Haxtun Libary

Today’s topic is the library, I will get to it in a minute. I had to run to the doctor yesterday for breathing problems and found that although the clinic is here and there is a “hospital” connected if you have to be admitted you first have to be transported to Fort Morgan – about an hour away. I can tell you that the culture shock is quite,well just say that it is shocking.

I just went to the little second hand shop run by one of the FIVE churches here. Did you get that there are 5, FIVE!!! churches here and not one bar or restaurant. well none that are open after 2 in the afternoon.

OK, I am good with mothers that have kids and when the kids are sick you do what has to be done. But I just came across the street and saw a note (Handwritten of course) that said the shop (The only one in town) wouldn’t be opening today because of a sick kid. Really truly!! I can’t imagine any business literally shutting down. My bad I guess.

Now as I sit in the library I notice something odd about the computer – the password is of course PASSWORD!! I know that over 70% of public passwords are password but today it just sat up and hit me, they couldn’t think of anything else?? How about Haxtun, library, books, internet all of these simple and easy to remember. The one reason I am at the library is that I don’t have a keyboard on my tablet (My fingers are too big I guess).

So I go to the library and seem to have developed a relationship with the librarian. As you know not all relationships are of the positive nature (well, you know this if you are over 12.) This relationship has grown from a civil “Hello” to “You are only to use the computers for RESEARCH” I guess writing isn’t quite what she had in mind. OH, well!!

I also came here last week to have a print from a file I had. I have a piece of paper that says I am a Graphic Designer, but it has been some years. Lifetimes in computer age. So I wanted to print out something that I had done a while ago and saved to a disc. This is a good time to tell you that the last time I tried to print something it was a book that I am trying to write, the section I was trying to print so that I could make revisions by hand was about 30 pages. I hit print from the computer and the librarian started to stutter (Yes literally!!) “OH, how many did you print I can’t have that many printed at one time!!” I thought I had killed the Pope!! So I tried to stop the print at 20 pages but it just kept printing because they had already been downloaded from the computer to the printer. Now comes the time when I need to print on card stock.

Let me describe to you the library. It is in an abandoned store front connected to the City Hall of Haxtun. The walls are lined with books from another age. Antiques decorate the tops of the shelves, I see an old coffee pot displayed in front of several “ButterNut” coffee cans old pop bottles and even some typewriters that look like they are from the turn of the LAST century. Every body remember “Brothers” typewriters? In the middle of all of this nostalgia is an island of what passes for progress. Three computer screens (I have never seen them full) three towers with Dell emblazoned on them and ONE printer sitting behind the librarian. When I started coming here she was a little cool, thinking that I am a naturally friendly person she would warm up someday. Well hell hasn’t frozen over and she hasn’t thawed at all. If anything she is a little more ICY!!

When I asked her to print the card stock she looked like I had asked her to cut off her right arm or kill her kid!! But she tried, I supplied the card stock and thought that because it was a laser printer that it would take it with out any problem – that is what I get for thinking!!! The thing started to turn out the page and stopped somewhere about the third pass and the thing started buzzing like a hornets nest. She is looking daggers at me and I am trying to figure out what caused the printer to suddenly decide to turn into the devil machine!!

She tore the part that she could see and tried to keep it from getting any worse and I am trying to help, OK, but I was TRYING to help. she just looked at me and said she had to shut down the “computer lab” for the day. No print job, no internet, and no typing the story. I snuck in here (You would know how funny that was if you saw this place) and type for a few minutes. The only way in or out is a door about 10ft from the “DESK OF DOOM!” behind which sits the “Librarian from LIMBO” I did notice a sign behind her that says “COPIES .20 they use to be .10 I guess I am good for the economy here prices are going UP!!!

When I sent this photo to my son, Peter, he said “It looks like they tried to draw through the word PUBLIC.” Well it is just a crack in the sign. I wonder….