The Pooks Public Library

For the record, there are three totally free websites that I think are ab-fab, and I must tell you about them. Starting today, with:

LibraryThing

A couple of times this month I’ve grabbed books that are within reach and cataloged them into my own personal (now public) library.

I’m not exactly sure what the benefit is, except that I think it’s kind of cool to know that 3,728 other members also have A Confederacy of Dunces and I’m the only person in the entire system who has Best Easy Day Hikes Rocky Mountain National Park.

From the site:

And if the buzz page doesn’t convince you, you cannot be convinced. Go away.

I like a site with sass.

Do you own A Confederacy of Dunces?

How about Best Easy Day Hikes in RMNP?

Prince of Peace?

Moab is My Washpot?

Well good grief, people, what DO you have in your personal public libraries?!?

I am oh so refined.

Via Max, the Elizabethan wench.*

 

What corset are you?

 

I’m a Victorian-era corset. How refined.
Take this quiz!

*  Although I haven’t figured out how she got a result that isn’t even in the available options!  That Miss Max is even more special than I thought!

Audacity & Miracles

Hold on, it’s okay, even though the following bit is a flashback this doesn’t mean you’ve been eating magic mushrooms. (It clearly does not mean you haven’t been eating them, either. How would I know?)

I am listening to this book today and it is wonderful:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I am reading this book today and it is also wonderful:

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

But I must update.

I — no, we (the Resident Storm Chaser and I) — are still listening to Kingsolver’s book and this is one of those rare instances where damn it, there’s just too much to take notes on. We want to look up so many things, and track down resources (people make CHEESE in their own homes!) and I must have a copy. We enjoy listening to it together, but this is more than that; it’s a desire to implement and for that we need the text.

And the same is happening with Obama’s book. Well, we’re not reading it together. I am reading it alone. You see, Candace gave it to RSC (see above) as part of the Obama book project, not knowing that the RSC doesn’t read anything longer than magazine articles. (We have a stack of magazines in the loo that would crush through a weaker floor to the foundation, everything from Smithsonian and Outdoor Photographer and Arizona Highways to the Wilson Quarterly and Foreign Affairs to Sierra and Bicycling**. The only one of those that is mine is Bicycling, and he ordered it for me, isn’t he wonderful? Oh yeah, I forgot Texas Monthly***. And by the way, I have learned not to browse through Arizona Highways while sitting in the loo because I can’t help it, when I flip a page and see a rattlesnake**** I scream and throw the magazine in the bathtub. It’s a reflex. I’m not joking, and neither is the RSC when he threatens to do bodily harm if I shriek in that bathroom again, because the reverb kills his ears, and he’s not even in there.)

Wait. Where was I?

Oh, I’m reading Obama’s book with moleskine in hand, taking notes, then just writing down page numbers, and finally said, oh enough of this nonsense. I am now underlining and highlighting in it, which means I will be buying a copy of it to pass on down the line to continue the book project thing.

You will be seeing quotes from both books I am sure.

And others. I am not aligned to Obama yet and will be sharing other stuff as I run across it or read it.

But I’m very impressed and inspired by both of these books and recommend them to you.

* Does anybody know if Barack Obama has any connections to the Council on Foreign Relations?

** This is for Max:

*** And I’m still thinking of more magazines; does anybody have any ideas for storing all these things? I mean, they don’t stay here a month and then move on, you know. Oh no, not in our house. I mean, we don’t even have time to read them all in one month….

**** And don’t you dare complain to me if you clicked that link; anybody who clicked that llink deserved whatever they got! You didn’t turn the page expecting to see more wildflowers!

You know who you are.

You are the person who reads my blog a little suspiciously, maybe a little longingly, because you’re thinking –

Okay, I really do kinda think I want a bike, maybe, but if I bought one, would I really ride it, or would it gather dust or am I too old or too fat or too lazy or too busy?

And I can’t answer that for you.

But this is what I would tell me if I could go back twenty years and didn’t even know I wanted a bike. Or if I weighed 200 pounds more. Or was older.

I’d say,

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, DUMMY?

Now that’s what I’d say to me. I’m not talking to you (and you know who you are) because I don’t think you’re a dummy. I just think I’m a dummy for waiting, for not even knowing. And I’d want to bitch-slap myself to get my attention. And if I weighed 200 pounds more, maybe I’d be gentler with my psyche but the question would remain the same.

I know, some of you aren’t even tempted. I’m not talking to you. Go read something else.

But the person (or people) I am talking to know who they are.

If you never learned how to ride a bike, you can learn. Adults do it all the time.

If you think you weigh too much, there are blogs out there written by people who ride bikes who weigh more than you do, I can almost guarantee it.

Age doesn’t matter if you’re still in good health.

Being out of shape really doesn’t matter, because nobody is more out of shape than I was.

But today’s entry on 3speedblog is as inspiring as any for me. I look at those pictures and think, that’s why it’s worth it. That’s why it’s worth it to get stronger, to ride farther — to be able to get out in the world on a bike and smell it and hear it and see it and taste it.

And we all aren’t so blessed when it comes to a ride to work, but damn, that’s pretty.

Now, this isn’t really the post I was going to write today, either.

I started out just replying to comments in this entry (hi, Ann!!!!!) but I couldn’t respond to Mrs. Harris (to whom I was going to say, yes, I agree, I love Greek little lamb!, and also, that’s a perfect image to me, the his and her bikes outside a great place to eat) because I wanted to link to an image of bikes outside a place and needed to do that from an entry so I want to 3speedblog to find that image and thought I’d found it but –

This is not it.

Although it does have its own charm.

This is it.

And seeing that argyle post reminds me of slipstream though their argyle is a really strange color combo if you ask me.

Anyway, I’m off to taunt the past me and bless the future me by riding my bike.

(And…you know who you are.)

A scene from 3speed’s commute.

This is not the post I intended to write.

But every time I tried to write the other post, when the “post entry” page appeared, Safari shut down.

Now for those of you with PCs who wonder what is the main difference between a Mac and a PC, from where I sit this is it. With a PC, the screen would freeze and I’d eventually have to shut down the entire computer and restart.

With a Mac, the program closes. That’s it. You open it and then keep going.

But after doing this numerous times this morning I finally broke down and downloaded Firefox. I’m using it now. How does it compare to Safari? Well, I only know one difference so far.

When I hit “return” for some reason it appears to be more sensitive and is returning twice. How can that be?

Okay, two differences.

It’s letting me post an entry.