a day for book lovers...

 Even though my west coast brother is on vacation, he did provide me with an excellent special day for today.  Today is "Thank You for Libraries Day."  Since I have a long and happy history with libraries, I feel I can add my thanks to the chorus of thanks resounding around the world.  

Thank you to Miss Tremp, the librarian in our small home town library who had been the librarian since my father was a little boy.  I used to watch in fascination as she would turn the little wheels to get the correct date on her stamp, press it on the ink pad, then very carefully stamp it on the lined card.  The card, with that due date stamp, would then be slid into the pocket on the inside cover of the book, and the book was mine for two weeks.  Of course I could, and usually did, get more than one book at a time, but the process for each book was the same.  

Thank you to my seventh and eight grade teacher who made sure the classroom library (all three shelves) was well supplied with fascinating books.  That's where I discovered the "Little House" series. 

Thank you to the librarian/driver of the book mobile that parked one block from our house every second Tuesday.  One baby, one toddler and all of our books fitted very nicely into the large British style baby buggy I had at that time.  We would trundle down the street, and spend a blissful half hour in that library on wheels. 

Thank you to the librarians, always cheerful and ready to help, at the local library less than a mile from my current home. There I can place special requests and check out my own books, scanning first the bar code on my library card, then the barcodes on the fronts of the library books.  Then the books are mine for three weeks and multiple renewals, which can be done on line.  So quick and easy.  Miss Tremp would be amazed.

What a day...

 My west coast brother is traveling this week so it was up to me to find out if today, May 20th, has any special significance.  Here's what I found. Today is, among other things, "World Bee Day" to raise awarwness of the importance of bees and other polinators, "World Metrology Day" (yes that is the correct spelling) commemorating the science of measurement, and "National Rescue Dog Day" to encourage animal adoption. 

All of these are important days to be sure but I am most intrigued by Metrology, mainly because I don't remember every hearing that word before.  This surprises me because I took a lot of math classes in high school and college and I would have bet that dear Mrs. Davis, my teacher for four years of high school math, would have taught us every math term worth knowing.  Perhaps I was daydreaming the day it was mentioned. 

Anyway, according to Wikipedia, "World Metrology Day" recognizes the signing of the Metre Convention.  Just in case that leaves you wanting to know a little more, the Metre Convention was signed on May 20, 1875 by 17 nations (you can Google the whole list) in Paris. It is an international treaty establishing a unified global system of measurements (the metric system).  It also created the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM).  

As it happens, the United States of America was one of the signers of this treaty.  I find this interesting because the metric system (while in use here in the USA to a certain extent) has certainly not replaced gallons, quarts, pints, cups, yards, feet, miles, etc. in our everyday lives.  Maybe it will catch on in another 151 years or so.

adding a little spice...

 Or is it? A spice that is.  My west coast brother informed me that today is "National Garlic Day."  I do like garlic, a quick and easy add on to supper at our house is often bread toasted, buttered and sprinkled with garlic salt.

As I write this, my wonder spouse is on his way to do some quick hardware shopping and then bring home supper from our favorite pizza place.  We won't have garlic toast with soft crust pizza.  That seems a little redundant.  But I'm guessing that there will be garlic in the pizza sauce and possibly in the salad dressing.

All this thinking about food got me wondering what exactly is garlic? Oh, I know it can be purchased as a bulb which can be broken apart into cloves, which, by the way can be planted to grow more garlic.  Or the cloves can be chopped up and use to season all kinds of sauces.  Or you can buy garlic powder and save yourself a lot of chopping.  

Garlic is botanically classified as a vegetable.  It's a member of the onion family.  Now there's a family reunion that could be a little overwhelming.  That answered my question about what garlic is, it's a vegetable.  However, garlic is commonly treated as an herb or spice.  So there you are.  Call it an herb, spice or vegetable.  It doesn't matter. Just be sure to remember to add it to your next homemade spaghetti sauce. 

so much fun...

 My spouse and I went to a different kind of movie this evening.  It was a showing of the Buster Keaton movie "Our Hospitality."  Mark Sherman, a renowned theater organist, did an amazing job of providing the music that made this 'silent movie' come alive.  

The movie was filmed in 1923 (one hundred and three years ago) and I was awed by the cinematography.  Buster Keaton did all of his own stunts.  You need to see the movie to appreciate what that meant.  He must have been absolutely fearless.  His leading lady, whose name wasn't mentioned in the credits, also deserves some accolades.  Her waterfall scene and the boat scene could not have been easy, especially in a long 1800s style dress.  

From the waterfall scenes to the rediculous train ride to the dressed up horse and on and on the movie was a joy to watch.  No Disney type animation or AI here.  It was all done with real live people with very expressive faces and eyes.  You need to see the prayer scene at the dinner table, so much eye rolling!  The story line was about a feud between two families (loosely based on the Hatfields and McCoys with the names changed just a little to protect the not so innocent) and of course there was the inevitable love complication.

The show was presented on the stage at First Presbyterian Theater with a theater organ brought in for the event.  There is one more showing tomorrow afternoon at 2:00pm.  Tickets are $11 each.  I highly recommend it.

Ouch...

 According to my west coast brother today is "Bat Appreciation Day." I'm pretty sure this refers to the bats that fly around at nightfall eating their body weight in insects.  Three bat related incidents in my past come to mind, so of course I feel compelled to share them. 

First, when I was about eight years old, my other brother (not the west coast one) smacked me on the knee with his little, but still wooden and very hard, baseball bat.  He said there had been a bee on my knee that he was trying to kill.  There was no bee remnent on my knee so I've always been a little sceptical about that story.

My second bat experience involved a trip to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, near the city of Truth or Consequences.  Carlsbad Caverns are absolutely amazing and I highly recommend a visit if you've never been there.  In addition to the amazing, naturally colored stalactites and stalagmites that dazzle in the massive caverns there is the nightly bat show.  Every evening at sundown a large swarm of bats comes flying out of the main entrance to the caves.  It is quite a sight to behold. 

Finally my Australian bat experience.  Sydney, Australia is home to large fruit eating mega bats called Grey Headed Flying Foxes.  Picture a bat the size of a falcon.  That may be an exaggeration but not by much. One night during our stay in Sydney my girlfriend and I were awakened at 3:00am by horrible loud screeching sounds.  We looked out our third floor hotel room window to see huge bats hanging upside down from every branch of the tree right beside our window.  

I know that bats are very useful creatures who eat lots and lots of insects and I do appreciate them for that, but after the Sydney incident I find that I appreciate them much more from a distance.

the meeting will come to order

 My wonder spouse and I went to our Neighborhood Association meeting this evening.  He went because he is on the board and had financial information to share.  I went because it was held at the local library and I had time, before the meeting started, to check out some library books. 

I had attended another such meeting about six months ago and, based on that experience, wasn't expecting anything very exciting.  At the last meeting one other person and I were the only non-board members present and the whole meeting lasted about twenty-five minutes.

This evening was a very different story.  The president of the association had done a good job of getting the word out and there were 25 people there, which meant there were lots of good questions.  

They ranged from people running businesses from their homes (against the covenants), barking dogs, campers and boats parked for long periods of time in peoples driveways, ice and snow removal last winter (or the lack thereof) drainage problems with all the recent rain, and more.  The president did a nice job of explaining what she could, promising to research some questions and asking people to email her with more details.  My spouse did a fine job of presenting budget info and answering finance related questions.  I think people came away with some appreciation of how their $52 a year dues are being used. 

There were also some good suggestions from the attendees.  I particularly liked the idea of painting the curbs yellow along some of the streets allowing parking only on one side and keeping people from parking too close to intersections.  My spouse has lived here for most of the last 50 years, but this has been my neighborhood for only two years.  I came away very impressed with the things that are going on.  I hope others there felt the same way.

PS I did not volunteer to participate on the board in a position.  I am still an appreciator, not a participator.

stay afloat,,,

 My west coast brother informed me that today is "Titanic Rememberance Day" and, of course, it's also Tax Day.  My brother suspects that this isn't a coincidence and I think I must agree.  Many people do get that sinking feeling around tax time.  Lucky for me my wonder spouse got ours filed months ago and we have already received out rebates.  And also lucky for me, I think, is the fact that I have never watched the movie "Titanic."

But thinking about the Titanic reminded me of a conversation I had last week with a member of my granddaughter-in-law's family.  We're still in the 'getting to know you' stage with the other side of my grandson's family which is being fun because they are very nice people.  During our lunch together last Sunday (after the baptism) my spouse and I were asked about our upcoming cruise.  We happily explained the stops we will be making and the route the ship will sail, only to be told by one person that she could never take an ocean cruise because there's just too much water out there.  She's right of course, there is a lot of water out there, but I think that's what makes it exciting.  On our last trip we saw whales, penguins and icebergs out in that vast expanse of ocean.  Don't worry, the icebergs were not large enough to sink our ship.  

I suggested to the person that she might like to start with a river cruise where you can see the riverbanks on both sides of the ship but she thought that would still be too much water.  Interestingly I realized, as she talked more about her fears, that I have never been afraid that the ship might sink.  I always do pay close attention to the drills and safety talks and I know where my life jacket is, but mostly my spouse and I just happily drift along in our elegant floating hotel, eating great food and enjoying every shore excursion along the way.  Can you tell I'm anxious for our next trip?  We leave in 37 days.