Library Enthusiasts in Kenmore

I promised my son I would pick up two specific books at the Kenmore library today.  He had researched what he wanted on line, found the books were at this specific location and gave me the library hours.  I thought that was significant enough to have me run this brief errand, plus I have a secret love of visiting libraries (bizarre huh?).

I had never been to the Kenmore location so I pull into the parking lot at 9:59 (it opens at 10 am) and there are no parking spots available.  Glancing toward the entrance I see a line of at least 40 people.  Holy cow, I didn't know Kenmore had such library enthusiasts! So from the time I parked my car and walked into the place, I keep thinking how amazing this was.  What was this location doing to gather a line outside?  Does Kenmore have a statistically brighter population?  Seriously I was pleasantly dumbfounded.  In the 5 minutes it took me to get to the door, I had already planned out a strategy for speaking with Kenmore politicians to see what they were doing right.

The dream ended when I walked through the entrance doors.  The library is located upstairs so why is the line downstairs ?  I go upstairs and there are a few, maybe 4 people in this beautiful space.  So what's with the line downstairs?  According to the librarian, free tax help was offered downstairs and that was what drew the crowd. When I told her my earlier thoughts, she laughed with a kind of regret.  Guess they don't grow them brighter in Kenmore, just fiscally more confused.

Anyway, the librarian was helpful.  I found the books and will visit again.  I am becoming such a fan of libraries.  In the past year, I have taken out books for my book club, I have taken my father in law on a field trip and I have hung out with coffee.  The only problem is I really despise reading books that have obviously been read before by someone who insisted on eating while reading.  Totally gross.