Sunday Salon, April 30th

Weather: Can't tell. Will it be nice or will it rain? Some sun, some clouds.

Listening to: Soul Town on Sirius radio. Groups like Average White Band, The Spinners, The Temptations, Sly and the Family Stone, and this group, Booker T. and the MGs playing "Time is Tight." Listen while you read the blog. Gotta love the Hammond organ. Enjoy.

Retirement: I've decided it. I am retiring at the end of the school year. I decided for sure about two weeks ago but didn't tell anyone except my girls until Wednesday at book club, and then my school folks on Friday. Here is the blog post where I had a little help from poetry to make the announcement. Several years ago when I read the poem, "The God's Abandoned Anthony" I knew it was my retirement poem. In the poem Anthony is losing his city Alexandria and he is urged to accept it and to think back on what was good. For a while now I have felt that it was time for me to leave because things were changing so much in the library. More and more of  the job has become about the technology and less and less of it is about the books. But "as one long prepared and graced with courage" I will leave the library behind and go forward to new, and as of yet, undetermined adventures ahead. It has been good while it lasted but it it time after 37 years to let it go; "to say goodbye to the Alexandria [library] you are losing." 

Summer thinking: Yesterday Don and I were talking about summer plans and I was whining about how we didn't have many firm vacation plans in place for the summer. All the sudden I stopped because I realized that after September 1st my life will be like one long summer. First up, we will await the birth of our first grandchild, due September 7th. Second up, we will plan a vacation in October or November, sometime during the school year when we've never been able to take a vacation before. Wow. Breakthrough thinking.

Hydrangeas, part two: We were able to get outside to do more deadheading yesterday afternoon. I finished up all the hydrangea bushes (we have seven.) Don pruned the Hykuro Nishiki willow tree and worked a bit on the wisteria. The yard is shaping up.

Grunt: Friday night we attended the Pierce Reads! finale at Clover Park Technical college with the author of Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, Mary Roach. If you haven't read anything by this remarkable writer, I highly recommend her books. All are nonfiction and, though they are informative, they are also funny. The event was also funny. We laughed a lot and really enjoyed it.

Books completed this week:

• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. YA. I'll be very surprised if this book doesn't clean up on all the awards this next award season. Audio.
• I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy by Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky. What a wonderful and inspiring collection of poems. E-Book.
• Dear Bob and Sue by Karen and Matt Smith. A couple visits all 59 National Parks in America and writes about their experiences. This was a book club selection and though I like the idea of making a trip to every park, the writing wasn't spectacular. Print.

Currently reading: Nothing. Can you believe it? I finished The Hate U Give on the way home from school on Friday and the other two books on Saturday. I haven't started another book yet.

On deck: these books are likely my next reads:

• Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. I just downloaded this book onto my iPod as my next audiobook.
• The Girls from Ames: The Story of Women and a Forty-year Friendship by Jeff Zaslow. This is a book club selection. Print.
• Dark Son by Nikki Grimes. This will be my last book for the Read all the YMA Winners Challenge. Print. Ms. Grimes won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Author award this past year.