We have decided to give up and turn ourselves in and pay the fine, i said to the librarian behind the desk, who laughed with us about it.
"The CD player in my car ate the disks, and it would cost more to get someone to pull out the radio and try to rescue them and then they might be damaged anyway, and I'd end up without a radio in the car which I cannot do without, so we will just pay for them," Bigger Girl said, all in one breath the way she does.
"It happens more often than you would think," the librarian said.
Sorry i don't have exact change, i said as i handed over several bills, enough for several days of groceries, but it was a book on CD and costs a lot to replace.
The librarian replied, "That's no trouble, we keep plenty of change here, just remember to keep your receipt."
Since we've already gotten the library attorney letter while we were exploring whether or not we could rescue the disks, i certainly will.
Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories, where the cue is Exact.
Today is:
Celebration of the First Week of Moonhopper -- Fairy Calendar
CHA Winter Convention and Trade Show -- Anaheim, CA, US (largest Craft and Hobby Association show of the year; through the 12th)
Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival -- Chicago, IL, US (15th annual, celebrating the best in local and national sketch comedy; through the 17th)
Fasching Carnival -- Munich, Germany (through Shrove Tuesday)
Festa del Tricolore -- Italy (Tricolour or Flag Day)
Harlem Globetrotters' Day -- anniversary of their first game in 1927
I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore Day -- declared by Bob O'Brien, Consumer Advocate, who encourages us to fight back
Nanakusa no Sekku -- Japan (Festival of Seven Herbs, dates back to the 7th century and recalls the medicinal herbs that were traditionally served to the emperor)
National Tempura Day
Nativity of Christ / Orthodox Christmas / Coptic Christmas -- Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians still using the Julian Calendar.
Old Rock Day -- a/k/a "St. Distaff's Day" or simply Distaff Day(the distaff, for spinning yarn, was also called a "rock"; today was the day women went back to spinning after the Christmas holidays)
St. Raymond of Penyafort's Day (Patron of attornies, barristers, canonists, lawyers, and medical record librarians)
Usokae -- Kameido Tenmangu Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan (Bullfinch Exchange Day, Uso also means "lie" so when exchanging carved birds, it is considered a way of exchanging lies for the truth)
Victory Day over the Genocidal Regime -- Cambodia
Anniversary Today:
Princess Juliana of Netherlands weds Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, 1937
Birthdays Today:
Dustin Diamond, 1977
Jeremy Renner, 1971
Nick Cleg, 1967
Nicholas Cage, 1964
Katie Couric, 1957
David Caruso, 1956
Erin Gray, 1950
Kenny Loggins, 1948
Jann Wenner, 1947
Paul Revere, 1938
William Peter Blatty, 1928
Jean-Pierre Rampal, 1922
Vincent Gardenia, 1922
Charles Addams, 1912
Butterfly McQueen, 1911
Aristotle Onassis, 1906
Zora Neale Hurston, 1891
St Bernadette, 1844
Millard Fillmore, 1800
Jacques Etienne Montgolfier, 1745
Debuting/Premiering Today:
Video-Telephone, 1992 (US$1,499)
"Fame"(TV), 1982
"Flash Gordon"(comic strip), 1934
"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D."(comic strip), 1929
"Tarzan of the Apes"(comic strip), 1929
Transatlantic telephone service, 1927 (US$75 for 5 minutes)
Today in History:
Calais, the last English possession in France, is taken back by the French, 1558
Boris Godunov seizes the Russian throne upon the death of Feodore I, 1598
Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia, 1608
Galileo discovers the first 3 moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, and Ganymede), 1610
Francis Bacon becomes the English Lord Chancellor, 1618
A prototype typewriter is patented by Englishman Henry Mill, 1714
Battle at Panipat India: the Afghan army beats Mahratten, 1761
The Bank of North America opens in Philadelphia, the first US commercial bank, 1782
The first gas balloon flight across the English channel, by Blanchard and Jeffries, 1785
The modern Italian flag is first used, 1797
Liberia is colonized by Americans, 1822
The first railroad station in the US, in Baltimore, opens, 1830
Fanny Farmer publishes her first cookbook, 1896
The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS", 1904
The first steamboat passage through the Panama Canal, 1914
The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game, 1927
The first transatlantic telephone service is established – from New York City to London, 1927
"Buck Rogers", the first sci-fi comic strip, and "Tarzan," one of the first adventure comic strips, premier, 1929
Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast, 1931
The "Flash Gordon" comic strip (by Alex Raymond) debuts, 1934
President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed the hydrogen bomb, 1952
The first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM, 1954
Marian Anderson becomes the first black singer to perform at the Met (NYC), 1955
The Polaris missile is test launched, 1960
Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off, 1968
Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 1984
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union, 1985
The interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public because of safety concerns, 1990
U.S. President Clinton goes on trial before the U.S. Senate for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, 1999
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics estimates at least 17 billion planets exist that are comparable to the size of the Earth, 2013
One of the history facts I recall learning as a child was Mary I having Calais written on her heart! "During the reign of Mary I, the garrison was weakened and security relaxed as France was not, at that time, thought to be hostile. This was a mistake for the French under Francis, Duke of Guise, took advantage of English negligence and took the city. When the news of the loss reached Queen Mary, she exclaimed “When I am dead and opened, you will find Calais written on my heart’."
ReplyDeletethe hits just keep on coming!
ReplyDeleteAh the joys of or free library. You still have to replace as needed but no overdue charges.
ReplyDeleteIt seems Murphy's Law resides at your house often. I'm hoping he leaves you alone for a bit. You know like the next 20 years or so.
ReplyDeleteHave a fabulous day. ☺
III love the "one breath sentence", that's hilarious. I stay in trouble with the library and my mothers a librarian, but she won't let me go in the branch where she works.
ReplyDeleteI share Sandee's hope for you! Have a great Day Messy! Oh, and I'm adding you to my "favorite blogs" link list. I hope that's o.k., if not, just let me know, alright?
Have a great day!
Ah, the fear of the librarian when returning lost/overdue items. Good story.
ReplyDeleteHaven't had and CDs hang up n the player. Hoever, when I was younger I had 4 and 8 track players in the car. They ate tapes regularly.
ReplyDeleteSteve
I've been a life long fan of libraries. Aside from a warm beach, they are one of my favorite sites. When paying my fines, I often think about the joy their services have given me these long years. It's a small price to pay, I think.
ReplyDelete:-(
ReplyDeleteI hope it will never happen again.
maybe our first exposure (as children) to 'owing the Man'… or, more appropriately, the Woman (behind the desk).
ReplyDeleteFunny, though, I was brought to the library at a very early age, and while I'd not necessarily enjoy owing overdue fees, there was somehow a subtly a more benign experience
I found the ease of returning an over-due library book in school quite easy and thought nothing of it, but to return one in a public library there is a "wake up" call as to the consequences of not returning the book/books in a timely manner. If you wait long enough...you can buy a book easier than paying the fees!
ReplyDeleteI found the ease of returning an over-due library book in school quite easy and thought nothing of it, but to return one in a public library there is a "wake up" call as to the consequences of not returning the book/books in a timely manner. If you wait long enough...you can buy a book easier than paying the fees!
ReplyDeleteMy father died when I was 10 and on the shelves of our family library I saw a copy of Moby Dick, due in the late 40's to NY Public Library. Your story made me remember that.
ReplyDeleteI do not trust myself with library materials. Luckily, my library must have a lot of patrons like me. Instead of going to the lending section, I go to the sale room. Yes, ROOM. There I purchase a couple of bags of books for under $10. (Which given my history is less than the fines and/or replacement costs) I then read them and usually return them and buy more. IMHO it is a win win situation. The library makes money on me but it's guilt free for me.
ReplyDelete