Amusing dream

[altivo]

Yesterday morning I awoke from a most peculiar dream.

Most of you know I am a librarian. I was at work, and the library director had decided that we should buy some horses for people to check out so they could have the experience of caring for a horse without the long term responsibility. They could always just return the horse if it was too much bother. (I told you this was peculiar.)

Anyway, it turned into a major disagreement between myself and the circulation staffer. She wanted us to get Arabians because they are so beautiful and smart, and I kept trying to explain to her that Arabians would never stand up to the abuse they'd get in public circulation. I was convinced that Shetland ponies or Fjords would be much more practical and durable.

*bong*

Comments

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

Graze not on the locoweed ...

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

(I say that and I have equally bizarre dreams sometimes involving coworkers, customers, family and my years-gone abusive exes ...)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's really very rare for me to dream about work. Much more typical of my mate, who still has nightmares about his office job even though he left it seven years ago this autumn.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

I've had dreams about being at work in the nude at jobs I haven't been to in years.

[ruwhei.livejournal.com]

Amazing. Though I think shetland ponies would be a very bad choice indeed.

Thoroughbreds or Quarterhorses are pretty well known for putting up with amazing amounts of abuse and QH's are pretty durable. But if I had to choose... I'd choose a good old unpedigreed GRADE horse with excellent temperment.

Good thing this insane idea isn't real, though :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's utterly absurd of course, but dreams don't have to make sense. However, smaller horses would certainly be preferable. Thoroughbreds wouldn't be practical, I think. Quarterhorses are even a bit larger than I could imagine. Minis would really be about right. They'd fit in the library users' minivan to go home, of course. And they eat less.

[ruwhei.livejournal.com]

The reason I avoid smaller horses for this theoretical purpose is that people tend to treat small horses as dogs, and psychologically this is bad both for the person and the horse. Shetlands and Minis have some of the worst temperments I've seen in horses, and its because people don't treat them "like horses", and tend to use overpowering strength as a training method. I've seen people physically *wrestle* with miniature horses as a domination technique, for instance. Even a 230lb mini is stronger than a human and its just a disaster waiting to happen. My riding instructor (I really should get in touch with her again) told me that the worst tempered horses she ever met were minis because people do some pretty stupid things with them.

QHs can be big, but some can be small too, and you should know that the bigger the horse the more docile they tend to be - as well as being resistant to pummelling by idiots, yet are smaller and less intimidating than Draft horses. A grade horse would be even better, though. Grade horses tend to be smaller than QHs. They have also been exposed to stupid human behavior, because they are less 'valuable', people don't treat them with kid gloves.

On the other hand, they tend to be smart, because dumb grade horses don't get to live very long. This is sad, because smart horses are not necessarily preferable for someone who is clueless about horses. Smart horses learn quickly ... and learn how to outsmart the human quickly, too.

This arugment is an angels on the head of a pin argument, anyway :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oooh. Nice new icon there.

Yeah, but sometimes it's fun to discuss angels on the heads of pins, too.

I got to tell the other staff member in question this morning, and we actually decided that mustangs would probably be the best choice.

I agree with you about bad tempered Shetlands and people miscueing minis. Any horses who were actually subjected to a program such as this would have to be already well trained and docile. Of course, there never will be such a program, but it was an entertaining dream anyway.

"This horse is overdue, miss. You owe us 40 cents."

[plushlover.livejournal.com]

I'd love to check out a horse! *giggles* Come to think of it, I've been checking horses out pretty much my whole life. ;-)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I started thinking about how to set the overdue fines and replacement fees if lost or damaged and got rather boggled by it all.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Libraries need to find creative ways like this to boost interest by patrons. Horses to check out... maybe pets like dogs and bunnies too. It just might work......

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I think I read somewhere once about a library that tried bunnies and guinea pigs or something like that. I don't remember what happened.

We almost had a bunny for the summer a couple of years ago. It was a class mascot at one of the elementary schools and we were asked if we would keep it over the summer. The boss considered, but decided against it. We do have a cat now, and she's popular with some visitors but losing her popularity with staff. Finding your papers in a heap on the floor and your keyboard covered with cat hair in the morning is, well, unexciting.

Ponies to check out sounds like fun but of course it wouldn't be. In dreams, though, nothing has to make sense.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

Hmm...go for a split. The Arabians /are/
really gorgeous and will bring in the masses
(more use = more funding?). But limit them
to twenty percent of the total.

I'm doing distribution analysis of your
dream...I need meds. c.c

XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I wish more use did mean more funding, but it doesn't. Our funding is tax based, the only way to increase it is by passing a referendum (forget that) or by having more building and development within the taxing district (which is happening, and frankly, I think it's a criminal shame.) People take the library for granted and just say "It's supposed to be free, why do we have to pay taxes for it?" Duh.

Appaloosas are much tougher and more durable, but they aren't a good match in temperament to the inexperienced public alas. Likewise Fjords and Haflingers. I think ruwhei was correct, plain old mixed breed horses, or perhaps rescued mustangs, would be best if this insane idea actually were real.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

You need popular support!

I reccomend first printing up about a billion "I (heart) my Library
and I Vote!" stickers and giving the away.

I also suggest having literacy volunteers parked in your library.

I also suggest that you have Stories for Tots and invite the parents
to hang out.

I...okay so I'm marketing. But I wuvs me a library! You shouldn't
have to just depend on the random tax ref!

In fact...it would be nice to introduce legislation to make the
library budget absolutely seperate from the rest of the budget so
it can't be raped when taxes need to go up.

Of course I could also win the lottery.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, our tax levy is separate from the rest of city funding. The city collects the taxes and "holds" them for us, but they are legally obligated to deliver our funds when we ask for them. If they've spent them on something else, they have to borrow at their own expense in order to give us our dollars.

We also get what are called "impact fees", a certain amount from the developers for every new house they put up. Those can only be spent on capital improvements, like additions to the building, or added lights and wiring, but that helps.

We do have children's story hours and a parent is required to attend with each child. Literacy volunteers were tried but no takers. What's really needed are English lessons for people who only speak Spanish. None of us know enough Spanish to do that.

And, we have our own endowment. The library was originally founded by a man who left a large sum of money in his will back in 1908. Even after building the first library building (still standing, now used by a church) and furnishing it, that endowment paid staff salaries and bought books for decades. It still hasn't run out, because it was carefully managed and has been increased by bequests from others. We've received almost a quarter of a million dollars that way in the last four years. The endowment is tax-free and no one can touch it but the library, with the approval of the board of trustees (separate from the city library board) that is appointed to oversee it. That endowment has gotten us through some very lean times in the past. (Including just a couple of years ago, when the mayor ordered all full time city employees to take one day of leave without pay every two weeks because of a tax shortfall. Technically we are city employees, but the director bargained us out of it by getting the endowment trustees to agree to pay for some city services we receive, like snow plowing and lawn mowing.)

[animist.livejournal.com]

Ohh... double geek points for you! Library and horses in the same dream!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh heh. You haven't heard the one I had several years back in which I was doing the home delivery to shut-in library users on horseback. Saddlebags full of books, and dressed in fringed buckskins like Davy Crockett or something.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that sounds like a great dream. :-)