Pace is really good about walking his younger sister to and from every school but he was clearly excited that she’d gone out to the lake with her mom on Thursday while he wanted to stay out and go with me after I finished work today.
“Can I write my skateboard to school?” he asked hopefully.
Of course.
(Funny related story – Sasha was quite sad the other day realising her brother will be in high school so she won’t walk with him next year.
“Are you nervous about walking alone?” her mom asked.
“No, I’m sad because I won’t be able to spy on him after school to see who he’s talking to!” she replied.
This was one of the last pictures I took two months ago to the day on Saturday March 27, 2021 as Regina Public Library prepared to once again close our branches the following day as Covid was spiking in Regina and area.
And just like when we shut down in March 2020 “a week or two” turned into “multiple months” as the branch was closed to the public for two months.
At least this time, our internal Business Continuity team was more prepared than when Covid first hit (and really – which businesses had *worldwide* pandemic on their risk assessment/emergency plans?) so all staff were either able to work from home, do a hybrid WFH and in-branch (which is what I did) or stay working in branch delivering curbside pickup, “Grab & Go” bags of random books based on patron preferences submitted via online form (rebranded to “Check It Out” bags as some people had apparently taken “Grab & Go” too literally when we were still open!, curbside printing and scanning, discussion of outside computer stations (that never happened) but an outside public phone (which did.)
Between those offerings plus a centralized Hotline to answer calls/emails/chats and digital programs, really there was *very* little that library patrons would not be able to access while we were closed that they couldn’t when we were open. (Again, direct access to the Internet and related items – printing, photocopying – for people who didn’t have technology at home was the main thing we couldn’t replicate.)
Barring some major change or announcement, we expect to reopen Monday and hopefully that’s the last time the library closes in my lifetime (short of the occasional brief power outage or snow day or something!) 🙂
We had a “Hungry Caterpillar” themed birthday when Sasha turned one that was a huge hit – great decorations (mostly homemade or from the Dollar Store), a “Hungry Caterpillar” dress ordered off Etsy, and her (at the time) five year old brother even did a reading of “The Hungry Caterpillar” using a giant book I’d borrowed from the library.
I don’t use Pinterest a lot but the board I created for party ideas still gets a lot of hits/saves to this day (uhm, would’ve sworn I added more than six things to that board but don’t know enough about how Pinterest works – maybe they pruned broken links or copyrighted images or something?)
Family Photo
A Special Reading of “The Hungry Caterpillar”
On the wall, one photo from each month of her first year In caterpillar form as a cool decoration (This “Chain” Hangs In My Office To This Day!). Also featuring an antique pedal car her grandpa restored for her.
(All jokes in this thread stolen from the CalgaryPuck message board where they’re quite enjoying items of trivia such as the fact that, because the regular season and playoffs overlapped, Edmonton being swept means the Flames have won more games after the playoffs started then Edmonton did. Or because Edmonton didn’t make playoffs last year while Calgary did and Edmonton was swept this year, Calgary *still* has more “home” playoff wins in Rogers Centre than the Oilers do.)
The Oilers have lost their first two games against the Winnipeg Jets and Connor McDavid, long known as “Connor McAvi” for the lack of “d” in his game can now be known as “Cnnr McAvi” as he hasn’t had a lot of “o” in this came recently either!
As a Flames fan, it’s hard to gloat since we didn’t make the playoffs (though being narrowly edged by Montreal who actually got in with fewer wins but more “loser points” for OT loses is pretty nonsensical anyhow) but I also take solace that after the “bubble” play-in and playoffs last year, the Flames actually have more Home wins at Edmonton’s Rogers Centre than the Oilers do!
