The winter storm dumped around a foot of snow in a little over 24 hours, so I am quite tired. Normally I’d take a little more time to shovel myself out, but I was scheduled for jury duty for Thursday morning, so from Wednesday morning I was trying hard to get my driveway clear, until I finally gave up for the day. It was falling faster than I could keep up, and I wasn’t going to get downtown no matter what.
They canceled my jury group and we didn’t have to report. Good thing, probably at least half the people wouldn’t have shown up. I’m not sure why but every time I’m called up for it, it’s always in winter and often during a snowstorm.
Lately I’ve been ordering kids’ books, things for about 3rd grade, for my friend’s son. I worry that kids just aren’t going to be educated this year, due to the nonexistence of continuous schooling. I don’t know many recent books that are really good, so I’m looking for the ones I loved when I was somewhere around that age. Thanks to used book services, I can find all the ones I remember.
However, I’m really mad at a couple of these used book dealers. When an old classic has been newly printed, they’re often selling the cheapest prints of them and you can’t always tell. When I opened up one box and took a look at some of the books, I see they’re saving money by printing the book so small that not only I can’t read it, but it would be an instant turn-off to a young kid too. And a book with stories and illustrations should be on pages wide enough to open the book far enough to see the illustrations!
Because of the easy returns you can do with Amazon (you don’t even have to rewrap it, just take the book with your return code to UPS) — I find I’m safer buying used books there on Amazon instead of directly from the used bookstores. There, now I feel like a commercial for a huge corporation when I would like to support a smaller company. But I have to admit Amazon is doing so many intelligent things that solve problems.
All my Christmas presents this year to family are either things I’m sewing, or ordered online. I’ve been very happy with the speed of deliveries and I’ve been spending way too much because it’s so easy. But going outside? Is anyone doing that now?
The smaller gifts are especially fun to look for. I’ve been sending collapsible metal drinking straws for my environmentally-conscious sisters, and small hooks you use in the car to hang things, and Suave hand sanitizer spray.
One of the items I gave in the past, that my sister told me she liked, was a paw-washer for her dog. It’s easy to use, you just put some warm soapy water in it, grab your dog’s paw and jam it into the lidded cup. It has little rubber fingers inside that gently scrub when you push the dog’s paw in a few times. She says it really works, and the dog is clean before he gets impatient with it.