How timely

Given my last post on the collapse of unstructured time and the rabbit-hole, time-sucking danger of context switching. I just got this notice about a book I've had on hold at the Lexington Public Library for some time.

This saddens me so much

Yet I'm guilty of it, too. But I treasure moments like thinking while watching sparrows flitting between branches of bushes when I wait for a bus.  That sort of thinking. It is absolutely useful time.

I need to be off my phone and computer more. Today I've mainly just checked my bank balance, my email, and applied for two jobs at UK so I can put them in for unemployment. But yes, I think my roommate has the right of it. He only has a landline, no cell phone, not just not a smart phone, no cell phone at all. I wouldn't want to be cut off completely, but I need to cut back some.  I was at a grant writing workshop on Thursday after a job interview and we discussed context switching and how much time is wasted with it, and phones are so much a part of that.

Have you seen this?

 

Every night we watch a series, usually two hours' worth at dinner, except on Fridays, where there's conversation.  Recently, we've been making our way through 'Sleepy Hollow', which is an excellent blend of mystery, suspense, the supernatural, and history. I highly recommend it. The only detail so far that either of us has had an issue with? In the Book of Revelation, it is the lamb who says 'Come and see'. See, very minor in a world where you have an impending Apocalypse, headless horsemen, witches, a shadow Revolutionary War, and the solution to the mystery of the Roanoke Colony's disappearance--all in one. It's very different from Washington Irving's tale (although Orlando Bloom's character's surname is a nod to him). It's on Netflix right now. I'd definitely suggest watching if you like this sort of drama.

This is stunning

23,000-Square-Foot Clasping Arms Celebrate Community Resilience in Minneapolis

Across an expansive lawn at Minneapolis’ Boom Island Park earlier this month, Franco-Swiss artist Saype painted a monumental public artwork directly onto the grass. Part of his Beyond Walls series, which has so far seen 22 iterations around the world, the piece marked the first time the project appeared in the U.S.

Image Credit: Saype

Prints can be purchased at Saype's website to support future work. Isn't it amazing? It's made from a special biodegradable medium that will slowly fade as the grass is mowed.

I am really good

at predicting the next step or ending in a TV series or movie (particularly solving murder mysteries), not by deductive reasoning, but because you can figure out what puzzle piece is missing that will make the story work. For example, last night I was watching where the housemaid was curious as to where the young male servant was going off to with flowers, so she followed him, thinking it was to a sweetheart, but I instantly knew it was to a cemetery to the grave of his mother. And I was right. My friend, who's very good with deductive logic, hadn't expected it, and he said, 'But they weren't funereal flowers'. I said you only use those at a funeral. People bring all sorts of flowers to graves, even gay ones. So how did I know? The story needed to be that way, simple as that, to be a good story. And when I'm wrong--it's not as good as it could be.

I sometimes wonder if it means I really should try to write myself, if there's a writer somewhere in there, and maybe I would be good at creating plots after all.

So we don't have HBO, and we wanted to watch 'The Gilded Age',

 and Lexington Public Library only has Season Three, inexplicably. Two copies.

In case you didn't know, anyone in a contiguous county (including Fayette) can get a library card at the Jessamine County Public Library and have full borrowing rights if they're an adult. Unlike the Lexington Public Library, they still have physical CDs, older books in series, Hoopla, and Freegal music, which I miss. It fills in some of the gaps. They're at 600 South Main Street in Nicholasville, so not far away, and they also have a studio and a Library of Things, where you can check out practical things like birding backpacks and telescopes. All you need is an ID with your address on it. Their website with full details is: https://jesspublib.org/

The library, as you exit

I also found the first book in the Amelia Peabody mystery series, which I dearly love. So, unlike LPL, they keep older books in series. We've had to request books from interlibrary loan because LPL no longer has the earlier books for the series we want to get into.

Also, JCPL has access to Freegal Music, which LPL used to have. You can download a limited number of songs a week to keep.  For as long as you want. Period. I managed to get several albums that way when I used it before. So that is nice.

                                                  I'm also really excited because they have Hoopla, which allows you to check out five items per month--books, audiobooks, movies, or TV series. I plan on checking out Life is Beautiful, a 1997 movie that is very highly acclaimed that will apparently make me cry, and the dramatised audio version of Crocodile on the Sandbank once I am finished re-reading the book.

Also, some time ago, LPS got rid of all their CDs, and they had some Shinedown ones I got to listen to. I know, I can stream them. It's not quite the same. 😊 So between the two libraries, a lot of service gaps get filled.

The library card is kind of spiffy

'The Gilded Age' Season 1
 (written by the same person who
 wrote for 'Downton Abbey'

My favourite mystery series, first book

Gorgeous

Okay, it's not at the beach, or even a field, it's a parking lot, but this was my view of the sky at sunset last night when I walked out of the Chinoe Kroger here in Lexington yesterday evening. Beautiful, isn't it?