yes, summer @ the library has started with a bang....err....barf??
i think library workers need hazard pay. at least at my library. today was the first "hazmat" type situation of the summer. a frantic co-worker runs into my office with the words......SOME KID JUST THREW UP ALL DOWN THE HALL. now there are no daily cleaning people at the library. so everyone stands around looking at each other. who's cleaning this mess up? so usually me, with my love of all things csi and forensics, gets the job. if not me then who? so a co-worker, kim bless her heart, and myself glove up, get a pile of junk towels, and trash bags and get to work. no mentholatum today. so it's....breathe through your mouth......breathe through your mouth...mantra running through my head. we sop up and throw wet towels into trash bag, sop up some more, and more. how much did this kid eat??? i can tell by the stomach contents he had some type of blended fruit smoothie type drink with oranges, peaches or mangoes in it. bleergh. okay that's done. now what? carpet cleaner. check. spray, spray, spray. guess what? it glowed white, almost like luminol. you could literally see the barf outline. cool? sorta. scrub, scrub, scrub. then comes the lysol. gloves off. trash to dumpster. a patron sitting close by nursing her child says...do you guys get extra pay for this. is it in your job description. ha ha ha ha. sure we do.
now who would have thought that the library would be a place you need to glove up in? over the years, let's see......patron's exploding in the bathroom stall, fishing bloated kotex out of the toilet with a coat hanger, handling bloody books, bloody kids, picking up poop off the floor, diapers dumped (contents spilled), barf, snot, diarrhea on dvd/video cases, vasoline (i prefer to think it was vasoline) or semen on a dvd case, applesauce covered books in the bookdrop, roaches crawling out of dvd cases, hair....in books...people it's gross. this is just the tip of the iceberg.
did i mention a bookpocket full of pubic hair. oh yes. all true. all true.
so yeah, i think we deserve hazard pay. or a least some really cool tyvek hazmat suits to clean the messes up in!
libraries...not just a quiet, clean place with books.
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