Friday (and PAYDAY)

I seem to be blogging a lot, and I know that I'm taking a lot of pictures.  Winter is slow in terms of changes in nature or goings on in my life.  Spring is NOT.  Every day brings something new and different, which is why May is one of my favorite months.  Last night I walked the bog with the dogs and there were a few black flies.  Not unusual for this time of year, really, but it reminded me that I should enjoy my walks now because soon enough I won't be enjoying them at all because of the flies.  This morning, though I had plenty of time, I didn't have the motivation to walk the dogs so I let them out on their own.  OH NO!!  They were only gone for half and hour and came home uneventfully.  I stuffed them full of dog biscuits for being such GOOD DOGS who come home.  As if that really makes a difference to them.

We've had some rain but I think we need more.  We need a few days of good, soaking rain.  Yeah, that's right, that's what the black flies really like.  Well rats, you can't have everything.  The forest is dry.

I had a great time in Keene Valley and cataloged like crazy.  Interesting stuff, not in any of our other 29 libraries, which is always a pleasant discovery.  My friends and I are very scornful of people who want to work in libraries because they "love to read and love books."  That's not what libraries are really focusing on.  It's INFORMATION, and we have plenty of it.  I just purchased $300 worth of e-books on health topics because we have a grant and the money has to be spent on that and spent soon.  How do I feel about e-books?  Well, librarians have many things to say about e-books, mostly things focusing on publishers and what a crappy deal libraries are getting with e-books.  Sure, there's stuff that costs $20 or less, but the good stuff, the stuff people want to read costs $80 for each title.  $300 doesn't go very far at that rate.

What's up for my weekend?  I was going to help my friend Julie out by driving with her to Saranac Lake to retrieve one of her cars--her husband had surgery there & left the car.  Today Julie had to take her son to an oral surgeon to have NINE teeth pulled.  His baby teeth haven't given up yet and his mouth is too crowded.  Poor guy.  Anyway, that's over and they got the car thing settled without me.  So that leaves me pretty much wide open.  Sunday noon is Brousseau's, as is tonight after work.  It's Mother's Day, but my mother doesn't seem terribly interested in that.  I sent her some morning glory seeds (she said she bought the wrong color--everyone knows her favorite color is blue) and a nice card, and a long letter.  I'll call her but that's about it.  Do I feel guilty that I'm not in RI with her?  Vaguely, but giving up a weekend in May is really, really hard.  And I don't have that much vacation time, really.

Lots of meetings coming up, network meetings and system-wide meetings.  Always a lot going on in May--people come out from under the snow cover and look around.

Life is good.