It's that time of year again ...

... when traffic is heavy, tempers are short, and Hungry Ghost bread will not reserve 2 loaves of my husband's favorite bread so that I can pick it up at a time that is convenient for me. Instead, I had to be at their door when they opened at 9 a.m. yesterday to make sure it was not already sold out.

Then I hurried off to Chair Yoga class, then to work, where there are all sorts of cookies, candy and coffee cake in the staff room. After work, I made a second trip to Northampton Center to buy vitamins at Cornucopia Foods.

This is also the time of VERY little daylight, as yesterday was the first official day of winter. I prefer summer. When it's dark, I feel cold regardless of the temperature. At least the weather has been relatively warm.

For me, because my family met and exchanged gifts last Sunday, Christmas feels over and done with and I'm ready to do "normal" things. Instead, my schedule is all askew. I'm working 3 days in a row this week and next.

Besides enjoying the uncommonly warm weather, I'm really looking forward to having 4 days in a row to hang around the house, tidy up, loaf around and read.

And I do, very much, love to see all of the Christmas lights on people's houses. They make me smile. I suppose the advantage of driving home in the dark is that I can see them better.

So and So

So have you noticed how many comments and questions begin with the word "So"?

So is this something new, or have I just not noticed it until recently?

So is "So", like, the new "Like"?

So shall I stop putting quote marks around "So"? So it would be easier to compose this post.

So I understand that a "prologue" (there go those quotes again) of sorts alerts people that one is about to say something, sort of like "Excuse me". So that doesn't explain seeing "So" begin an email or FB post, which I frequently see.

So language evolves and different people develop they're own "oral crutches" as they say in Toastmasters. So while I've never used a lot of "ahs" or "ums", it was during my several years as a member of Toastmasters that I became hyper-aware of how often such fillers are used in conversation.

So I guess "So" as a beginning word has, like, penetrated our culture, you know?

Anniversaries and the Letter "F"

Last week was Thanksgiving. It marks a milestone in my life different from the traditional giving thanks and turkey dinner. On the Monday after Thanksgiving in 1967, I began my first full-time library job. It was at the UMass/Amherst library - then Goodell - typing the headings on the tops of catalog cards and then filing them into the card catalog. I'm so glad that those labor-intensive cards are gone.

Who would have thought that 48 years later I'd still be "wearing the sensible shoes" as they sometimes say on the AUTOCAT email list.

As I consider retirement, perhaps I should keep this date in mind. In two years it will be an even 50. Now that's something to celebrate.

On the MassCat front, I've finally cracked the letter "F" in my alphabetical list of possible duplicates. I've been working on F for a couple of weeks now. To put this in perspective, I briefly blogged about arriving at "E" in early May and "D" in June of 2014. Even though everything is automated, it's still pretty labor-intensive.