Sign of the Times

I went to the library yesterday. It's not so easy to just 'go' to the library, it's pretty far from my house, and as a part of our own family's economic plan, we don't just get up and go somewhere on a whim. We make planned trips to help save on fuel expenses. So, back to yesterday. I made the library part of the plan, and included stopping by there amongst a handful of other errands that had added up. My daughter needed a book as a reference on a research paper she's working on, so I had to make the trip.

So I got on the freeway (sounds crazy to have to get on the freeway to go to the library, doesn't it?), and headed to the other part of town, toward the library. I made a couple of my other stops, dropped off a bill, headed down the road to my final stop, the library, pulled in the parking lot, and......it was empty. I sat there for a minute, dumbfounded. I quickly scanned my brain wondering if I'd missed another holiday (nothing comes the day after Easter, right?), and even entertained a desperate thought that maybe no one was there yet. But it was the middle of the day, there were no cars in sight, it was not a holiday.

Then it hit me. Literally. I had just been 'hit' by one of the cuts our city had made. Right smack between the eyes. And it hurt. A few years back, the city decided that to cut costs, the libraries would be closed on Sundays. OK, that's doable, kind of. The following year, they cut back on the hours the libraries would be open. Well, that required a little more planning but we managed. Then, I show up in the middle of the day, on a weekday, and there is no chance for me to even get in the door - it's closed!

I get it. I know why it has to be this way. I have my own economic plan for pete's sake! But yesterday, I had a head-on collision with a part of the city's economic plan and I really felt the effects. I hear about this kind of thing on TV all the time, but coming face-to-face with it is a different story.

All the little things we've come to expect in life can change in a heartbeat. Appreciation of those little things, such as getting in the car and driving whenever you feel like it or just going to the library, can go a long way.