obese squirrels on the roof
I have been meaning to post some entries I had written a while ago and finally can do that today. This entry was written Labor Day weekend!
It is the day before Labor Day and I am enjoying the first quiet and solitude I have felt in a very long time. I feel like I have been constantly going for a few weeks—a pattern that I do so I can have mindless activity sometimes when sinking into my own thoughts can be too sad—and I am tired and in need of some peace. And that is why today is a good day. So, here I sit, reflecting on the past couple weeks and listening to the sound of what I can only assume are obese squirrels on the roof shingles overhead.
Library Land update: we have been closed for 3 weeks for some updating at Library X. New carpet, fresh paint and the shifting of some of the collections a tad here and there; all to be done over the course of this time frame, which ended Friday. Library X reopens on Tuesday, hopefully with everything done. Friday was crazy. Most of the staff was there and all the pages, as far as I could tell; all moving the Adult large print, Adult Biography, Adult Oversized and much of the reference collection.
In Children’s (during the close) we narrowed our aisles between the book shelves to make room for a bigger open space near the kid’s tables and couches. We got rid of our dreaded puppet wall and replaced it with 2 puppet trees which are nothing like we thought they’d be. I was taking bets with people on how long the things will last. My guess is a month before the kids destroy the “trees,” which look like 4 foot tall pine trees, with these sticks shooting off for the puppets to hang on. Can we say flimsy? We shifted and weeded the Audio Visual collection with some of the books, to make things more user friendly and eye catching. The Children’s room carpets were torn out and the room was tiled. It all looks pretty snazzy. Can’t wait to hear the patrons’ reactions, and I am also looking forward to no more shifting for a while. Someone said to me (about our being closed), “Oh, that’s nice. Must be a nice break for you guys.” Um, no, actually this is the most manual labor I’ve done in forever, but thanks.
Went to an interesting conference last Monday. The topic was Literacy and the Library’s role in aiding children in forming good patterns of literacy from an early age. It was pretty good and we had an energetic speaker who gave us some cool ideas. It was at the library in Vassar, MI, and we enjoyed a beautiful meandering ride around that little city.
Went "Up North," (that sneaky non-destination known to Michiganders), just outside of Charlevoix, a week ago with best friend L & hubby K, their wonderful chitlins L (6 yrs) and A (3.5 yrs) and best friend K, and Chris. K & L and kids, Kim, Chris and I all spent the weekend inside when it rained (and it did in hard, loud, but relatively short bursts) playing Clue and watching movies, and outside playing bocce ball and volleyball and spending a little time meandering on the boat.
It was one of those ridiculousy lazy weekends where the highlights of the weekend were as simple as:
It is the day before Labor Day and I am enjoying the first quiet and solitude I have felt in a very long time. I feel like I have been constantly going for a few weeks—a pattern that I do so I can have mindless activity sometimes when sinking into my own thoughts can be too sad—and I am tired and in need of some peace. And that is why today is a good day. So, here I sit, reflecting on the past couple weeks and listening to the sound of what I can only assume are obese squirrels on the roof shingles overhead.
Library Land update: we have been closed for 3 weeks for some updating at Library X. New carpet, fresh paint and the shifting of some of the collections a tad here and there; all to be done over the course of this time frame, which ended Friday. Library X reopens on Tuesday, hopefully with everything done. Friday was crazy. Most of the staff was there and all the pages, as far as I could tell; all moving the Adult large print, Adult Biography, Adult Oversized and much of the reference collection.
In Children’s (during the close) we narrowed our aisles between the book shelves to make room for a bigger open space near the kid’s tables and couches. We got rid of our dreaded puppet wall and replaced it with 2 puppet trees which are nothing like we thought they’d be. I was taking bets with people on how long the things will last. My guess is a month before the kids destroy the “trees,” which look like 4 foot tall pine trees, with these sticks shooting off for the puppets to hang on. Can we say flimsy? We shifted and weeded the Audio Visual collection with some of the books, to make things more user friendly and eye catching. The Children’s room carpets were torn out and the room was tiled. It all looks pretty snazzy. Can’t wait to hear the patrons’ reactions, and I am also looking forward to no more shifting for a while. Someone said to me (about our being closed), “Oh, that’s nice. Must be a nice break for you guys.” Um, no, actually this is the most manual labor I’ve done in forever, but thanks.
Went to an interesting conference last Monday. The topic was Literacy and the Library’s role in aiding children in forming good patterns of literacy from an early age. It was pretty good and we had an energetic speaker who gave us some cool ideas. It was at the library in Vassar, MI, and we enjoyed a beautiful meandering ride around that little city.
Went "Up North," (that sneaky non-destination known to Michiganders), just outside of Charlevoix, a week ago with best friend L & hubby K, their wonderful chitlins L (6 yrs) and A (3.5 yrs) and best friend K, and Chris. K & L and kids, Kim, Chris and I all spent the weekend inside when it rained (and it did in hard, loud, but relatively short bursts) playing Clue and watching movies, and outside playing bocce ball and volleyball and spending a little time meandering on the boat.
It was one of those ridiculousy lazy weekends where the highlights of the weekend were as simple as:
- finding a freshwater clam in the shallows of the lake, then explaining how pearls are made
- seeing a dark, starry night, which made me miss the dark and velvety the sky above the farm
- going into Charlevoix and watching the bridge in the center of the downtown go up for the huge sailboats and one fabulously, glamorous yacht
- sitting and watching the sunset over Lake Michigan while the girls learned how to skip stones
- laughing around a campfire with some of my best friends
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