This was sweet...

Swedish Library Forgot to Close Its Doors and Something Beautiful Happened: They say a reader does not steal and a thief does not read. In the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, that's definitely true.

It was All Saints' Day, a national holiday, and the library traffic was light, but still well-used.

Unbeknownst to the staff, a door had been left unlocked the previous evening. Throughout the day, 446 visitors entered the library, unaware it was officially closed. Families gathered in the children’s section, individuals browsed the shelves, and others perused newspapers—all behaving as they would on any regular day. Some patrons even borrowed books using the self-service system. By day’s end, 246 books had been checked out, and remarkably, every single one was returned on time.

Third try was not the charm ☹️

Well, I tried again. I went to the Kentucky Blood Center for the third time this month after being deferred twice for low iron. Hemoglobin on the first stick (right finger) was only 11.9, but she really had to squeeze to get it out, so it may have skewed the results. Left finger on second try was 14.2 so yay!!!!

Unfortunately, the stick didn't get the vein well, and even with adjustments from another phlebotomist, the little tiny bag wasn't filling up fast enough, so they had to abort, and it left a bruise. I can come back and donate after my hematoma has healed, they said.

Sigh. I did get another $20 gift card to Amazon, though. But I did want to donate. The stars are not aligning. I haven't had this much trouble in about 25 years.

I made it, or, two more books and a challenge completed!

Granted, they were both short, but still...

#24 Food Journal Magic: A Daily Food and Fitness Diary to Create Lasting Weight Loss That Stays Off Without a Diet by Alegra Loewenstein

This is not actually a food journal, but how to set up one and what to include, and how best to execute it. I was a little disappointed for that reason. I was able to find a food journal that allows me to write directly on it for the Kindle Scribe, which, of course, I am not including in the reading challenge, though. That is: Food Journal and Weight Tracker by No Yellow Snow Media, and it allows you to export the data via email so you can just erase the information and reuse the pages as needed.

THIS BOOK COMPLETED THE Goodreads 2026 READING CHALLENGE!!!!!

# 25 My Novel Work Book: A step by step guide for novice writers by Roger Alderman

This one basically shows you how to outline a novel in 12 chapters using classical format along the lines of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey. Some spelling errors could have used an editor's eye (it's self-published), but otherwise, the book is adequate. It got me thinking. I have wanted to be an author since I was a child. Granted, I've published over 30 pieces of writing, from book chapters, book reviews, articles, etc., and I mean went-through-a-committee-and-editor published in a book or journal, but I never feel like a published author. I would like to write a novel. Not the Great American novel, but still. Something people would enjoy reading. Seeing my name in print, or at least in digital form. 😉

Interesting

A Crisis in the Humanities: The norms governing scholarship now often serve to protect a rigid orthodoxy on certain politically charged issues—with ideological tests substituted for proper academic standards

We begin from what ought to be a platitude: The humanities and the social sciences are academic disciplines aimed at understanding the human world and the larger reality of which it is a part. There is room for debate about what it means to “understand” a historical episode, or a literary text, or a social phenomenon. But it should not be controversial that, like all academic research, scholarship in these disciplines is in the business of asking questions; that these questions have answers (when they are well-posed); that these answers are not simply evident and can therefore only be arrived at indirectly, by appeal to evidence and argument; and that it is the role of academic disciplines to cultivate methods for collecting the evidence relevant to their questions and for assessing scholarly proposals on the basis of it.

Two new shirts

from the American Library Association, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary, so these are vintage designs they've brought back from the past.

 

I knew about this already, but I find it fascinating

A hairstylist with no archaeology degree solved an ancient Roman mystery scholars got wrong for centuries

She spent years recreating elaborate Roman hairstyles and discovered they were far more ingenious than scholars had realized

For centuries, scholars believed that the intricately braided, gravity-defying updos synonymous with Roman hairstyling were achieved with wigs. Then a professional hairdresser turned bona fide “hair archaeology” specialist proved them wrong.

Wow. I did not know this, and I've kept up with Voyager a bit since I watched it launch as a child...

Voyager 1 has no engine running. The 38,000-mile-per-hour speed it has held since its Saturn flyby in 1980 is borrowed momentum from planets it grazed more than four decades ago, and that free ride carries it to one light-day from Earth this November

The probe is moving because it was launched onto a carefully chosen path and then reshaped by planetary gravity. Its present outward motion is mostly the inheritance of encounters that happened when the spacecraft was still young: Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1980, and the rare alignment of the outer planets that made the Voyager mission possible in the first place.

Not to be the parking police, but...

Okay, I'll admit it. This infuriated me. This is not how you park in handicapped parking, even if you do have a placard. Also, they have an 'Honour nurses' licence plate, but apparently have no regard for anyone with a disability who might need the blue-lined space to get out with a wheelchair ramp. I did report it to Chinoe Kroger, but I think the guy getting the carts just was like, yeah, it's horrible, but didn't say anything to anyone or maybe page anyone to freaking move their vehicle.

So frustrating

So I checked the blood supply at the Kentucky Blood Center and O blood is in low supply (both + and -). I really am trying. I've been deferred twice this month for low iron. I got some vitamin C to take with my iron tablets (I have been taking those for years) because that's supposed to help the iron absorb, and I just went to the store and got some things they suggested to eat, including garbanzo beans and pumpkin seeds for our nightly salad, and generic V8 juice that includes beets. We'll see. I can donate three days from yesterday, but I'll wait a few more and try to build up some more. But for you all, who, like me, are type O and who normally donate (or would like to try), they really could use some. O blood can be given to any blood type. O- can be given to anyone [and is therefore the person is called a universal donor]. O+, like mine, can be given to any blood type which is also +. So it's really useful. Anyway, here's the graphic...

My last donation was my 9th gallon. I've been donating since I was in college, at age 17 (full disclosure, at that time you had to have permission from your parent--you can donate now at that age without it--and I had it, verbally, but I didn't have a note, and it's the first and only time in my life I forged my mother's signature on something. But let me reiterate: I was living on my own in a dorm, making many decisions on my own, and I did have her permission.)

I obviously haven't donated as much as I could have. I've gone years without donating. But I did donate when 9/11 happened, and I donated the day after COVID was announced in Kentucky, because I didn't think people would, and just started donating regularly after that. It's how I know I didn't get the virus during the actual pandemic, because they were testing for antibodies. I've had it once, only after it went endemic, and it was just like a bad flu and no worse, thankfully. So I went from about 7 gallons to 9 pretty quickly. I donate about every 2-3 months now. Which may be why my iron's low; I don't know. Anyway, I'm going to try again in a few days.

Why I'm going to delete Dropbox

I reached out to Dropbox via the only contact form I found, which was for reporting issues. It turned out to be an abuse reporting form, so I kind of get why they closed the ticket, but they didn't actually give me any information for contacting anyone other than perusing forums or FAQs, which wouldn't have answered my particular question. I'm just going to delete the whole thing. I deleted files because Dropbox kept sending me emails going 'You're at your max and can't backup anything, upgrade to more storage space or delete files now'. Then I deleted EVERYTHING, including their sample pictures, and permanently deleted the deleted files, yet still had over half of my storage listed as full, with no single file of my own and no explanation. I have a terabyte of storage with OneDrive due to my Microsoft Office 365 subscription that I don't even begin to fill. I don't need Dropbox. I'm going to, indeed, drop it.  And he did give me the links to cancel it, at least.

Reede, Jul 16, 2026, 1:57 PM PDT:

Hi Elisabeth,

Thanks for reaching out to Dropbox support.
 
Your support options depend on what kind of account you have. To see the support options for your account, sign in and go to https://dropbox.com/support. Your query today can be supported by our help center, chatbot, or our community; this ticket will be closed now.
 
You can find our help center at https://help.dropbox.com/learn/faqs which has the most up-to-date FAQs, how-to articles, and more. You can also reach out to our Dropbox community at https://www.dropboxforum.com where you can receive answers and discover new ways to use Dropbox.
 
Regards,
Reede
 
Are you having issues signing into your account? Try our sign-in FAQs at https://rb.gy/t0tgsz
Are you interested in sharing feedback? Try our ideation board at https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Share-an-idea/ct-p/101002000
Do you have a "Payments" or "Billing" question? Try our Payments FAQs at https://rb.gy/aeuqml
Do you think that you want to cancel or do you have a cancellation question? Try our Cancellations FAQs at https://rb.gy/r22oly
Do you have a Security or Privacy question? Try our Security FAQs at https://rb.gy/no4ty6
 

---

Elisabeth Rowan, Jul 16, 2026, 8:30 AM PDT:

Explanation: I do not understand why my Dropbox is showing that I have 4.11 GB of used storage out of 7.25 GB when I have deleted every single one of my files permanently, including the sample photo folder. If this is not a glitch, and Dropbox is literally padding over half of my storage with other files, I see no reason not to just delete it, as I have a terabyte of storage included with my Office 365 subscription that more than suits my needs. Can you explain this discrepancy? I have a screenshot if that will help.

 

Said screenshot [not sent to them, there was nowhere to include it]:

Random things this morning

1. When you forget to take the trash bins to the kerb the night before, and the city is starting early due to the heat, it behoves you to get up at 5:00 AM to take the trash out and roll all three (trash, recycling, and yard waste, when in Lexington, have names, in order: Herbie, Rosiek and Lenny (for Lend a Hand). This is a somewhat perilous process in the dark, without anyone's knowledge, as you are also a klutz and liable to fall. But all went well. Still, at that point, you might as well stay up.
2. I have very short hair, but I have kept all my hair ties because they are extremely useful. I mainly use them to wrangle charging cords.  However, just now, I dealt with a sagging lumbar pillow that I have to adjust every single time I sit in the chair because the strap is stretched out by pulling it back and securing it with a hair tie. We'll see how it goes, but for now, it's at the perfect height for my back.
3. So far, I have used my extra time filing papers, mainly all the information the government sends me regarding my benefits. I know they're mostly duplicates of the notices they put on the portal, but still, some part of me thinks I should keep them. I also just had to change an asthma preventative inhaler that I've taken nightly for at least a decade (Breo Ellipta) because it's not covered by Medicaid. They cover Advair Diskus. Hopefully it will work as well. The pharmacist who works with my doctor helpfully advised me that the dosing is twice a day, though, so that was nice.  I spent 29 years with the same commercial medical insurance (UnitedHealthcare) when I was at Shriners. I knew my benefits intimately, and it was extremely good insurance: $150 deductible/$1500 out-of-pocket. Even though it was an HMO, it didn't require referrals as long as someone was in-network, and I never had issues with anyone being out-of-network in all that time. Since I've left, I've been covered by two Medicaid managed care organisations (Aetna Better Health of Kentucky and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Kentucky), both of which use MedImpact for medications (all of them do, at least for our state) and then for two months I was on a assisted qualified health plan from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield where the state paid about $900 and I paid $500 for a $400-$500 deductible plan (medicine did not count like it did for my commercial plan, so I never hit it like I thought I would, or I would have gone for something cheaper, although medications were probably cheaper, and the first month of the doctors' visits were cheaper; the second month everything went up, including the premium, due to me pulling some retirement income out--to pay for the premiums and medical bills. It's been very hard to navigate all the changes. I'm highly literate, great with technology, and having been to university, an expert at red tape and bureaucracy (I always said I majored in red tape and minored in line waiting at the University of Kentucky); I  can't imagine how difficult it would be for someone without those advantages.
4. Today's agenda is fairly simple:
1. Work on as many chapters as I can, proofreading a talking book for the Kentucky Talking Book Library. I am woefully behind. I got chapter 3 done yesterday, which I was sent in April.  I got the whole book yesterday...fifteen chapters to go.  Life just has gotten in the way, and I should just buckle down now and get as much as I can get done while I'm off.
2. We need to put a large shop fan together to get some air moving in the house. It's a little oppressive out there, where the central heating went out last year. I am the only one with air conditioning in my room, and there have been other barriers to putting it in the rest of the house, so we've been relying on different types of fans and using my room as a cooling area for everyone occasionally.
3. I need to pick up some medicine at the UK pharmacy today.
4. My roommate's going over to friends' tonight, so it'll give me some chance to work on the book more. It's a true-crime murder mystery from the 1890s in northern Kentucky, so it's been pretty interesting, both from an historical and story point of view. 

Those are about all I can think of for now. That's a little rambling, I know. I'm just waking up, with no caffeine (I only drink soda on weekends, and I'm not a fan of coffee or tea; what can I say? It's terrible, I'm such an Anglophile and I hate tea.)

Going for a Walk

I last saw my weight loss doctor [who is also my PCP, but we do the appointments separately; in-person for general visits and telehealth (normally) for weight loss--she's an internist, but she was my weight loss MD first before I asked her to be my PCP when mine retired after I'd gone to him for 20 years] about three weeks ago. I'd gained about 15 lbs. since last December, mainly, I think, from going back to Ozempic, which doesn't work as well for me as Mounjaro (due to insurance--neither Medicaid nor the qualified assisted Anthem health plan I had in May and June covered the latter), and 2) I went through a period where I was overeating and eating a lot of calorie-laden food after I left Shriners and especially while my roommate was out of state for three weeks.

I've been much better with my eating for the last month/month and a half, but my weight hasn't budged a bit. Part of it is water weight--I just blow up ankle-wise in the summer, and while compression hose help, I can't go up on my diuretic because it was what was making me so dizzy a couple of years ago, so they cut it back. So about 5-7 lbs is water weight, because when we had a cool spell, I suddenly lost some. I had, at one point, been 328 lbs and had lost down to 208 lbs. I'm about 223 lbs now.

Sigh. So until (and if) I get insurance that pays for Mounjaro (or unless it goes to generic early--apparently that is being petitioned as the patent expires overseas first, even though it doesn't here for several years), we decided I would try to walk about three times a week, starting for about 10 minutes a day. I promised to do it the next day and did, but then the heat wave of doom came, so I didn't.

Today, it's supposed to get to 90°F, but it was only 76°F about noon, so I decided to put on some sunscreen and a floppy sun hat (since it is also very sunny and nice outside) and go up the street and back. There is an incline at either end. The close-up is me before I went for a walk. The other is me after. It took about 15 minutes to do the circuit. It's a small step, but it's a start. With the inclines, it's a fair little walk. Next time, I should actually bring my inhaler. It did hurt my back a little, but it should be better in the long run. The knees did pretty well, though. The key will be doing this and doing more activity.

Of course, since I got back, I've been helping my friend do some things around the house that apparently, despite normally being fairly minor, wiped both of us out, and I just woke up from a 2-hour nap, and he's still asleep. So I did more activity and kept on going, then my little windup key just wound down entirely. We have to put a fan together later (I'm talking one of those big shop fans) for his bedroom, so it's good I got some rest. It wasn't hard to put the other one together, but there was lots of bending, and if I remember, my back was not happy, even though he had to hold the fan part because it's so heavy while I dealt with all the screws because I'm the mechanically inclined one. 🙂

I know, it's a silly hat. I've got one in purple, too, though. They're good against the sun.

How do you like my 'Censorship is so 1984' shirt from the ALA? It's new. Also, look how tall my tomato plant is!

Statement of the AHA and encouraging historians to comment by today

AHA Submits Comment Seeking to Prevent Politicization of Federal Grantmaking

The AHA submitted a comment to the Federal Register stating our opposition to a rule proposed by the Office of Management and Budget that would give political appointees final approval over all federal grants. The AHA urged historians to submit their own comments by July 13.

I pulled a lot of old files off of Dropbox today

Frankly, I got tired of them annoying me with the 'you're out of space, upgrade' messages when I have a terabyte of OneDrive storage with my Microsoft 365 subscription that more than meets my needs. So I pulled almost all of it off, even deleted the deleted files permanently, leaving one several-kilobyte-not-megabyte-big file, and it's still saying over half my 7.25 GB storage is taken up. 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, I found this...one of the early designs for this blog had this logo I designed using a superhero-generator tool I don't remember the name of and am not sure even exists today. I do not have an inner dominatrix, I promise. I just liked the costume, although of course Edna Mode would say, 'No capes!'

#23 of 24

I am, by the way, on Bluesky. I got on it back when it was invitation-only in 2024, I think (hence the simple handle, just like I had on Twitter). I hadn't used it hardly at all, though. I'd like to, though, as I deleted X (Twitter) last year and Bluesky is better than Threads in some respects. So I read this book. I'm just starting out, though. If you're interested in following me, or if you'd like me to follow you, I'm at: https://bsky.app/profile/eilir.bsky.social.

Two more

22 out of the total of 24, 10 books ahead for the year. It helps to be unemployed.

Wonderful

Nearly a millennium ago sky-watchers recorded a new star so bright it was visible in daylight for weeks, and Hubble has now traced how far its remnant, the Crab Nebula, has expanded since — a thousand-year-old explosion still visibly unfolding

In July 1054, court astronomers in China recorded a new "guest star" near Tianguan, the star we now call Zeta Tauri.

Hubble Space Telescope mosaic image of the Crab Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University).

 

I didn't know this part - it makes it even sadder

Woman, 78, Last Polio Survivor Living In Iron Lung, Passes Away After Machine Becomes Too Old To Repair

This was on top of the post-polio syndrome and long Covid issues she was already dealing with. 😢

My sincerest condolences to her loved ones.

 

Her last interview:

Anticipation

Everything is happily staked now. The Kellogg's Breakfast tomato is taller than I am, with the pot.

Kellogg's Breakfast Tomatoes getting bigger

Jalopeños almost ready to pick

Carmen Sweet Italian peppers
They are red at maturity but sweet green, too.

Indigo Cherry Drops fruit heavy on the vine, just needing to ripen

 

Eureka!!! A memory from long ago...

So I saw this on Facebook Marketplace, and it jogged my memory. These were the primers we found up in the attic that I taught myself to read at age three from (obviously from the lower grades). I'd forgotten what they were called, just that they predated the Dick and Jane books. 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, per the National Park Service. They're still popular in homeschooling, because their stories are drawn from the Bible (and other classical sources), often with morals. Bringing the third-grade reader to show-and-tell and reading from it in first grade is what got me skipped up a grade (they wanted to skip me up two; thankfully, my mom said no, one was enough of a challenge, being the youngest kid in class. Just because you're gifted doesn't mean you're good at everything. They were practically trying to teach me to multiply before I had addition down. Cool to see these, though.

[UPDATE: Every single one of them (The McGuffey's Eclectic Primer through the Sixth Eclectic Reader, plus the Eclectic Spelling Book) is available in .EPUB and other formats on Project Gutenberg, meaning they can be sent to a Kindle or be read on a Nook or Kobo. I just sent them to my Kindle Scribe. There is much happiness here now. You can find them here. All but the 2nd and 5th readers are also in .PDF (not sure why they're not), so they can be printed.]

 

I adore pop-up books

I would love to see this in person.

A giant pop-up book unfolds at LA’s Central Library

A pop-up book that’s seeking to break the world record for size has unfolded at the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles.

The art piece is 31 feet wide, more than 11 feet tall, and weighs in at 1,800 pounds.

Luceros y Penumbras, which roughly translates to “starlight and shadows,” is rooted in L.A. artist Daniel González’s experience visiting the library and his family in Mexico as a child.

Here is the site for the actual exhibition: Luceros y Penumbras from the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.

Worrisome

Reading for pleasure builds empathy in children, but fewer kids are picking up books just for the fun of it

Reading allows children to live in a vibrant world, surrounded by fairies, elves and talking animals, transporting them to places where the impossible becomes real. But reading for pleasure also helps children learn more effectively and broadens how they view, interpret and interact with the world. It gives them a form of expression that fuels their imagination and empathy for themselves and others.

But the percentage of children who read for fun is declining.

Just 37% of 9-year-olds and 14% of 13-year-olds read for fun almost every day in 2025, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. By middle school, just 1 in 7 kids say they read for pleasure each day.

#20 of goal of 24 for 2026

Cody Cook-Parrot. The Practice of Attention: Cultivating Presence in a Distracted World. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2026. 239 pp. I actually didn't get a chance to pick it up to read till today, but finished in one sitting.  Not the best  I've read, not the worst; I'd say the Goodreads rating is about on par.

. 

To be honest

Getting the cat out of the tree would be the harder test [with greater injury].

©Hot Paper Comics

Trying to garden again

With some success.

On May 14th, I went to the public library's Northside Branch for the Master Gardeners' plant giveaway and informational session, and they gave me four plants: a Carmen sweet Italian pepper, a Craig's Grande jalopeño heirloom pepper, a Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato, and an Indigo Cherry Drops Tomato. I planted them in some containers that hadn't had anything in years except decaying leaves and some earthworms, hoping they'd do well, knowing I'd have to water and fertilise. Thanks to Mother Nature, I haven't actually had to water more than a couple of times, even during a drought, as the leaves kept the soil moist and we've had quite a bit of rain since it got very hot. I did have something get the first couple of cherry tomatoes, and nothing has actually ripened yet. I have a very long Carmen pepper that I'm considering taking green rather than red, as they're still sweet. We'll see. I need to tie the Indigo Cherry to the stakes better, as it's starting to fall over; it has so much fruit on it, and I'm afraid it'll break. Here it is in pictures:

First day, just arrived

Just planted

Jalopeño Pepper, Carmen pepper, then Indigo Cherry on the right, with a bell pepper, anise hyssop, and rosemary behind

Fourth of July with the Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato in the front

And just a few days make a difference. Here was July 9th from the car once I parked in the driveway:

(Sorry, it's behind auto glass, so it's a little cloudy.)

I'm hoping I can beat the squirrels to the tomatoes.  That's been a problem in the past. We'll see.

What kind of world are we even living in?

Man in wheelchair recovering after Molotov cocktail attack near Oklahoma City police station

What possesses someone to go up to a homeless man in a wheelchair who is minding his own business, light a Molotov cocktail, throw it at him, and then, when he rolls forward to escape the inferno you created, you push him back into the flames? This happened the other day in Oklahoma City. Fortunately, it was near a police station and passersby, including officers, rushed to his aid and subdued the suspect, who has a long rap sheet.

2026 Reading Challenge Update

I'm pretty happy with how things are going. My aim was to read 24 books this year. I've read 19; I'm seven ahead of schedule, and I'm working on another three or so. I've read each month, so Goodreads has given me an 'achievement' bookmark for each one. There are 174 days left. Here is what I've read so far, in reverse order:

1. Supervisor, Manager, Leader: The Basics of Being a Boss by Mike Kraus
2. Knock 'Em Dead 2016: The Ultimate Job Search Guide by Martin Yate
3. 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions by Ron Fry
4. Can I Recycle That? A Guide to Better Recycling and How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics by Jennie Romer
5. The Inspired Houseplant: Transform Your Home with Indoor Plants from Kokedama to Terrariums and Water Gardens to Edibles by Jen Sterarns
6. House Plants for Every Space: A Concise Guide to Selecting, Designing and Maintaining Plants in Any Indoor Space by Green Interior
7. The Lifelong Gardener: Garden with Ease and Joy at Any Age by Toni Gattone
8. The Official We Do Not Care Club Handbook by Melani Sanders
9. Painting in Watercolour: Practical Techniques and Projects for Beginners by Wendy Jelbert
10. All These Ghosts by Silas House
11. I Need a Job!: Be Noticed. Land the Interview. Get Hired. by Gary Burnison
12. CV Handbook: A Curriculum Vitae Owners Manual by Will Coghill Behrends and Rebecca Antony
13. The Everything Guide to GLP-1s: Lose Weight, Build Healthy Eating Habits, and Achieve Lifelong Weight Management by Kayley George
14. What Color is Your Parachute Guide to Rethinking Interviews: Ace the Interview and Land Your Dream Job by Richard Nelseon Bolles
15. A Good Apology: Four Steps to Make Things Right by Molly Howes
16. On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
17. Why Your Resume Isn't Working: And How You Can Fix It Now by Wendy D. Steele
18. Unmasking Adult Autism: Embrace Your Autistic Identity, Overcome Executive Dysfunction, and Empower Your Neurodivergent Self by Neuro Nurture
19. Camouflage: The Hidden Lives of Autistic Women by Sarah Bargiela

Five more to go. Let's see if I can go beyond that. Hopefully! I've got two works of fiction I'm working my way through (these are almost all non-fiction). One is The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown. The other is Mrs. Lilienblum's Cloud Factory by Iddo Gefen. I'll be happy to add those to the list, as I do non-fiction much more easily than fiction these days, alas. I don't know why.

Too much?

I now have Google Calendar, a small purse-size 4" x 6" planner, a matching 8" x 9" paper planner for my backpack, a desk pad calendar, a wall calendar, and a Kindle planner that is hyperlinked between month, week, and day, all synchronised.

On the one hand, I feel very organised. On the other hand, it's a bit much. The main one is the one in my purse. After all, I can jot down appointments in the MD's office, etc. and then transfer them, because I suck at getting my phone to come up well when people are working and waiting on me. But I acknowledge things can go wrong. So every couple of days I do a sort of inventory. But still..it is a lot.

When I get a job, the calendars will separate a bit. The desk calendar will be at work; the planners will be with me. The wall calendar is on the door of my bedroom, and of course Google Calendar is on my phone and computer. I can also get to it on my Kindle Scribe. It would be nice if I could get the book to link to that, but I don't think it can. But it does go through 2027, so that's nice.

Happy Independence Day! Happy 250th Anniversary, America!

I'm not doing much. It's been really hot (heat index of 108°F) here, although it's a little better since some thunderstorms came through last night, but I don't think I'll go downtown and celebrate. I will babysit the dogs, two of which are terrified of fireworks.

I do love the Fourth. It used to be my favourite holiday. Over the years, that's sort of faded, I guess. I used to go downtown for the festival, but it stopped having many craft vendors, and the art vendors were too pricey. Maybe it's changed now. Hopefully. When I worked at the old Shriners, we could park at work, which was right across from the Idle Hour Country Club and Golf Course, which allowed us an excellent view from the front lawn to watch a wonderful fireworks show. To view downtown, I'd have to deal with parking and a lot of traffic and crowds. I just don't feel like doing that for 20 or 30 minutes of wow.

So my main way to celebrate is wearing my new Kentucky Blood Centre shirt, which celebrates the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country. I didn't actually earn it. I tried, though. I went yesterday, and they had to turn me away because my iron was too low. They went ahead and gave me the T-shirt and a coupon for a pint of Blue Bell ice cream anyway, which was very nice. I can try again in three days, and I'll probably come back Saturday to see if it'll be up by then. Considering I'm post-menopausal and take iron pills, I was a little surprised.

Anyway, here is me a year ago at work, in a silly headband I wore at the reception desk (thanks to recreation therapy). I enjoyed doing things like that because the families seemed to like little touches like that. Besides, it was fun to get a little silly sometimes. Then there's a picture I took this morning in my blood centre shirt.