Author Topic: The Library (Read 2325996 times)

MaryPage · « **Reply #9920 on:** November 18, 2012, 12:27:12 PM »

The Library

Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.

We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).

Let the book talk begin here!

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Thumbs up, Steph. I have two autistic GREAT grandsons, and because they are in Missouri and I no longer travel, I have only seen them once. I get photos constantly, by email and by snail mail. I get phone calls and hear about their every accomplishment. Neither has been diagnosed with Asperger's, but the 8 year old is a math whiz. He has finished his entire 4th grade curriculum and started on 5th, while remaining in a third grade public school class, but his math is into High School. My daughter, his grandmother, called to say he decided yesterday to find out for himself how many seconds there are in a year. He did, all on his own, and announced the results to the family. The younger boy has a music thing going. Who knows how these children will turn out, and of course as a family we are anxious about how they will fit in. Time will tell, but we are elated over every little speck of progress.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #9921 on:** November 18, 2012, 01:08:28 PM »

ah Steph there really is a Santa Clause and he dropped into Connor so you could have the day... maybe he will stick around and give Connor more good days.

kiwilady · « **Reply #9922 on:** November 18, 2012, 04:39:53 PM »

Steph I am so glad your time with Connor was so special!

Carolyn

JeanneP · « **Reply #9923 on:** November 18, 2012, 07:40:36 PM »

I think that the children react different with some people than they do with others. With you Steph he must feel very secure. Sounds like a great day you both had. They are so smart. It is amazing how much people can learn from them.

Steph · « **Reply #9924 on:** November 19, 2012, 06:00:42 AM »

Thank all of you very much.. I must tell you all something that only my family knows. I am finally ready to spread Tims ashes.. Just the family and on the water he loved to race his sailboat and later his kayak. Connor knows this.. He asked me if he could have a tiny vial of Grandpas ashes. He said.. We never got to know each other very well, but I loved him.. It just broke myheart. Connor was so hard to deal with , three years ago and he and his Grandpa butted heads every single time, they were together. So that was a very special thing for me.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #9925 on:** November 19, 2012, 06:45:29 AM »

Thank you for sharing that with us, Steph. It is bringing a tear to my eye just reading it. I know we will all be thinking of you. Connor is clearly a very loving child.

Rosemary

maryz · « **Reply #9926 on:** November 19, 2012, 08:15:57 AM »

Steph, I know you have a great relationship with your Connor, but knowing this makes it even more special. What a great family you have! Thank you for sharing this with us.

Babi · « **Reply #9927 on:** November 19, 2012, 08:38:45 AM »

STEPH, you have reached some major landmarks in your life. You were blessed to have a
husband you loved so dearly. I think he would be happy for you, that you are now strong enough
to take the last step. May this final memory be a serene and happy one.

JEAN, I was reading, again, your quote on judging ourselves. My Dad had a different slant
on that. He told me, 'Don't compare yourself to others; there's always going to be someone a
bit better and faster out there. Compare yourself to yourself and you'll be able to see whether you are progressing or not.

ginny · « **Reply #9928 on:** November 19, 2012, 12:25:42 PM »

Oh Babi, I love that quote of your dad's. We need to make a newsline of that, would you allow that?

Stephanie, I am so happy for you, all around!

JeanneP · « **Reply #9929 on:** November 19, 2012, 06:15:54 PM »

A friend in UK sent me this in a long E-M today. I think that it has already been mentioned here about the Tel. Calls but thought would just post a part of it.

Then this week, we received the following e-mail:
Do Not DIAL AREA CODE 809, 284, AND 876 from theUK . U.S. or Canada .

jane · « **Reply #9930 on:** November 19, 2012, 07:27:39 PM »

Jeanne...variations of that have been going around since 2000 according to Snopes. You might want to read about the truth, the untrue of this email here:

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/809.asp

marjifay · « **Reply #9931 on:** November 20, 2012, 08:56:05 AM »

This was quoted in Today in Literature newsletter which I receive each day, and made me nostalgic for a hymn we used to sing in church:

Rev. Henry Francis Lyte died on this day in 1847. Lyte wrote several books of poetry, but his spot in Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner is tied to one hymn, written in about forty-five minutes not long before his death from tuberculosis:

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me….

Steph · « **Reply #9932 on:** November 20, 2012, 09:18:24 AM »

When my mother was dying and planning her funeral, that is one of the two hymns she wanted.The other was Just As I am.. Every time I hear them, I think of her..

mabel1015j · « **Reply #9933 on:** November 20, 2012, 11:56:18 AM »

Babi, i agree completely with your Dad's quote. We taught our children the same thing. On the other hand, i still put forth the concept that we'd have no reason to have social time with friends and relatives if we didn't chat about fellow friends and relatives, not viciously, but isn't much of your social conversation about what's going on w/ people around you?

Babi · « **Reply #9934 on:** November 20, 2012, 02:24:15 PM »

Oh, certainly, JEAN. It's perfectly natural to want to catch up on the news and find out how
everyone is doing. It's when it degenerates into backbiting or malicious gossip because of envy or jealousy that I feel a need to intervene. For any cause, actually.
Sometimes that can be too awkward, like the time my stepmother's new husband made a
racist joke at their wedding reception. One really can't call out the groom on such an occasion,
but I believe he was considerably disconcerted by the blank stare he got from me. I didn't hear
any more of those.

jane · « **Reply #9935 on:** November 20, 2012, 02:46:09 PM »

Sometimes "blank" stare...or what I call my "teacher look / very similar if not identical to the 'mom look'" is enough even for adults to get the picture LOUD and clear!!

Babi · « **Reply #9936 on:** November 20, 2012, 02:58:14 PM »

Thanks, MARCIE. My 'Mom' look was pretty successful, too.

MaryPage · « **Reply #9937 on:** November 20, 2012, 08:26:31 PM »

Well, Katherine Boo has won the National Book Award for Nonfiction for her book BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS, and I feel terrified to read her book.

I have no doubt it is remarkable and I have no doubt that everyone should read it, especially the younger generations who can actually DO something about the things she writes of.

But I am old and frail and tend to get heart palpitations when I get emotionally upset. I think I am going to give it a pass. I am very interested, though, in hearing if any of you have read it and what you thought about it.

ginny · « **Reply #9938 on:** November 20, 2012, 09:29:36 PM »

I have it but haven't read it yet, they say it's searing.

I'm almost thru with Micro and it's...fun and escapist so far, I'm ready to move on to the next fun book. There are several Christmas mysteries that are new and have caught my eye, anybody reading a new one?

I've got Margaret Maron's Christmas Mourning, it's 2010. Then there's Twelve Drummers Drumming by CC Benison, 2012, rave reviews, just pages of them including one by Margaret Maron saying Agatha Christie would have been proud to have written it. And just today I heard about a new one called The Christmas Carol Murders by Christopher Lord, which is sort of a take on Dickens apparently. They all come with rave reviews. I do like a little bit of mystery/ murder/ at Christmas time. Anybody reading a good one?

But my next one is already on the Kindle App: Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky. I am a big fan of these Insider type books where they expose what really goes on in hotels, there's an entire website for hotel workers to blog about what they hate most about guests. I have no idea why this appeals to me but it's the same thing as the Bourdain books on what it's really like to be a Chef.

The last one of these I read explained how something like 90 percent of all men travelers use the bureau drawers for dirty clothes. That's why I never use the bureau drawers. hahahaa

It also says in this book according to the blurbs that the hotel maids use pledge on the drinking glasses in the rooms.

I think it's going to be very educational. hahahaa

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody, no matter how you celebrate it. THIS year the parade goes on, on the TV, I miss it every year.

ginny · « **Reply #9939 on:** November 20, 2012, 09:32:30 PM »

OH and I forgot to say Preston and Childs have a new book out, and it looks like I can start reading them again because Helen is BACK!! And if you follow the series, you know who she is. That's why I quit reading it, too many deaths of people I cared about. Apparently not, like Bobby in the shower at Dallas. At any rate, i hope they manage to bring some of the others back too, it will be interesting to see how they do this one.

Winchesterlady · « **Reply #9940 on:** November 20, 2012, 09:49:11 PM »

"But my next one is already on the Kindle App: Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky. I am a big fan of these Insider type books where they expose what really goes on in hotels, there's an entire website for hotel workers to blog about what they hate most about guests."

Ginny, this arrived on my Kindle today also. Like you, I don't know why these things interest me...after reading it, I will probably never want to stay in another hotel!

ginny · « **Reply #9941 on:** November 20, 2012, 09:58:29 PM »

HahahHAHAA!! There are two of us!

I'm half afraid to read it. Have you read (since you share this malady),

Retail Hell?

Winchesterlady · « **Reply #9942 on:** November 20, 2012, 11:58:20 PM »

No Ginny....I haven't heard of Retail Hell. Sounds interesting. I'll have to find it on Amazon!

Steph · « **Reply #9943 on:** November 21, 2012, 05:53:31 AM »

Never heard of the Behind the Beautiful Forevers?? Whats it about.
Did read Retail Hell.. It is good in parts, absolutely stupid in others.. Having owned retail, I am always amazed at the misconceptions about why people do things.
I went to a chicken processing plant when I was maybe 12 as a prize for winning a 4-H chicken raising contest..Did not eat chicken again until my mid 20's.

MaryPage · « **Reply #9944 on:** November 21, 2012, 07:23:53 AM »

It is about living in the slums of India.

ginny · « **Reply #9945 on:** November 21, 2012, 08:55:58 AM »

hahha, well, I liked (as well as I can recall) Retail Hell, and found it amusing. Perhaps it echoed my own foray into the world of sales clerk, in the Ladies Better Coats (and that was a promotion after a year) of a national chain, it certainly seemed like Hell to me. hahahhhaaha

When I first started teaching here in SC in the early 60's you got paid for 9 months. You could choose to spread this over 12 months or you could take larger payments over 9. There was not enough money either way. So I'd leave school at 3 or 3:30, latest, and go down a couple of blocks to a major department store and work there till 9, 9:30, or later, depending on the holiday, to get extra money.

Sure seemed like Hell to me.

(1) You did not get time off to eat, no matter how long the day, you could not be seen eating, so the staff ran in the changing rooms under pretext of cleaning them up and scarfed down what food they had sequestered in. That was the first time I ever saw anybody eat Vienna (pronounced vie EEE na by the staff) sausages from a can, cold. Also baked beans from a can, cold.

(2) You did not sit down. Ever. That's a long period of time. You "appeared busy." (I wonder if this still goes on and is why you can never find a sales clerk today? It might be fun to find out). You rearranged clothes on racks, you adjusted clothes on racks. You fussed over clothes on racks. You were watched, by the...I can't recall, do they call them Floor Walkers? They always had something else they wanted done. You competed with people, wonderful people with not many resources, whose lives depended on those bonuses, because every sale was a competition, in this store, whether you knew it or not. Sales=higher scores, (everybody has a score) = bonus= promotions= higher salary. Am still inordinately proud of making it to Ladies Better Coats, tho if I told you the name of the store you'd collapse in hysteria. Truly there was not much of a difference, and only about 10 feet of floor space dividing my former miserable realm with the elevated new one. Still! Ladies Better Coats!!

Where next one wondered? The Pentagon?

(3) And the customers!! I have seen sights after 9 pm you could not imagine, I really have. I could really write a book. I won't here, but I could. And the staff, their poignant stories, what wonderful people they were.

Thus endeth my foray into retail, sort of like Mame Dennis's in the movie Mame, but much longer lasting.

Stephanie, I can't imagine a prize of a tour of a slaughter house for a 4-H winner, somebody is sick. I'm sorry you had to do that. My own sons won County and State 4-H and FFA Championships in Poultry, over many years, even winning a trip to Chicago to represent SC nationally. I think a trip to a slaughter house as prize is twisted.

Babi · « **Reply #9946 on:** November 21, 2012, 09:21:08 AM »

I'm with you, MARYPAGE. Why would I want to upset myself?! Don't have the energy
to spare.

Thank you for that list of rave review Christmas books, GINNY. That really
appeals to me for the pre-Christmas weeks. And I'm glad to see I'm not the only one
repulsed by the idea of a visit to a chicken processing plant as a 'prize'. Ugh!

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #9947 on:** November 21, 2012, 12:05:00 PM »

Everyone,

Is there anyone who lives in or near Evansville, Indiana?

Lesa Holstein, who has the excellent book review blog "Lesa's Book Critiques', has just been appointed Public Services Officer for the Vanderburgh Library in Evansville. She is having to leave her current job in Arizona because public finding is being all but withdrawn from the library service in her city. She is a wonderful woman, full of great ideas and energy, so I said I would ask if any of you wonderful people lived in that area. Just thought it would be nice if any of you were able to call in and say hello to her - she does have family in Indiana, I think, but it's always a big step starting a new job and moving away from friends. She starts at the Vanderburgh Library on 14th January.

Thanks,

Rosemary

maryz · « **Reply #9948 on:** November 21, 2012, 02:19:50 PM »

Our daughter, Kate, lives about 30 miles south of Evansville (in Kentucky ). I'll pass this on to her. She's a huge reader.

ANNIE · « **Reply #9949 on:** November 21, 2012, 03:58:18 PM »

ANOTHER SENIOR LEARN MOMENT!! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT WHEN WE JOINED THIS GROUP(15 YRS AGO FOR ME) THAT WE WOULD HAVE A LADY FROM SCOTLAND ASKING FOR SOMEONE WHO MIGHT LIVE NEAR THE EVANSVILLE, INDIANA LIBRARY TO GIVE A CALL TO ANOTHER LADY WHO HAS BEEN APPOINTED PUBLIC SERVICES OFFICER TO THE EVANSVILLE LIBRARY AND HAS HER OWN BLOG SITE CALLED "LISA'S BOOK REVIEW"? WHICH I WILL BE LOOKING UP MOMENTARILY!!

maryz · « **Reply #9950 on:** November 21, 2012, 04:43:28 PM »

Ain't it great! I've sent Rosemary's post on to our daughter. One of her good friends is in Evansville, and very active with the library there. Kate has send her the information, too. So the word gets passed along.

JeanneP · « **Reply #9951 on:** November 21, 2012, 07:58:58 PM »

I laugh now when I look back to the time I took a Sales position in one of the Highclass dept. Stores in Manchester, UK. (Had quite a few jobs before settling on the one I studied and did for 40 years.
This sales position one had to really dress the part. Type where a model of the store would wear the clothes the customer liked. And we also had a (Store walker). Dressed in a Morning suit that just kept his eye on everything. Wasn't there to long as he heard me telling the customers when they tried clothes on the truth. Would say not the right colour for you, It makes you look much heavier. Things like that. Up to the head office he took me. After he repeated I just had to laugh. Didn't fire me but sent me to work in Bookkeeping. I quit there. Went down the street and got another position right away. Another Posh store. I believe that year I had 7 different jobs. I lived at home and still had my allowance and so never bothered me. Fun times.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #9952 on:** November 22, 2012, 03:45:58 AM »

Oh thank you,one and all!

Am having to reply on my phone as Apple has kindly 'reconfigured my network settings' without any notice or say-so from me, so now if course I can't GSt onto the internet on my laptop &won't be able to till husband has time to sort it out, so I can't forward your replies to Lesa just now, but I'll do so as soon as I can.

I knew SeniorLearn would be right onto it!

Thanks again, & apologies for any typos - can hardly see this thing.

Rosemary

mabel1015j · « **Reply #9953 on:** November 22, 2012, 12:23:17 PM »

Love Lisa's blog. Thnx Rosemary.
Jean

ANNIE · « **Reply #9954 on:** November 22, 2012, 12:52:47 PM »

Yes, Rosemary, thanks for Lesa's Blog! Its a delight to read.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #9955 on:** November 22, 2012, 01:01:27 PM »

Yes, isn't Lesa lovely?

I've finally sorted out my internet all by myself (using the patented 'turn it off and on and swear at it' method), so I've copied your replies to Lesa - she's delighted and says she hopes people will indeed call in and say hello. Apparently she'll be working in several connected libraries, though based at the Vanderburgh, so she may not be there all the time. Arizona has been so short-sighted in withdrawing all its library funding, but I know Arizona's loss will be Indiana's gain.

Rosemary

marjifay · « **Reply #9956 on:** November 22, 2012, 03:02:43 PM »

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

This will be the first year we've not eaten Thanksgiving dinner at home. I just didn't feel like cleaning house and cooking a big dinner, so we're going out to a restaurant tonite. Tomorow I may bake a punpkin pie, because that's my favorite part of the dinner (not a turkey lover). I use the recipe on the can of Libby's pumpkin, and it always turns out delicious -- much better than any others I've eaten.

As to Black Friday, I can't imagine standing in a blocks-long-line to buy anything. Some people are nuts!! (LOL)

Marj

JeanneP · « **Reply #9957 on:** November 22, 2012, 05:04:58 PM »

In our town stores will be Starting Black Friday earlier. Some at 6PM today. In the large mall we have such as Sears will open at 8PM Today. I don't think Walmarts even closed and they will start the sales at 10PM

My daughter and 2 friends, for years have been going out in time for the 12.01am openings. Say today they will head out at 7pm. Most probably stay out all night. I have been going through the news paper add and not a thing I would go out for. Never done it. I will go late tomorrow "Friday" and see if 2 things that I would buy are still there.

MaryPage · « **Reply #9958 on:** November 23, 2012, 08:54:07 AM »

No shopper for years and years now, I shudder at the mere suggestion of crowds and large malls and stores. My gift giving has been reduced to the labor of writing checks or purchasing gift cards at my local Barnes & Noble to be inserted in Christmas cards instead of those checks. The great grands (soon to be 22 of these!) get twenty dollars each in a card of their very own. The very youngest are thrilled to be rich and the middles are excited to anticipate shopping and the teens are glad of a bit of extra pizza & cokes cash for when out with their friends. It works!

The only real energy I have to work up in the holidays now is doing Christmas cards, and I bought mine from a local art gallery by phone and picked them up Wednesday morning and set them out on the dining room table with list, address books, stamps & stickers and pens last night. The idea is to do at least 10 per day and then put them all in the mail on December 10th. The dining room table will not be used for anything else and will not be cleared off until I am FINISHED!

No shopping from this corner. I will listen to the horror stories on the news and smirk.

jane · « **Reply #9959 on:** November 23, 2012, 10:11:03 AM »

MaryPage...I'm with you. All of my shopping is online these days, unless I happen upon something by pure accident. I don't do mall shopping ...got out of the habit when I was in chemo and couldn't risk colds/infections...did it all online then...now 23 years ago...and NEVER looked back!

jane

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Author Topic: The Library (Read 2325996 times)