Library Notes
January 31, 2004
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
I was in Oklahoma the other day (can you believe it?). I was amid the awful predictions of blizzard warnings, starting on Monday and I was thinking I was getting out of that country just in time. I, as you know, did want to see some snow before I headed for home on Monday morning. Not a blizzard, mind you, but respectable snow.
The predicted, expected, rejected blizzard did not materialize. As I drove out of my tracks on Monday morning, there was a slight dusting of the white stuff on my car. I saw some small amounts of very fine snow drifting down as I headed south for Texas. However, you’ll be glad to know that I did bring the cold, cold norther down with me.
Suzie and I usually manage to get to some store or stores to do some shopping when I’m there. She’s threatening to stop going, though, when I’m there. Says she always spends more money than she should. But we go to such neat places.
We went to a HUGE furniture store, just to look, mind you, the other Saturday. They have an area they call their "As Is" section. And you can get some great bargains there, sometimes. And we love bargains, ya know. We could not have Carl Jones for a father and grandfather and not enjoy such places.
Well, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a quilt rack; one I liked and at a good price too. Yep, I found it, brought it home in a box. Uh-oh – ALL assembly required. I thought they’d sell me the one on the show room floor. Wrong!
When I got some time the other night, I opened that box and took out all kinds of legs, cross braces, and hanger bolts and posts and wood plugs and machine screws and cute little round do-hickeys that fit somewhere. Sixteen pieces of stuff in that box to fit together correctly. And, oh, my goodness, here I went again, there in my office, in the middle of my kitchen floor.
I found the instructions for my "Heirloom Cherry" quilt rack, that stated "If you have a problem we want to have the opportunity to make it right." Well, believe me, brother, if I do, you certainly can!
I began my assembly job and stumbled through. Half the stuff they talked about on that paper, I had no idea what it was. What in the world is a "machine screw" or a "hanger bolt"? And this thing had arms and legs and posts too. It’s a wonder that rack even had a place for a quilt to hang by the time I got finished with it.
After much trying, retrying, reading again, taking off and trying to stuff those hanger bolts in the wrong places, that rack was finally together, with arms, legs and posts supposedly in the right places. It looks right anyway. I did have a little problem with one of those wood plugs. I "plugged" that plug into a hole it evidently didn’t go in and I haven’t gotten it out yet. Oh, well, I’m doing good if I only had one little wood plug left over, don’t you think? Maybe one of these days, that plug will just fall out, as tends to happen sometimes and I can put the left-over one in that place and that one in the other place. Did you get that? Well, never mind, we’re going to leave that quilt rack to itself anyway and do a book.
Yeah, I know you’ve been seeing Jan Karon’s latest book in her "Mitford Years" series at the stores and wanting to read it. Well, I have it and it’s entitled "Shepherds Abiding". Here is the latest adventure in their lives.
"Since he was a boy growing up in Mississippi, Father Tim has lived what he calls "the life of the mind." Except for cooking, gardening, and washing his dog, he never learned to savor the work of his hands.
And then he finds a derelict nativity scene, including a flock of sheep, that has suffered the indignities of time and neglect.
Can he give the small assembly new life? Restore the camel’s ear, repaint every piece, replace an angel’s missing wing? "You can’t teach an old dog new tricks!" he reminds himself. Besides, it’s his wife who’s the artist in the family. Then he imagines the excitement in Cynthia’s eyes, and steps up to the plate, beginning a small journey of faith that touches everyone around him."
Sort of a Christmas story, here in February, but Mitford fans won’t care. This is the eighth book in the series and they will want to read it anyway, December or February. Mark my words.