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sixwordstoriesdailyfoodieI hadn't actually got around to calling the Associated Humane Societies folks back about replacing my lost information about the adopted coati. But it had only been a few days since I got a message sent along to someone who was supposed to handle that sort of thing, and there'd be time to call again, and then ... an envelope from them arrived. With my name, just as I'd given on the phone. Although this time (?) with a 'junior' attached, which serves to differentiate me from my father and to emphasize to my mother not to throw this out, which she would definitely not do now. In fact, she made a point of showing it to me when I got in and mentioning how she was not going to throw this out.
You know that feeling of running at a door and having it swing open, so you go running through the living room, up the stairs, into a bedroom door, out the other bedroom door, across the second floor, into the door, which swings up to the ceiling and then opens, so you fall out of it and smash through the second floor, then the first floor, and then down into the basement? That's how I felt here. I make one phone call, leave a message for the person this is supposed to get to, and everything's sorted out? Where's the anecdote? Where's the ridiculous chain of conversations where I find my ability to parse questions like 'What is your home address?' leaves me unable to answer them? Did they not know who they were dealing with?
Despite the world being manifestly out of joint I opened up the packet, and discovered that they had sent me ... their 2010 calendar, and a cover letter explaining the calendar. It shows off features such as Cow Appreciation Day and World Turtle Day and National Chicken Month. It's welcome, certainly, not least for the pictures of many of the rescued animals. But it does mean that it all wasn't, in fact, as effortless as I thought and more interactions with other people are going to be needed to straighten it all out. There's still the chance for things to get truly ridiculous.
Trivia: A ``Farmer's Calender'' printed in Zurich in 1544 presented the days of the week as black triangles, with Sundays in red; and other symbols to mark the progression of the zodiac; of the kalends, nones and ides; phases of the Moon; saints' days; with Easter (the 13th of April) marked with a cross. Source: The Calendar: The 5000-Year Struggle To Align The Clock And The Heavens --- And What Happened To The Missing Ten Days, David Ewing Duncan.
Currently Reading: Victorian Sensation: Or, the Spectacular, the Shocking, and the Scandalous in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Michael Diamond.
So the library held a book sale. It wasn't the local branch, but the main headquarters branch, just farther enough away that I haven't been there so often even though the selection of all books and CDs is vastly better and they even have Old Doctor Who episodes on videotape in the nonfiction sections. Still, I have finally finished all the library book sale books I got from the sale back in spring in the local branch so it was time to go: if I were to finish the books from the Rutgers library I have I'd be down to only a couple more books of reading material.
What I most expected as I entered the library was some sign pointing in the direction of the book sale. There were notes on the door stating the existence of the book sale, and even a mention on the flat-screen TV with coming events (which include a teddy bear tea, by the way), but not a room name or direction or anything. I wandered around finding no rooms even suitable for it, and finally asked at the reference desk. It was supposed to be downstairs, just past the magazines; I went there and found a tiny room with nobody in it and little evidence anyone had ever been in it. I asked at the circulation desk. It turns out the room is tucked away past an obscure set of doors just before the magazines.
The room was almost desolate, with the Library Ladies outnumbering the customers wandering about. Still, at a dollar per hardcover, it's not hard to load up on books of at least some interest and I soon brought an arm's worth of books up front. One of the Ladies pointed to a stack of paperbacks already on the table and said, ``And these too?'' which I chuckled at. You probably thought it was a joke too, but I had to correct her when she started adding a lot of Larry McMurtry novels those to my total.
I pointed out that I'd had trouble finding the room, and the Library Ladies agreed, noting they'd had a lot of complaints. They've decided that the next time they have a book sale they're going to have signs out from that say where the room is, and maybe pointing the way to the room. Of course, with only a day and a half left in this two-day sale there wasn't time to make any policy changes this time around. Well, their business, although as I left I overheard another person asking the circulation desk just where the book sale was. Incidentally, the room it was in happened to have access directly from the entry way, near the Dunkin' Donuts, so one well-placed sign could make it impossible for a literate person to miss one valid way in.
While I know I did my part, I have the feeling this won't be the most successful book sale they've had.
Trivia: The naval component of the Allied invasion of Normandy was given the separate code name ``Neptune''. Source: Why The Allies Won, Richard Overy.
Currently Reading: The Influence Of Sea Power Upon History, 1660 - 1783, Alfred Thayer Mahan. I hadn't realized there was so much to the naval side of the American Revolution, but that's probably because most of the books I read about it describe it as, ``there was a Naval side to the American Revolution'' and then move on to pointing at Burgoyne and going HA-ha. Also the parts around India usually get summarized as ``and there were parts around India'' and then we're back to the Continental Congress being chased out of every town of more than 250 people in the Mid-Atlantic states. So it feels a bit mind-crushing to get all this detail all in one lump about that side of things. I'm interested, though, and now I'm particularly going to pay more attention to talk about Admiral Pierre André de Suffren, whom I don't remember hearing of before but who looks awfully interesting. (Also, this edition was apparently typeset by OCR software, based on the number of odd little glitches not copy-edited out.)
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