Flag anxiety

About a month ago I noticed that our US flag was looking pretty tattered. It was less than six months old but I guess recent storms and high winds had really beaten it up a bit. I asked our supply clerk to order a new one, which she did fairly quickly, but we haven't gotten it yet.

On 9/11 an extremely irate customer informed me that not only was our flag not at half-staff (as it was supposed to be on a national day of mourning), it was extremely tattered. Luckily I was able to tell him that we had a new flag on order but that it hadn't come in yet. I checked my email and lo and behold there was a message from the administration that the flag was supposed to be flown at half-staff that day. The message had been sent exactly two minutes before we opened! They always wait until the last possible second to tell us the important stuff. Granted, I should have been on top of it myself, but I was on the desk and we were incredibly busy that morning, so I just blanked on it.

Anyway, I promised the customer I would lower it to half-staff right away and he went away relatively happy.

Yesterday the new flag STILL hadn't arrived, so I had no choice but to go out and buy one myself ($36! Of course, we have no mechanism for me to get reimbursed). My boss is coming out today for a meeting and she always notices details like that, and just LOVES putting me on the spot. One day someone had put an Olympics bumper sticker on the front door, and of course I didn't know it was there. She came out for our meeting later that day and very pointedly asked me what was the deal with the sticker on the front door. She seemed delighted when I didn't know anything about it. Sigh...

I know I'm supposed to be aware of everything that's going on in my library at every single moment and handle all of it immediately but sometimes it just isn't possible. But at least my boss can't get her jollies today from telling me the flag is tattered! (She is sure to find something else, though - she's good at that.)