Saturday I shall again be Called Upon To Supervise Carpet Cleaning.

Oh, Joy.

The Things I Do for my library,

Tober

PS--I have been working overtime trying to get the "clean" stink out of this building.