Sunday Salon, Oct. 27

Home again Finnigan: Don and I drove down to Eugene this weekend to attend a UO football game vs UCLA. The weather was foggy most of the trip going down until we drove past the Columbia River valley near Portland. As soon as we got past that windy spot we drove right back into the fog.  The weather during the game was a bit foggy and overcast but the air was still and relatively warm. I got by wearing my sweatshirt with a hat and gloves but didn't have to put on a coat. We stayed at my sister's home in Springfield and drove home this afternoon in rain.

Eleven and a half days and counting: I've reported periodically on this blog that the district server has been partially down. Counting weekends that means that it has been down for eleven and half days so far.  With no functioning library system I am looking for things to do that don't require technology. So far I have prepared all new books with covers, tattle-tape, spine labels and stamps. As soon as the system is back up I will just have to enter their barcodes and they will be shelf ready. I've also done a bit of cleaning and sorting. If it is still down tomorrow I will have to find new piles to organize. I'm trying to see the silver-lining.

Moving back in: is going pretty slow. Don and I unpacked all but three of the boxes of our items that we had to move out for the floor repair. We still have a few things that need to be tucked into the china hutch and the DVDs and CDs are still in boxes in the garage. We vowed that we would sort through them this time, not just put them away. We'll see if that really happens.

Books read this week:

• Fourth Down and Inches: Concussions and Football's Make-or-Break Moment by Carla Killough McClafferty. Really, really interesting and frightening information about the effects of getting ones head hit repeatedly. Click on the hyperlink above to read my review.

Currently Reading:

• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black. Vampires are everywhere  When humans are bit they go cold and desire the taste of human blood. If they get it, they will die and rise as a new vampire. I'm within 30 minutes of finishing this audiobook.
• The Lord of Opium by Nancy Farmer. We listened to half of this audiobook going to Oregon this weekend. It has been so many years since I read the first book in the series, House of the Scorpion, that I can't really remember all the details. I'd recommend rereading it before tackling this book.
• In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winter. I'm having a tough time getting any traction on this book. I must devote my undivided attention on it this week.