Maybe I am finally figuring out that being a procrastinator is much harder work than actually doing things in a timely and orderly fashion. Maybe it is because I now have the numeral “4″ in my age, and it is not the second number. Maybe I am finding out that if I want my kids to do as I say I need to do as I say as well.

Maybe I need to explain what “it” is before I go on.

“IT”, I should say “THEY”, are library books. Overdue library books. But they weren’t always overdue. I checked them out in August of 2006 and even told you all about renewing them online if you are a student or work for the University of Pittsburgh.

I renewed them. And then I renewed them again. And I renewed them yet again. They are books on sign language and I was using them in augmenting my autistic son’s education. Those particular books are a great resource and I did not want to part with them so I kept on renewing them. But a series of Red Flags should have alerted me that something was amiss.

Red Flag number one should have been when I stopped getting renewal notices. But, I figured, since it was over Winter Break the folks there at ULS (University Library System) just did not get around to sending the renewal emails. Isn’t it strange that just because we personally posses a certain proclivity, say procrastination, that we expect everyone else to exhibit those same qualities. Since I procrastinate I assume that everyone else does as well.

That may be the case for PEOPLE. But the overdue notices are sent via email and are generated automatically by a CRON job in the ULS system. Even if people procrastinate CRON jobs do not. But procrastinators are also hopelessly optimistic that whatever can delay a project WILL delay a project. Curse you oh inventor of the CRON job.

Red Flag number two should have been the realization that those notices ARE SENT BY CRON JOBS. Even though I wished someone forgot, I knew someone did not. I was tempting fate, and for a procrastinator tempting fate is a thrill on par with a gambler flopping a nut flush in Texas Hold’em. Once you get a taste of not doing anything and getting away with it, you want to do more nothing and get away with it some more.

Finally, Red Flag number three should have been 2 months passing since my last overdue notice from the ULS. The long and the short of their side of the story is a library member can only renew books three times before they NEED to be returned. After my third online renewal the system merely did not allow my books to be included in the renewable list. Once they became overdue it was MY responsibility to get them back.

If I had renewed them in person at the library desk a helpful desk assistant would have reminded me that I can only renew books three times and that they needed to be physically returned on the next due date. The CRON job did not know to remind me, it is a CRON job and doesn’t care if I return the books or not.

And now we come to today and I receive an email from notices@pitt.edu. I figured that I owed SOMETHING because I did not renew on time and they did not send a renewal notice for the last couple of months. No big deal, to a procrastinator paying a few dollars to keep on procrastinating is a small price.

$675.00

W - T - F ??? That is not a freaking fine that is 2 months of mortgage payments! Procrastination time over. Real quick.

The $675.00 was for replacing books that the library considered lost/stolen. Since I was the person to have them checked out I am the lucky winner of a huge restocking bill. The books weren’t stolen, just procrastinated. I knew I owed them some money and I was happy to pay overdue fees. But not replacement fees since I still had possession of the books. I grabbed the books and headed over to the library.

In my previous 40 years on this Earth I have learned that procrastination is a very poor starting point from which to claim “righteous indignation” against a “perceived injustice”. Especially since the perception of injustice is almost always just that, a perception… and a FALSE perception at that.

In other words, I do not march into an office or store, knowing that my procrastination has brought whatever woe upon me, and then try to act as if I am some sort of victim of their unfeeling capitalistic evil. It never works, and I always look the fool. Instead, since I am at fault I try to go into the confrontation knowing that I owe something. But in this case, since I had the books, I was hoping that I would not have to owe the full $675.00

The librarian on duty was most helpful. The way the ULS system works is that after 45 days overdue the books are automatically declared LOST and a bill for replacement is emailed to the patron who checked them out. The library folks find that a $675.00 bill will get their books back MUCH faster than a never ending stream of “nickel and dime” fees sent over the next few decades.

I can’t argue with that logic. My fine was reduced to $35.00, the actual amount owed for the time I had the materials overdue.

And they will let me pay at my convenience.

Red Flag Number One.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 10:42 am and is filed under Blogging, Computer, Featured, Humanity, Pitt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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