Recently I had an incident with my car that resulted in a flat tire. In the olden days of just a few years ago I would have pulled out my AAA card, used my cell phone to call the number on it, and spoken with a representative to find out when someone could come to my location and provide roadside assistance. After this incident, however, I pulled out my iPhone, downloaded the AAA app from the cloud, and logged in to the app to make a report. I received an ETA of 20 minutes, and the app alerted me when the driver had arrived. In between all those steps I met a friend for lunch to discuss my book project (cf. last week's post).
The tow driver installed my spare tire and put the flat tire (and wheel) in the back of my car, then cautioned me to drive slowly on the spare — not over 40 mph and for not more then 500 miles. I then called my mechanic and let him know about the situation. He asked for the numbers on the side of my tire and found that he didn't have one in his current inventory. He would get one — and he cautioned me to drive slowly on the spare. My co-workers cautioned me to drive slowly on the spare.
Fortunately, the incident happened on a Thursday. Traffic along my way to work was very light on Friday and I grounded myself for the weekend so I wouldn't have to drive on the spare at all. On Monday morning I crept along the country roads to work, careful not to exceed 40 (or 45) mph. On Tuesday morning Jim had a tire for me. Before going to work I drove slowly to his shop, pulling over when there were impatient drivers behind me.
After the regular tire was installed and the spare was safely tucked away in the rear cargo compartment, the car felt like it was tipping to the left — my first clue that I had adjusted too quickly to the car's imbalance when the spare was on.
My second clue was that, on my drive to work, my speed now naturally topped out at 40-45 mph. Evidently, I'd grown accustomed to that pace.
I'm still getting used to driving on four wheels of the same size, and I'm gradually picking up speed.
I didn't acquire any additional typewriters in the last week, but a friend texted me photos this morning and asked my preference of two vintage models. So, something may be arriving soon — perhaps a brand with which I'm not already familiar. So much for my resolution to stick to Smith-Coronas (and Underwoods).
I've been thinking a lot about the book project and came up with some ways that will be helpful for me to organize the information I already have and plan for the book as well as any other writing I might be able to do on the subject. Before I could take action, two of my sons visited for the weekend and talked me into going shopping. Our shopping excursions usually involve thrift store and used book stores, so it wasn't hard for them to twist my arm. But after all of that was over, I made some changes in the library that game me more space to arrange my resource materials.
Home library, east wall, April 2023.
The above photo will give you an idea of what this corner of my library looked like this morning. Actually, it was worse than this: stacks of paper cartons, filled with books, topped with piles of other books, blocked the bottom two shelves of the bookcase on the right. Since I didn't take a "before" photo this morning, you'll just have to take my word for how much worse it was.
Wait a minute! I did take a photo, but not until I had moved those boxes and piles to the other side of the room. Here they are:
What could possibly be in that large blue box?
Anyway, I moved those boxes over there so I could haul the cube unit upstairs, along with the sheet music it held (for piano, guitar, saxophone, and recorder), the framed poster of a guitar chord chart, a trumpet, and a tenor saxophone. That left me with this:
Oh, this space won't be empty for long.
After pondering when I might be able to purchase another bookcase I recalled that I already had a bookcase in the garage, which I was storing for a friend. When the friend confirmed that he didn't need it right away, I developed a plan.
ta daaaaaaah
The next step in this process was to reorganize my math and physics books, starting with the cosmology/astronomy shelf (to left left in the above picture) and working downwards. Some of the math books had gotten into the physics section, and some of the physics books had gotten into the math section. It was kind of a chocolate/peanut butter situation, but today I was deconstructing the Reese's Cup to put the ingredients in separate places.
Here's what it looks like now:
What should go on the wall?
The book's source materials are organized — as well as my books on the Manhattan Project and on Albert Einstein — and my math bookcase is seriously decluttered. I still have some topical rearranging to do, so that might do away with the double-stacking on the bottom three shelves.
After Saturday's shopping trip I felt as if I had been hit by a truck, but it was Sunday on which I scrubbed and carried bookcases, hauled boxes, and re-shelved dozens of books. Fortunately, the fall semester is approaching quickly, and I should have plenty of time to rest and recuperate.
Knitwise, I was so busy last week from minute to minute, hour to hour, and day to day that I haven't even ripped back the owl wrist warmers yet. Maybe this week.
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