The electric kettle in the library work room is possessed as it has taken to turning itself on when no one is present. It is a noisy kettle so no one can mistake its call to action, and it is freaking the heck out of some of the staff. My erstwhile assistant has volunteered to purchase a new kettle (and yes she knows about my love for my blue light kettle) so we can exorcise the kettle on the morrow. Perhaps at first light with a crucifix and a clove of garlic?
We had a lockdown practice at school. It was planned at a time when no students were in the library, so it was just staff. The IT guys all headed for the windowless toilet with their laptops (it is a toilet designed for wheelchair access so plenty of room! They weren’t up close and personal. The school is also wireless.) The ladies on the other hand headed to the windowless compactus room, which, while it does not have running water and a toilet, does have a fridge, a water cooler and books to read. It was only after we go in there that we realised that we should have all grabbed a bean bag and then we could have been comfortable for some time and maybe even pretended not to hear the all clear. There was a bucket of sorts for “emergencies” but none of use considered our friendship strong enough that we could have bodily functions in the presence of others. I’ve been married to Mr FD for 35 years and produced three children with him and still cannot share the bathroom for such needs. He on the other hand has absolutely no compunction in doing so, as well as his flatulence in the bed, but we won’t unearth that tragedy right now.
Of course we couldn’t fit in the compactus room if we had classes, but we figure that it would probably be one of the students going for us, so they could all hide down in the library amphitheatre that does have a window, but it is high and covered by a blind. One of the problems with a library that is walls and walls of clear glass louvers. The other is that we boil in summer and freeze in even what passes for our winter.
My office, also with louvers, receives no sun, so is becoming a frosty hole as the temperature declines. A staff member found an electric heater for me, and it is now plugged in a corner of my office, waiting for its call. We debated about purchasing some of those heated lap rugs that are appearing this winter, but my concern that I might nod off on my chair and I think it is unseemly for the librarian to be viewed in her glass office (interior wall is clear glass!) drooling and snoring behind her desk, or worse still, on the floor.
And you thought the life of a teacher librarian was dull! There are always important issues to be dealt with on a daily basis, my dears. Vital issues. Who brought the chocolate biscuits?
Flamingo Dancer's Blog 
heated lamp rugs? do tell!
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lap rugs … just what an ageing population needs!
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Electric heaters have been a godsend more times than I can say. Plus they keep away snow monsters.
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Snow monsters – now that is something I would like to see!
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The kettle probably has a faulty switch, so a new one should take care of the mysterious noises, I hope. Not to alarm you and the staff: but a friend used to work in a library located in a former jailhouse, and rumor had it that the place was haunted by a prisoner who had hung himself in his cell. She said the copy machine and other electronic equipment would suddenly turn on by themselves, and she often heard footsteps treading the floor above her, even though she was the only person in the building. She said the worst thing however was this chair set at the end of the hallway. She and the custodian used to move the chair to another room so the cleaning crew could wax the floors. The next day however, the chair was back in its spot in the hallway, before the crew could finish their work. The chair was heavy and made of solid wood—it couldn’t just slide by itself from the side office into the hallway. She said it especially creeped her out when one weekend, she had to return to her office to fetch a coat she had forgotten there. The custodian had locked the mysterious chair in a file room so no one could take it out until Monday. My friend swears that she heard the chair sliding around in the locked room, and there was no one on the floor except her.
Not long after that, she took another job elsewhere. At her farewell party, the other staff told her they were surprised she stayed as long as she did. None of predecessors had stayed longer than a year in that office.
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A local University built on the site of a deserted mental asylum, and their building was the site of the old laundry and they had similar stories to tell. Happily ours is a brand new building – and I haven’t murdered any students…yet.
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Watch out; that kettle will burn the whole campus down…
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I am now wondering if we unplugged it tonight, as we said we would.
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Lock down – we have no provision for this. But I can see with all the shootings there is a need for it.
That kettle’s a worry. Funny but a bit dangerous.
Paint some eyes on your eyelids and nobody will know if your snoozing. 🙂
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We all have lockdown procedures and also fire drills. We will go into lockdown if there is even a report of someone suspicious on the campus, or any police incident in the immediate area.
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I used to work the night shift at Knott’s Berry Farm (as in Knott’s jams, jellies & preserves… if you get those in AU)… in the old original barn buildings from 1900-something. Talk about COLD. I had to wear gloves while I typed! But it was a fun job and everything smelled like raspberry preserves so it was worth it.
Do you have a tea loving ghost? I had a job where people were always talking about the ghost in my dept. I laughed with them – till the night I was working alone and 3 books jumped off a shelf. I’m not saying it was really ghosts… but I’m also not saying it was not.
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Well we could offer any spectral guests tea, coffee, herbal teas, hot chocolate, low fat milk or soy milk; such are the many and varied taste of staff. I have had a very open mind on such visitations ever since I walked into the dining room of Mr FD’s grandfather’s house and “sensed” grandfather sitting at the table. Found out later that it was his favourite spot at the table. He was a man that I had met only twice before he died, so not some one I was emotionally attached to…
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I’ve some experiences too. The strangest was as a teen, going to bed late at night in the dark. In a hallway, I stepped aside to let someone pass me before realizing there was no physical person there.
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