On duty and dogs

By luck and my sense of duty, when I left on my fateful vacation in August of 2023, I had left my work more or less up to date. There was nothing truly outstanding. I had several electronic carts of DVDs and Blu-Rays lined up for purchase for the various upcoming months in which they would become available. Most were relatively obvious or non-essential. This was good as it made it easy for my superior at work to take over in my forced absence. However, there was a certain exception. This was the recent movie “Golda” starring Helen Mirren as the titular character Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. It was due out in October and programming department wanted it for a screening in December. I take a certain pride in my work, so I actually phoned my superior to ask her to make sure she ordered it.

When I returned to work in July, I discovered that the Library’s usual supplier had decided not to get it, despite the fact that they had advertised it as “coming soon” at one point. What with the effort of restarting work, I didn’t pursue the matter any further.

For some reason, on Friday, my last day of work before the holidays, I looked it up on Amazon and was surprised to see that they were selling it. I immediately asked my superior if the Library might buy it once we are authorized to order things in the new year. She said she would have to get approval from the Director of the Library as are all purchases from Amazon. Pleasingly, she approved it more or less immediately. I felt like I had been given an early Christmas gift, as my sense of duty had been fulfilled.

After work, the Library held its Christmas staff party. At one point, the Director was sitting beside me, so I made a point of thanking her for her prompt decision. In the following conversation, it came out that she had thought I was asking to purchase the older movie “A woman called Golda”. However, when I enlightened her, she was intrigued and asked if the movie was available through Netflix. I confessed I didn’t know. When I told the story to Saint Michael the Holy Mole the following day, he asked the same question which only goes to show that I am behind the times as far as digital media is concerned.

(Please note that the opinions stated above are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.)

On Sunday, I drove over to James’ house to deliver Christmas presents and to see his parents, currently living in his basement as Judy, his mother, is terminally ill. I was greeted by Jennifer as well as Duffy, James’ dog and Rufus, James’ his parents’ dog, respectively. Both dogs are terriers or at least mostly terriers. As bad luck would have it, the pants I was wearing didn’t fit well over my external fixation and thus my lower left leg was very exposed to their noses. They both tried to lick my wounds despite the best efforts of various people, including myself. Both Duffy and Rufus are nice enough dogs though somewhat undisciplined.

I made my way carefully down the stairs, for as luck would have it, it was a good day for Judy so she was able to receive me. I hadn’t seen her in over two years. It had been over a year since I had seen Robin when he came to visit me during my first stay at the Montreal General. We had a very nice chat and caught up on various subjects. I was very pleased to be able to see Judy as I may not have another opportunity.