On moving

I'm driving a truck for the Genealogy move this week. Well, driving, plus helping load and unload 1000-pound carts of books. Very, very carefully. There are a lot of interesting things to learn, and a lot of great people to work with - Genealogy staff, plus a few people from other areas of the library (like me) and quite a few temporary staff, including several who have worked during the summer. I mainly just get to see the dock staff - other loaders and unloaders - but every once in a while, the rest of them trickle out on breaks, and - sorry, I said this before, but in the interest of emphasis - I realize again and again what a great bunch of people I'm working with.

We're running two trucks back and forth from our temporary location, where we've been for almost four years (ever since I started working here; I missed the last move by about a month), to the newly remodeled facility at 900 Library Plaza (formerly known as 900 Webster St.). At our best pace, we make a little better than four truckloads an hour, which is around 50 carts an hour. And if you multiply that out, you get ... a really big number of pounds per day. It's a great workout and an interesting change of pace. (And I'm sleeping really well.)

Of course, there are frustrations, too - other trucks also have to deliver equipment and services to the new building, which slows down our work, but we know it's all heading toward the same goal: getting the building open on January 27.