home
Home > Dispatches > Daily Dispatches 2024 > Daily Dispatch #274

October 9, 2024: Trials and Travails

This dispatch title sounds like the title of a book written in the 1940s. It is fun, looking at an older book cover and estimating the date. I sometimes remind myself when I do this that very few people in this world are handling so many books on a daily basis.

I’ll bet that circulation librarians, the ones who shelf books, stock a couple hundred books a week at the most. And these books are the same old same old. The BLBP inventory changes daily. Yes, I tell myself, I am lucky, lucky, lucky. This should be my mantra.


Sorting at the Bourgh warehouse


I felt lucky for a while this afternoon. I salvaged and then sorted through the books that I picked up at Family Treasures. Then I categorized children’s books for a while. When the boxes that held the childrens books were full, I moved them onto chairs, so that someone else might put them on shelves.

I then went and put a few duplicates in the Upper and Lower Elementary boxes. I did a quick turn, and then I felt a sharp pain in my hip region. And then I no longer felt lucky.

I do not know what caused my hip to seize again. It could have been that for the first time, I attempted to do my physical therapy exercises, and it was too much strain on my left hip. Or it could have been that swimming today was too much strain on my left hip. Or it could have been that lifting the boxes was too much strain on my left hip. Most likely, it was all of the above.

I would have been okay with this, but it was an incredibly beautiful day, and I was getting ready to come home and ride my horses. I had to nix this idea. Unlucky me.

So instead, I sat down and did some BLBP administrative work, then went and cleaned the horse pen. Tyra’s poop is still runny. I am worried about her. Unlucky me.

I suppose I am luckier than some. I am not living in a hurricane zone and having to relocate. Some people are leaving animals behind. There was a NY Times article about the Tampa, Florida zoo. The keepers are staying put.

People, they know what’s going on. But animals do not. On the drive in to town, I caught the tail end of an interview by Richard Powers, a great writer who’s narratives have an environmental theme. He said that his latest book, which was about oceans, is about resilience, and that he was optimistic about our being able to deal with climate change – that the game isn’t over, and that there are many good players.

Hearing this, I cheered inwardly – and mind you this was the end of the interview. I suspect that if we all are of the mind that we are doomed, that we will be doomed. We all have to work at countering the inane and thoughtless and witless perspectives of those who want the world to come to an end.

The pendulum is going to swing back to the left. It won’t go unless those of us who believe in future change collectively give it a strong, hard push.

Next: 275. 10/10/24: What day is it?

Horse Care Home About Us Dispatches Trips Alys's Articles