Book haters? in A small but passable life.

Yesterday after I placed the amazon order for $100.23 (When did amazon start charging sales tax?) I dug out a quarter from my pen and pencil jar and took it with the ten $10 bills in to Mom and said she could deposit that back in the account as I had just used the debit card.

I cooked Christmas dinner and we ate around noonish. I missed a call from Daughter. I called her back and had to leave a voicemail. She called later on and we talked for quite a while.

She had been called in to work early last week with no reason given. When she got there she found her boss, his boss, and a bunch of higher up muckety mucks waiting. But it was a good thing. They presented her with a framed certificate and a check for $250 for being “Night Baker of the Year” for the entire four state franchise. She was pretty surprised. But she said it still didn’t make up for her immediate boss being a lazy dumbass.

I spent most of the afternoon catching up on interwebs stuff. A couple of days worth. And of course a good nap and some NPR.

Today it is trying to warm up to somewhere in the low seventies. As soon as it gets close I’ll be walking up to the pool. If it feels warm enough I’ll go for a swim. If not I’ll just shave and shower.

Rummikub tonight.

Ah, the book haters story.

It goes like this. Mom and I had taken items to the women’s shelter. Behind the building is a shed where donations are dropped off. You push a button and a gal comes out to put the stuff in the shed. Beside the shed is a fairly large commercial dumpster. I’d noticed on a previous visit that the dumpster was full and there was stuff lying around it. On this visit it was the same. While mom was chatting with the gal I was picking through the stuff piled around the dumpster. I found a plastic tub filled with children’s books. Good books, like Dr. Seuss and nature books. As I was gathering them up another gal had come out to join the other gal and Mom. I told the gals that instead of throwing the books out they could be dropped off at the library. The gals looked at me with identical stupid looks on their faces and the last one that had come outside said, “Oh, no one here has time for that.” The library is just a couple of streets over. Lazy worthless people. But I didn’t say anything.

I almost wanted to take back the stack of pillow cases Mom had made and given them, saying they didn’t deserve them. But I refrained. With difficulty.

I loaded all the books in the trunk of Mom’s car. (They’ve since been delivered to the library where a very nice woman gave me a very warm and pleasant, “Oh my! Thank you so very much!”)

The whole episode just reminded me of my time at the Victory Mission warehouse running the “Muncher” baling up donated clothes that were sold for three cents a pound and shipped off to Mexico. I remember throwing in piles of brand new children’s clothes with the tags still on, perfectly good blankets and bedding, and other perfectly good and sometimes brand new items. All worth, in the end, only three cents a pound.

I almost kept the “Green Eggs & Ham” but Daughter has one. Only the best book ever written!

So yeah. still reading the Straub novel. Still waiting on two books I ordered to land on my shelf at the library. Still waiting on days warm enough to lie by the pool again.

Maybe instead of sitting in here I should start walking? But to do that I’d have to put socks and shoes on. I guess it may be worth it.

We’ll see.