Reminiscing

This time last year Len and I were returning from Wales. What a trip. It was the trip of our lifetime, probably never to be repeated. I have a hard time believing that we actually saw the places that we had only read about

The meadows and stone walls are exactly like the pictures we have seen in books. The moss and the winding roads are exactly the same. Imagine taking an ancient track down a mountainside, paving it, posting a sign that the road narrows and turning loose tour buses, delivery trucks and unsuspecting tourists to navigate it. Remember--it's only one lane wide!

Last year, all of England was flooded. We drove through rain for 10 days and, as we drove closer to London on our last two days, the water began to cover the dual carriage way. (Interstate to us Yanks.) We were supposed to spend a day at a Renaissance Faire. We arrived, only to find the entire estate flooded--the result of the river escaping its banks and inundating the entire castle estate.

I sure hate feeling like a Jonah--flooding where ever I spend my summer! Could it be my fault? I know that I jinx (and sometimes intimidate) computers. But can I hire out as a bringer of rain? I draw the clouds, then quickly move on before it rains too much? Hmmm. Probably not. It's only been two summers--oops, forgot the flood of '93--three summers that I have had this effect.

Can I count the winter of 1984 or 1985--the year that it snowed in Phoenix, Arizona? I was there. Really, I was. No, they had snow in 2006, too.

Well, I am giving up that idea. Sure can't quit my day job without better statistics than that. Drat!

What other abnormal properties do I possess? The ability to piffle on paper. I'm the official library paper piffler. The Master Paper Piffler. Not to belittle my other title, The Supply Goddess. They constitute separate but equal levels of authority. I grandly order the paper upon which I piffle. A recursive position, wouldn't you say?

Next. Well, I'm semi-displaced. I never know where I will be when I go into work. Displaced by the flood without loosing one single possession. I just lost position. Tee-hee.

I'm changing my name. I'm not going to tell anyone what my new name will be, but I no longer answer to the name Pat, or any derivative of Pat. (Except when Jeaneal uses it!)

What a bittersweet summer this has been. I love the warmth, the sun, the storms. But all of that has brought heartbreak to so many people this year. I have met many people this summer. They are all fabulous people, people who have stared adversity in the face and haven't flinched. Wonderful people. Thank you for being you.

Well, I must leave off this epistle. I, surprisingly, run out of piffle.

Absurdly,
The Librarian formerly known at Pat