Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Today and yesterday's count

Yesterday in the afternoon sunshine seven brightly coloured children, pink and green and turquoise, bravely in the sun in their hats, did what children have always done if allowed, invented a game using what comes available.  These seven had found a large-ish branch off a poplar tree and used it as a pony on which most could ride, to charge up the slope, then it changed into a toboggan and they slide down again.  The sky was blue, the day was warmly hot, and I was able to pick crabapples from my favourite  tree after all.  A pie is in the offing.  Today I went to the far side of the crabapple grove and entered the path to the Education prairie garden.  There a large brown and green dragonfly landed on my leg.  But it tickled and I started, and he flew away.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Today's count

A perfect pre-fall day.  Pre-fall I say because fall is my favourite season, unless it is spring, and visa versa, and a sign that the heat and stickiness of this summer may finally be over is a blessing and a bliss to me.  I wore jeans the other day.  Sigh.  Today though it is blue with wispy clouds which send forward messages of distant rain, and a breeze which made a light sweater over my sleeveless shirt quite comfortable.  I walked not to the crabapple grove but down between the buildings in the tree lined avenue to watch the geologist setting up spikes in the bowl where they are doing a sub something on the ground there.  I think she meant under the grass.  There being much under the grass: gophers, plumbing, electrical tunnels, soil, dirt (which I am told are most certainly NOT the same thing), tree roots, and a monstrous, and as far as my brain storage information goes, number of unknown and uncatalogued weeny beasts of all kinds.  (Wow, that was almost a proto Dickensian sentence.*)

*In one of my copies of one of what-his-name's books I found the entire first page was a sentence.  Dicken's blog says he once counted one that was 21 lines long.

Monday, August 13, 2012

quick cataloguing tip

Or is that trick?  It's great anyway because it saves you writing a note to the overworked people in cataloguing, attaching it to the book, letting someone haul the book over to the catalogue department, having them print a new tag, affix it to the book and reverse the process to you.  Go to the catalogue (online in these fasinating modern times). Check for the correct number.  Discover it is only the difference of a 0 that should be a 9.  Pull out your trusty dryline whiteout, and whiteout the 0.  Pick up your trusty black pen and write in, carefully now, practice a few times first if you feel you need to, a 9. Situation saved. Shelve the book.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

me vs the ipad: round eight

Henry and I went to class yesterday.  Him to enjoy a direct link to an electrical outlet and me to learn tricks and tips (which are more than just angry birds...which I admit to actually having heard of!).  I now know that if I hit Henry up along the top of his noggin where he alerts me to the time, he will shoot up from the bottom of a long web page to the very top.  My poor flicking fingers thank you, which ever clever geek thought that up.  I also discovered that I have been a bad mother, if I am such, to Henry.  He is languishing behind all his ipad friends at a mere 4.3.something aruther, while they are all zipping along at 5.1.1 and gaining rapidly on 6.  I feel adventures in updating coming my way...

...but after my vacation.