The Invisible Demons are Watching, Listening

As you are all well aware, there are invisible demons lurking everywhere. They listen to our conversations and even our private thoughts. They are, of course, listening for expressions of hope or confidence. When they hear such expressions, they spring into action and crank up the adversity generator. You are not permitted to mention to your neighbor your hope for nice weather tomorrow so that your 9-year-old's birthday picnic in the park will be fun and pleasant, since the demons will see to it that a rougue storm cloud will hover over the park and send a minature and very localized monsoon down just as the candles are lit. Here at deskslave central, observations like "boy, it sure is quiet here today" are frowned upon, since that will provoke the demons to send a busload of needy people to the reference desk at the same moment.

I know better, then, than to think about a patron I will call Albert. Albert likes the TV shows from his youth. Star Trek, Green Hornet, Batman, etc. Albert loves him his music, too. Billy Joel, Sir Elton and the G himself, Kenny. Albert also likes to talk on the phone to librarians. Every day. Many, man times a day. He likes to check on his many holds. He likes to update us on when he thinks he might come in to pick up those many holds. He likes to ask us when his many items will be due. He's probably very lonely, but so am I and I don't call you, do I?

This morning, I had just had the thought that Albert hadn't called in a while and you know what happened. Seriously, the neurons in my brain had not even cooled off after transmitting the thought from point a to point b and the demons were on it like a hawk hitting a field mouse. Phone rings, it's Albert demanding to know when his copy of Elton John's Live in Australia will arrive. Lesson learned, demons.