Winter's last hurrah?

So on Friday, while we were all hoping that we wouldn't be blown away by the storms, it was in the 70s temperature-wise. It has snowed very little this winter, maybe a half-inch to an inch a couple times, three inches maybe once. So after the tumultuous warm weather, what do you expect if you live in Kentucky?

SNOW! Yep, because we have our share of odd weather. And it apparently snowed something like six inches (I'm not sure what the official count was, but a co-worker told me that's what she saw on the news, and it jives with my experience.)

I took this picture of our courtyard at work, which shows the snow we received. The neighbourhood kids came out in droves with sleds and snowboards to play on our hills; we watched them out of the dining room window, and they were still going when I was down at the bus stop. I wonder what will happen when the hospital moves, if they'll still be allowed to do that? There were plenty of dogs out, too. I remember how much my dog Cerys loved to plough through the snow. :) I wonder what the puppy thought of it. :)

Anyway, it's supposed to warm up again this week, so this stuff will all go away soon. But it was nearly the perfect snow--heavy, wet, perfect for snowballs and snowmen, not terribly slick on the roads, and just enough of it to enjoy it and no more. So thanks, Mother Nature, we had a good snow, finally, and now can we move on to spring (but without any more tornadoes, please?)

So on Friday

the temperature was in the 70s and we had tornadoes in the area. Tonight? A wintry mix with 1-3 inches of snow possible.

Crazy Kentucky weather. They always say if you don't like it, wait around for a bit.

Spring really is around the corner. Really. I have faith it will come (but please, a little calmer this time).

Hopes dashed

A sad end to what seemed to be a miracle...

Ind. toddler found in field dies from tornado injuries

Angel [who was 15 months old] was found in critical condition in a field near her New Pekin home Friday afternoon, shortly after a tornado ripped through her home, killing the rest of her immediate family — her parents, Joseph Babcock, 21, and Moriah Brough, 20; her big brother, Jaydon Babcock, 2, and her baby sister, Kendall Babcock, 2 months.

I feel very sad for this family, which has lost five loved ones so quickly, and with the three children being so very young.

Having a Scottish music interlude...

:)

So after all the excitement, I fell asleep (not surprisingly)

but I'm up now, checking on the reports. So far the death toll is at 27 for the region, with 85 tornadoes reported. Somehow I think those numbers will go up. And at least a couple of towns (one in Indiana, one here in Kentucky) are reportedly essentially gone, although in the latter case there's still not a lot of official assessment. State officials did lose contact with the town, West Liberty (I've always wondered about that name, as it is northeast of and in an entirely different county than Liberty) and have sent in the National Guard plus rescue teams.

The storms were so fast, they went through my area very quickly, and we only had one tornado warning here in Lexington, while other areas were pounded over and over. But I'm glad I came home when I did, or I would probably have been trapped at work for about two hours after my shift. Tomorrow, by the light of day, we'll know more about damage throughout the area.

The scary thing is that we're just at the beginning of March. What a way to open storm season. Take care out there.

I'm going to go back to bed. The idea is to get up in the wee hours and do game notes and maybe some laundry. I have to stop by work for a bit tomorrow and go help with some things at my friends' house, too, so it'll be busy. Good night.

I came home early, along with a good portion of the people in the area

All day we've been at something the Weather Channel calls TOR:CON 9, meaning we have a 9 in 10 chance of a tornado in the area.

Because it was set to hit about the commute, the city sent home non-essential personnel, the University of Kentucky cancelled late classes, and many, many businesses closed or sent who they could home so they wouldn't be en route anywhere.

The line of thunderstorms was set to hit about the time I would normally take the bus home, so one of my co-workers took me home a bit early. I've been watching the weather for a little over two hours. The storms are very fast. Owen and Grant counties, where my dad is from, got hit pretty hard, and my mom's under a tornado warning (one of many) right now. Boyle and Lincoln have been hit over and over, and a new storm is on its way. At one point they told everyone at the Cincinnati Airport (which is in northern Kentucky) to head to the basement. One Kentuckian is dead, they're reporting, from Kenton county. They've reported everything from pea-sized to softball-sized hail throughout the state, and several tornadoes have been spotted. A tornado seems to have hit West Liberty, which had one just two days ago, causing extensive damage. In fact, the storms have tended to track very similar to the ones on Wednesday.

At one point we had a tornado warning here, and I went into the bathroom for its duration. The storm was travelling at 85 miles per hour. Really. Fortunately they seem to have passed for Lexington and to the north and west, but south and eastern Kentucky is still very much in danger. But I'm feeling a little more at ease here; there's even some clearing to the west--I can see blue sky as the sun sets. Good luck to those out there still dealing with the storms.

But before I go, a last bit of 'music'

'Is he died?'

Poor Beaker. I know what it's like, my man, yes I do.

I was listening to some music earlier

and had just about fallen asleep, I was so relaxed, when a friend called. I'd told him I'd been listening to Simon & Garfunkel and had almost drifted off. He said no wonder; it was like being given sodium pentathol. I've loved the duo since my childhood, but he doesn't care for them, obviously. For that matter, we don't always mesh when it comes to musical tastes (no sense that we should, as we're not clones) although we overlap on show tunes, classical music, traditional Celtic music, and a bit of country. We each have a wide range of taste. I like folk and oldies, 80s, modern rock, and alternative music. He likes all sorts of things from 'Sunshine Day' sung by the Brady Bunch (which I just can't get in to), some oldies (but he insists they shouldn't be called that if they're from his lifetime), but then things like The Black Crowes, (which I must admit are pretty cool, I just haven't heard them much), etc. I don't think you can pin him to genres, really. He tends to like songs from several, but just those songs, or some musicians, but not necessarily everything like them. I think it's good to not easily be pegged.

Anyway, so I really did drop off eventually, after we talked, but it was after 10 pm, so I think the change in schedule helped today. I'm up now just to take my medication, shut off the aquarium light, and generally prepare for bed. Good night.

Haunting and beautiful and creepy

all at once...



Okay, really, on to Harry Dresden and his lot.

I may be biting off more than I can chew

but I just downloaded another library book for the Kindle that I happened upon by accident, but which sounded intriguing. It's called The Metropolis Case, by Matthew Galloway. It takes place in America and in Europe, over three centuries, with four main characters united by Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde.

I know little of opera (although I knew someone in the opera programme at the University of Kentucky, and between him and another friend with good taste, I have been exposed to some). I am, of course, familiar with Wagner, although I have never heard this particular opera, which is perhaps sad, as of course I've read versions of the original tale. But apparently it's not a requirement to enjoy the book, and it does make me think I should broaden my horizons and see if I can find some decent clips on YouTube of performances.

It's just now dusk and I'm getting home about the time I have been--but...

before that I worked a full schedule at work, got off while it was still quite light outside, went to Parisa International Supermarket to look for something for a friend (and found it; they were very helpful), ate dinner, took the bus to the library, returned a book, checked for wi-fi-only updates for the tablet (there was one that popped up yesterday, but it's gone now), paid a small fine, checked out two seven-day videos (Back to the Future 2 and Monty Python's Life of Brian, both of which I enjoy), and checked out a book by Matthew Pearl called The Technologists. I had just read a review yesterday about it and it was on the new book shelf.

Today was busy at both jobs, and the day seemed to fly by. I don't feel as draggy as normal. Maybe I just need a regular workday to keep my Circadian rhythm happy. It's nice to see some sunshine that isn't just through a window. At least I have a window, even if it is at my back. Some people have little cubicles that have no natural light anywhere about.

It was a gorgeous day today, calm, sunny, in the 60s, and few clouds, which is kind of strange as it's sitting right between two days of tornadic storms. Wednesday we had a tornado warning at one point and there were several that touched down in the state. They're saying we may have really bad storms tomorrow. In fact they're saying our area has a 70% chance of tornadic activity within 50 miles. Fun. I have a feeling that I'm going to get wet tomorrow. Maybe I should put the electronics into those gallon-sized Zip-Lock bags I accidentally got before my trip, and then put them into my backpack.

Okay, I think I'm going to read a little Turn Coat (Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files). I only have it out for Kindle for a little while and I'm only about a third of the way through.

Nice to see someone promoting reading the books that inspire upcoming movies

N.b. to my arachnophobic readers--there is a mention of The Hobbit's giant spiders, but the video just shows cobwebs as near as I can see in the brief frame. I think you're safe to view.

Okay, my work schedule changes (about an hour and a half earlier) starting tomorrow, so it is now time to take my meds and go on to bed. Good night.

Mesmerising

Remember I posted at some point a shelf reorganisation done in stop-motion in someone's house? Well, they took it to another level, doing the same to a whole bookstore, Type, a bookseller in Toronto. It's really beautiful, and when I think of how much work it took, it makes my brain hurt. I think back to the comic store and how it might have come alive. Thanks to Jeannine Gluck for the link.

Then there are those of us who were on the cusp

WILL UNWOUND #681: “Stone Age Reference”

Will Manley, who sometimes gets librarians up in arms over various topics, but whom I've always enjoyed reading, wonders if those who learned their reference skills pre-Internet had to be essentially more creative than those who came after.

I was in the process. I graduated in 1993, and took a few classes afterwards. Until after graduation, I didn't have an Internet class. So my training involved, well, books mostly, plus proprietary databases that involved code-like search strategies, but on the other hand I was an early adopter of this whole World Wide Web thing (just like my first computer was a 1983 Atari 800XL, which I had part-way through graduate school. It was so primitive the word processor was on a ROM pack, but I loved that thing. Played a mean game of Joust, too.) I first saw the Web through the old Mozilla browser. It was pre-Google. My main search engine was Ask Jeeves back then, which was more fun than what's left of it now.

So anyway, maybe I got a little of the best of both worlds. When I started my job as a medical librarian fifteen years ago, we were still using Grateful Med, searching using that specialised language. Now there's PubMed, and you can still use subject headings and for the most part that specialised know-how to search the MEDLINE databases (there's a big thread on MEDLIB-L right now on trying to explain the difference between PubMed and MEDLINE, and I think those who did have to learn to do it the old-fashioned way grok that difference better, given their analogies).

I'm used to being on the cusp in a way. I'm an early Generation X-er (born 1967), that smaller generation between the Boomers and the Millennials, and I'm in a position now to be looking for a job as we (hopefully) start crawling out of the worst recession in my lifetime. I'm on a new cusp now, too, because much of the profession is nearing retirement age, and I'm discovering that I'm in a position to be, well, maybe one of the 'older' librarians soon, firmly in mid-career. It should be an interesting 20 years or so left, with the grace of the Gods, and I for one am looking at it in anticipation.

How does your generation and timing of how you learned about technology affect you? Are you readily able to accept technology? Can you do anything when the power goes out? :)

Looking at the Independent Publishers Group/Amazon standoff

From a couple of angles...

Amazon Ditches Entire Independent Publisher; Sci-Fi & Fantasy Writers of America Ditches Amazon

Dear Publishers: What Have You Done for Me Lately?

I had such a crush on him as a child

and now he's gone. RIP Davy Jones of the Monkees, who died today. He was 66 years old (a couple of years older than my parents, actually). There's a great tribute video set to 'Daydream Believer' that reminds me how much fun they had, and made, while making music and clowning around. I can't embed it, but you can watch it on YouTube.

Here's another (quick music trivia--can you spot the one picture of another singer who isn't Davy Jones?)


PS It's a picture of David Bowie (pouring a drink), whose real name is David Jones. The poster caught the mistake, from where they'd put in David Jones rather than Davy, after it was published.

I'm a sucker for banned books, the Lorax, and tote bags

Win an 'I read banned books' tote bag from the American Library Association's @yourlibrary website in honour of Dr Seuss' upcoming birthday and the release of the movie, The Lorax.

The Lorax is my favourite of Dr Seuss' books. 'I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.' :)

I hadn't really thought about going to the movie. Normally I'm sceptical about full-length films made from books you can read in 15 minutes, but it does look intriguing. It's from the makers of 'Despicable Me', which I really enjoyed. And the granny is played by Betty White. :)



The next movie I will probably go to is The Hunger Games, also out next month. In fact, I may have it be my birthday movie this year. I still have a free pass to the cinema from our employee appreciation gift from last year.

My

I came home this evening, took out my contacts, and immediately went to bed. That was six hours ago. Last night I didn't even get home until midnight, and went to bed around 2 am, and so I'd been working on a bit of a deficit. Today was very busy, and I started to work on my new duties a bit and at the same time tried to get caught up on my data entry from being off Friday afternoon for a doctor's appointment. I'm not on the new schedule quite yet (I need to talk with my boss who supervises me in the library job), but if all goes well, I can start that on Thursday.

It was in the 60s today. I didn't get a chance to go outside and enjoy any of it, but my allergies are definitely feeling the evidence of early spring. Right now I'm sneezing and my eyes are watering. I'm not sure what the cause is (I'm allergic to just about everything in the Bluegrass region, including bluegrass). I'd say trees are part of it; I start going every year when the maples bloom, although I'm not sure whether they're one of my allergens. But most deciduous trees came back on the report, if I recall. I've actually had to use an inhaler twice in the last few weeks--once after the spat with the dogs, and another time when I'd been cataloguing apparently somewhat dusty books that I'd removed from the shelf.

I got up and took my night meds, but I'm considering going on back to bed and getting up early in the morning and doing a little laundry. It may be the last chance I can do that without being in the wee hours of the night. Also, I need to stop by the bank. Again, once I'm working the new schedule, there's no way to do that during the week. It's a good thing they're open on Saturday mornings. :)

Happy real birthday to any of you who were born on February 29th, by the way. For everyone, how will you spend your extra day this year?

Okay, I'm going to head back to bed. I forwarded myself some library-related links today from some lists I'm on, and I'll try to blog about them tomorrow. Good night.

I fell asleep at my computer desk

and woke up to find a large ambulance with its lights on headed towards another apartment. Hope it's nothing serious.

Good night. Time to get my contacts out and really stretch out and sleep.

PS She loves sunbeams. :)

The funniest thing I saw all weekend

Since it is obvious that the puppy is going to be a chewer, three Nylabones were purchased, one for each dog. Upon being given a bone, the collie-shepherd dropped hers and went off to herd the others. The border collie-terrier took hers for awhile but quickly became bored. The puppy? The puppy collected every single one upon her blankie and then gnawed each in turn like she was playing some sort of strange doggie xylophone.

I didn't see it, but also, apparently, she's grown enough in a week that she can now stand up and look at the world outside, with which she is fascinated. She's also started actually barking at things, especially cranky cats who hiss at her when she wants to play.

So cute.

Excellent article about how ageing and dementia in prisons

The Vanishing Mind: Life, With Dementia

Dementia in prison is an underreported but fast-growing phenomenon, one that many prisons are desperately unprepared to handle. It is an unforeseen consequence of get-tough-on-crime policies — long sentences that have created a large population of aging prisoners. About 10 percent of the 1.6 million inmates in America’s prisons are serving life sentences; another 11 percent are serving over 20 years.

And more older people are being sent to prison. In 2010, 9,560 people 55 and older were sentenced, more than twice as many as in 1995. In that same period, inmates 55 and older almost quadrupled, to nearly 125,000, a Human Rights Watch report found.

While no one has counted cognitively impaired inmates, experts say that prisoners appear more prone to dementia than the general population because they often have more risk factors: limited education, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, depression, substance abuse, even head injuries from fights and other violence.

Many states consider over-50 prisoners elderly, saying they age up to 15 years faster.

Sad (and senseless)

Schoolgirls' fight ends in death, leaving haunting questions

It began with an incident that seemed relatively harmless, even timeless: Two little girls. An argument over a boy. An arrangement to meet after school. A pause, while a few friends gathered around and the girls put their hair up in buns. Then the fight. It lasted just a minute — two flurries of punches, a busted lip and separate paths home.

But six hours after Friday's fight in Long Beach, 10-year-old Joanna Ramos was dead.

Good for libraries (and library patrons)

Pottermore and OverDrive link on Potter library e-book distribution

Pottermore has entered into an exclusive worldwide e-book and digital audiobook distribution agreement with OverDrive for public and school libraries, with the e-book distributor to manage hosting and digital fulfillment for libraries for J K Rowling's Harry Potter series.

OverDrive director of marketing David Burleigh said the e-books and audiobooks are not yet available, though libraries and schools can pre-order them. The “go-live date” is to be announced, he said. Worldwide, the e-books will be available in ePub on PCs, Macs, Android devices, iPhones, iPads and Blackberries, plus reading devices including the Kindle and Nook, with Kindle support in the US only. The audiobooks will be available in MP3 format.

Sorry I haven't written

It was a very busy weekend, followed by work and heading back over to a friend's house tonight to help with something (three days in a row over there). So I haven't been home, and I was having trouble copying and pasting URLs into the post code on the tablet for links, which defeated the purpose of trying to blog about things I'd seen online.

Anyway, I'm back. Hope you had a good weekend.

Have you been watching the sky?

Planets Align Tonight: Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars & Moon To Appear

The waxing crescent moon, Jupiter, and Venus have been very close together the last few days and tonight lined up around sunset. Meanwhile, Mars was rising across the sky in the west. I've been keeping an eye on the sky, enjoying the show, and tonight was no exception.

The sad thing is there are many people who never bother to look up at the wonderful world above them.

When I was a girl

I loved horse stories, especially the Marguerite Henry books (my favourite was Black Gold) and Anna Sewell's Black Beauty. I went through a horsey-girly phase where I read about them, drew them obsessively, etc., etc. Despite the fact that my horsey-girly phase dimmed long ago, I'm severely allergic to horses, and to be honest, I'm a little bit afraid of their sheer size when I encounter them for real, even so, horse stories such as this still move me:

Burma's True Love: How a girl lost — and found — the horse she cherished

It has all the plot twists of an excellent horse book or movie, and, thankfully, a happy ending. I had never heard of the practice of using mares to test stallions undergoing quarantine for contagious equine metritis, and the process and what it does to their bodies seems horrible. They were used up and thrown away to slaughter by people who did not really love them. I'm so glad that this horse and her companion were rescued, and that a girl and her horse were reunited.

I think the touchy stomach is from my new meds

Because I took my meds a little while ago and I've started having mild nausea and very little warning in certain other gastroenteric areas. I started having problems once I started the new medicines. I ate something light with it right afterward, but I don't know if it will help. So far the effects have been relatively minor; I'm not acting like I have a stomach bug or anything like that. Actually, I looked things up and two of the drugs I just went on can cause problems, so I think the mystery is solved. Hopefully that will ease.

I've gotten up and ready, paid my cell phone and electric bills, and am waiting till it's time to catch the bus. I'm going to make a very quick trip to the grocery, just to get a couple of things, and then head over to a friend's house. It is much colder today than it has been and they're still saying the wind will be bad, although it doesn't seem to be blowing that hard right now. But, it's kind of hard to tell from my living room; the wind tends to be blocked somewhat by the apartment buildings in the complex and then once I get out on the street I freeze.

I feel hung over

I ate a really large meal, and then I went to sleep. Four hours later, my blood sugar is through the roof, I'm very thirsty (I'm drinking some cold water now, and I've put more ice cubes trays in the freezer for later), my eyes are a bit blurry, and that was well, just stupid. I really do know better. I've taken my Lantus for the night, but that's a long-acting insulin. In the meantime, I'm bumping into just about every surface of my house because I'm not judging distance well and am clumsier than normal (which means I should probably go back to bed or I might break a leg; I'm clumsy enough normally). :(

Interesting article on the aging of the eyes, artificial light, and the circadian rhythm

Aging of Eyes Is Blamed for Range of Health Woes

The wind is cutting outside

making it seem much colder than the 39 degrees it said on the weather. I walked home from the ophthalmologist, my eyes bleary and dilated, and was quite happy to get inside. At least there isn't snow like in Chicago, but still...it was over 60 degrees yesterday.

I spent most of the morning feeling run-down and tired, although I perked up when I went to a meeting. The library was just so quiet, you would think that I could have maintained some sort of focus, but that wasn't the case, although I managed to get a few things done. By 2:15 I was leaving for the doctor's office, and it turned out a co-worker was leaving too, so she gave me a ride.

I spent a couple of hours at the ophthalmologist's, waiting to be called, then getting my vitals and history, then going back to the waiting area, then getting my eyes numbed and my pressure checked, followed by dilation and returning to the waiting area, then getting my optic nerve looked at, then waiting, then finally getting the good news that there is no sign of diabetes in my eyes, nor has the pressure reached a point where we have to do anything more than continuing semi-annual visits. Yay. My great-grandmother, who was also diabetic, lost much of her sight as a result of the disease, and I don't want to have a similar problem.

After the visit, I talked briefly with a friend on the phone and made plans for tomorrow, then headed to the still-open (I'd thought it had already closed) library for a very quick wi-fi connexion to download a couple of updates on the tablet. I scanned the new books briefly and then headed out into the wind, finally getting home and, having not eaten since 11:30, scrounged for some food. So you would think I would go straight to bed, but I'm not exactly sleepy, just tired. I should check and see if 'Grimm' or 'Supernatural' are on tonight. But I don't know if I can hold out till then.

A nice profile

of Abby Marlatt, an activist whom I met through the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lexington and really respected. She passed away in 2010, but had a remarkable life of service and pacifism, supporting peace and racial equality before it became fashionable.

I updated my emergency medical info

1) on the USB drive I carry on my key chain
2) with Medic Alert
3) in an 'In Case of Emergency' (ICE) application on my phone
4) in the same application on my tablet

So I should be good to go if I'm in an accident or the like. The application was rather buggy. It wouldn't save edits, and on the tablet the letters were there, but in white on white, so I couldn't even see to edit. So I removed that section and started over. Then I realised I'd forgotten the foot pain med on the phone and had to do it again.

Oh, well. It is now time to get ready for work. Have a wonderful Friday.

Bleh

I didn't get much sleep last night. First of all, go me, I didn't fall asleep at something like 8 or 9 pm. I had just crawled in bed when a friend called (he has a talent for sensing when I do so) and we talked for awhile. Then, I decided to read Turn Coat, one of the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher, which I had out from the library, but which was due today. So after nine chapters of being sucked in (and reading on the tablet, not the Kindle, for a change), I returned the book and re-checked it out so that I could finish it this time.

About then the storms rolled in. They weren't particularly violent where I was, but the electricity was flickering, my surge protector/battery backup shut down the computer to be safe, and I didn't feel comfortable going to bed and charging all the devices while I slept.

I went to bed for a little while, got up at 11:30 pm, took my medicine for my feet. Then I played with the tablet for awhile, took my insulin around 1 am, and fell back asleep. At 3 am I got up because my stomach was being touchy, and it was finally past storm time and I felt comfortable plugging everything in. But I was having trouble sleeping. I checked out the new free Amazon application of the day, and it was a shoot-'em-up, and I wasn't so sure about getting that, but I found a noise machine/sleep helper instead and downloaded that. It lets you layer up to three sounds. I discovered birds and crickets just keep me awake, but a babbling brook, rain, and thunder helped. So even though the storms were gone, I slept to thunder, amazing for someone who used to have brontophobia.

So I finally fell asleep about 4-something. And then my alarms started at 6:30. Oddly enough, one of my alarms, which gently wakes you with noises and then has you solve a short puzzle, doesn't have birds as a separate sound, but it's included in a 'row boat', with lapping water, so I changed it to that.

So I've checked my blood sugar, eaten, taken my medicine, and I'm putting some stuff over from a CD set to my tablet. I had it partly done, because at some point I'd chosen certain songs, but the third disc was missing (it's a Simon & Garfunkel collection). So I found that disc and now I've got all the songs, not just my favourites. I've also put some documents on the tablet for easy access, such as my living will/medical info, résumé, etc. I have an application where I can easily view and edit files like that. These are on a USB drive I have on my key chain, but it was falling off a bit ago and they do have a finite life. So I thought I should have backup, both on the computer and tablet. I also fixed the backup snafu that meant my external hard drive was almost out of room.

I'm almost tempted to see if I could go back to sleep for an hour. My stomach's still a bit touchy and I don't want to get moving just yet. But I should probably stay up, and just get ready. The good thing is even without sleep, I'm not having trouble getting up early, which will be good for the new schedule. And even with the lack of sleep, I'm glad I didn't go to bed too early.

Quote of the day

Fantine, Eponine: 'Take my love, for love is everlasting.'
Fantine, Eponine, and Jean Valjean: 'And remember the truth that once was spoken: to love another person is to see the face of God.'

(From the musical Les Misérables, which I listened to (and mouthed to words to and once everyone left the library, sang loudly with) at work tonight. Although those lines belong to the musical, there are some lovely quotes by by Victor Hugo, author of the book, including on the subject of love, at the Good Reads Victor Hugo Quotes page) [although be careful; the second line above appears on the page as a quote from Hugo, when I cannot find it in the text]. But others are quite legitimate. For example, this one:

“Love is like a tree: it grows by itself, roots itself deeply in our being and continues to flourish over a heart in ruin. The inexplicable fact is that the blinder it is, the more tenacious it is. It is never stronger than when it is completely unreasonable.”― Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris, or The Hunchback of Notre-Dame [This quote is verifiably in Chapter IV.]