The Demographics Have Changed
Saturday, November 22, 2014
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| Elizabeth Taylor - Raintree County 1957 - Queen of the Silver Screen by Ian Lloyd |
Today is December 8, 2014 and I find myself noting that I am missing blogs for November 22 and then December 1m 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7. I don’t think I have ever fallen behind on my daily ritual, one that I obeyed since January 2006. I will post this for November 21. It is nice to go back in time without the proper machine!
There could be several
reasons. One could be the decaying November to December weather and the dark
days, that become so earlier in the day.
Another could be the
presence of my 17 year-old granddaughter who has been living with us now for
seven weeks. That has been tough. As a younger man in his 40s I could handle
(almost) my teenage daughters but at my age now this is a different game of
cricket.
While I do not accept
comments in my blog I do feel these days like my blog is a message inserted in
a bottle as I live in a barren island far away from civilization.
I get weekly reports
from Twitter advising me of my more popular tweets (links to my blogs but
including a photograph). Consider that a blog may have been seen by 900 people.
That may sound just fine until you check on the second statistic that informs me
that four or five people then clicked on to the link to the blog.
My Christmas gift
budget is zero. It has to be on the money I get from my Canada Pension. I went
to the Burnaby Public Library today. They had a withdrawn book sale. I
purchased (all large and pristine picture books) on Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine
Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe (the Niagara photos) and two huge picture books of
wonderfully photographed diverse creatures in a studio and the other of snakes
in jet black backgrounds. The books were three for $0.35 or one for $0.15. I
had just enough money, change in my pocket and an empty wallet, to buy those
books and I had to let go of the Monet
Garden one for lack of
more coin. I talked to the two librarians sitting behind a semi-circular desk
in what is a most imposingly modern and large Metrotown branch. They told me
(in obviously politically correct euphemism) that the demographic had changed.
That the books I had found for a song had been originally purchased for “special”
reasons (whatever that is) and that since they had not been regularly checked
out they had to go.
I have long trashed an
email communication from the present head of the Vancouver Public Library who
wrote that the VPL is not an archive repository of books. The books there are
active and alive and have to be read. If not they end up in book bins. One of
the staffers in my Oakridge Public Library has told me that many books have
been thrown in garbage dumpers. She has actually done part of that work.
With books purchased
for a song, with dark rainy days, and with a brooding teenager at home, my
melancholy prevents me (at least it is a good excuse) from contributing with
regularity to this blog. As the days get brighter with the Christmas season
perhaps I will change my attitude.
