Lochwood Branch Library, Dallas, Texas

Did you know velociraptors can read?

This is my theory, anyway, as the high pitched squeals and chirps all around me most definitely take me to a Jurassic Park frame of mind. They are very tiny velociraptors, and may be little human tykes, playing hide and seek in the stacks and kicking up the dickens, but we'll never really know until they round the corner.

In contrast to the efficient Shamblee branch I visited yesterday in Fort Worth, the Lochwood Branch Library in Dallas is massive. Not quite as massive as Jonsson, with its 8 eeyoric floors, but there is plenty of space to set up shop either at desks or easy chairs, and there is a kind abundance of outlets--beautiful, wonderful outlets teeming with electricity! Thank God for the public library system.

Lochwood has an interesting "curled streamers of paper" theme going on both in the library main and the foyer. It also has very cool, contemporary furniture to offset the simple, metal shelving used for the stacks. The rambling layout is perfect place to set up camp for writing, reading, or just daydreaming, and my particular space has a beautiful view of trees and a quiet neighborhood.

I interacted with the solo front desk staffer only briefly but it made me smile (internally, only on the inside I swear) because she asked "Can I help you" in the way people do when the last thing they have time for is helping you. The library had just opened that minute, and having worked, well, anywhere before, I understood her trepidation completely. I have used that same tone when an employee darkened my office doorway at 9:01. Like, I will help you (OF COURSE) but really can't you give me 5 minutes? I've also been the employee brimming with questions, so you know, it is what it is? I was happy to tell the staffer no thanks, because I'd really just been leaning in toward the desk to read the sign and make sure I could bring my venti iced coffee in with me. Yes, I am one of those. But I always clean up the water ring when I leave!

Getting to Lochwood this morning was an easy, leisurely buggy ride through the country compared to yesterday's Gauntlet of Grilles, Terror Track, Highway to Hell when I made my way from Shamblee in Fort Worth to the AirBNB in North Dallas (Princeton, right on Levon Lake--Kansans would find it very familiar, think El Dorado lake, but much bigger). I mentioned earlier that I thought Dallas drivers were very aggressive, and my opinion on this has not changed for the better. If Wichita's motto is "You won't hit me," Dallas's might as well be, "If I fits, I sits." I like to leave space in front of me in case, you know, someone jams the breaks and I need extra time to react, but the citizens of Dallas seem to find this concept amusing, if not downright unChristian. There are massive amounts of highway construction going on between Dallas and Fort Worth, so through each highway exchange I traveled there were snarls of slow moving or stopped vehicles, then it would open up a bit so we could all race to the next jam. Whether we were crawling or speeding, cars moved into spaces in front and back of me that only just fit. And I saw one woman enter and exit the HOV lane (driving over the barriers meant to stop this) without hesitation or, I'm betting, remorse. It took 2 hours to go 66 miles, and it made me grateful that the next part of my trip will be, more or less, far more rural.

When I Googled the mileage from yesterday, I noticed one thing on the map I hadn't even considered looking up until just now...Southfork Ranch. You know, from the show Dallas? Ellie Mae, JR, Bobby, Sue Ellen?! If you hear a loud thunking noise, it's just me slamming my head on this desk. Because it was a mere 10 minutes from where I stayed last night. I could have swung by. I could have seen the ranch. But nope, not doing that horror show again, even if it is the middle of the day and probably won't be that bad. Just nope. I'll head West instead, in search of cows. Nice cows, I hope, and probably calm cows since the tiny, humanoid velociraptors will likely be running in circles around the stockades.