Ch-ch-ch-changes

This is sitting in the driveway of a neighbor down the street. I think it's the soundboard for an upright piano. As I understand it, old pianos are very hard to sell nowadays, given that lightweight and easily portable electronic keyboards are available. Remember how my family struggled with that issue when we tried to sell my grandmother's Steinway years ago? And that was a baby grand, not "just" an upright.

Still, it makes me sad to see a piano reduced to this condition.

I have had a killer week, and I'm not sure why. It should have been easy, with two days of parent-teacher conferences during which I dealt with no students. But of course I had plenty to do, because God forbid I be permitted any downtime. Yesterday and Thursday I weeded part of our non-fiction section and covered and labeled about 50 new books, among other things, and when I balked at immediately stamping, sorting and boxing up all the weeded materials, my boss seemed surprised. It was 3 p.m. on a Friday before a break and I was done. I came home.

I only have 26 days of work left! That freaks me out a little bit, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to retirement. My co-workers are talking about making major changes in the library, "genrifying" the collection (sorting mysteries from romances from classics, that kind of thing) and getting a new computer system. I am nothing but relieved that I won't have to deal with any of it.

I'm sure I sound like a spoiled, work-averse baby here (is there such a thing as an enthusiastically working baby?) but as I get older I find that I am much less able to embrace workplace changes, and my boss is a rip-everything-down, nothing-is-sacred kind of person. I need to get out.

Meanwhile, Dave and I have to get ready for Spain! We're leaving early tomorrow morning, and I'm already having a bit of anxiety about our first hotel, in Málaga. The reception is closed after 2:30 p.m. and I was told to send them our documents and they would give us access codes to the door, and I've sent what I'm supposed to send, but I've received no codes. If I'd known this "hotel" was really serviced apartments with no full-time reception I'd have booked somewhere else. I want to be checked in by a person. Argh!

Here are some fun or interesting links I've saved that you might enjoy:

-- The story of the North London house that gave the band Fairport Convention its name.

-- Five photographic treasures displayed at the somewhat recent Paris photo fair.

-- A CBS News segment about a mysterious cache of photos from San Francisco, taken during the Summer of Love.

-- A discussion of the impact of ring-necked parakeets on our local ecology. You'll recall we see lots of these birds in our garden on our bird feeders.

-- One of our favorite video clips from British television, from the TV show "This Morning," in which Gino D'Acampo takes down presenter Holly Willoughby in ineffably Italian fashion.

-- And from just this week, the obituary of actor Bud Cort, who famously played Harold in "Harold and Maude," one of my favorite movies.