Had us an Internet
Crowd Gang War on Thursday. Nearly all the IC Rogues turned up at some
point during the day and most had to wait a while. They were thus very
grumpy campers. Oddly, Parka
was not among them. I kept trying to keep all the computers tied up by
letting patrons log back on (including Nearsighted Dave and his apparent
step-son, who's not nearly as nearsighted) just so he'd have to wait
when he got there, but he didn't turn up. Almost as bad, though, Mr. Big
Stupid lurched through the door with his usual, "Got`ny `puters?" Oh, so sorry. There's a 10 minute wait for you. He looked satisfyingly disappointed.
Two Rogues who did turn up and who were summarily turned away were Jimmy the "Anonymous" Snitch and The Amazing Bladderboy. I had to bite my cheek to keep from saying, "Hey, I thought your ass was in jail."
The
computers were all full when they came in. I told Jimmy that it would
be a 15 minute wait at the very least. (And by the end of 15 minutes, we
would be hovering at 15 til closing time, at which point I could shut
the computers down due to all the signs we have posted saying that the
computers will be shut down at 15 til, thus sparing Jimmy the use of a
computer at all.) My master plan was only partially foiled, though, when
Jimmy and Bladders simply left.
Suddenly, at 15 til
close, ALL the computer users gave up and fled the library all at once. I
quickly dashed back and turned the computers off to prevent future
attempts. Not that this stops some of the computer crowd. One of our
newer internet addicts turned up exactly at closing one day last week
and asked if she could check her e-mail "real quick."
"I'm sorry, but we're closed," I told her.
"Guess that means you turned off the computers, then?" she said hopefully.
"Yes," I said, dashing her hopes. She'd already been in three separate times that day. What more did she really need?
By the end of the day we had 37 computer users. ("Thirty seven? In a row?") Which is a good 10 more than usual.
No comments:
Post a Comment