I haven’t been writing much because for the past week we "cat sat" for my sister and stayed at her house where there are 3 TVs. It’s amazing how much time you can spend watching television: not reading or writing or whatever…. I got hooked on Once Upon A Time because I have always loved fairy tales and this one is rather cleverly done. And I like the Good Wife. And oddly, if I miss most of the "TV season" I can still catch up watching just a few episodes when we’re home. At least we listen to Public Radio in the car. I love public radio: you can really learn a lot.
Our time is growing short. We head on back to the boat next Wednesday. That’s so hard to believe. It feels as if we just got here and certainly haven’t spent nearly enough time with family and friends. We still face the daunting task of packing boat parts and books into the suitcases. Even with the Kindle, I still want my books and with odd taste, I can’t be sure what I want will have been ordered in the electronic format by the library (with its book budget) or Amazon with its Popular Taste perspective. Right now I’m reading The Search for God at Havard by Ari L. Goldman to prepare for our trip to Israel and the Middle East. Not only do I know too little about other religions, but I remember much too little about my own. One doesn’t have to be religious to be knowledgeable about religions and respectful of other people who believe differently. Freedom of religion is the best kind of religion. Anyway, here is the rest of my "preachy" email about democracy, voting and libraries.
Ru
Voting November 8, 2011 and Libraries Everyday
November 8th was Election Day in the United States. Randal and I voted. I have to admit ignorance in most of the races, but one was important to me and I wanted to support the candidate. To encourage citizens to vote, polls are located in neighborhoods where people live so Randal and I were able to walk to the Oakland School as part of our daily walk around the neighborhood. This is an off-year ( no Presidential, Senate or House elections) when we only voted for state and local officials and local and state issues. But since all politics is local these elections are important too. Some people ran unopposed and I voted for them because at least they were willing to do the job and pay attention to water issues and the like. Not fancy titles and no glory but they were willing to do it so I put a check next to their names even though they’d already won just by being on the ballot.
We voted at the Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy at Oakland on Williamson Road.
Not many folks voting but there was lots of enthusiasm by this poll watcher.
That afternoon I visited the other bastion of democracy, the public library! The 419 HQ Branch of the Roanoke County Public Library System where I worked for 26 years. Of course I went to visit friends and say hello to the library patrons who were kind enough to still remember me. I took my new Kindle Reader and laptop so the Reference staff could show me how to download FREE LIBRARY BOOKS to the Kindle device. Yippeee!!!! I had been reluctant to bother with my new Kindle but now that I can borrow library books I most certainly will use it. It’s the greatest thing since getting to borrow hard copy books from the library FOR FREE!!!!. Did I mention that just about everything you get from your library is FREE!!!! I have said many times before that after family and friends, what I miss most when we travel is access to a Public Library where I can borrow books! Even when we travel I can use my library card to access online library databases. But now I can read books online too. I could have done so in the past but I would have had to read them on my computer and I didn’t want to do that. But now I can read them on my Kindle. Yippee!!! Alan and Cid helped me and I’m all set.
I made the rounds and visited Diana, My library director and many other folks who I’d worked with for many years. I hope to make one more visit before we leave for Cyprus. And when we return next year I can visit them all in the brand new South County Library that is under construction.
Alan in the blue shirt, Cid at the desk helping some patrons….in a very cramped library building.
The Reference and everything else that has no other place office….Sarah is the Young Adult Librarian. Penny, the PR person and JoAnne, the “many titled” person also seem to have desks here. A new library is definitely needed.
Here are some views of the new building.
Front Back
Upstairs.
Downstairs will be a coffee shop and a Friends of the Library shop and lots of other things but I especially will enjoy coffee and the Friends used books shop! And, of course, seeing all my old pals every visit. Below is a link to the library site if you want to see photos and plans of the new library