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Growing up, I loved snow days as much as when a teacher would wheel in a TV to our classroom. We knew we would watch a movie and would get to take it a bit easier. With snow days, I knew I would get to play outside in the snow, making forts, making money shoveling snow for neighbors, and getting to have an overall adventure.
As a librarian and manager, that thrill is completely gone. I am up at the wee hours of the morning trying to understand weather patterns and constantly refreshing the school district's website to see if they are going to delay or close. If I decide to do either, I have to figure out a time for staff to come in or contact each of them to say they can stay home, change the answering machine message to say when we will open or be closed, post an online message to say when we will open or be closed, notify groups who were going to use our community rooms that they can't use it today, and have to hear it from patrons who somehow made it all the way into the library only to find out we were closed. After all, if they could make it into the library, why couldn't we? See how the thrill is gone?
I can't let myself be overcome by just one emotion. I have to find balance and also see the good in a snow day. I get to work from home, which is rather nice; no distractions and I get to catch up on things. I can step away from my phone and email and not feel bad about it. I can substitute my normal yogurt and fruit cup lunch for soup and a sandwich. And I can get a "mental health day," where I look outside and let my imagination run wild. The brain needs that type of thing from time to time, like a car engine needs an oil change.
If you ever wonder if the library is open, closed, or opening on a delay, just call us and we will have our answering machine reflect that. Our pages online (website and social media) will have posts informing of what we plan to do. If we are closing for the day, we will have it posted by 7 a.m. No overdue fees will be charged on snow days, so enjoy that extra day. Also, we usually follow the school district's lead, so if they close or delay, we do the same. A book isn't worth your safety out on the roads; if you see snow in the forecast, take an extra book with you next time you visit the library. Also, you can download eBooks for free.
Book of the week!
If you are going to read one book, give this one a try...
The Girl in the Vault by Michael Ledwidge
(New adult fiction: thriller, suspense, crime) ~ 368 pages
In a nutshell: When an unpaid Wall Street intern at a Manhattan investment bank discovers there is $10 million in cash ready to pay kidnappers stored in a basement vault, she decides to fake a kidnapping.
Faye Walker had a very normal suburban life as a child, complete with a backyard trampoline and two loving parents, until her mother passed away when she was 11. Her father descended into drugs, lost his job and the house, then sent Faye and her sister, Caitlin, to live with their grandmother in her trailer in Kentucky coal country before finally landing in prison. Through sheer hard work, an innate talent for math, and a fortuitous decision to actually listen to advice given to her, Faye turns a personal downward spiral in high school into a full ride for a BA and MBA before finally landing the coveted summer internship in Manhattan. She is positive her hard work will land her one of the two full-time junior investment analyst positions that will be announced when the internship ends. And with the addition of finding her one true love in NYC, an Irish taxi driver who wants to become a first responder, she feels like the world is finally turning out as it should. But when she discovers that she doesn't have a chance of getting one of the jobs, she cooks up a fake kidnapping scheme to cheat the company out of the cash it keeps on hand in the event one of its clients needs immediate access to ransom money. But when her partner, a rich son turned drug addict, turns up unexpectedly dead, her careful plans begin to unravel, and she is left trying to survive. An unexpected twist at the end caps this exciting jaunt, which is heavy on specific details of Faye's chess-move planned heist, though thin on why she decides it is her only option.
Bottom line: A compelling heist-thriller-love story that readers will race through.
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Vince Giordano has been the librarian and director of the Juniata County Library since 2015.