Paging Through the Past

 

While clearing out a drawer recently, I saw these 3 little notebooks with notes from books I read in the past. I have only browsed in the brown book (the oldest) so far. I especially found meaningful Reaching for the Invisible God by Philip Yancey and Ravished By Beauty (a look at how theologians have perceived God in His creation) by Belden Lane. Good thoughts on which to meditate on a gray windy day. 

I really should do more notetaking again. I haven't done that much in the past few years. Seeing how thought-provoking re-reading the notes has been today, I will try to get back to this habit. 

Fleurs and New Books

 

My neighbor called to remind me that I was welcome to cut and take some of her hydrangeas. I had planned to do so on July 4th, but the grass was too wet. Yesterday afternoon I selected 3 blossoms. I tried to take them from different spots so there wouldn't be a "blank" spot on her bushes. As I entered my sliding door I saw that my backdoor neighbor was cutting some, also. I am sure he had been given the same invitation. Unfortunately he cut blooms right next to each other. Sure enough there is now part of the bush without any blooms.

 The pink flower below is also a hydrangea. This grows next to the west side of my house; it never puts out many blossoms. There must be a variety of hydrangeas. The pink one looks nothing like the big fluff-ball Annabelle ones.

The 4 books pictured with the blue hydrangea vase I bought Saturday morning at a Warsaw Friends of the Library book sale. Their little storage/sales room is overflowing. The hardbound books were fifty cents each. The one about Shackleton crossing Antarctica I bought for my husband though I will probably read it also.  I had read Hickam's October Sky and hope The Coalwood Way is interesting. I have a video of painting in the manner of Dewberry. I cannot get the audio of our video player to work. It may be because we have a sound bar for the TV. Some day when I feel bored and ready for a challenge I will go over the manual and play around with where to plug things in or what to turn on/off. In the meantime, I can use this book instead of the video. The brushes and paint I bought with the how-to video are ancient. This is what would be called aspirational clutter. I am not quite ready to let go of those things. 

I have had a smattering of moss roses this past week; today there are 10 blooms. Yesterday I also staked up the fallen Veronica (Speedwell). They are easy perennials to grow, but they get top-heavy and fall over in the rain and wind. 

A surprise is that one of the Asiatic lilies has two late buds about ready to open. My lilies did not do this in the previous 2 years.

I was also surprised to see two Knockout rose blooms out front. They kind of sneaked up on me; I saw the new growth but wasn't expecting flowers soon.

My neighbor has daisies? blooming next to the spent peonies. I don't know what the bright green stalks are.

It is a little humid today. Low 80's with a breeze. There may be storms around 9 p.m. to midnight. I hope the rain does hold off as I plan to grill brats. We stopped at Sweet Corn Charley's for some sweet corn. Our first batch of corn last week had flavor but also some worms on the ends. 

Summertime and the livin' is easy. No catfish but brats, sweet corn, and potato salad ahead for us.

Holing Up

 We had our carpeting cleaned this morning. To stay out of the way and then off the damp carpet, I holed up in our sunroom.

The cleaners recommended that we not reposition the other furniture until tomorrow morning. It's going to be a long evening with no Lazy Boy chair to sit in.

Earlier this morning I went to the Friends of the Library sale at North Webster. I was a bit disappointed in the selection of books. Hardly any non-fiction. 2 of the 3 novels I bought are secular so may have some scenes/language I'd rather not read, but I will give them a try. I also bought 3 CDs.

We did see Seabiscuit before, but I think I will enjoy watching it again. 

We had placed our loveseat, which was mostly on the area rug,  facing north while we watched Jeopardy. I could see quite a bit of color in the sky after a gray and rainy day.

When I stepped outside to face west toward the sunset I was blown away.

The sky looked like it was on fire. Well worth the effort to go look.

Fall came in with cold rain and winds yesterday. I had to find my flannel sheet (which I use as a blanket during the transition). I also turned the heat on. It is going to warm up some Sunday and early next week. I am glad to have some new books and CDs to while away the cold gloomy weeks coming.

Books and More

 After my physical therapy session this morning, we headed to North Webster Public Library for the friends of the library book sale. Driving east on Old 30 and north on Indiana 13, we saw 3 yards with pumpkin stands, the one on IN 13 had maybe a hundred pumpkins of all sizes.

The sale started at 10 a.m. We arrived about 10:30. There were quite a lot of people browsing the items. I was a bit disappointed there weren't more jigsaw puzzles. Usually they have lots; but maybe people are holding on to them in case the state closes things down again so they have something to do. Actually, Indiana is doing better, down to a more acceptable level of transmission; our county is also finally down to under 5% community transmission. 

My husband picked out 2 DVD movies. I ended up with 7 fiction books and one decorating book. The Images is the jigsaw puzzle.

While I waited in the main library lobby for him, I noticed that there were free magazines. I picked up the September Better Homes & Gardens. 

We have viewing and reading material for the colder weather coming next week. Right now it is beautiful delightful weather. By next Thursday I will probably need my electric blanket even if only to warm things up for crawling under the covers. 

I have a set of exercises to do twice a day. My neck already feels better, but my arm feels worse. Normally I would have traction next week, but because I have a cervical level that is fused they are going to just do some deep muscle massage. My Medicare Advantage plan is waiving the $40 co-pay through September 30th so I will get two sessions "free". I also didn't pay any copay at the eye doctor nor for my colonoscopy. A "Pandemic Perk". Apparently so many people are avoiding going for medical care the insurance company is paying out very little; they are trying to give an incentive to take care of oneself. 

Tomorrow I am going to try to get a flu shot. That is always no cost to the patient under my insurance. 

Weak Link

You have probably heard the adage that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Likewise, a defense is only as strong as its weakest member. This holds true in a pandemic.

When people live together in a household or community, the protection against contagious illness works best when all members agree on following guidelines to minimize risk. 

My husband is more comfortable with mingling with other people right now than I am. Thursday a friend who lives in the independent apartments came to our condo to give us an anniversary card. My husband promptly invited her inside to sit in our recliner and visit. I felt it would be rude to oppose him, but I was not happy with the situation. She told us she had recently had lunch with a friend at Ruby Tuesday so she is out mingling. My husband also crossed over the berm between our condos to talk with the neighbor who was sitting on his patio. Neither wore masks; the two men were less than 3 feet apart. My spouse is ready and willing to eat often in restaurants. I am a bit reluctant. 

I am working like crazy in the grocery stores to social distance, but my efforts aren't worth much if my partner introduces the virus into our home. I must admit that I have a dental appointment at the end of June that I plan to keep; he canceled his.  So our assessments of risk and what we are willing to do differ.

Our county had about 200 cases of Covid-19 June 4th. Now on June 12th it has 306. Grace Village has 2 more employees that tested positive (for a total of 3). I feel like staying home more while my husband is out and about happy things are reopening. I do plan to go to the public library next week during "senior hour"; this will be its first time open for use since March 24th, though it did some curbside pickup service the past few weeks. 

Thursday we did expose ourselves to risk by eating in a restaurant and shopping. At Kohl's, there were many people without masks. After I browsed for some rugs on the second level, I was not happy to discover the down escalator had been shut down while I was shopping. I had to use the elevator. The family in front of me in line consisted of an unmasked mother and 3 children under 5. She pushed the elevator button. When the elevator arrived, they piled in. The lady behind me (unmasked) said aren't you getting on. When I answered no she hurriedly joined the family. Yes 5 people could fit, but was that wise? As I stepped up to the elevator button, I noticed there was a sign that said 1 person or 1 party at a time. I bumped the button with my elbow. When my turn came, I invited the masked lady behind me to join me if she wanted, with each of us in separate corners. There were probably over a dozen people waiting to ride down. At least, with another person joining me, we speeded things up a tad. So even when you think you are not taking much risk, things can go much differently and increase that risk.

I am grateful to be surrounded by nature. It cheers me a bit to watch the birds and see what plants are blooming. The Asiatic lilies started opening the past few days.

My anniversary bouquet had a single red rose among the purple, pink, and yellow flowers. I put it in a budvase where I think it looks better by itself. 

We have been watching Downton Abbey the past few weeks. My sister gave me several years ago a DVD set of the first two seasons. I had forgotten some of the incidents, but of course not Mr. Pamuk.

Grace Village has hired a new CEO to start mid-July working beside the current one until January when the current one retires. Too bad he has to face Covid-19 in the campus now; I am sure when he signed on we still didn't have any cases. His abilities will have to arise to meet new challenges.

All of us have new challenges these days.

The Cow Shed

When my husband visited the Cow Shed in Nappanee about a month ago, he noticed the book shop. He didn't bother to check on the pricing, but he noticed they had used Christian fiction books.

Today I drove there to see if they had some books I was looking to buy. Some friendly advice: don't go when it is 90 degrees outside like today. The Cow Shed has no air conditioning. The fans helped some, but in the books area, there was no breeze. I was soon sweating.

This building is just west of the famous Amish Acres on Highway 6. It sells crafts, decorative items, books, antiques, jewelry.

I was here for the book stock. 

Before heading up Highway 15 in Warsaw to my turnoff for Nappanee, I stopped at the public library to drop off book donations. Last week I did a major weeding of the non-fiction shelves of Grace Village Library.

These six bags were today's load, but last week I had almost this many I dropped off as well.
At the Cow Shed, I bought 5 books, 3 which filled in my series gaps. They were priced between $2.99 and $3.79. I also bought one of Karon's Mitford series books in large print. We have several of this series in large print, but not this title. We have them all in regular print though. 

When I left the Cow Shed, I headed east on Highway 6 to Coppes Commons. There is an Amish grocery store, fabric store, Christian book/gift store, deli, coffee drinks, baked goods, antique store, and a museum about Hoosier cabinets which were originally made in this building. Ah, sweet air conditioning. After browsing the baked goods and the antique store, I returned to the book store where I had seen a small display of sales books near the entrance. I bought Colleen Coble's Where Shadows Meet for $5. This is a new 2018 book. I think I will read it before cataloging it and putting it in the Grace Village hall display. 

Because the library received a generous gift of $200, I should be able to buy the series gaps books on my list. I bought Patterson's and Clinton's The President Is Missing for myself. My husband is reading it now; once he is done, I will donate it to the library. I haven't read any Patterson, so I don't know if this is representative of his writing. It is a pretty good suspenseful read.

The Eye of the Beholder

I want to get rid of this bookcase with pull-down desk within this next year. It was full; the little bears sat in front of books as the little doll figures above still do, but now the bears have nothing behind them. I have made some progress. However, most of what is left on the shelves I want to keep for awhile longer. That means culling the hall bookcase and the den assortment to make room for these.

I have some books that I am keeping because of emotional attachment. They were gifts from my sisters or in the case of a Peanuts book from my high school best friend.

Holly Hobbie was popular from about the mid-60’s to the mid-seventies. I still love the pictures in these little books. I sometimes display the Christmas one on a table along with my other decorations.

The Apples of Gold contains pithy sayings, paragraphs of wisdom centered around the fruit of the Spirit. My older sister gave me this when I graduated from high school and inscribed the event inside the cover.

I may have glanced at it back then, but as I perused it today, I decided to look through it a little bit each day this summer. The advice makes more sense to a 65-year-old than an 18-year-old I’m sure. Here is an item from Meekness: “We see things not as they are, but as we are”. No way a teen-ager could really grasp the truth of this saying. It takes experience through the years to appreciate how subjective our outlook really is. Or perhaps it could be interpreted if we want to see things in a positive way, we need to be positive.
Our past makes up part of who we are. It creates our perspective and colors our viewpoint. Among these books I found a lined-paper composition book with notes from Bill Roorbach’s Writing Life Stories. What a good book! Besides my reading notes, I had scribbled the writing exercises he prescribed. Here is one of my compositions that in its own way talks about seeing, about perspective.

The People in the Floor Other than for the obvious purpose, how could one productively use time spent on the toilet? Sort thru relationships, solve financial problems, plan the day or week ahead are possibilities. My thoughts never manage to turn in those directions. I blame the people in the floor. Not the whole floor, really, just the small rectangle in front of the blue rug. That’s my focus while sitting there, straight ahead and down to the swirling shades of gray. They make quite a diverse populace. Human shapes dominate reinforcing my anthropomorphic bias, but some apparitions obviously belong to other branches of the animal kingdom: the jaunty whale, the long-beaked water bird on the wing tucked into a crease of the menacing dinosaur’s jaw. How can a whale of great tonnage be jaunty? It seems unlikely, but his playful eye says he is. Over time others hidden in the larger figures make themselves known as I dissect smaller and smaller canvases for my imagination. I notice the floppy-eared dachshund and the pointy-eared almost-squirrel-faced fur-ball rodent months after the others. Broadening and narrowing perspectives add to the group. I almost miss the jug-eared man who lives in the pouffed gray bangs of the old gypsy lady with her dangling disc earring. Indeed, after the initial discovery, I lose him for awhile because I forget his address. He is a sub-basement kind of guy, going unnoticed for the most part. If I had such huge ears, I probably would want to fade into the background, too. Odd juxtaposing exists in this under-foot world: a homely club-footed angel chasing the beautiful blonde, the beauty’s filmy chiffon stole billowing out as she rides the back of the Chinese dragon, the dragon’s fierce visage threatening the jut-jawed curly-haired matronly face ahead. It is a world of ambiguity and imperfections. Is that a broad-faced aborigine with a choppy hair cut or a pointy-nosed big-mouthed woman whose cupcake hat squashes flat the fringe of hair framing her ugly face? Contemplating my choices, I am startled to see the slash of the mouth become a screwed-up teary eye for the roly-poly-faced pouty boy who encompasses more footage than my original tight frame. What a crybaby he is! I should disown him and shift back to the native man and the unattractive woman, but it is too late. Now that he has caught my attention, he can’t be ignored. I may miss my imaginary bathroom population when I move in a few years to the retirement community condo. Some of the floor inhabitants pop out so sharply surely the new owner will see them. But maybe not. They exist on the floor, but more in the mind, and thus peering at them requires looking beyond the obvious. I do not tell others of the people in the floor. Revealing them would reveal too much of me. A bathroom after all is a private place. The ancient flowing-bearded, cone-hatted sorcerer in the middle floor tile wisely concurs.

A Choice Morsel

When I walked down the block to the garage sale, I had a specific book in mind. The items being sold belonged to the man who married me almost 35 years ago. He and his wife had died within a month of each other and now some friends were holding this sale to help the surviving children who lived in other states empty out their parents’ residence.
Last September once we were settled in our new home, my husband and I made this same walk to visit with this couple we had not seen in 24 years. We took an album of candid photos taken at our wedding reception where she is reaching to take a nut from his plate while he obliviously is looking elsewhere. The topic of conversation turned to books (naturally). He mentioned that he had recently read a book which had made a deep impression on him, more than any other book in recent years. That book was The 3 Princes by Tom Julien, a retired missionary from France. I had hoped that book would be at the sale, but though there were lots of her books, his books had already been removed.
A little disappointed, I went home to change my clothes for a special lunch in honor of volunteers at my retirement community. As I was dressing, the phone rang. One of the maintenance/administrative staffmen wanted to donate a book to the library. Yes, it was the 3 Princes. The desired item dropped into my “bowl” by a loving God.

Inundated

Our retirement community library received over 100 large-print books from a lady who now has to use recorded books for her “reading” pleasure and can no longer peruse her books. Since the residents have been asking for more large-print books, God abundantly supplied. They anxiously hovered over the book truck of new acquisitions eager to read these gifts.

However, there was a problem. The existing large-print collection consisted of 3 shelves at the end of the regular-print books. There wasn’t room for even 6 more books, let alone 120. To make room, we had to aggressively weed the regular books, then shift over 2,000 volumes to free up an entire bookcase section. After labeling the new books, the Excel list of fiction (the only record of the inventory) needed to be edited, deleting the entries for the discarded books and typing in entries for the additions. Finally, after 2 very busy weeks, the treasured trove is being happily used.

I finished the whole project Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon we received 54 Christian paperbacks from the estate of a condo resident who died in February. I am taking the rest of this week off, but it looks like this blog will be neglected some more in the coming weeks. But at least the books will be read; the blog remains unread. I am too timid to let anybody know it even exists.

In a Sea of Books

“Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink” could be “Volumes, volumes everywhere, but not a book to read.”
3500 books to be cataloged in a project in the library in our retirement complex, but no time to read them. That is the predicament for me. Some very tantalizing titles have passed thru my hands, too.
I suppose it is natural that retired librarians would be recruited to serve on a library committee. Not strange that the person overseeing the library and wanting to step down would suggest those two people as replacements. So now my husband and I find ourselves with a library collection in need of some TLC and a means to identify the contents.
Some internet research to find a computerized cataloging program led to something more than a catalog: Library Thing. This web-based program not only helps us create a searchable data base, it has author information, reviews, and an interactive community for discussing books. Our library users live in apartments in the complex where the library is housed, but also a few blocks away in condos. Many of the condo dwellers  have computers and thus can peruse the collection without making a special trek over to the main campus.
After cataloging for 20 years in academic libraries, I admit this is not perfect, but it serves us well. I miss most a controlled vocabulary with cross references, but the majority of the cataloging records we utilize have Library of Congress Subject Headings so there is some consistency. Key word searching and the option to add subject words in a searchable comments section also help users find items.
For arthritic knees and bad backs, the option to sit at a keyboard to search in shelf order is a big help. Let the fingers do the “stooping”. Lists of hard-to-read print can be changed to colorful book cover browsing. Since the focus is on tracking and searching book collections, there is no circulation module, but the alert system for duplicate titles has already helped us weed out over a hundred books cataloged in different spots.  Shelf space is at a premium so aid in identifying duplicates is valuable. Cost for using Library Thing: $25 life-time membership fee.
What programs have you used to organize and make your book data searchable? Give Library Thing a try. It can serve as a reading list tracker besides the cataloging functions.
Too bad we don’t have space to set up a book domino trail like this  with the withdrawn books. But then, I never would get any cataloging done if I was making elaborate patterns of books.