February has some brilliant light that ups the resolution and shows every wrinkle of an old tree on the bikeway trail which could use some packing down of the snow. Postholing, Melissa calls it when you sink several inches with each step. Not a comfortable gait.

I like the spectacle part of the Olympics, opening and closing ceremonies that must be visible from space, and knowing the whole planet is watching, and I got reacquainted with ice hockey. That doesn't mean I understand the rules or can follow the puck, but I like the super fast pace. I was actually pulling for Canada in the men's game (we're all americans). I had put my streaming services on the 65 inch TV in library's meeting room in case Something Happened and we could all watch together and sip champagne, but the bigger screen is also fantastic for sports.

What to say about the state of the country and the world? What markers to leave that might be meaningful later? It looks like the fate of American democracy will be decided in the next election, and getting that election to be run without interference is now the whole game. On the upside, resistance singing is a thing and the mainline churches are stepping up, and protest songs are in the air again, and it looks like the array will make at least 32 mega watts in a year, and a young reporter did this little story about us, and the light changes next weekend.

Here is a book that I might never have read if book club had not selected it (checks Maine author off the list), and I am chuckling and smiling through it. Something can be sentimental and still well written. Bookie's prison book club reminds me of our group; we all have our Reasons that we seldom speak of. It's a charming book.

“Books won't solve my problems, Harriet.' 'No, but they give your problems perspective. They allow your problems to breathe.”
...
I miss how Harriet was forever showing us how to read. How to look for shapes and layers. How to see that stories have a “meanwhile”—an important thing that’s happening while the rest of the story moves along.

If politics is downstream from culture, then there is hope after Bad Bunny's superbowl halftime opus that felt like a 500 page historical novel compressed into a 13 minute musical extravaganza. The logistics of the set building and his movement through it were genius, and there was sugar cane! Someone said that the culture war is over and Bad Bunny won it. We live in a dangerous time for democracy. It comes down to the elections in November and how much of a fight we will put up to keep the polls safe and the results true. When the political situation seems overwhelming, I think I'll just do what my Acadian ancestors did and find an out of the way swampy place and hide.

A couple of tech breakthroughs to report. It took a while to figure out the controls on the new induction stove at the library. It heats fast, heats the pot not the stove, and that cast iron thing makes a great griller. No knobs for people to brush against and turn things on. The solution to cataloging items in our new library of things turns out to be our new Koha ILS. Now you can search for snow shoes and check them out just like a book. I have lost all fear of the MARC record. I thought I would need a new WordPress plugin to display items on our website and I impulsively bought it Saturday morning. When I realized I didn't need it (I'll just use an accordian thingy) I emailed the developer requesting a refund: " In a burst of enthusiasm, after my second espresso yesterday, I purchased the pro version..". The German developer guy was happy to refund. The 14 x 8 shed that will house the LoT has been ordered and the Amish will have it ready to go in April. We can't install it of course until the snow is gone.