The latest changes to the library brochure are off to our volunteer designer, sister of a local volunteer, rewarded with AirBnB stays. We are shifting focus from "give us money" to "get your library card." We hope to hand out the brochure and an application for a patron card on election day at all five town offices. When we go to the town budget committees prior to town meetings next March, we want to be able to show the number of residents who are using the library.

We are in a time of put down your deposit on something and then wait months for the installation. A landscaping outfit will be installing two 6x2 granite steps in the entrance from the parking lot. Those granite pieces will come out and the porch edges will be sealed. Archangel Computers will be installing the video conferencing system in the classroom/meeting room. Brian and volunteers cleared out the knotweed hedge between us and the cemetery and prepped the area up front where a seating area will go. The entrance is much more visible from the street now. Everyone, including the selectmen, like it, but I kind of miss the green anarchy and the bees. Humans are an invasive species.

From an article in the Atlantic this morning: "The pandemic thrust many people back into the homestead economy of the 1830s, while also re-creating the Depression-era economy of the 1930s and advancing into the virtual economy of the 2030s. Like the dreams of the Dune boy-hero Paul Atreides, the U.S. economy is experiencing the disorienting superposition of multiple timelines."
My economist chicken farmer friend Kari's take on it: "Low wage family, Dad has 2 30 hour a week jobs and Mom has 1 20 hour a week low wage job. Family working 80 hours a week at low pay. Now dad has a fulltime job for good pay and Mom stays home with the kids. New reality is family works 40 hours a week and doesn't pay for exorbitant child care and other work expenses for mom. Now this family is getting by and the economy is missing 40 hours of labor."