All the Light We Cannot See

Our library participates in a community-wide reading program called "Everybody Reads".  The idea is to choose one book that anyone can read - a really large-scale book club of sorts.  The author is invited to speak at several meetings around the region.  (This is not a new concept.  Many people have been doing it for years.)  

This year, the book was All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr.  As it happens, the friendly book club I am a part of read this book earlier this summer.  I don't believe there was any connection to the "Everybody Reads" program.  It was more a matter of one of the members saying, "I'm reading All the Light..." and the rest of us saying, "Hmm, maybe we should read that for next month".  Or something to that effect.  

Sidenote #1- Several of my reader friends told me not to read this book.  You can read my original post about this book here.  I will reiterate that I am very glad I read this book.  The writing is beautiful, and although it is incredibly sad, there is also goodness, and that for me outweighs the sadness.  I am currently re-reading it, and since I already know where the very sad parts are, I am just skipping them, and enjoying the rest of it!  Ah, the joys of re-reading.

Sidenote #2 - When this book was picked for the program, I think it was just a very well-reviewed book.  Since then, it has won the Pulitzer Prize!  I'm pretty sure he could have backed out on his committment to our very small library, but he stayed true to his word and the date was set for November 12, 2015.

The evening finally came.  Last Thursday, Anthony Doerr came to Lewiston, and I actually got to hear him speak, and get two books signed by him.  One for myself, and one for my sister who also loved the book.  It is a VERY late birthday present for her, although she knew it would be late, and to be accurate, my presents to her are ALWAYS late, so its nothing out of the norm. :)  My good friend, and fellow book club member, Heidi, and I signed up, a month or so ago.  I was a little nervous I wouldn't make it because Kristin had her wisdom teeth out that morning, and I knew if she was having a hard night that I would stay home.  She assured me she was fine, and I made it!!  

I was unsure what kind of speaker he would be.  His picture at the back of the book doesn't really give any indication.  In a nutshell, he didn't disappoint.  The program was only an hour - a 1/2 hour of him talking about his 10-year journey to the completed novel, and another 1/2 hour of questions.  (Oh, how I wanted to ask him a question, but my head was completely empty!  Why didn't I even just ask him to read a favorite part to us??  Blast!!  I also could have listened to him for longer than an hour, but I suppose speaking at 4 different events in 2 days is exhausting, so I mustn't be greedy.

He had audience members read 10 quotes that chronicled his journey from conception to finish.  One of my favorites was this quote by Alexander Solzhenitzyn.

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” 

  Mr. Doerr wanted his readers to develop empathy for Werner, a main character who is German, and trained at a renowned school for boys and later served in Hitler's army during WWII.  I would say he acheived his goal.  

I could gush on, but I will end by saying that I'm quite certain I will never be in the same room as a Pulitzer Prize winner.  It was a truly wonderful evening, and I'm grateful I was able to be there.  

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink, or water with, or (insert use)

Well, not "not a drop" but "not enough".  You would think living in a town bordered by two rivers, and not small ones at that, a well would last long enough to fill a family's needs, but alas, it is not so.  Our faithful well, that has served us for 22+ years is diminishing, and there's nothing we can do to save it.  Well, that isn't entirely accurate either.  We could spend an incredibly large amount of money to deepen it, but of course, as with all well-drilling operations, there is no guarantee.  So our solution is to join the local irrigation district and start paying for our water!  Gulp!!  That will be a hard pill for us, who are very spoiled, to swallow!!  Made even harder by the quantities we use during the summer to keep our yard looking so nice.  (Big round of applause to John who works hard to make and keep it looking that way!)  

So, that brings us to today's project - Dig a hole around the area where our well connects to our house and get it ready for the water people to connect us.  The area is in a flower bed at the side of our house, so there was a little plant rescue involved, but not too much, as most of the plants affected by the digging were plants that had spread a little (or a lot) farther than I wanted them to, so they were easily disposed of.  Trevor and John did the lion's share of the work, while I mainly took a turn here or there, and Kristin spent more time than me helping.  It took a large part of the day, and Trev and John are both spent.  Kristin and I recovered pretty quickly!  :)  

We are ready for the next step which involves a trencher, some plumbing knowledge and several valves, etc.  We called in a professional to take it from here.  (We know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em!)

John and I both thought this part of the day looked like a little "government work"!

Rarely does Trev turn down a chance to run the tractor.

Sadly, this blurry picture is the only one I took of Kristin doing her part.  (It does show her very cool bun, though.)

You can't see it in this picture, but along with the dirt on his face and neck creases, he also had dirt in his "belly button crease".  He deserved every drop of the precious water he used for his shower!

The New and "Improved" Library

Anyone who knows me well, knows how I feel about the library in our fair city.  It is an old hardware store that was supposed to be a temporary arrangement, but ended up being there for decades.

You can read more of my rantings in this post. (Sorry if that doesn't work, I've never tried it before.)

Fast forward to June, 2013.  There is finally a new library in town - downtown, in fact.  It is also a former hardware store (ironic) but it has been remodeled into a really beautiful building.  It is large, spacious and looks like a library, not a cinder block building.  I was ecstatic to hear there was finally a solution to a big problem, I was able to volunteer a little when they were getting ready to move to the new building and I was eagerly awaiting the opening day...
You can see it was a great effort, and it is about the farthest thing from looking like a hardware store.  You can't see the benches in front, but there are quotes, and mosaics, and the round thing in front is a sort of fountain.  Who wouldn't love this library in their town???

Here's the thing - it is a huge disappointment to me.  Maybe I am being overly sensitive about the whole thing, and not grateful enough.  I am not sure what to think.

The first thing that was hard to swallow was the fact that instead of using the dewey decimal system to catalog the books, they used a new system called BI-SAC.  It categorizes the books by subject.  A book about quilting may have a label on it like  QUILTING
                                                               HOW TO
                                                               BURNS
It basically dumbs things down so people don't have to find the call number, then find the book.  They still have to look it up on a computer, and still have to find the book.  I learned about this because my job as a volunteer was to put the new labels on the books.  It made me sad.  I can't tell you why, but I have always loved the Dewey Decimal System.  It really makes sense to me.  BI-SAC seems like there could be a lot of mistakes, and I know for a fact more than one book was mislabeled during the process.

The other thing that is stuck in my craw is the quantity of books.  This new building is huge, and there is a second floor, and there is ROOM FOR LOTS OF BOOKS.  I know (also as a result of volunteering) that many titles were deleted because the library powers that be wanted the library to be open and spacious.  Not crowded...even with books!!! ) I find that totally oxymoronic, if that may apply here!  What better use for space in a library than for books? (I am almost certain the chapter book section is smaller than the old space.  Trevor was sure there were more books upstairs, but after today, I will have to tell him that is all there is!  :(

I really don't understand either of these things.  Maybe I have been an ostrich with my head in the sand, and libraries are on their way out.  This last disappointment may be the evidence that is true.  There are two big screens in the teen area for video games!!!  Really???  That is about the last thing I would want my teenagers to go to the library for!  And, really, I don't have any qualms about taxes that may go to the library, but video games is not something I am excited to pay for!  We don't even have them in our home - except WII, which I suppose is considered a game system, but I don't consider it like I would a PS3 or X-Box.

Anyway, since it was a busy summer, I really haven't had a chance to explore our new library.  Today I had to pick up a book on CD so I took a few minutes to look around.  Well, you know how I feel.  Really sad that something with so much potential is not living up to it!  Really, really sad.  :(

When life hands you lemonade...

Many of you who know me, know that our city library is a pathetic excuse for a library! Housed in a former hardware store, it is built out of cinder blocks and not nearly large enough for a town our size. The building it is attached to is of all things, a bar! I felt cheated when the town across the river built a large, beautiful new library a few years ago. Cheated because that town is about a third of the size of our city. Cheated because the voters over there were willing to pay a little more in their taxes to fund such a project! What is wrong with my fellow town members?

Well none of that really matters, because the simple facts are the following:

- we live in a state that requires a super-majority to pass a measure such as a new library
- we live in a town that is more blue collar than any other color - a library isn't really a priority for the super-majority around here
- I will probably die before we get a new library (okay, that's not a fact, just a speculation!)


All that having been said, those supporters of a new library are nothing if not "Make the best of a rotten situation" sort of folk, and they have made some pretty sweet lemonade out of the lemons handed to them.

Last summer, a group of kids, not sure of the age range, took to livening up the back side of the library! Here is the result! Such a bright spot! And you will notice that even the dumpster is looking pretty fine!

Kudos to the adult artist who spear-headed this project, and kudos to the kids who painted the mural that makes me smile each time I see it!

Here's to lemonade!

PS - Even though the library leaves much to be desired, the staff can't be beat! (I felt like I was including them in my disappointment. I am sure none of them would even see this, but I just wanted to give them a fair shake!)

A "Fairly" Good Post

The Nez Perce County Fair came to town a few weeks ago, and the Rietz clan got bit by Fair Fever. I realize this happened a few weeks ago, but as per my usual way of doing things, I'm just getting to it. Sorry to those of you who are anxious for all the news in a timely manner. :-)

I helped in the Quilt Dept. again this year. Definitely the best place to be. Soooo many great quilts to look at. The judges I help are always full of tips for better quilting, and although they don't often judge my quilts as blue ribbon quality, mostly red ribbons, I still learn so much from working with them, and come home all ready to put some serious hours on my sewing machine. This year was no exception, and with a grand baby on the way, I'm ready to roll.
I did enter my Sunflower quilt and received a red, but also got some good comments on the overall quilt. (no pix available)

Here are the results of the other family entrants.

Amber made an incredibly good-looking blackberry pie that was deemed 2nd best fruit pie overall and blue ribbon in her age division. She also got a blue ribbon on a last-minute paper creation and a blue ribbon on a pillow she made in Teen Living in 7th grade. Her earnings were not only the 9.00 for her 3 blue ribbons, but also a 7.00 prize for her best pie award.


Kristin also tried her hand at Blackberry pie and was rewarded with a blue ribbon for her age division. Her no-bake cookies also received 1st place. Her big win came in the Art Dept. She entered 5 items and received blue ribbons on all five. That made her the one with the most blue ribbons for her age division, so she was the Sweepstakes winner. Along with the big black and white ribbon, she also received a 15.oo gift certificate to a printing place here in Lewiston, which she quickly converted into money by selling it to me. Shrewd, that girl is. She also scored a variety of art supplies from Starbucks. (So glad they held the coffee.) She was thrilled with the whole thing. I think the best part was that she found out about the sweepstakes ribbon while her class was at the fair for a field trip. She was excited the rest of the day.






Trevor showed his versatility by entering brownies from scratch, an art picture, a k'nex tank and 2 lego creations. He was rewarded by blue ribbons on the brownies and the picture. He received red on his tank, and a white on one of the lego creations. He was thrilled with all his ribbons, including the participant one on the legos that didn't win anything.








To call Lewiston quirky is probably fairly accurate. It has some pretty unique things about it, some good (two rivers close by, Costco, not too populated), some bad (Thain Rd., no zoning in the Orchards, and of course, the library), but one really good thing is the fair. I can't imagine entering anything in say the Los Angelos County Fair, or the New York County Fair. No slam intended to those of you who live in big cities. But it is very doable to enter items in the Nez Perce County Fair. It gives all of us regular sort of folks a chance to do our best at things we enjoy doing. I love seeing people I don't get to see very often, working with good people who are willing to give of free time to make sure the quilting dept. is taken care of, seeing the beautiful work of fellow quilters and knowing that although they are just as busy as the next person, they make time to pursue their hobby and keep on creating. As Martha would say "Its a good thing."

I was reading in Proverbs 4 today and came across these words "Ponder the path of thy feet..."
I remember that phrase striking a chord with me previously, and again am reminded to check the path my feet are on. Am I heading in the right direction? Am I doing the things that will help me reach my ultimate goal - An eternal family? Several course corrections come immediately to mind, and give me a place to start. I'm grateful for the reminder.

Also, never wanting to be guilty of the sin of ingratitude, I thought I would share a Grateful List. Its definately longer, but here are a few.

- Indian Summer
- Kids who strive everyday to live the commandments
- John who works hard to provide for our family
- Books
- Quilting
- Friends who support me
- A quick visit with Dawn over the weekend

Just a partial list.

Spring in the Banana Belt?

Contrary to the weather outside, it supposedly is spring in the Lewiston/Clarkston valley. Who knew we would wake up to snow on the 21st. Crazy!!! My kids are wondering what the big deal about global warming is all about!!




Where is Davy Crockett when you need him? This cuddly looking bear was just across the street in the field for several days. He wandered in from the south, and kind of liked the neighborhood. We tried to spy him with the binoculars, but he stayed in the brush. I guess the advantage of living in a town with hunters in every other house is that there were several offers to take care of him. I hope he made it back to his real home.

Soccer season wrapped up for Kristin and Trevor yesterday. They both had a great season, and as parents, we were glad when they played teams with some defense. There were a few games that could only be described as massacres. Amber's team has had a great season so far and their last 2 games are this coming Saturday. They have one make up game later in May, but it is on a Sunday, so she will be missing that one.
Prom is the buzz word this week. Allison had two dress choices, both of which were beautiful, and her dilemma was figuring out which one to wear. Chelsie's was a little different. Not finding just the dress she was looking for, she and I trooped to the fabric store to find a great pattern (which of course, needed to be modified for modesty purposes) and a very beautiful bolt of fabric. I won't even try to describe it because it will sound ugly! Needless to say, last week was spent with many crossed fingers and a few prayers and a few hours to get part of the dress done. This week will be spent much the same way. So far, so good. Look for pictures next week. (you can cross your fingers and say a few prayers too. :-)