#blogjune Post 16 - Commuting or Cow Spotting

This morning I was reading Rachel's post about her morning commute, so I thought I would describe mine.  It will not take long!

I'm lucky enough to live about 15 minutes drive from MPOW.  I usually drop Miss A at school along the way as it's really only 5 minutes down the road.  Once I have dropped her off (which usually means walking her to her classroom and making sure her friends are there - yes she is back to being a bit clingy - tweens, sigh!), back in the car and out onto the Pacific Hwy.  Although in a few months it won't be the Pacific Hwy anymore - yay!  The highway is actually moving 5km's West of our town and we will then only have a local road to drive on.

Not much to see on the Hwy and I'm only on it for about 2km.  I cross the Kalang River which is nice and then take the Short Cut Rd (yep that's what it is called) past a few houses with half acre to acre blocks, over the new hwy (quick peak at the progress) and past the industrial estate.  Then out onto Waterfall Way.

The 10km or so drive on Waterfall Way is through dairy farm land.  So lots of cows and you are driving West so the Dorrigo mountains loom in front which makes for a scenic drive.  Usually I get stuck behind someone driving slow, or have to stop for road works (seems to be endless) but in reality there is not much traffic, no traffic lights or hold ups.  Not long and then I'm in Bellingen and parked and walking to work.

Sometimes if we have lots of rain, then I can't get to MPOW (due to flooding) and have to work from the branch that is located in my town.

I don't really miss commuting in the city.  And anytime I have to visit Sydney for professional development, be it a course or conference, I tire quickly of the hustle and bustle.  That said, maybe it won't be long and I will be back in the hustle bustle and might even enjoy the people watching for a while.  Nice change from cows!

Blog June Post 11 - Mud Poo and Cows

Today's mantra: Live the life you have imagined.

Thanks to @geocachinglibn for writing a responding blog post to my post concerning libraries and communities.

He writes: There are certainly a range of different communities on a university campus, such as the research community, teaching and learning community, and the internationalisation community, and the library is usually represented in them all.

This got me thinking - do public libraries have a research community, teaching and learning community and internationalisation community?  I think they do, and I think they have more - the reading for relaxation community, the education community, the hobby community, the book club community, the student requiring a space community - and I use the word community instead of individual as there are many and often the come together in the library or network through the library.  But I suppose we could just call them the public library community!

I will be interested to read/learn more about how @geocachinglibn feels the health library he is now working in builds community.  But there are other's that follow my blog that already work in health libraries and they may be able to discuss this as well.  The floor is open to you.....

Today was a good day in the library.  I had a query for an item that turned out to be not what it was first thought to be.  I love it when I have to do a bit of sleuthing to work out just what the customer is wanting - especially when only provided with a snippet of information.  I miss using these skills as the role I am currently in calls for more people massaging (management) then the fun "using library skills" stuff!

This morning was also fun.  I ran 21km with my running friends.  We left at around 5am in the dark and went out along one of the road that passes a few dairy farms.  Unfortunately, for us we had some rain last night which caused parts of the road to be slippery with mud and cow poo.  It was a case of yelling out "puddle" "pot hole" "mud" "cow" - yes cow!!  A cow was outside the paddock and due to the lack of light it was a bit of a shock to look up from concentrating on the ground so as not to fall over and see a huge beast in front of you.  I think the cow was more scared of us - as you would be with numerous bobbing head lamps coming towards you looking somewhat like UFO's - and ran off to find the gap in the fence and return to the safety of the paddock.