I finished most of my library weeding yesterday. We all marveled at some of the books I found on the shelves. One of them was a novel about a computer, published in 1983 -- and you can imagine what the computers in the jacket illustration looked like. A kid nowadays wouldn't even recognize those things. (Which is probably among the reasons why it hadn't been checked out for about nine years.)
A few things I grudgingly put back, because they'd been requested by a teacher years ago or they were connected somehow to the school, even though no one appears to be reading them. I guess I shouldn't be too grudging, because my own photo books are in that library and would surely fall into that category!
Not much else is going on. We had a quiet evening here. No trick-or-treaters, thank God. (Which is fortunate, because -- no candy!) On Sunday we went off British Summer Time, the UK's equivalent of Daylight Saving Time, so it now gets dark at about 5 p.m. I'm now walking home at night.
Fireworks have been going off around the neighborhood the last few nights. We think they're for Diwali, but it's also almost time for Guy Fawkes Night. Either one is possible! Fortunately, the fireworks don't seem to faze the dog. She notices them, and sort of looks around, but doesn't get unduly nervous.
Speaking of the dog, she got home from her walk yesterday smelling none too fresh. I think she perfumed herself with fox urine. Bleah.
(Photo: Crouch End, North London, a little more than a week ago.)
Fox urine? God. Wouldn't Olga love Lloyd?
ReplyDeleteI like the way you normally try to get people in your shop frontage pictures. You must have enough of them now to make a whole photo book.
ReplyDeleteI remember feeling strange when daylight savings time ended while I was working in Chicago and it was suddenly dark at 5:00 PM. Not just twilight but, dark. It was a kind of shock to me. We don't participate in DST in Arizona so I never see that sudden change.
ReplyDeleteI bet Olga thought she smelled nice!
So a teacher orders a boo for their class. They use it once . You have to look after the thing. Be tough. Throw it out.
ReplyDeleteunless you are running out of space I don't see the big deal in keeping old books no one is currently interested in.
ReplyDeleteI was working with the forerunners of computers in 1962...a Burroughs comptometer Alas I didn't stay with this new technology, and instead sold my soul to the pursuit of truth and justice and went into journalism instead, and ended up as editor of 4 newspapers as well as several magazines. Now many IT moons later all I have is my Toshiba laptop and that's well beyond my technology knowhow, but at least I can't press a red button to start WW3, but as to destroying peoples' reputation and lives, well. thus the fates decide for us. Seriously, I was always a nice journalist as several celebrities will tell you, but when I come to write my memoirs... Trouble is, I'm so old nobody would be interested in the dirt I have on long dead celebs. anyway, I liked them, so pointless to dish the dirt.
ReplyDeleteOur daughter used to take riding lessons at a horse stable where the owner also collected pets and strays of all kinds, including a very friendly dog. One day he came looking for pats, as usual, during my daughter's lesson, and I obliged. Until I realized he was wearing eau de dead animal ... hooooeey, it smelled bad! And so did I, for the rest of that very long hour.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if tomato juice baths work for fox urine as they are reputed to get rid of skunk spray.
ReplyDeleteHow does one get rid of that?
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Steve!
ReplyDeleteMs Moon: Olga would love anyplace outdoors with critters. We'd definitely have to lock up the chickens, though! And the cats.
ReplyDeleteYP: I've actually done a couple of photo books through Blurb: http://www.blurb.co.uk/user/SReed99342
Sharon: Yeah, it's a weird change. It makes the year seem suddenly much more wintry.
Red: I know, right? Like, if you're going to use it, use it more than once! Don't just leave it gathering dust in the library. We do eventually discard them if they're never used again.
Ellen: Well, the problem is, they obscure the good stuff that's there. It can be hard for people to find things when the shelves are packed with stuff that no one wants. Checkouts actually increase when library collections are weeded.
Lesley: Eau contraire, write those memoirs! You never know what will interest people. Besides, you probably have some little culturally historic tidbits in your brain that should be preserved for posterity!
Jenny-O: Yeah, dogs have a strange sense of what smells good. I'm sure that dog thought he'd found a fine cologne!
Catalyst: We haven't gone that far! It seems to be wearing off, fortunately. (I've heard that tomato juice bath story is a myth! Does it really work?!)
E: One waits for it to subside naturally. :) Thanks for the bday wishes!
Catalyst, yes it does work. When I was living in the States my cats got sprayed on more than one occasion , and tomato juice was my go to solution. Actually I didn't think the skunk smell was too bad. I've smelled worse from 2 legged creatures. As the Wise One said, 4 legs good, 2 legs bad. And ain't that true?
ReplyDeleteI think I took COBOL in about 1984, so I know exactly what those computers probably looked like. Ha!
ReplyDelete