2 Hummingbirds
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that building maintenance was my least favorite part of my job. Well, guess what? Yep, a ton of building things have happened over the last few weeks. The building was power washed to clean off 15 years of wear and mold and to prepare for sealing the brick (that is 2 things), the railing was blasted and repainted and the windows were washed. The back wall concrete board will also be getting replaced in the next few months. It feels like a big ol’ remodel and I was glad to finally see it coming to an end. Hmmm, imagine being happy something was almost done, what tends to happen? Murphy’s law, yep, “If anything can go wrong, it will.”
I arrived at the library on Monday morning to a smell. A smell I would typically describe in the following dark way, “that smells like cancer.” Sounds harsh, but it sums it up, some smells you just know you should not be taking in. At first, I couldn’t figure it out, then I remembered the brick had been sealed on Saturday. Man, I absolutely hate building maintenance. Thank goodness for great weather, because we opened the building up, every door, all day, all week.
When these things happen I swear my body bends over more, like a literal weight is on my shoulders. It doesn’t put me in the best mindset for sure. Monday we get through the day, but I start making some calls for the safety of my staff and patrons. On Tuesday, my decisions leave us short staffed, to be specific, Jessica and I ran the library, not a horrible thing, but no lunch break makes for a long day.
I hope I have done enough story building of my emotions and physical states so that you can feel the stress in my shoulders. A type of day when you just want a cowboy to take you away (Thank you, Dixie Chicks, this is my favorite song to sing to my cowboy, John). Then guess what happens? Yep, more “fun” things…a bird. A Bird comes in to our very open building. Really? Well, crap! Oh, hold on, not just one, but 2 birds, hummingbirds to be exact. As I am writing this I am thinking, well at least they were small birds, if it would have been a crow or a bald eagle, I would have gone away, with or without a cowboy.
You might not know this, but Jessica is a huge animal lover, seriously, she even captures spiders and sets them free, so all creatures big and small, not just the fuzzy cute species. Birds in a building typically goes bad for everyone involved. We are both experiencing a no lunch break day, then you add in 2 hummingbirds frantically flying through the building, and empathetic me cannot stop thinking how sad and anxious Jessica must be feeling about the future of our two feather guests, yep the shoulder stress is at a max level.
One bird buzzes through the whole building, the other stayed in the children’s room. The brave one makes it out, the other struggles. Our board president, Mary Jo Jackson comes to the rescue with a large net. Our ceilings are pretty tall, even with the big net, it was a stretch for the 2 tallest staff members and you might not know this, but hummingbirds are fast. Periodically through the day we try to rescue our poor friend, we put red items by the exits (including a trail of Jessica’s Coke cans), we use the big net until we feel dizzy and our arms become noodles, and when the library clears out we turn the lights off to help lead our friend to the light. Nothing works, it is almost 5:30 and we know if we don’t get it out, I will be burying it the next day.
At this point we have 3 boys playing games on the computers and one adult on his laptop. One of the boys stops playing to take a try at using the net. Well, Kardene, you have the heart, but at 11 years old, you just don’t have the height yet. Then our adult, Jay, asks if we have any brooms, 2 more to be exact, genius!! At the library at 5:25, on Tuesday, September 14th you would have found one hummingbird, 2 staff members (one with a large net, one with a broom) and a single patron with another broom and you would have been witness to the #1 best feel-good moment of the year! That little hummingbird took a ride to safety on Jay’s broom. All the tension of the week disappeared in a moment and I just wanted to run all over town proclaiming our little library rescue, but lucky for you, I write a weekly bookworm and sometimes, yep, sometimes, it is a happy one.
Upcoming Events: 9/29 Story Time at 10am, 10/5 Book Club at 6:30pm, Adult Reading Challenge has started and runs through October 30th, swing by the library for more information