Midweek

The weather is relatively mild, although there’s a wind that pops up and cuts badly.  There’s a storm forecast either on the weekend or at the start of the week — because it’s March, and unpredictable weather is the hallmark of this month!  Jerry is a little hyper today, and has been leaping around and barking at everything exacerbated by the fact that the building is repainting the stairwells and he can hear people moving around which drives him nuts, so he passes along his annoyance.  I had some extra energy today, so I roasted a chicken and some potatoes, so we’ve got meals for a few days now.  Don enjoyed his meal, and I had a small plateful, so that was good.  We’ve got an appointment with the new family doctor next week, as his first proper encounter with us, and I’ve just got to get Don to go do his blood tests so the doctor will have his (mine were done at the hospital when I went in this week.). I’m not wild about doing blood tests or doctor visits, because there’s just so much time that I want to be in waiting rooms, but them’s the breaks!  

I’ve invested in a book repair kit — it’s actually book repair tape and paper creasers— because one of my favourite books is quite old and has several loose pages and a partly separated spine.  I did some searching for places to repair old books, and I couldn’t find any, although the library was offering a short presentation on book binding.  I remember, many moons ago, that there was a book binding unit in the department where I worked, and they would prepare all the government papers after publication.  The smallest were stapled with a sticky binding, through to the ones that were sewn together and hand bound for archival purposes.  I didn’t learn how to do any of it, but I’d spent some time in their area being fascinated by the detailed work.  Now, though, I’m trying to save my book.  It’s got some pages that were taped in place, but the tape is now so old and unsticky that it’s not useful, plus it’s discoloured the pages.  It’s silly, but I’m fond of my books, so I’ve spent some time working on repairing the loose pages and reattaching the spine.  They have value to me, but I also realize that other people might see them as useless.  One friend, who went through a downsizing exercise prior to a move at retirement commented on his library that he had to trash a portion of it for the same reason.  I’ve got several relatives and friends who have extensive libraries and they are not excited about disposing of them.  Yes, many books are available as ebooks, which take up less space, but I still love the feel of a physical book in my hands even though I also have a large ebook collection.  

I’m continuing work on my crochet project, and I need to thank my artist friend AD for her help in designing the pattern.  She helped me clarify my ideas and I’ve been able to get a better vision of what I want to do.  I’m really grateful for her input in this, and I’m slowly progressing with my project.  I’ll have to get it sorted fairly soon, as I owe photos to Aunt K, since she gifted me the base material.  Next step, learning to do beading, so I can do some more elaborate pieces.  I’ve got a great book with different techniques that I want to try out.  I may make use of them and perhaps do something useful and pretty.

Not much else happening today; every so often a fairly quiet day without pains is a good thing.  Now I’ve have a puppy to play with, so I’m off.  Good night!