Tuesday, November 29, 2005

A single pink ray

Shooting straight up into the northern sky was what I saw this morning on my way to work. It was very, very pretty. I don't understand what that ray was doing there, but the outline of Lyon Mountain was crisp and clear against a pink-sky background and the mountain was a gorgeous shade of blue. It was beautiful and I felt very lucky to live here, where my commute allows me to see things like that. It was 62 this morning, a record-breaking temperature. Although it's wonderful to have it so warm, it feels very freaky. We're due lots of rain today and there are flood warnings galore due to melting snow. My snow melted yesterday, thank you very much.

My sump pump continues to pump. It must have the equivalent of 150,000 miles on it now. There are pinhole leaks in the hose so it sprays water all over the place every time it comes on. I have to take the hose off to measure the size of the opening in order to get a replacement hose (they have to cut the replacement hose to the length I want--the whole thing is very intimidating to me), and it will take about two hours just to get the hose, which means the pump can't pump for that long, which means the cellar will be filling with water all that time and so the snake will be swallowing its tail. Or maybe it's all an excuse so I won't have to deal with it. After all, I re-wired the floodlight on my deck, what more should I have to do in the name of Responsible Homeowner this month? I bought a new fixture to replace the one at the foot of the stairs, which has been a bare bulb without a globe for more than 10 years. Now I just have to re-wire it. Purchasing is always the easy part, isn't it.

Thanksgiving, let's see. Trip to Rhode Island was fine. Not much traffic. Listened to Robert James Waller (OK, I know, I should be embarrassed, but it wasn't total crap, and not even that bad) on the way down. I think it was High Plains Tango. Lots of stuff about a guy rebuilding a house, which was the most stimulating part of the book. Listened to Anita Diamant's latest book on the way home. Yes, of course that was way better. About the North Shore of Boston in the early 1800's. This after having just listened to Myla Goldberg's Wickett's Remedy, about the flu epidemic of 1918. Oh baby I'm just crankin' them out. When you drive 60 miles a day just to get to and from work there's plenty of time to listen to books. Lucky thing I work in a library.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was nice. Very quiet. Three of us at the table. I had told everyone that my morning would be like this: I would get up at 7:30 and my mother would be cooking celery and onions for the stuffing, even though we wouldn't be eating until late afternoon. Guess what time I got up? Guess what my mother was doing? At least I know what to expect from my holidays. It seems to be really hard for my mother to cook Thanksgiving dinner now, not surprising, since she's almost 80. So we cooked it together and it took most of the day. We had a good time. Mark was at work until noon and we started eating around 2. I made the most delicious daiquiris, using Key lime juice in the silver cocktail shaker that belonged to my great-grandfather. I ate so much that I felt truly ill. Mark and I took my dogs for a really nice walk at dusk--all 4 of us enjoyed it a whole lot.

We went shopping in real stores on Friday. A huge Barnes & Noble, Williams Sonoma and a catalog outlet store that Mark really likes. That was more than Liza wanted to do so then we went home. We had a good time and Mark liked it a lot. We have a tradition of going Christmas shopping together on Friday so it was important to Mark to do that. Liza doesn't like it, but I need to get to some real stores, so what the hell. Saturday we all did nothing. I read all day, finishing the book our book group read this month. I had listened to it last year and really liked it so it was fun to read it. An interesting perspective, like seeing the movie then reading the book. It was Ann-Marie MacDonald's The way the crow flies, truly an excellent book. So much about my childhood in there, The Bay of Pigs, duck and cover, early 60's stuff. From a Canadian perspective.

So book group met last night. Good time for all. Martha is very pregnant but not done yet. Another month to go. We're all enjoying her pregnancy immensely. We had a few presents for her last night, including the most wonderful, soft and colorful bunting that Lin made. I knit a blanket. I love knitting blankets and other baby things. We had a good discussion of the book and lots of fun talking to each other.

And now I'm settled into work. Cataloging, dealing with the two piles of donations and problem books that are on my desk. The director wants me to amend and edit the list of relevant collection development websites she emailed me last week. I didn't realize that's what she wanted me to do with the list so I ignored it. BIG mistake.

I think I might actually put up a Christmas tree this year. It's been 3 years since I've had one. It's an incredible amount of work to do by myself, and usually no one ever sees it. This year, though, my friends in book group will be coming to my house so at least someone else will see it. I have to move furniture to the back of the house to make room for the tree, and a tree is heavy to haul in and put up alone. I love looking at the tree, though, and I have a whole lot of ornaments that remind me of my life and how I've lived it. Tons of ornaments from when I lived in Rhode Island, which is the time I consider I became an adult, from ages 22-31. Lots of things my friends and my mother have given me over the years too. And let's face it, a tree with lights on it just looks really pretty. I may even run an extension cord out to the tree in the woods that has lights on it, who knows. Hell, let's have Christmas at my house this year!

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Run for Cover!

We're supposed to be having a big winter storm today but so far all we're getting is rain. They had predicted 8-12" of snow, now it's down to 5-8" (more in the mountains, that's me). Let's hope we get the 5", I can handle that. The drive home will be "slippery and wet, with rain changing to sleet." Swell, 30 miles of sleet and frozen road. I can take my time, I'm never in a particular hurry to get home. Tonight I'm having dinner with Ken and I can always go there first, leaving the dogs for later. They'll survive--as my mother always says, dogs can't tell time.

I took all the junk out of my car that I don't want to take to my mother's in Rhode Island tomorrow, since it's likely that I won't be able to drive to the house after it snows. My plow man is notoriously reluctant to plow. I think he plows me out of pity and doesn't like to do it at all. Last year he only plowed once, and that was when I called and asked. The rest of the time I parked at the end of the drive and walked to the house. So I figure I'll be packing the car one item at a time, which will be fine, since I'm only going for a few days. Mostly I'm taking clothes and dog food. I leave in the morning--it's a 6 hour trip and I'm usually on the road by 10, taking my time in the morning. That's what's nice about traveling alone, you set your own pace. Sometimes I leave at 9, sometimes at 10:30--who cares? I have to stop at the post office to pick up a package that's too big to fit in my mailbox. Wonder what that is?

There will be 3 of us for Thanksgiving, our usual crowd. We do have a good time. Mark has to work until noon so Liza and I should have a nice morning. Unfortunately, it's supposed to snow in RI as well, so my dreams of retreating to a warmer climate are dashed. It's only going to be in the 30's here. I'll have to leave the heat on in the house (ca-ching). At least the fish will be warm in their heated pool. My stove has been smoking when I open the door, which is driving me crazy. I had the stovepipe cleaned last year so it shouldn't be that bad, but I may have to have it cleaned again when I get back. I'd like to know who is going to pay for these things! I still can't stand the idea of winter but I suppose, since it's the 22nd of November (happy anniversary, John F. Kennedy) I should expect snow, cold, wind=winter. I'm just not acclimated quite yet. I like November a lot and am not ready to give it up. Sometimes we get a lot of good weather out of December, too.

I read the Natl. Weather Service's long range weather forecast for the Northeast recently. There's a good chance that our winter will be below, at or above average. The government really likes to put itself right out there, doesn't it.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

I wrote my first article for Wikipedia. It's about Rasbora heteromorpha
I'm so happy

I'm not the president of our bargaining unit anymore. We had a meeting today of our newly-formed health insurance committee, made up of reps from management and the bargaining unit. All went well, swapping information, good feelings all 'round, lots of camaraderie, etc., until the newly-elected president presented two proposals that suggested maybe management should give something to the unit members in return for the decrease in benefits (i.e., increase in amounts for co-pays and prescriptions--by quite a healthy sum) for one of the two carriers we are bound by the contract to have available. Well, first you could have heard a pin drop, then you could hear the shit hitting the fan. I was so happy not to be the bearer of that request, I sat there quietly, saying nothing for a little while and just listened to the back & forth-ness of the exchange. The newbie kept looking at me. Management wanted to know what we wanted them to do with the two proposals next: the president of the unit didn't know. Well YEGADS! you never go into a situation like that unless you have an outcome in mind. Anyway, I offered a more cogent explanation of proposal #2 and mgt. at least understood the rationale for our request. We left the meeting barely on speaking terms, but at least they understood what we were asking for and why. And I felt so happy that someone else was making demands and being scoffed at and being called selfish and demanding. Whew!

Other than that this week has been uneventful. I have 4 of the fastest swimming fish I've ever seen. I'm trying a new kind: rasboras. They are "hardy," according to the salesperson at PetsMart. Why didn't they tell me about these fish before? Anyway, I have 2 harlequin rasboras (who are very cute, with red fins and big black triangles on their back halves) and 2 danios, and the 4 of them seem to race each other around the tank constantly. Number 5 fish is my dwarf coral platy, bright orange and yellow, who seems to be intimidated all the activity and liked it better when there was just one danio and him/herself in the tank and it was serene. This fish hides a lot, coming out once in a while to swim with an attitude across the tank. I'm not sure it's really relaxing to watch the others, they swim so fast.

I spent Tuesday afternoon weeding the non-fiction collection in the AuSable Forks library, the library my ancestors were involved in the governance of. There's a picture on the wall there of one set of board members, and there sits my grandfather and his sister, looking very old an tottery, but as if they could run the world. I like going to that library to work, but I always feel as if I should be more involved in that town.

We're supposed to get some snow this afternoon and tonight. First they said 6", now they're much more vague. 3" maybe. It was incredibly warm yesterday, about 65 at home. My house was very warm. I had a fire in the stove overnight and kept it going all day. Boy it got hot last night. This morning I was really late so I didn't pack the wood in the stove as I usually do, so I'm hoping there will be good coals when I get home.

I let "The Boys" drop their garbage off on my deck on their way out of town on Monday and I put it in a big plastic barrel, snapping a tight-fitting lid on it until it stopped raining enough for me to go to the dump. Tess has been fascinated by this barrel and this morning I let my guard down, wondering why they weren't asking to come in after their morning pees. Stoopid me, they/she tipped the barrel over, pulled off the top and chewed a hole in the garbage bag. If only we could channel that creativity into something productive, like an invention of some sort or a new doggie plaything, I could be very wealthy.

I spent yesterday cataloging books for one of our smallest libraries. They're coming online soon so we have to get their collection completely converted quickly. These people make me laugh and scream with frustration. They fill out forms with bibliographic information when they don't find records for the books in our data base, then we find records in other data bases and either download those records or I catalog them manually. They often take great liberties with the titles: now, honestly, they have the books in their hands. How can they NOT see what the title actually is? Yesterday I had "Elizabeth" for Elisabeth, "The gunslingers" for The gunfighters, and "The best plays of Chekov" for Chekhov: the best plays. And forget the copyright dates, I think she made those up. We can't find records for these books but I refuse to believe that no library in America (or Europe, or Canada) owns them. But we work with what we have, and I do original cataloging when I have to, gritting my teeth and listening to songs from the 60's and 70's to calm myself down. Hey, it's a living.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Well get a load of me:

The Wild Rose
Random Brutal Love Dreamer (RBLDf)

Colorful, but unpicked. You are The Wild Rose.

Prone to bouts of cynicism, sarcasm, and thorns, you excite a certain kind of man. Hoping to gather you up, he flirts and winks and asks you out, ultimately professing his love. Then you make him bleed. Why? Because you're the rare, independent, self-sufficient kind of woman who does want love, but not from a weakling.

You don't seem to take yourself too seriously, and that's refreshing. You aren't uptight; you don't over-plan. Romance-wise, sex isn't a top priority--a true relationship would be preferable. For your age, you haven't had a lot of bonafide love experience, though, and this kind of gets to core of the issue. You're very selective.

Your exact opposite:
The Dirty Little Secret

Deliberate Gentle Sex Master
The problem is them, not you, right? You have lofty standards that few measure up to. You're out there all right, but not to be picked up by just anyone.


"You're never truly single as long as you have yourself."

ALWAYS AVOID: The Bachelor

CONSIDER: The Vapor Trail.


Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating.
My profile name: labrdr

Monday, November 14, 2005

3 days gone by

I love 3-day weekends but my expectations for productivity are seldom met. I had thought I would be motivated to accomplish great things at home and be a responsible homeowner during the Vet's Day weekend. It didn't quite work out that way. I feel I don't do my house justice, it needs more attention and care than I give it. Sometimes I feel my house is almost an animate object and that I owe it good care. It gives me such good shelter and provides me with a nice home and what do I do in return? Not a whole lot. The building itself could use some basic maintenance; the siding is in need of a few nails here and there and certainly it needs to be stained again sometime in the next 5 years. Since it's 2 stories, this is not a job I will do, and it will cost thousands of dollars to pay someone else to do it. I can't afford that. At least the roof is good, it's metal and should last a long, long time. I should wash the outside of the windows. I should put up some sort of skirting around the bottom. I should fix the hole in the kitchen ceiling. I should do some other things. But this weekend I did accomplish some things:

I washed the kitchen window and put plastic up on the inside. I don't like that stuff but it makes a big difference in my electric bill. I'm planning to do 3 of the 4 living room windows but I have to buy 2 more special kits for BIG windows, I only have one. I hate putting the plastic up, it's a real pain in the neck. I've put new weatherstripping around my front door.

I put away the flower pots on the deck--but not before one of them broke from the frost (it got down to 16 on Fri. morning), and I had to bring 2 of them in to thaw out, the dirt was frozen solid even yesterday, when it was in the 50's.

I emptied the 2 barrels full of waterlogged hardwood kindling. I did not dispose of the waterlogged kindling in a satisfactory way, though: it's just piled on the ground, to be dealt with later. At least it looks better in the yard now.

I messed around with my firewood, restacking the portion of the pile that tipped over and recovering the portions of the various piles that had come uncovered. Not a great situation, since they're only covered with plastic tarps and these tarps become miserable to deal with when covered with ice and snow.

I burned a lot of trash.

I filled the bird feeder. Come on, birds! There's food now!

I cleaned the fish tank and put in the new fish. 3 of them promptly died while I was adjusting the new heater. I now have two fish: one lonely danio and one peppy orange platy. I will buy 2 more tetras and one more danio. The danios only cost 99 cents, no great loss, but the tetras were $2 each. I now have the heater set at the right temperature and the water is clear. For some reason it was very cloudy after I cleaned the tank and it's taken 3 days to clear up. Geesh, this aquarium thing just gets more and more complicated.

I cleaned out my car, including washing the windshield.

So the weekend wasn't a total loss, but I slept a lot on Saturday, which was very disappointing to me. It was a nice day, fairly warm. Friday was a miserable day, 30's all day and spitting snow. I stayed inside, knitted and watched TV mostly. Sat. I had hoped to do outside chores but didn't. The dogs had a great time on Fri., went in and out all day. They were more bored on Saturday. Friday night I went out with Lin and Ralph, to our old haunt in Keeseville. It was great to be with them again, we haven't gone out in months and months. Ralph and I ended up reminiscing about our long-ago past, 15-20 years ago. That was really nice. Saturday night I ended up at one of the camps below my house, with two of my favorite people, along with Ken and Bill. The two men who hosted us were here for the weekend, for their Extreme Workfest. It's really just an excuse for them to come for a weekend in November and test their mettle. They love being here when it's really cold so they can say they did it. We had a great time and I love being with them. We had Sunday dinner together yesterday, too.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I did my outside stuff in a t-shirt with no jacket. I loved it. I should have stapled plastic around the bottom of the house but I did the other things and felt pretty self-satisfied so went inside. I'm easily impressed by myself.

Last night it was so warm that I let the fire go out, so I had to take the time to build one this morning. The wind was really whipping, 40 mph gusts today, so even though it's warm right now it's supposed to get colder by this afternoon. I have a quick appointment with my psychiatrist then I have to go to the Black Brook town meeting tonight to show support for the AuSable Forks library (rumored to be having $2500 cut from the town budget). In between those two things I need to get my fish and put them in the tank, feed and pee the dogs and eat something, plus drive 30 miles home and 15 miles to ASF.

For some reason I relived a very unpleasant episode from the past with my former director while I was driving to work this morning. I can't imagine what possessed me to do this, it made me very sad to think about that and all the crap she put me through. Now it turns out she's here to go out to lunch with the new director and I just heard her braying laugh. ICK!! At least I don't have to see her (I hope).

And now I must catalog a whole bunch of videos for AuSable Forks. Perry Mason videos. I can just imagine the incredible demand there must be for those.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Good old-fashioned fish boil

The water in my fish tank was unusually warm last night so I turned down the heater before going to bed. Well, guess what: heater malfunction and this morning they were all cooked. Honestly, sometimes I think this aquarium thing wasn't meant to be, but I really like watching my fishies swim around. Now at least I can get the two tetras I wanted to get before, when I ended up with the big booger platy. But I lost the 2 danios I had. I have learned, however, that danios are easy to replace. They're just zippy little fish. I'll miss my dwarf coral platy but will get another one. This is a good opportunity to clean out the tank completely, the gravel is a little groaty. Last night I put in a new filter and changed half the water. I may have done something bad to the heater in the process, who knows. You're supposed to unplug it before exposing it to the air. I'm not really an ace at these things. This time I'll get a better heater, one that's not so fussy. So back I go to PetsMart tonight, invest $5 more in fish. You'd think they'd know me by now and throw themselves protectively over their tanks when they see me coming.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Let's here it for the Boy

Everywhere Bush campaigned, his candidate lost. That worked out well for the rest of us, didn't it. We had good results here too. The Democratic candidate for District Attorney won, in spite of (or maybe because of) the arrogance of the Republican incumbent. I was pleased about that. Very pleased about the governors in Virginia and New Jersey, although they were both incumbents so it's not really a gain, just staying the course. But still...I like to be an optimist whenever I can.

Having my car/horse serviced took forever yesterday, but part of that was getting an estimate on having 2 of the seatbelts in the back seat replaced. "How did they get damaged? Will it be covered under warranty?" Heck no, my dog chewed them. "What kind of dog?" Will I get a discount if I give the right answer? Anyway, it will cost $260 to replace them. They cost $75 each, and the rest is labor. I opted not to have it done yesterday but it took nearly 2 hours for them to service and wash the car. They did a nice job of washing it, though, and they tucked in the broken part of the fender that was hanging out, looking embarrassingly awful. So I drove away a winner, $100.50 poorer but feeling proud of my shiny machine.

I voted on the way home. My polling place is a former one-room schoolhouse, the cutest building you've ever seen. I was voter #95 at 5:45, which is a really high number for an off-year election. After voting I stopped at Ken's because he had his outside light on, which is sort of a signal that he expects me to stop. No, not this time--Bill had stopped after voting and the light was inadvertently left on. I stayed for an hour to visit anyway, got home at 7. The solar warming thing may have worked during the day, but it was only 56 in the living room at 7. It took forever to warm the room but I finally got it up to 70, cranking the fire up to an appropriate 500 degrees. Hooray! This wood doesn't seem to burn very hot so it takes a lot of effort, poking, bellowing (with bellows, not lungs) and arranging the draft to get a hot fire. But I was proudly successful last night.

The dogs were extreme in their "Let's Get Her Out of Bed" routine this morning. Tess hates it when I don't leap out of bed the minute I awaken, so she wants to lick me until I get up. I hate that, being licked in the face. They're not allowed to do that. She'll lick my eyelids--YUCK! Chances likes to hit me hard with her giant paws, than smash on top of my head with her butt as she does her dive and flip routine. So I wanted to lie in bed, pondering the state of the world and the cuteness of the guy who plays Dr. Shepard on Grey's Anatomy. Tess, when yelled at for licking, puts her nose 1/4 of an inch from my face and breathes at it. In and out, in and out warm moist breath. It's really annoying because I'm just waiting for her to lick me. Then the two of them sit up and stare at my head, like a pair of vultures. The are very cute when they do this, really incredibly cute, and I'd love to have a picture of it. They give me the most powerful "get out of bed" laser stares. Tess' final act of desperation is to drag the covers off of my body, which she did this morning. OK, that will do it. The hell with Dr. Shepard. Patrick what's-his-name.

And now I've just been asked to run the report I submitted to the director over, including the figures I deleted. I deleted the stuff that's not done by my department because I didn't want us to take credit for something we don't do. "Oh you're so noble," she said with a smile. But she really wants to know all the activity for the month of October, which is certainly reasonable. So I'll run the report, reformat it and make it look nice again. At least it's not cataloging classical music CD's for Lake Placid.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Another dream
Last night part of my dream was about horses:

Horse
The horse is a lucky animal in dreams, suggesting the dreamer is in control of her life.
Well, hurray for me.

But I also dreamt about blindness, someone else (who is close to me) being blind. This is supposed to mean that this person is deceiving me. This I refuse to believe. Instead, I choose to believe that I dreamt about blindness because my eyes have been bothering me a whole lot lately, probably a combination of allergies and the dryness that comes from burning wood. yeah, I like that a lot more.

Today I take my car (horse) to the dealer (vet) for it's 20,000 mile servicing (checkup). It will take 1.5 hours or so and I will get to spend the time drinking coffee and reading. It means my day will last from 8 until 5, but I'm used to staying until 4:30 or so anyway, so what's the difference? I'm just taking a lunch hour today, which I don't usually do. Right now I'm avoiding the cataloging that awaits me, nagging me from the manilla folder sitting in the middle of the nice empty area in the middle of my desk. My director came to my desk this morning and said--if you can believe this "I think we're going to have to have a 'Clean The Desk Day' sometime soon." I screamed. I told her that I had just spent an entire day cleaning my desk. Can't you tell? I intoned, implored, whined. Yes, there are still piles of things demanding my attention, but the piles are so small, and the contents are easily identified. The book piles will actually disappear one of these days. Guess that day had better come soon. Anyway, that was a pretty cruel blow.

I did not stoke the stove this morning because it's supposed to be sunny today and the living room will warm up all on it's own due to our perfectly sited southeastern exposured house. Cold weather is coming. Cold is such a relative term, though, meaning temps in the 40's right now. HAH! Won't be long before we'll ache for a 40-degree forecast.

Monday, November 07, 2005








Maeve
Indeed, you are 79% erudite, 70% sensual, 66% martial, and 45% saturnine.
Maeve was once thought of as a historical queen but is now considered part of the Celtic mythology. She is usually depicted as either a winged sprite, a beautiful elf, or a human woman dressed in only the finest robes.

She was said to carry two tree-dwelling creatures on either of her shoulders; the squirrel and the raven, resembling her closeness to nature and mysticism. She also frequented the area which was said to hold the entrance to the Otherworld, which is now called the Cave of the Cats.

Maeve is known for an insatiable sexual appetite and boasting openly of sleeping with thirty men in one day. Once she meets the hero Fergus Mac Roich, 'Son of Great Horse' who himself has a sexual appetite large enough to satisfy her, the tale says that 'She used to know thirty men every day or go with Fergus once.' So that’s good for her. :3


She is most famous as a protagonist in the story of the "Cattle Raid of Cooley", which tells of another dispute between her and her husband, the Connaught chieftain Ailill, with whom she would constantly quarrel.

The Fifteen Goddesses

These are the 15 categories of this test. If you score above average in …

…all or none of the four variables: Neit. … Erudite: Minerva. … Sensual: Aphrodite. … Martial: Artemis. … Saturnine: Persephone. … Erudite & Sensual: Isis. … Erudite & Martial: Sekhmet. … Erudite & Saturnine: Nemesis. … Sensual & Martial: Hera. … Sensual & Saturnine: Bast. … Martial & Saturnine: Ilamatecuhtli. … Erudite, Sensual & Martial: Maeve. … Erudite, Sensual & Saturnine: Freya. … Erudite, Martial & Saturnine: Sedna. … Sensual, Martial & Saturnine: Macha.








My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:



















free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 40% on erudite





free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 10% on sensual





free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 60% on martial





free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 40% on saturnine
Link: The Mythological Goddess Test written by Nitsuki on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test


I must say I'm disappointed about the 40% erudite, and I'm puzzled about being so sexual at this point and state in my life. But I'll take it. And the martial part? Go figure.

Friday, November 04, 2005

And now

I have 40 minutes left of the day. I spent nearly the entire day clearing off my desk. This meant I took 6, yes 6 full garbage cans full of trash to the big trash can outside. Now that is full and the cleaners will be unhappy with me because they won't know what to do with the trash they collect between now and Weds., when the haulers haul away the trash. I generated 5' worth of trash today. A combination of damaged books I had on my desk that needed to be discarded, old union stuff (the detritus of negotiating 3 contracts and 3 grievances), a year's worth of Kirkus Reviews, months' worth of Publishers Weekly and various prepub stuff from jobbers, notes from an incredible number of meetings, all of my leave requests from 2003 (which had been stashed behind my monitor)and a lot of goofy papers. Among the gems I discovered were 2 really important items I'd been desperately searching for, a manual I needed to write an article about and a bunch of stuff I was happy to find. Plenty of things I could file in folders, more stuff I don't know what to do with, some gift books I will have to deal with (everyone who writes anything about the Adirondacks insists on sending me a copy of the book, regardless of what it's really about--i.e., poems--and I have to decide if we really want it on the bookmobile), policy statements for the System from the 70's that no one knows we have, about 20 outdated sample collection development and weeding policies and a bunch of other stuff. But it's all manageable now and I have a big empty surface in front of me and on either side of me. Very exciting. Part of my journey. Only the people I work with can really grasp the magnitude of this.

On my way home I'll stop at Lowes to buy weatherstripping for the front door--in the winter the draft coming through there would blow out a candle. I'll get more plastic for the windows and a plastic step-stool for the heater to sit on in the cellar, since the wooden chair got too wet and has rotted. I'll get hose for my sump pump so I can replace what's there now, that has pin holes in it so everything gets sprayed each time the sump pump comes on (at least 20 times a day). This means I'll have to take off the old hose and attach said new hose. Not looking forward to that. The joys of home ownership. I'll go to the grocery store to replace the peanut butter that Chances ate. People were impressed that she ate the whole jar, but what they were most impressed with was that she got the top off. Heck, that's NOTHING. The dogs also drank nearly a gallon of cider, which I had left on the railing in the snow to chill. They dumped it out in the snow, then lapped up the snow, like sno-cones. The pigs. Right now they're eating the fermented apples on the ground under the apple trees along the driveway, but I see deer tracks there too, so there aren't many left. I'll also stop at the orchard and get myself another gallon of unpasteurized cider. I'll go to the liquor store for wine for Sunday dinner. Then I'll stop at Ken's for a visit and I'll finally get home, to carry in 2 loads of wood and start a fire. It all seems like a whole lot of work to me. I'd rather stay here at my nice neat desk, where my chair doesn't have holes in it and my dogs aren't jumping on me.
Friday, Sweet Friday

The end of the week. I've already felt that it was Friday once so far this week, so it's nice to finally have the day arrive. I woke at 5 this morning, which was very strange for me, but I went to sleep at 10:30. Unheard of. Can't explain it, it just felt right. I never go to sleep much before midnight so it was very strange but the dogs loved it. They would have me go to bed at 9 every night.

I let the dogs out at 5 and climbed back into bed, my warm, wonderful bed. I love lying in bed, where it's peaceful and I can look out the huge (4'x 6') window that opens my view into the forest and mountain. This morning I read the book my book group is reading, which is a wonderful book that I adore, even though Bad Things are going to happen. The dogs may have been flinging themselves against the front door, asking to be let in, but my bedroom is at the back of the house and I mercifully couldn't hear them. They usually run around to the back door, which is next to my bedroom, and REALLY fling themselves against that one, but this morning they were enjoying themselves doing whatever they were doing so I had complete peace in bed. I loved it, I savored every moment.

And I figured out my lifestyle change, painfully obvious to my dense self. I can be so slow to understand things about myself. The change in bosses is such a major change in my life, it has altered everything. I get to work half an hour early, my ride to work is completely different. I see different people--I sometimes see the people who live out by my mailbox, who walk down my road at 6:45 each morning. I chat with the guy who's fixing the coffee at the store and there are hardly any school buses on my route most days because they're not on the routes yet. I'm not in a mad rush to get ready for work. When I get to work I have peace throughout my day. The biggest change, however, is that there's someone who's paying attention to the work I'm doing, who asks me to do something and then follows up, remembering that she's asked me for it. Yikes, that's different. "Did you get that information yet?" Um, I'm waiting to hear back from them. "I think you should include another library in that project." Oh no, not them. Well, OK, if you say so.
She's a good director, though, and I don't mind telling her what I'm doing because I don't fear retribution or having the project taken out of my hands or being criticized, chastized or reprimanded. There's not a list of sins I've committed on the director's desk, waiting for me when I walk in the door. So yes, I am having a major change in my lifestyle. My traveling is very real.

Last night one of my friends was on the national news. It's one of the women I went to school with in Rockford, a member of the group who gathers at our reunions. I saw her in July. She runs a smoking cessation program at Harvard Medical School and ABC's news last night did a special on smoking in honor/memory of Peter Jennings. So they interviewed Nancy, and there she was, in my living room, talking to me. She looked great and sounded great. I was fun to see her. On Sunday night my friend Rush was on 60 Minutes, being interviewed by Ed Bradley, but I missed it. He (Rush, not Ed Bradley) called me afterwards to talk to me. Why didn't he call me before? So this week I feel very well connected.

I met with my clerks earlier in the week to start the outline of our department's Policy and Procedures Manual. Man oh man what a nasty job that is. Luckily this part, the interlibrary loan portion, is mostly procedural and they have to write it. Yeah for me. I'll have to write up the policies, though, and I suppose the Director and Board will have to approve them. Won't they be surprised when they hear what our policies are? The director freaked out when I told her that we spend about $1200 a year on one bookmobile patron's OCLC ILL requests for old mysteries. Now we're apparently contemplating a policy of not borrowing fiction on OCLC. Yeowie is that ever a radical departure.

I spent most of the week cataloging videos for two of our libraries. One library had current releases, which everyone else had bought on DVD's (what is with these libraries? This place refuses to make the "leap" to DVD's, another library refuses to make the leap from books on tape to books on CD's). The other library naturally had a bunch of crap that was boring and painful to catalog and took forever. I listened to music, Peace Out Radio, which sometimes causes me to type in rhythm to the music, but makes the cataloging much less painful.

Last night I couldn't get my house warmer than 59 degrees but for some reason it didn't bother me. What is with that? I had a hot flash in the middle of the evening, watching TV, but that didn't last long. I had the dogs next to me on the couch, but they weren't on top of me. I can't believe I was really comfortable at that temperature. All I was doing to keep warm was knit but that seemed to be ok. I can't imagine this tolerance will last much longer, somehow when it's -10 outside I need to have it closer to 70 inside. Right now, though, when it's 70 inside I can't stand it.

On to work. Today I was thinking I might try to tidy up my desk. The Director made a face when she came to me the other day with some papers she wanted me to file and keep track of. Uh-oh.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

My favorite

Jon Stewart quote for the past week:

"Oh, if only lies left semen stains."
How dreamy

So I've had two travel dreams lately, both involving an impending trip with my sister and mother. They were good, happy dreams in which the three of us were preparing for a trip. We were going to Europe in one, needed to be at the airport well before the plane left. I had a clear image of the giant plane (this may have been prompted by news stories of the battle between Airbus and Boeing on what size plane people really want for future travel: huge, seating 850 or regular size), but I wasn't prepared for the trip, couldn't find my passport, wasn't packed. Dream #2 took place last night. Again, sister and mother and I were going on a trip. Was the afternoon/evening before the trip. Much to do, laundry--which wouldn't be dry enough to pack before leaving. I found my passport, but it had expired. Would they require a passport for this trip? Sister said no (she always the source of good advice) but I was nervous. Clothes all over the place, much tidying up to be done before I could leave. I wasn't terribly stressed, but uncomfortable.

So I'm a librarian, right, I turn to the Internet for input. Here's what a Google search (good old Google) turns up from a variety of sources, listings under "dreams having to do with travel" or some variation thereof:

Companionship may include known relationships or strangers. Generally, the companionship either helps or hinders progress toward the dream goal. The effect of your companions on your travel should be interpreted metaphorically as a symbol of that person's impact on your life. OK, that's good, the relationships are a positive thing in the dream and they were helping me.

If your dream about traveling, expect some changes like separation from a close friend or a break with old habits. Dreaming about a trip usually reflects your desire to start a new life, find new places, begin new projects This one is tough to interpret--I don't think I really want to start a new life. The only thing resembling this is my new director and the onset of winter. Need to complete preparations for winter season (damn firewood), plan to build interior wall (major change in house)--what symbolic changes can I think of?

A sudden substantial increase in status and/or income is forecast in a dream of traveling for pleasure Needless to say, this is my favorite one!

To dream of getting a passport indicates an approaching opportunity for profitable travel; to dream of losing a passport suggests a depressing lack of progress due to unappreciative or hostile influences around you. Try to find a new channel or a new environment for your activities But nothing about having an expired passport. Combination of losing and getting one, I guess. I hate to ponder a "depressing lack of progress," although I still haven't finished stacking my firewood and that really does depress me. It's there to remind me every time I pull up to the house. Hostile influences? The rain. The only new channel I would find would be on the TV

So I am not good at taking advice offered by my dreams, although this morning on the way to work I was trying to think of different ways to arrange furniture around my dinner table. It occurred to me that I don't need that ugly green bureau there and if I could figure out a way to get it to the dump I should take it there. So there's a creative outlet, right there. A small chest would to, all I need is a place to put napkins, extension cords and light bulbs. A huge ugly bureau is not necessary. My goal is to buy a new dinner table, a new couch and to have my father's chair re-upholstered. I need a second income for all of that, however. I would also like a set of snow tires. And I need $300 to have my car get its 20,000 mile check-up. I need, I want, I need. My fish and my dogs are so much easier to please. They just want food, a place to poop and pee and a couple of Nylabones now and then.