Naturally, the first place we visited this morning was the Lexington Public Library. I would live here (in the library) in an instant. There are five floors of books! in a great windowy building that looks over downtown and over the various little parks and horse statues that dot the downtown area. There is also a five story Foucault pendulum that tells the time (pictured below), and a coffee shop. Seriously, I don't need to go to Phoenix. I have everything I want right here.
Later
No one should be surprised that I bought three used books from the library book sale in the basement. The sale, by the way, is the second best library book sale I have ever seen (the one in Ithaca is hands down the best, although this one is open year round.) We then visited with my mother's uncle Ray, and I gave him a copy of my thesis, the third chapter of which profiles him and his work on the reproductive physiology of sheep.
We took 64 out of Lexington. The route is an official scenic highway and we were treated first to the rolling hills of bluegrass country and next to the flat cornlands of the the bread basket. We hit several flash rainstorms, and then my mother pointed out that we were in tornado country, which brighten our respective moods to no end. I tried to restore the mood by stating - with no real certainty - that tornado season didn't start until later in the season. With the luxury of the Internet I have now determined that I was wrong. Tornadoes peak in the southern states in the spring and in northern states in the summer. Tornadoes are rated on a scale from F0 to F5, rated from least to most damage incurred, but a historic tornado in Oklahoma City, which we will pass through on Wednesday, has a rating of F6. Just something to help me sleep easier at night.
I wonder, if the F0–F5 rating scale would be applied to Anna's "damage" done to library used book sales, how would the 3-book damage of her visit to the Lexington public library fare? Maybe instead we could institute a B0-B5 scale (rating determined by number of books purchased in a single stint at a particular library book sale.)
ReplyDeleteHardee Har Har. If such a scale was implemented (a) it would have to go much higher (the tompkins county library book scale has netted upwards of a B20 or B25) and (b) might have to take into account the necessity of buying a particular book. For example, I compulsively buy vegetarian cookbooks. Do I ever eat anything besides besides beans, salsa, veggies and cheese? Rarely. So the damage factor would be much higher for such a purchase.
ReplyDelete