We Interrupt This Blog....

I'm in Bangor, Maine. The Son of COG fell going down his back steps this morning and broke his leg. It's quite a nasty break - the big bone in his lower leg is broken in two places above the ankle. The smaller bone is really shattered, a bit higher up. He's in a lot of pain and is scheduled for surgery tomorrow, time unknown.

I'm staying at the former Nurses Residence of the Eastern Maine Medical Center, which is now the Riverview Inn. I, however, have a Parking Lot View. Not complaining - it's convenient, cheap and clean.

On the way up today I saw two bald eagles. One of them was over the Penobscot River, just by the hospital. I take this as a good omen.

I'll post more when I know more.

Adieu, Borders

The Borders store I worked in for 8 years, closed for the last time, yesterday at 5 pm. Coincidentally, I had dinner with 3 women who used to work with me there. It was lovely to talk about the good times we had there, in the old days before the business went South.

One of them quipped that we were now 'Booksellers without Borders'. I've been smiling about that all day.

The people I worked with there were such an interesting group of people. I'm glad they are mostly still around and I can see them from time to time.

Mother Nature's April Fool's Day Trick

Snow.

After a lovely Spring day, it snowed a couple of inches overnight.

No pictures because I'm pretending I didn't notice.

Each Minute Sweeter Than Before

It's 51 degrees. Sunshine. Crocuses in the lawn and daffodils half-sprung. Birdsong. Peepers.

After a hideously extended winter, it feels like Spring.

"It is the first mild day of March,/ Each minute sweeter than before." William Wordsworth

No Diet Gingerale.

I went to the grocery store for diet gingerale. This is the row of soda. There was no diet gingerale of any brand whatsoever.

OK, I know this isn't a tragedy like tsunamis, earthquakes, nuclear disasters etc. But, in the absence of these tragedies, is a little diet gingerale too much to expect?

Just showed this picture to the COG

And he said 'My God, get me a drink. Quick!'

Not sure whether this counts as an offense to my feminist principles.

New Storage -

I'm a Storage Geek. Today I finished a project which I've been thinking about and working on for ages. It's a wooden thing for stacking the large platters which won't fit elsewhere. I am very happy it's done and it fits and it's doing the job.

This is not my proudest moment, carpentry-wise. However, it does the trick. I also made the shelf you can see at the back of the upper shelf. I make lots of these. It's simply a 1x4 inch board cut to the length I need and set on two upright pieces of the same board, glued, not even screwed. Very useful for finding extra slivers of storage.