A sense of humor is useful at any stage of life but of particular value as one grows older. Of course I realize laughter comes more or less easily depending on your particular role in life's little happenstances.Recently my mother was at a family function.To digress, my mother likes to use the word "function" to describe any gathering of people. "The neighbors next-door had a function celebrating the anniversary of Little Tommy's birth.""Oh, a birthday party.""Uh, yes, you could say that."Anyway, at this particular function, my mother encountered a distant relative, someone she hadn't seen for decades, and the gentleman hazarded this observation: "Oh, Sally, how you have changed!" My mother was miffed no little bit but held her tongue.Later, she did not; still smarting, she mentioned the remark to her first cousin. "Well," he said suavely, "you used to be so pretty." Ouch-a-mungo! In football, this would be called "piling on" I believe, and when we're compiling our phrase dictionary it will certainly make an excellent citation for adding insult to injury.The WOWMOBILE, fluid levels checked and topped yesterday afternoon, is resting comfortably in the garage for the long weekend. Happy Memorial Day to all. I have to go up and shave and shower, and then I will pick my mother up and take her to a family func...picnic, Picnic, PICNIC!
Last week I started--online--at what some people call "library school." This week, I dropped my classes--the technology overwhelmed me a bit. As many of you know, "Libraries preserve the integrity of civilization." Naturally I was somewhat disappointed that I wasn't going to become a priest, of sorts, but worse things have happened.I must say that my erstwhile classmates seemed to be, to a man and to a woman, very nice people, although I imagine that meeting them would, initially, be little bit disorientating. As it is with, say, radio, with people you "know" but have never seen, your imagination fills in the details. "No," you think to yourself, "this can't be Holly. Holly is slender and six feet tall and giggles a lot."I did have the pleasure of meeting Dionne--who, actually, was pretty much as I imagined her to be. I will only add, Ladies and Gentlemen, you are going to love Dionne, and ,Dionne, I owe you lunch.So much can happen in a week. I will condense things to report that my aspirations got the better of my common sense, and I've decided to re-enroll for the Fall term.Always leave the audience wanting more is an adage I learned from my high school music teacher. It would have been nice if I had also learned how to play an instrument, but...well, see the bromide at the top of the page.
My name is Russell Rush, and as some of you may know--and one or two of you may care--I am a bookmobile operator. The Words-On-Wheels (W.O.W.) bookmobile presently travels to fifty-six older adult communities (housing developments, assisted living facilities, etc.) throughout Pennsylvania's Montgomery County. This bookmobile was, in August 2008, the last branch of the library to be automated. "Shit on the computer!" was the reaction of one otherwise decorous octogenarian, and a number of patrons shared her sentiment, even if they didn't give such vivid expression to it. With time, I think we have all made our peace with the infernal thing.
Most of my patrons are women. The majority of the circulation is Large Print genre novels; we also do a brisk business in audio books. And, too, we do have our devotees of literary fiction, narrative non-fiction, and legal philosophy and social justice issues. One women gets books the size of tombstones on ancient Chinese art.
I like to think that we all have a jolly time together, and if I have to drop the carbon monoxide detector on my head while changing the battery to get a cheap laugh, well, bombs away!
