Shouty Drunk Guy

Tonight there was a shouty drunk guy in the library. I was helping him and I was even doing all my Professional Librarian Reference Effectiveness Behaviors ("Is that your complete question?") when he confessed to me that he was drunk. I mean, I could smell it on him, but when you just up and confess? Come on! Only in Aberdeen would you confess your drunkenness to a public servant with the expectation that this knowledge will make them more patient and lenient and will explain away all your bad behavior. "Oh, you mean you're only shouting and repeating yourself because you're drunk? Well, that's alright then."

So as soon as he said this I turned my head to look at our cop, who was standing maybe 12 feet away. And Shouty Drunk Guy turned his head and noticed the cop too, for the first time. OOPS! I guess he didn't expect that he'd be a Shouty Drunk Guy in front of a COP! He started begging me not to do anything, but I mercilessly got the cop's attention anyway. And then the cop escorted him out. When our cop returned, he remarked, "At first I just thought he was loud and different." Indeed no.

And then about 10 or 15 minutes later Shouty Drunk Guy came back inside. This time V. kept him at bay while the rest of us went looking for the cop, who again escorted him outside and again 'supervised' him for a little while. Then by all reports, Shouty Drunk Guy got on his bicycle and rode away. And for a minute there I thought I was back in Tucson.


So. Some of you may heave heard about OUR BIG FUCKING STORM. Yes. It was a wind-storm. The weird weather started Sat. Dec. 1st, when there was SNOW. And snow by itself isn't all that weird this time of year in WA, and it had been pretty cold recently. Nico even bought us some ice scrapers. I haven't owned an ice scraper since I was 20.

And then on Sunday the wind storm started. At first it wasn't much different from any other windy-type storm that we get here, but then it escalated. We were having sustained winds of up to 70 mph, with gusts over 100 mph. The power went off on Sunday night.

On Monday morning I got a call that the library would be closed because the power was out. There was still hot water for showers, and Nico didn't have to work that day. The wind was still blowing; it was only the middle of the storm. Nico and I went driving around to see if anyone had power, but it didn't look like it. There were trees down (big ones) everywhere. We have a gas fireplace and gas stove top, so we were alright on heat and food. We took naps. In the afternoon I got another call saying that the library would be closed the next day too. And then I lost reception. We were effectively cut off, so we didn't know how bad it was.

The next day Nico went to work, where he heard about the flooding, the road closures, and the governor declaring a state of emergency. But I still didn't know how bad it was. The weather had calmed down and still no one had power, so I thought I'd just drive in to Olympia, buy some supplies, eat at a restaurant. But I couldn't get out of town, because the highway was closed. Would probably be closed, I was informed by a worker, for a couple of days. I was trapped! I couldn't leave. The stress began to get worse.

Well, we finally got our power back on Wednesday evening. The library was open on Wed. as well. We weathered the storm; the worst one this area's seen since the 60's. All in all we were pretty lucky. No trees fell on us. We had heat and food. Our power's back on. Our drinking water wasn't contaminated. Nico didn't have to miss any work, and I'm still paid for the days the library was closed.

Welcome to the Harbor, suckers!