the_other_sandy: Kaleidoscope (Kaleidoscope)
From [personal profile] krait:

I'm asking those who love the outdoors to post a picture on your page. A picture that YOU took. Just a pic. No description. The goal is to regain peace and harmony without negativity. Please copy the text, put a picture on YOUR page, and let's look at these beautiful pictures.

Fullersburg Woods Bridge
the_other_sandy: Chicago skyline (Chicago)
After first closing to the public, then cutting staff down to half days, my library finally decided to close completely for the next two weeks.

Part of me wants to be all responsible and do dishes and stuff, but the rest of me really just wants to make a dent in my Netflix queue.
the_other_sandy: Chicago skyline (Chicago)
A different management company bought out my apartment complex last summer. They've been busily "upgrading" ever since. Apartments are getting remodeled as people move out (meanwhile, I have 25+ year old carpet and a harvest gold dishwasher from the '70s), and the lobby was just redone in that dove gray that's so trendy right now (I feel like I'm entering a prison when I get home).

Today, the landscapers came to trim trees. I have a large tree directly in front of my balcony. I've always liked it because in warmer weather, the leaves completely filled my field of view and afforded me some privacy. However, the tree had become sufficiently overgrown that two branches had encroached onto my balcony and would bang on the glass patio door if it got windy, so it definitely needed a trim. This morning, the landscapers cut off every leafy branch below roof level. Now, instead of leaves, I have a view of a tree trunk and my neighbors across the way. Guess I'll be keeping the drapes closed a lot more than I used to.
the_other_sandy: Compass pointing north (Travel)
I spent yesterday driving across four states to visit my best friend. Driving through Illinois was about what you'd expect--everything was under construction and down to one lane. When I finally got to Iowa I was looking forward to some smooth sailing. Ha.

I barely got past Davenport when the skies opened up. It got very dark and was raining so hard that I couldn't see the exits from the right lane. Today I found out that storm spawned sixteen tornadoes, but it only poured while I was in it.

Missouri was just very hot, but then I hit Kansas. The weather alerts on my phone never went off, but somewhere around Lawrence I saw some programmable road signs announcing a high wind warning. There was barely a breeze where I was, but there were some very dark clouds just to the south, so I figured that's where the problem was.

About five minutes later, I came around a curve in the road and there was a long, straight stretch in front of me. I noticed that the visibility on the back half was markedly worse than on the front half. A minute later, the surface of the dirt road next to the highway went blowing down the road. Then a little cloud of debris went sailing over the highway just above car height. Then a gust of wind hit my car so hard that it punched me half out of my lane. Then it happened again. Then the sustained winds hit and everyone slowed to a crawl. The person in front of me turned on their hazard flashers and less than a minute later it was pitch black and raining so hard that the only thing I could see was those hazard lights. I just kept following that person for the longest five minutes of my life until I came out the other side of the rain shaft.

According to the thermometer on my dash, the temperature when I drove into the storm was 100°F. When I came out the other side, it was 71°F. Welcome to the Midwest in summertime.

Update

Jul. 2nd, 2017 10:41 am
the_other_sandy: Yomiko Readman hugging a book (Agt. Paper Chibi)
The news segment about the Higgins Hall implosion that my friends and I were in is now up on WQAD's Facebook page. You don't need a Facebook account to view it.

And here I was worried that I wouldn't have any pictures or videos to remember this by because I forgot my iPod. This is the coolest thing ever.
the_other_sandy: Yomiko Readman hugging a book (Agt. Paper Chibi)
Last month I found out my undergrad college was going to demolish the dorm I lived in junior year. Although I lived in another dorm longer, Higgins was the one where I met all the friends I still keep in touch with, and one of them (Cheryl) organized a reunion for us to watch the building come down.

The tale, with videos )

Well, Huh

Jul. 23rd, 2016 09:58 am
the_other_sandy: Yomiko Readman hugging a book (Agt. Paper Chibi)
I was keeping an eye on some storms yesterday via The Weather Channel's website when I spotted something I'd never noticed before. Can you see it?

Pics behind cut )
the_other_sandy: Chicago skyline (Chicago)
Grabbed from [livejournal.com profile] agt_spooky.

For a change in the news feed, tell us about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!!

The year was: 1987 )

Copy and paste. Let's hear your story.

D-Day +1

Apr. 6th, 2016 09:02 pm
the_other_sandy: Yomiko Readman hugging a book (Agt. Paper Chibi)
Remember last week when the northeast corner of the first floor looked like this?



When I left work yesterday, it looked more like this:

Pictures under cut... )

D-Day

Apr. 4th, 2016 05:56 pm
the_other_sandy: Yomiko Readman hugging a book (Agt. Paper Chibi)
Last week I posted pictures of what my library looked like after we finished packing everything. Construction started today. About 90% of my workplace is a hard hat area that we're not allowed into.

Oddly enough, the biggest issue was that the construction guys propped open all the exterior doors for easier access. The high today was 39° F. We were all freezing all day.

This was the view from the entrance to the office area when I left work this afternoon:



the_other_sandy: Yomiko Readman hugging a book (Agt. Paper Chibi)
The library where I work has just started a major renovation project. When I say "major," I mean "gut to the exterior walls and start over." We're knocking down the main staircase and moving it and the elevator shaft (that'll be the second time for the elevator shaft since I've been there), creating a whole new floor plan, and replacing the HVAC system and rewiring the building. As a result, we're moving out to a temporary location for the next 8-12 months.

Have you ever moved a library? Only about 40% of the collection will fit in the temporary location, so we had to pack in two phases: one group of things for the temporary location and one group of things for long-term storage. And not only do we have to pack and move the books and videos and music and such, we have to move the shelves, computers, phones, reference desk, vending machines, and everything else. As of today the collection is packed and moved, and most of the staff is at the temporary location frantically shelving things so we can reopen to the public on Monday (this is the second week we've been closed). And once we get the public part of the library up and running, we get to start over and move the office areas. We're planning to be in the new offices by mid-April.

Pictures under the cut... )

We all got quite the workout over the last two and a half weeks, even with the help of the moving company. And I'm one of maybe half a dozen people who have been there long enough to have participated in the move the last time we renovated.
the_other_sandy: Yomiko Readman hugging a book (Agt. Paper Chibi)
I made a New Year's resolution this year not to buy a new book until I've read a book I already own. It didn't seem like it was going to be that big a deal, but it's not even the end of February yet and it's the worst. Five books in series I read and/or by authors I like came out this month alone. Also, several books I've been wanting to read went on sale for super cheap this month, and I couldn't pass those up because I'm a happy miser.

I'm never going to be able to keep this up. I just want to read all the things. Is that too much to ask?
the_other_sandy: Chicago skyline (Chicago)
Craft Show season is heating up here in Greater Chicagoland. Most of the big ones occur closer to Christmas and have mostly Christmas and Thanksgiving holiday things, but Fall Diddley in Belvidere is always in early October and has plenty of Halloween-themed things.

Fall Diddley is my favorite of the craft shows and well worth the hour-plus drive. I've been really good about not buying things the last couple of years, but I've been looking for a new purse because the brown one I have clashes wildly with my red winter coat. Then I found this:



(Sorry about the dark backgound, but it was either this or a blue and green plaid bedsheet.)

How cool is that? And it was literally the only one in that fabric out of all the styles she had. Clearly, it was fate that I should own this purse. Which I now do.
the_other_sandy: Yomiko Readman hugging a book (Agt. Paper Chibi)
Or, you know, have already changed.

I cleaned out and reorganized my desk drawers yesterday. I found a whole bunch of things I'd forgotten I actually owned, like two folders of stationery, the newest of which is 20+ years old, some letter-openers, and a box of envelopes.

I used to write a fairly decent amount of letters because my best friend and I went to college in different states and the internet wasn't a thing yet, but then email started to become more common before I ran out of stationery. I also pay almost all my bills online now, so I have all these leftovers that I'll probably never use. This makes me weirdly sad. I don't think I've even used a stamp since I sent out Christmas cards last December, and I haven't had a chance to use any of my fountain pens or glass pens since...I don't even remember when.

And the change happened so abruptly that I have an entire desk drawer that's basically a time capsule from another era.

Ugh

Jul. 10th, 2015 10:29 pm
the_other_sandy: Kaleidoscope (Kaleidoscope)
A perfectly good evening of planned cross stitching was just derailed when a spider landed on the couch and decided to watch Killjoys with me. I was forced to be elsewhere. So, so elsewhere. And it's fairly even odds whether the amount of Raid I just used will kill me or the spider first.
the_other_sandy: Yomiko Readman hugging a book (Agt. Paper Chibi)
[livejournal.com profile] agt_spooky broadly tagged her flist for this and I haven't been posting much lately, so I'm taking this as a poke with a sharp stick to be more active on LJ. So, 7 things you may or may not know about me:

1. I have the ticket stubs, wristbands, or badges of every convention I've ever attended. The first one was TARDIS 21 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in 1984. Back in those days, you bought your tickets from someplace like Ticketmaster and they gave you an actual ticket like a concert or theater ticket. My parents bought two tickets and shared the second one between them so they could take turns chaperoning me on alternate days.

2. When I was in high school, the big crushes for girls were Rick Springfield and the members of Duran Duran. My biggest crushes in high school were Lord Peter Wimsey and d'Artagnan of the Musketeers. Yeah, I read a lot.

3. Part of my college graduation requirements for my degree was to do a one semester internship and then write a 30 page paper about the experience. The end of the semester happened to coincide with convention season here in Chicago, so the bulk of the paper was written between panels and while waiting in lines at Visions '90 (coincidentally also at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare).

4. I'm an only child. Both of my parents are also only children. I've never had aunts, uncles, or cousins.

Read more... )
the_other_sandy: Compass pointing north (Travel)
I'm in Seattle right now for the American Library Association Midwinter Conference. It's the boring one of the two annual conferences (Midwinter and Annual) because it consists almost entirely of committee meetings, but I'm here to meet with my committee, so there you are.

When I was in line waiting to board my plane this morning, one of the airline employees at the check in desk looked at us and said, "Wow, you're all so orderly and quiet." A guy at the front of the line yelled, "How many people are librarians?" About a third of us raised our hands. Everyone else allowed as how that probably explained a lot.
the_other_sandy: Compass pointing north (Travel)
This is the first year the con hasn't been held a short drive from my apartment, due to the Ryder Cup people taking up all available hotel space in the Greater Chicagoland area. We're currently in Madison, Wisconsin. This is actually okay with me because I live just a couple of miles down the street from the Ryder Cup venue and my neighborhood has been a three-ring circus all week because of it. Too bad traffic on I-90 sucked so hard. There was a solid 62 mile segment that was under construction, followed shortly by a lane closure because someone had spilled something fluorescent yellow all over the road. The two hour drive took me four and a half hours. Hopefully, it won't be as bad headed home on Sunday.

Read more... )
the_other_sandy: Chicago skyline (Chicago)
Seriously. I've lived here for 14 years and this is only the second time the fire alarm has gone off. I'd been doing my Saturday morning thing of reading fic in my pajamas and it was 17 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside, so after checking my door for smoke or heat, I took the chance of getting dressed down to my long underwear before I went out. I still made it out of the building before the fire department showed up. Fortunately it was a false alarm, although a fire might have been nice for the heat. Did I mention it was 17 degrees outside?

I continue to be one of only three or four people who bother to evacuate when the fire alarm goes off. Two people came out to let their dogs do their business, then walked past the fire trucks and went back inside. There was a woman and her two little kids on the third floor watching the whole thing out the window like it was reality TV. I shudder to think what would happen if there ever really was a fire here. There actually have been three fires in this complex since I moved here, one of them fatal, although none of them were in my building.
the_other_sandy: Chicago skyline (Chicago)
9/11
Where were you?


I was actually one of the last people around here to find out what was happening. I had already been at work for 10 minutes when the first plane hit.

Read more... )

Profile

the_other_sandy: Yomiko Readman hugging a book (Default)
the_other_sandy

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 11th, 2025 09:15 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios