What I Miss

Oh crap. I might be turning into Andy Rooney.
The other day I checked out a library book that had the little pocket in
the back to hold the card that they would stamp the due date on. I have
seen them in years; everything is barcodes now. At the first public
library I went to they would stamp the cards then photo graph them with
this huge machine. I can't imagine having to store all those film
canisters or even have to go back and find a book. I wonder if they had
to use them in some sort of torrid checkout dispute.
In junior high and high school, especially high school, I spent a lot of
time in the library. I'm pretty sure that I was the only one in jr high
that knew the school acutally had a library. I checked out quite a few
book, probably confusing the student assistants by forcing them to do
their jobs. I would always check the card and see how full it was, how
often the book had been check out or even when the last time someone had
it out. I felt particularly good if the book hadn't been check out in a
while. Maybe the book was lonely.
I remember reading lots of military airplane books and teen sci-fi
novels. I especially liked the reference books. They were special
somehow. You couldn't check them out so they had to be special right?
Anyway, the lack of checkout cards make me feel that I'm the first
person to crack that volume. that little weird link with readers that
have gone before is gone. Not a huge loss, but a loss none the less.
Ah crap, I forgot to make a witty,crumegonly joke at the expense of kids
these days.

Jobs With Hats

Jobs that have hats associated with them:

• Policemen - peaked caps
• Rangers - campaign hats
• Firemen - helmets
• Construction workers - hard hats
• Conductors conductor cap (which is like a peaked cap I suppose)
• Chefs - toque
• Cowboys - cowboy hat

You get the point. Some careers are known of their hats. The last time you thought of a matador a montera probably popped into your head. My career choice has no hat and that sucks. Though I can't imagine what it would be. A beret? No, too snooty. A straw boater? Neat, but no just doesn't make a lick of sense. A fedora is the most logical choice but also cliche. I think I'm stuck with a just baseball cap. . . sigh.

Hats let people you know business. They say "Hey, I know enough about the thing that this hat is related to that I wore the freaking hat!" They project authority. Think about airline pilots; their hats let you know they are in charge (of your life!) Heck, carry something career specific in your hand (say a red cape) and you can ask anyone to do anything. I have a few clipboards in my office for this very reason.

We have an active construction area were I work and I have to walk it frequently. That means I have to wear a hard hat ("Safety First") and I couldn't be happier. About 2 years ago we had our first construction project and we needed hard hats for the staff. I went down to Home Depot to score eight of them. They had a few different types but the average-Joe hard hat (the one with the visor in the front) was the cheapest. Personally I wanted one with the brim all the way around. It looked very 40's and looked a bit like a pith helmet. It was pretty awesome. But it was a bit more expensive and to purchase one different than everyone else's would be vanity. Also at the time it appeared that only supervisors had those kind of hats and I didn't want to upset the natural order of things (this isn't the case).

Thankfully they had only 7 with the peak so I would have to get one of the other styles. I was pretty happy about it. On the way back to work I was wondering if anyone would care or if they wanted the "special" hat. What if someone else coveted it too? I'd have to play it all cool and be like "Eva. It's just a stupid hard hat. Take it." In retrospect this was just dumb. Who the hell cares? No one with any sense.

When I got back I handed out the hats but kept my special hat for me. The one comment on the hat came from a coworker who made an off color joke dealing with a turtle's attraction to that kind of hard hat.

So for the next month or so I'll get to wear a job related hat. Hopfully I won't have to take advantage of all its features. That will mean something has fallen on my head.