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captainsblogBreak time in, what else, a library with wifi. I've been on the road since just past 7:30 this morning and won't get close to home till well past 5, from the look of things. Already I'm on my second library stop of the day, as I'd earlier needed to make some changes in, and then copies of, a document I'd headed out to Client One's place to get signatures on first thing today. It was a friendly looking library place, right around the corner from the clerk, seemed to do the trick.
Well, kind of.
Fairly small and definitely downturn in terms of the clientele (it's one of many formerly booming manufacturing towns near the Erie Canal which now has little left in it other than government services and FOR SALE signs on both those buildings and the ancillary service businesses), the place was still pretty well wired. I didn't have one of their library cards, but they graciously gave me a code to access things, so I started by trying to put my revisions onto my flash drive and then printing them.
Problem One: no USBs on these computers. Or rather, guards over where the manufacturer likely put them. So I shifted to Plan B: emailing the document to myself (after bugging them a second time to get a different code for wifi access) and then printing it from there. This worked swimmingly, until the librarian on the other side of the attached printer announced that my pages were costing me the same 25 cents a page that the copy machine would have. I had little change on me, and quickly blew through what I had between the printing and the copying of the actual signed pages, but I felt more hurt for the rest of the room than I did for myself. Most of the people in there were likely printing resumes, or looking up job leads, or (face it) needing maps of new communities which might actually have job leads. I know budgets are tight, especially in places like Erie County where the County Dictator doesn't believe in funding libraries with tax dollars (where he comes from, people buy their own books and their own nannies read them to their children), but I'd personally rather spend an extra buck or two to reserve a material, or pay a higher fine, than having copying charges turned into "profit centers" befalling the unemployed and others needier than I who are in the most need of them.
Ultimately, though, everything there got filed. It does all make me appreciate my seemingly endless supplies of printer ink, paper and Internet access.
----
Here, though, back in the library of our old home town near Rachacha, I now have a two-plus hour layover before Client Three at 3. I was supposed to be picking up documents from Client Two and filing them in the layover, but he's not ready for me yet.
One blessing of being on the other side of town from where I usually am, though? Better radio. Buffalo's again lost another decent option, as a Canadian outlet went from an 80s/90s/current album station (much like the Lake used to be) to a Jack/Fickle/We Play Whatever! outlet called Ed- not TOO different from the River once flowing there, but with way worse earworm potential ::incinerates Rick Springfield with some newly-found extrahuman powers:: I therefore tend too much to listening to sports and political rants in the car, which, other than the Bills sudden resurgence, is not a good thing.
East of Rochester, none of those stations come in, so I've been switching among NPR, the former WVOR now called "100.5 the Drive" that is bearable on Acoustic Tuesdays, and once it ends morning simulcasting with the NPR stations, the University of Rochester station. They play very eclectic and mostly mellower stuff- the syndicated World Cafe is on there now, but earlier, a local broadcast (also sent down to Ithaca on a public station that didn't even exist when I lived there) was playing some amazing stuff. It included a LOT of John Hiatt (he's playing Water Street later this week), but also this awesome piece from someone named Joe Crookston:
He's now based in Ithaca. And is all over the area- live on WVBR's Bound for Glory on the night of November 6, and house concerts around Rochester later that week, including my birfday:) Whole tour is here.
----
Emily called a few minutes ago. She's applying for a job at Petco near here. And is having Internet access issues of her own. Maybe a hamster in a wheel could knock off both problems at once;)
Well, kind of.
Fairly small and definitely downturn in terms of the clientele (it's one of many formerly booming manufacturing towns near the Erie Canal which now has little left in it other than government services and FOR SALE signs on both those buildings and the ancillary service businesses), the place was still pretty well wired. I didn't have one of their library cards, but they graciously gave me a code to access things, so I started by trying to put my revisions onto my flash drive and then printing them.
Problem One: no USBs on these computers. Or rather, guards over where the manufacturer likely put them. So I shifted to Plan B: emailing the document to myself (after bugging them a second time to get a different code for wifi access) and then printing it from there. This worked swimmingly, until the librarian on the other side of the attached printer announced that my pages were costing me the same 25 cents a page that the copy machine would have. I had little change on me, and quickly blew through what I had between the printing and the copying of the actual signed pages, but I felt more hurt for the rest of the room than I did for myself. Most of the people in there were likely printing resumes, or looking up job leads, or (face it) needing maps of new communities which might actually have job leads. I know budgets are tight, especially in places like Erie County where the County Dictator doesn't believe in funding libraries with tax dollars (where he comes from, people buy their own books and their own nannies read them to their children), but I'd personally rather spend an extra buck or two to reserve a material, or pay a higher fine, than having copying charges turned into "profit centers" befalling the unemployed and others needier than I who are in the most need of them.
Ultimately, though, everything there got filed. It does all make me appreciate my seemingly endless supplies of printer ink, paper and Internet access.
----
Here, though, back in the library of our old home town near Rachacha, I now have a two-plus hour layover before Client Three at 3. I was supposed to be picking up documents from Client Two and filing them in the layover, but he's not ready for me yet.
One blessing of being on the other side of town from where I usually am, though? Better radio. Buffalo's again lost another decent option, as a Canadian outlet went from an 80s/90s/current album station (much like the Lake used to be) to a Jack/Fickle/We Play Whatever! outlet called Ed- not TOO different from the River once flowing there, but with way worse earworm potential ::incinerates Rick Springfield with some newly-found extrahuman powers:: I therefore tend too much to listening to sports and political rants in the car, which, other than the Bills sudden resurgence, is not a good thing.
East of Rochester, none of those stations come in, so I've been switching among NPR, the former WVOR now called "100.5 the Drive" that is bearable on Acoustic Tuesdays, and once it ends morning simulcasting with the NPR stations, the University of Rochester station. They play very eclectic and mostly mellower stuff- the syndicated World Cafe is on there now, but earlier, a local broadcast (also sent down to Ithaca on a public station that didn't even exist when I lived there) was playing some amazing stuff. It included a LOT of John Hiatt (he's playing Water Street later this week), but also this awesome piece from someone named Joe Crookston:
He's now based in Ithaca. And is all over the area- live on WVBR's Bound for Glory on the night of November 6, and house concerts around Rochester later that week, including my birfday:) Whole tour is here.
----
Emily called a few minutes ago. She's applying for a job at Petco near here. And is having Internet access issues of her own. Maybe a hamster in a wheel could knock off both problems at once;)
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no subject
Date: 2011-09-20 05:52 pm (UTC)Don't knock on the internet hamster. Mr Squiggles does a pretty good job up here.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 01:15 pm (UTC)