Small Blessings

Today has been a pretty good day. It started out kind of rough because I woke up at 4:30AM and could not get back to sleep, but we had the library book sale (this sale's shiniest gem....Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1 for $1) and that was as fun as ever. Then we ran some errands. I got this idea to check at Savers for a sofa or love seat, but told myself that we had never found ANYTHING worth considering at Savers, so I probably shouldn't even suggest it. I decided to suggest it anyway, Merilee agreed, and we found a serviceable love seat for (drum roll please) $12.99! I had to drive a few screws into the frame to firm it up, but with a little luck it will hold for awhile until we can save enough for something better. In the meantime, it was an amazing find and a blessing that we now have a love seat we can actually sit in comfortably. We were even able to get the old one to the dump AND spend some time with Merilee's mom, aunt, and cousins. All in all, I would say it has been a pretty successful day. Now I am headed to bed....OH! I almost forgot. Merilee's mom gave us a foam mattress that looks to make our bed a whole lot more comfortable until we can get a real mattress. Yes, a pretty good day indeed! Now I am headed for bed (after a little Tolstoy if I can keep my eyes open....almost half way through).

New Things We Could Use

1. A job - mine is wearing me out.

2. An apartment - while grateful we have a roof over our head, we also have a very loud family over our head and we are tired of dealing with disasters.

3. A computer - this one is getting woefully out of date. It's still serviceable, but it is slow and none of the newer web browsers support it.

4. A love seat/small sofa - ours is all but dead

5. A car - OK, not very badly, but it would be nice to get better gas mileage.

6. Attitude - mine has taken a seriously negative turn of late. On this list, this is the one thing I think will actually happen, maybe.

7. Bed/mattress - we could both use better sleep at night.


Things I can always use more of
Time
Gratitude
Fellowship with friends
Faith
Hope
Success

The Long And Short Of It

This afternoon, between calls, I was thinking about the fickleness of time. I have a 30 minute lunch break that seems to be over even before it starts, but the last 30 minutes of the work day seem to take an eternity to pass (especially Friday afternoon). I know all about time flying when you are having gun, but it is still interesting to me that my level of interest has a direct effect on how fast I perceive time passing. I know this is not exactly profound, but it was something I was thinking about and thought I would share.


That's all for now (heavy on the 'short' tonight).

Rambling Thoughts

I hope someone enjoyed yesterday's posting, even if I really didn't write anything. I was really tired and totally brain dead, though not brain dead enough to try to be clever. At least I didn't post just some random photo, but one I genuinely like.

I'm glad the work week is now half over. Only five more work days until Thanksgiving and a nice break from work. This Saturday is also the Friends of the Library book sale at the Provo Library and I am definitely looking forward to that. I'm like a little kid in a candy store at the book sales. Just when I think I can't possibly find anything there, I find more than I expected. The sale is one mine I can always count on to deliver, no matter how often I dig there.

On Black Friday, we are considering going to Nine Mile Canyon for the day. The current long range forecast is not promising, but we'll see what happens. It would be quite nice to go see the amazing rock art again. If the weather is bad, we'll probably just stay put. It would be fun to go because I always seem to find something new there. Besides, it would be nice to escape the crowds.


We're looking for a new love seat or small sofa. Ours is currently on it's very last legs and in dire need or replacement. These things always seem to give out at the same time as the bank account is running on empty. Maybe we'll have to just sit on the floor for awhile. That might be interesting.

Well, that about does it for tonight. I wish I had something more interesting to say, but the job seems to take it right out of me. Until tomorrow, then.

1000 Words

Joys Of Internet Shopping

Saturday night, I placed an order through Barnes & Noble's web site. I had a couple of $5 gift cards, so I decided I would use them. I found a few books I wanted (mostly clearance) and placed the order. When checking my e-mail on Sunday, I first received e-mails stating that there would be a delay, then got an e-mail stating that the order was ready to ship. Today I got e-mails stating that there had been a delay and I had to go on their web site to say I still wanted the books or the order would be canceled. I received a copy of the e-mail for each of the five items I ordered. I decided at that point that I would just cancel everything (the other option I had along with saying I still wanted everything). I hit the cancel buttons for all five items and then, later in the day, I receive e-mails stating that I cannot cancel because the items are being prepared for shipping. What???!!! OK, so I go onto the web site and look at my order again and it still shows the options to say yes, I still want the item or cancel the item FOR ALL FIVE ITEMS. At the top of the order it states that if I do not select the 'still want' option, it will be canceled in 24 hours. I'll check tomorrow to see if anything has changed, but I am so confused right now that I may never order from them again. With the demise of Borders, this is not the time for Barnes & Noble to go all squirrelly on us. And this is not the first time that has happened to me. I had ordered The Complete Avengers on DVD-rom (that's the comic book, it anyone is wondering), and it was not until I got through checkout and waited for it to ship that they said it was out of stock. What a lousy way to run a web site. No wonder everyone orders from Amazon.

THIS JUST IN!
After initially publishing this post, I was doing a quick e-mail check before heading off to spend some quality time with Tolstoy and guess what I found? An e-mail from Barnes & Noble saying that my order had shipped; ALL FIVE ITEMS. I don't know who let their pet monkey play with the e-mail portion of their web site, but they need to put him back in his cage before he brings down any more confusion on unsuspecting customers. What a weird trip this has been.

Nope....I Got Nuthin' (Almost)

 I have been sitting here for more than 30 minutes doing other things (checking Amazon for the new Bloom County book, fiddling around on Facebook, etc) while I tried and tried to come up with something worth saying tonight. at this point, it is time to throw up my hands and walk away. Before I head of to my nightly date with Tolstoy (436 pages down, 1008 to go), I want to leave with something I read in the most recent issue of Outside magazine.

"In a 1991 study by Texas A&M psychologists, subjects who viewed scenes of water or trees reported a much quicker return to a positive mood after a stressful event than those who viewed urban scenes."

Also:

"In a pilot study this March, psychologists found that students in an Outward Bound course showed a 40 percent boost in frontal-lobe actvity--which is linked to creativity--after four days in the backcountry."

And finally:

"A 2008 study by University of Michigan psychologists found that walking outside or even just looking at pictures of natural settings improves directed attention, the ability to concentrate on a task. Put another way, nature restores our ability to focus."

There are people out there I really wish would pay more attention to information like this before advocating that wilderness is not important for anything but its economic value. Perhaps a session of congress in the middle of the forest is in order? I know I could use a good walk in the woods about now.