Hello.  It has been a very long time. Retirement has not been exactly as I expected. I have discovered that once I was no longer in charge of a library…the winds of library land have changed for me considerably. I still do some reading on the topic, but find I no longer have the passion to write about libraries that I once had.  I feel sad about that.  But…to use the latest trite statement….I guess “it is what it is”.

Maybe it is the Common Core. I had so many hopes for that new initiative. It is hard to watch bureaucracies take a good idea and submit it to the soul-crushing vagaries of the sacred testing mill. The letter of the law certainly has a way of messing with the spirit. A grand idea that was supposed to empower teachers and emphasize student creativity, has devolved into a script for teachers to follow….squashing creativity of both student AND teacher. Sad.

Maybe it is the illness that has beset me since retiring. Not sure why – but I have developed intransigent breathing problems almost since the day I left. Having never smoked, drank, or led a rollicking wild life, I guess it is simply proof that “no good deed goes unpunished.” So …. here I am. I would like to volunteer, but as soon as I do, down comes the breathing problem and I am out of it for two weeks minimally. Oh well. There are worse problems.

One thing that I have gotten interested in is….cooking.  (Note to my children:  STOP laughing this minute!)  I have discovered that I really enjoy planning and cooking healthy meals, and reading about the agri-farming that is destroying our health. My favorite writers are Joel Salatin and Michael Pollen.

But nothing goes smoothly. My latest challenge has been the unfortunate demise of my oven. One day it simply refused to do its job.  The top of the stove worked fine – but the oven electronics acted strangely, and no heat was generated. Does one spring for a repair man for a 10 year old stove? There are few guidelines or health proxy/DNR contracts for appliances. Well – this afternoon, I decided to try to fire it up again. There have been so many power brown-outs in the past few days – you never know. Maybe a miracle might take place.  One of the outages appeared to have killed the oven and the broiler – but it now appears that the most recent one has brought them back to life again. Shades of Frankenstein! Both oven and broiler fired up with no problem at all, after having been left dormant for about 48 hours. So….should your oven give out in the future….just wait awhile. It might be brought back to life again by an errant power surge.

I must say, I was looking enviously at some of the new stove features. But now I can go back to praying for the demise of my refrigerator…..a truly demonic little beast that will most likely live forever….just to spite me. I actually like my stove, so am not too sad to witness its magical resuscitation!

Anyway  – those are my disjointed thoughts for the day. Maybe there will be a power surge to help the Common Core. I really like to write, so I need to find something to start yammering on about again.  I miss blogging…..