Preparations

As I lie in bed writing this post, Olga is snoring beneath the covers next to me, unaware that her world is about to be rocked. The guy from the "luxury pet hotel" is coming to get her between 10 and 11 a.m., so I have to be home to see her off. I'm not even going in to work until she's gone, which is fine because it will give me a chance to pack up her bed, her blanket, her Kong and her anti-inflammatory meds.

As you may remember (probably not) from the last time Olga stayed there, the "luxury pet hotel" features a dog-cam that will allow owners to check up on their pets at any time during their stay. So no doubt I'll be doing that, probably to an annoying degree.

Anyway, after Olga gets launched I'm off to work, and then home to pack. Not that there's much to bring, since we'll only be gone a week. We depart tomorrow morning. I think I may leave my big camera here and just use my phone, like I did last spring. It's so freeing not to have to lug that thing around.

I have four more Newbery talks to do today, all in the space of about two hours! It's a Newbery marathon!

Oh, and I went to the dentist's office yesterday. No drama -- just for a cleaning. I have to have my checkup with the dentist herself (as opposed to the hygienist) in a separate appointment on March 1. Apparently my hygienist and my dentist work different days of the week, which is ridiculous, but whatever!

Here are some interesting articles I came across yesterday:

-- Apparently an urban planning goal known as the "15-minute city" has become fodder for right-wing conspiracies.

-- An op-ed in the New York Times offers a sensible defense of J. K. Rowling, who has been vilified by trans-rights supporters.
-- Horseshoe crabs, which used to be abundant, are now a struggling species thanks to overfishing for human medical use.

(Photo: Golden evening light in St. John's Wood.)

Money Mysteries

Here's some startling and thought-provoking graffiti I came across on Finchley Road on my walk to work yesterday. I don't know if this specifically targets Barclays or banking in general. I'm sure it came as a surprise to the employees who showed up at work that morning.

Speaking of financial matters, I still haven't done anything about my phone. Remember how I was thinking about getting a new one? Well, I've reconsidered, and I think I'm going to just keep plugging away with the old one for now. It still works, and it took the pictures in this post so the camera functions OK. I'm going to push it until it can't go anymore.

I think I may need to look at my phone plan, though, which is going up to an astonishing £78 per month. That seems insane. I looked at my usage and I don't come close to using the 5GB of data I'm permitted each month, not to mention the calling and texting time. I think I could cut all of that back quite a bit. The question is, would it save me money, or do I already have a minimum plan? Only Vodafone knows. More research to be done.

Part of my problem is, I can't conceive of what 5GB of data means. You could tell me that's a single web page and I'd believe it.

Even more bewildering is our utility bill, which came the other day. We pay £179 each month, which is based on estimated usage the energy company has calculated based on occasional readings of our meters. Our most recent bill shows charges of £348 for gas and £129 for electricity. (They weren't kidding when they said bills would go up this year. Thanks, Russia!) This is partially offset by a £67 monthly credit by His Majesty's Government Energy Bills Support Scheme, which I believe everyone gets to help with the higher costs. Apparently our account then roughly breaks even, which is the intent with estimated payments, but how that's possible is a complete mystery to me. We must be overpaying by quite a bit in the summer. Anyway, it's a head-scratcher, and I need to look into getting smart meters installed so we're paying only for what we use and not what the company estimates we use.

(We had an appointment to get a smart meter in 2020 but those plans got torpedoed by Covid. Must look into it again.)

I'm making myself sound like a financial idiot and I'm not, but all this stuff is so complicated. (Intentionally, I believe.) I don't know how people who have fewer financial skills than I do manage to cope.

And I still have to file our taxes with Uncle Sam this year. Argh! That's one thing I'll say about Britain's tax system -- it's much simpler. I get taxed when I get paid and that's that. I don't even have to file a return. If we had substantial income from other sources I'm sure that wouldn't be true, but we don't.

Isn't this exciting? How did I wind up talking about money? My mom used to talk about money every time I called her and it made me crazy, and now I'm doing it.

Dave bought Olga a huge treat at the vet when he went to pick up her anti-inflammatory meds. She chowed down on that thing and consumed it all. She was very happy.

Little does she know she only has one more night with us before she has to go live in a kennel (sorry, a "luxury pet hotel") for the next nine nights. Her world is about to be upended, and I feel guilty.

Crepes and Roses

I completely forgot to mention Valentine's Day yesterday, which shows you how much significance it carries in our household. We did a whole lot of nothing to commemorate the occasion. (As Dave pointed out, we went to dinner at Soutine not long ago, and we'll count that as our early Valentine's Day.)

It was much more significant at school, where some of the classes made Valentines and many of the kids were carrying around long-stemmed roses. I guess they must have had some kind of flower sale. Did your school do that when you were a kid? I remember buying carnations for classmates in high school -- pink for friendship, red for love, and white for....something. Hate? No, probably not hate.

I think I gave exclusively pink ones.

Anyway, the school where I work does roses. Some of the kids were walking around with one or two, some with full-on bouquets, many with none. I heard one boy jokingly lamenting to a male friend that no one had sent him a rose.

"I'll buy one for you," said the other boy, laughing, which was kind of sweet even though he was kidding.

Ah, Valentine's Day. Such angst.

For the staff, the parent committee had arranged for a special crepe van to park outside the school and make crepes. So we all went down and chose a crepe or two from a menu of options. I had one with applesauce, cinnamon and sugar and it was good.

I found this little pansy or viola (I can never tell the difference) growing in a crack in the sidewalk on West End Lane. I guess someone must have had a flowerpot out there at some point, and a little seed got into that crack and now, months later, voila! Nature is amazing. It's in a very inconspicuous place and I would be willing to bet money no one else has noticed it. It's my own little Valentine from the universe.

A Carver's Art

While walking in Hyde Park on Saturday, Olga and I came across this elaborately carved log. I didn't remember seeing it in years past.

Here's the other side, complete with a signature: "Tom Harvey, 2020." That explains why it was new to me -- it's a relatively recent creation. I'm trying to remember if the log itself was there, uncarved, when Olga and I used to walk through the park often. I honestly can't remember.

Tom Harvey has a website where he is known as "Carver Harvey." He seems like quite an accomplished sculptor. The site says he uses chainsaws and chisels to create his works. Impressive!

I heard yesterday that several more people are out sick with Covid -- including one of the colleagues who was at the happy hour event I attended on Friday. Argh! I talked to him there only briefly, but still, that's not very encouraging. I've been making up (or not?) all sorts of symptoms for myself and even took a test last night, which was negative.

Remember my Newbery book challenge, in which I read all 100 winners of the Newbery Medal up to 2022? You might recall that I did some presentations to the middle school classes about that experience right after I finished. Well, I've been asked to talk with this year's 5th graders -- who wouldn't have heard me last year -- so that's on the agenda for tomorrow and Friday. I have to refresh my memory about my presentation and the books I mention!

Crocus Buds

The crocuses in our garden  are sending out little oblong buds. I've seen the flowers open elsewhere in London, mainly at the cemetery, but none of ours have fully blossomed yet.

Every time I go out in the garden I try to be especially careful that I don't step on any of them! They're so small and, until they flower, inconspicuous that it would be easy to do.

Our daffodils are opening up in a big way.

Yesterday I moved all our tender plants back outside, because there's no freezing weather in the forecast for the next couple of weeks. It's supposed to get down to 34º F (1º C) tonight, which is pretty close, but I think we're usually a few degrees warmer than the forecast so they should be OK. Especially the ones close to the house.

I spent yesterday reading "Say Nothing" by Patrick Radden Keefe, a book about the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the late '60s and early '70s. It centers on the disappearance of a young mother named Jean McConville in Belfast in 1972, but it's interwoven with stories about many other IRA and loyalist activities and personalities. It's very good. (I remember reading an article about McConville's abduction in The New Yorker several years ago, written by the same author.) It's a big book and I expected it to take me a while, but I already got through about half of it.

I took Olga to the cemetery in the afternoon. It was cloudy and so ridiculously dark -- kind of a dull twilight, even in midday. I am ready for some bright Florida sun! I'm terrified that I'm going to get sick again (as I did in December) right before our trip. Multiple people at school have come down with Covid in recent weeks and there are other colds out and about as well. I don't even like to mention it for fear of drawing the Evil Eye. It would truly be a case of earth-shattering bad luck to have it happen again, and as I told Dave, unless I'm spiking a fever or bleeding out my eyes, I fully intend to be on that plane!

Our Old Stomping Ground

Olga and I took a nostalgic trip back to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens yesterday. We often walked there when we lived in Notting Hill and she was still a relatively young pup. I sometimes wonder how much she remembers of that time. It seemed like we were in the park constantly, especially in the spring of 2013 when I wasn't yet working in the library and was home a lot more.

I think the last time we went was four years ago. From where we live now in West Hampstead, it's kind of an ordeal because it involves tube travel.

But yesterday we took up the challenge and had a great time. We saw:

...Kensington Palace (from a distance)...

...and the bandstand...

...and Queen Caroline's Temple, which usually looks like this but seems to be undergoing some sort of renovation.

I made a little video so you can watch Olga:

-- navigating a tube station (she always puts her ears down and stays close to the wall)
-- watching for squirrels as another dog lopes past
-- demolishing a tennis ball near the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall
-- barking at squirrels near the Italian Gardens at Lancaster Gate
-- riding in a taxi on the way home.

(Yes! We took a cab home, which I never do. But by the time we'd walked all that distance I didn't want to subject her to the tube again, so it was worth it.)

My conclusion is that she does remember the park and knew exactly where we were. We followed the route that we usually walked back then, and when I tried to turn in an unexpected direction she'd pause and look at me like, "Why are we going that way?" Dogs are pretty smart!

The Old Archbishop

I'm getting a late start this morning. I went out with some co-workers last night and wound up staying several hours and having four pints of beer, which for me is a lot. It was over a pretty long period of time and I did eat somewhere in there, but still, I am moving slowly this morning.

I asked my brother whether he sent the mystery postcard. He said, "That looks like something I would do but I can neither confirm or deny my involvement." I told him that sounded like a yes, and did he know if they were supposed to come regularly, because I didn't get a no. 1?  He replied, "That I can neither confirm nor deny, but yes there was a 1. "

So the mystery of the sender is, if not definitively solved, at least somewhat clearer. The mystery of what happened to the No. 1 card, and whether or not I will ever get it, is still in question.

I spent yesterday doing more weeding in the library. Some of you asked about our criteria for weeding, or culling, old books. It's usually a mixture of condition, use (or under-use) and contents. We discard fiction books when they get too old or battered, or when we have too many copies (though our library seldom has more than two of any given book), or when they don't get borrowed. Non-fiction may get weeded when it contains outdated information. We normally do not pull books just because they're controversial. For example, I will not be weeding Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" anytime soon, except to replace an old copy with a newer one.

Anybody want a book on supernovas from 1989? Old science books, particularly about medicine or space, are ripe for culling, and I did get rid of that one. I'm thinking our knowledge of stars has probably advanced in the last 34 years. I also discarded a book about the marvel of the Hubble Space Telescope from 1993 and a book that touted a "new space station" due to open in the futuristic year of 2004.

Also this:
 

A perfectly good book, content-wise, but this was a dreary copy. People say "don't judge a book by its cover," but the fact is, readers do -- and old, yellowed, tattered paperbacks with outdated cover art are not appealing. No kid, or adult for that matter, is going to want to read that.

We've had it in the library since January 1974! Richard Nixon was still president!

And as you can see, interest in this particular copy basically collapsed about 15 years ago. It had 14 checkouts or renewals in the '70s and '80s, and only five in the years since -- perhaps because it was looking more and more tired. I weeded it and we bought a fresh copy.

So, yeah, that's how weeding works. Aren't you glad you asked?

Dave and I made some last-minute changes to our Florida trip. My stepsister, who we'd planned to stay with for a few nights when we first land next Saturday, wrote to say that she's actually going to be in New Mexico next weekend (!). So Dave and I got a hotel in downtown Tampa and we'll stay there for two nights before I go up to Jacksonville and he goes to Bradenton. That way, I can see some Tampa friends and get rested before driving long distances.

(Top photo: A Japanese restaurant in West Hampstead.)