For Want Of A Pen And Paper, The Kingdom Was Lost (I Fought The Library, 2)

I am fighting the library over their claim that I did not return two DVDs, and I intend to win. Part 1 of this is here.

No sooner did I get home yesterday than I found, sitting right on Sweetie's desk, a partially torn-DVD cover for the Baby Galileo DVD I had only just hours before emailed the library about, claiming that I had returned it.

Which puts me, I think, on the wrong side, here, morally, at least a little. But I decided how I'd handle it: I would simply take that DVD on Saturday morning, before the library opened, and drop it in the slot, before anyone knew. That would correct the problem, because then I would, in fact, have returned the DVD, just like I said in my email. Of a day earlier. But, what, is timing everything in morality?

I had, on Friday night, already, taken back a couple of CDs I borrowed, and dropped those into the after-hours slot, with Sweetie as my witness: I made her come with me and open each and make sure that the proper CD was in there and then watch while I went up to the return slot and put them in, so it was almost like I was returning it a day earlier.

Right?

Then, this morning, I loaded up Mr F and Mr Bunches to go to the library and put my plan into action. But I got a crisis of conscience on the way there, and thought what kind of example am I setting?

That, and I found, in the car, the case to another DVD that I thought I'd returned, meaning that I'd sent that one back in the wrong case.

So I decided, instead, to do the right thing, "the right thing" being return the DVD, and the DVD case, with a note telling them what was going on, and with that morally-correct position in mind, I pulled up in the parking lot and was ready to write the note when I realized that Sweetie has neither paper nor a pen in her car (which is the car I have to take with the Babies!, because it's got the car seats.)

I finally found the back of a house listing for one of the McMansions we'd wanted to price to see how rich you have to be to live near my boss, but I couldn't find a pen, and I didn't want to wait and take the Babies! into the library and try to explain the whole thing while they ran amuck.

Instead, I took the Babies! to the mall playground and spent the day not going to the library, and my page on their website says I still have an overdue DVD, and I'm onto Plan C, only I don't know what that is.

But I will win this.