It is still weird to spend holidays without friends. Home is so comfortable and entertaining and I feel bad not to share it. Orange and pomegranate mimosas are my new favorite. After a couple of those it's winter nap time. I'm a firm believer in practicing torpor. With dinner we had some pinot noir that my niece Britten sent from Oregon. It came with some great descriptors like "dark brooding nature of the vintage," "lean muscular structure of tannin," "fleshy core of darker fruit flavors," "deep minerality." I guess when all the paint chips had been named and all the medicine names starting with X and Z were taken, it was either put years into a fantasy novel or get into marketing wines. I'm sure all those subtle tastes and textures are there, but what I have left for taste buds is not going there. The best I can come up with is "yummy."

At last one of my grant applications paid off; we got $15K from the Davis Family Foundation. That, plus the $4K from the auction, will get us set up with bookcases in the children's room. I hope to get some things ordered this week, this hardly-on-the-calendar week between holidays. We are promoting people using the online catalog, putting items on hold, and picking them up on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday. It's a way to be almost open during a covid surge and get some time to train volunteers on the circulation desk.

After weeks of Christmas movies, it was good to see Don't Look Up, a satire about our denialism in the face of climate change, which for all its star power is getting terrible reviews: "a blunt instrument in lieu of a sharp razor,"anti-urgent." I thought it was a good start. Movies are not about deep insights into misinformation campaigns and corporate-government corruption, but the characters were all too familiar, and "just look up" would be a good slogan for a campaign to counter the anti-science fringe.

First light city streets they are white, pristine
Waiting on the tracks of the early machines
This city is so pretty when the snow falls just at dawn

Hey paper boy how about them Celts
This snow keeps falling, think it’s never gonna melt
This city is so pretty

Got a cup of coffee, a Sunday Globe
A table by the window, watch the plows in the road
This city is so pretty

From ships in the night, good sailors from the sea
Walk the streets at dawn down on Beacon Street
This city is so pretty

They are so far from home
Snow is deep
And the road is long
Snow is deep
And the road is long
They are so far from home

There's a stranger on the street
He is way out of sorts
He says hey mister I’ve come up short
You got any change
The Lord loves a giver I believe
It's small change to a stranger
Change on the street
Change to a man
Thought he’d never get beat
Well there's a thousand ways
A man in the snow gets lost

They are so far from home
Snow is deep
And the road is long
Snow is deep
And the road is long
So far from home

There's snow upon the ocean
There's snow upon the land
Talk about forgiveness
Help me understand
Why I hold on tight
I do not let go
I walk these streets
I am frozen in snow

First light city streets are white, pristine
They're waiting on the tracks of the dirty machines
First light city streets are white, pristine
They are waiting

-- Sam Baker
 

Someone suggested we do a library table at the big local craft fair at the regional high school. I was there for a couple of hours and was filled with existential despair and wondered if there were any other species that would accept me as a member and thought this is why we can't have nice things and thought this species does not deserve to survive. I abandoned the table there and will pick it up later when they close.

At the library we are waiting for shelves to get several layers of paint, for Archangel to install the video conferencing system, for Mainely Handrails to install a handrail, for borrowed and bid on bookcases to arrive. The online auction is currently at $2300. I expect we will go to $2500. It's a fun and easy thing that we will probably do annually. I've submitted a couple of grants and hope to hear from them at the end of the month.

I am reading these two books which I've checked out from our library. I have a thing for great titles.