Let's Look Out

I pass this deli on my walks to work. Normally it's a bustling place, but of course it's shut down now because of the coronavirus, its windows covered with newspaper. The posters in the side windows caught my eye: "Be kind. Let's look out for one another."

I did make it in to the office yesterday, and I finished a project I was working on for one of the librarians -- a list of Middle School historical fiction, grouped by the time and place where the story is set. This was prompted by a parent who wanted fiction set in certain time periods and certain locations. It was a harder project than I'd anticipated, partly because there's a lot of historical fiction on our shelves, from books set in prehistory (like Michelle Paver's "Chronicles of Ancient Darkness" series) to those set in the relatively recent past (Jane Smiley's "A Good Horse," set in the 1960s). I guess it all depends on what you count as history.

I tried to eliminate anything based too much on magic, fantasy or legend (although now that I read about those Paver books, they're pretty magical). No King Arthur, no Robin Hood, no dragons. But admittedly, the line is vague.

I found this peculiar and somewhat amusing cigarette package on my walk home. I think it's a Belarusian brand. I assume that thumbs-down photograph is an impotence warning? Clearly it didn't stop someone from smoking the whole pack.

Olga's dog walkers contacted me yesterday and said they're ready to crank up their business again. For the past few months I've been walking her almost every day, and while it's been fun, I've seen a little too much of the cemetery. I'm ready to hand off weekday responsibility to someone else, and in turn contribute a little more to the local economy.

My hope is that not having the dog as my focus, I can get out and do more photography around town and more exploring -- though I'm still somewhat restricted because I'm not yet using public transportation. We'll see!