Buried Alive.....But What a Way to Go!

When I was growing up, I heard my mother say, more than once, "I'm afraid I'll die before I read all the books." 

Now, that sounds crazy, I know, and I didn't understand what she meant at the time. I'm getting a much clearer picture of it now though. 

My name is Karen and I'm a bookaholic.  I love books, not just to read, but to have and to hold. I like to own them.  I cannot seem to pass up a good book or a good bargain on books.

It used to just be magazines. I would subscribe to as many as 7, maybe 9 different publications all at the same time.  I read them in the order they came in, stacking them on a specific shelf in my office, so I'd know which one to read next.  No cheating allowed.  

I had no time to read real books because if I stopped to read one, (as I did as a treat from time to time) I'd fall behind in the magazines. I hate reading magazines that are a month in arrears, especially if there is a holiday involved.  There would always be some craft or recipe that I would have loved to have made, but found it too late. 

If I bought books, (and I was always buying books), they were non-fiction on the topic of whatever I was interested in at the time. I have a library full of books on Writing,  Photography, Tai Chi, and Painting.  This is fine as it's not necessary to read all of these books from cover to cover. They can be accessed when you want to solve a problem or learn something new. I likely have too many painting books now, but will often put sticky notes as flags on various pages in 3 or 4 at a time, to give me hints on how to handle whatever I'm thinking of trying next. I'm never sorry to have invested in books. 

I promised myself that I would stop subscribing to magazines for a while, as I really do enjoy reading a good story that lasts for a few days....or sometimes weeks, depending on how busy I am.  The library had moved to a new location clear across town, so I started gathering ones I'd like to read at home.  I belonged to a club where they would mail you four new ones each month. Sometimes I wasn't keeping up with those very well, so I'd quit, but they would offer me a "Welcome back" package that I just couldn't resist, so I ended up with a box full that are waiting to be read.

In recent years I've been winning a few books each year from either Goodreads.com or the publishers themselves. This year I've been extremely lucky and have won a lot more books than usual. I do get those read as I tend to review books I win. The thing is, in the meantime, I have picked up a few that I wanted to read at yard sales, and then one of the local churches held a huge book sale and I got a whole lot more. Well hey, they were selling them for a dollar or so. How could I pass up a bargain like that?  Books can entertain me for quite a while for that small investment.  Besides, have you seen the price of books in the stores today?  I'd have to mortgage the house to feed my habit!

Then I discovered that Amazon and other sites sometimes offer digital books for free. I downloaded a few of them.  I now have several of those stored too, waiting to be read. Luckily I also discovered that I'd really much rather read books with real pages, so I've pretty well stopped accumulating the digital ones.

Suddenly I realize I have a problem.  I've become a book hoarder.  I have more books now than I can handle, even if I sat and did nothing but read for an entire year. I have not even started these ones I got from the church book sale.

I finally understand how my mother felt.  I'm going to die before I read all the books.....likely even just the ones I've accumulated here.

Good Luck, Bad Luck, No Luck at All

Last year about this time, things were not going very well.  But a month or so later, my luck had changed, and things were going extremely well.  Earlier this year I mentioned that Mercury was in retrograde, and that effect has continued, as we just got a shipment that was missing two of the items we ordered. They were not on back order. They were just missing.  Luckily, we were not billed for them, and the company has agreed to send the missing items without charging us the extra shipping charges. 

Other than all the frustrations with the mail, I've had three of the nasty bugs going around since the beginning of January.  And yes, I did have my flu shot, and a pneumonia shot for good measure.  I'm a big believer in the flu shot, but while I got off extremely lucky last year, with not so much as a sniffle, this year I had a stomach flu, a cold and then this latest flu with the nasty cough that just won't quit. I say it's a flu as I had a fever for a couple of days in the beginning.  I have no idea what the difference is between this year and last.

On other fronts I've been quite lucky so far this year.

As I told you,  I won a hundred dollar gift card from Subway, and since then, a book about Joint Health For Life (that likely will tell me not to eat such things) and a big box of tea from the Bigelow Tea Company.  I've never actually heard of them before, but I got very excited when this package came.  I was expecting 16 assorted teas, but what arrived was 6 boxes, each containing 16 teas each.  Two black, three green and three red tea flavours with two of each flavour in each box. 

I've already sampled the Vanilla Peach and the Strawberry teas, both of which were red varieties. They don't come in the normal tea bag, but rather in unique swizzle sticks that you put in the cup of hot water and stir around until you get the strength you like. There could not be a better prize for someone with a nasty cough.  Once I get over this bug, I plan on having a lovely tea party with my friends.

I got an e-mail from a friend out west who says I've always been fortunate, and lucky enough to win a lot of things.  I had just read an article that says you make your own luck by taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves. Well, I win a few things now and then, but that's because I enter a lot of contests. I'm not sure that makes me lucky. It's just the odds. If you enter enough times, you are bound to win something, sooner or later. I think that hundred dollar gift card is likely the most valuable prize I've ever won. 

Still, it's unusual for me to win three things in such a short period of time.  It does help balance out the other things that have been going on in my life since the beginning of the year though. Mercury is supposed to move on and leave me in peace later this week, and really, I can't wait!

De-cluttering - Week 5: One Thing Leads to Another

As I mentioned, I have a new computer. My old one still had a floppy drive but the new one, of course, does not.  I still had lots of floppies full of photos and other files I wouldn't want to lose.

I spent the week sorting through all my old files on the floppy discs and copying things I wanted to keep to my external hard drive.  I had some with sensitive material on them that needed to be reformatted before I could dispose of them.

During all this I actually found some files I thought I had lost as they had disappeared from my computer sometime during the past year.  I'm happy not to have to do all that work over again.

One good thing about all this was that it forced me to clean up the top of my bookcase, where many of the floppies had been stored.

 It looks a LOT better now.  Mind you, I will still have to tackle the rest of the bookcase.....but not yet.

 I hear the local United Church will be hosting a big book sale this spring, so I'll get it done in time for that.  In the meantime, I did send a big bag of books to my daughter-in-law this week, so that's good.



While I was at it, I decided to tidy up the top of the storage unit next to the bookcase. The cubby holes are full, and stuff has now started landing on the top.  Like the bookcase, the rest of it unit will have to wait. I have a new season starting at the karate club soon, and I need to prepare for that before I tackle messes that are, for the most part, contained.

The floor vinyl floor in this room has buckled and is starting to split, so it will need replacing soon. At that time all the furniture will need to emptied and moved, so I guess that's when the book case and the storage unit will get cleaned out.


In the meantime one more area looks somewhat better.

I even managed to tidy up the spare bedroom I showed you week one.  I think I've done quiet  well this week.

Unusual Lucky Streak

I'm having a real lucky streak lately. Nothing big mind you, but normally I don't tend to win much more than a bit of makeup or the odd book anyway, no matter how many draws I enter.  While it's true that I've won a good number of books over the years, the key word there is Years.  Here are just some of the books I've won, pictured at the left. 

Something has changed since 2012 has begun however, as I've already won 3 this year, plus a necklace, and a $10 gift card for Sears.
 One day in particular was so lucky I couldn't believe it.  First some friends had passes for 2 free buffet dinners at Rideau Carleton that they couldn't use before the expiry date. They knew we liked to go there, so they gave them to us.  The day we went we stopped into Shoppers Drug Mart on the way.  I happened to spot something that I use all the time and it was on sale so I decided to buy it.  They rang it in at full price, and when I pointed out that it was on sale, they told me that if I was right, I'd get it for free. They did a price check, and verified that it was indeed on sale. It's their policy that if anything scans incorrectly the customer doesn't have to pay.  This was news to me, but I came out $10 ahead of the game and quite happy to have learned about this. 
When we got to Rideau Carleton, there were several tables set up outside the dining room area. I asked one lady what that was all about, and she said it was Spanish Night, and would I care to sample some wine. I looked up in time to see my hubby being led off to our table, so I said I had to go.  Moments later someone arrived at our table with two glasses of wine, and said they had heard "the hubby was in a hurry."  That kind of service was certainly unexpected.  Oh, and they came back with more later on.  Free dinner, free wine, things were going great. Normally they charge you extra for coffee and tea, but that night they told us to forget that too!

Now, we are not gamblers, but we like to pick a horse and bet $2 to show, just so we have one to cheer for.  By the end of the night we generally break even, or only be up or down by a buck or two.  During this particular evening I picked a horse that came in 3rd.  While many of our horses that come in first only pay $2.10 for the $2 bet, this one, even though it was third, paid $18.50.  The stars must have been really lined up right that night!

My most recent win was yesterday, when a letter arrived from Reader's Digest. It seems I've won a Swap and Drop Kit, worth about $40.  I've been entering Reader's Digest contests regularly for so many years I can't remember, but I've never won anything from them before.  I don't know what's going on, but maybe I should buy a lottery ticket, just to see if I can win something worth a bit more.  What do you think?