Multitasking That Works

I have discovered that I can, in fact, upload a very rich image via my slow home dial-up connection. It just takes a very, very, very, very long time. There is an upside to this. While the image is uploading, I can pick up a book and read. My eyes enjoy looking away from the lighted screen and resting on a printed page, and I am quite content to pass the time this way, rather than annoyed, irritated and impatient.

Best Thing I've Overheard All Year So Far

Might as well post this little story on my most neglected blog. Here goes:

The young man was standing on the sidewalk on Waukazoo Street, not far from my bookshop door. He was talking on his cell phone. As people do when talking on their cell phones, he was speaking loudly enough that his voice carried across the street (I had crossed on my way to Tom's Market), and I could hear every word he was saying:

"Get this! You won't believe it! Lake Michigan is so big you can't see the other side!"

This made me so very happy, a big grin broke out on my face, and I was still smiling in the aisles of the grocery store.

What am I doing with this blog?

Why did I feel compelled to start it? Do I want to keep it going? One thing I don't want is to let it deteriorate into a series of tirades, political and/or otherwise. That's one reason it's been lying idle. Other reasons are attention to my other (more blogs important, at least to me), demands of business, vacation, and life in general.

Is It Just Me?

It can't be. I'm sure most people with a car this nice--even people driving beaters--would want to do a better job parking and not be sticking halfway through a parking lot entrance. Maybe even (revolutionary thought!) park in the lot? No, probably not, because the driver/owner would be afraid of getting a ding. But this hardly looks like a solution to me.

Summer Shopkeeper's Precious Sleep Interrupted

In my dream (or was it a nightmare?), David and I had two retail stores. One sold tobacco, the other soap and toiletries, with a clerk in the latter and a teenage clerk in the former for help. Teenager selling tobacco? I know, I know, but where else would David and I be selling tobacco and soap except in a dream? Well, the moment we opened the doors in the morning, both shops were completely jammed to the rafters with customers, and every single item had to be jotted down and the total tallied up. Then there were the people who hadn’t finished shopping but left piles of items on the counter. “Whose are these? Is she coming back to buy them?” It was pandemonium.

Apparently I was murmuring in my sleep, because David knew I was dreaming. When I woke and described the dream scene, he said, “You’re really going to need a vacation!” Not yet, however. Not yet....

Disclaimer: My bookstore customers are no trouble at all! They are not a nightmare! It was only a dream!

My "Trickle-Up" Theory

Does it really need an explanation? You get it, don't you? My, how "conservatism" has changed in our country!

Remembering Claudia

Once years ago I happened to mention my feelings about Gull Island to Claudia. Gull Island sits offshore from Northport in Grand Traverse Bay, noteworthy because of the forlorn chimneys of the house that once stood there and because of all the gulls that guard the island. I said it was the ugliest island I'd ever seen. "You," Claudia remarked carefully, "are not a herring gull." Point taken. The island is a gull rookery, no longer inhabited by humans.