Back at the Beginning

 Most of my job is spent working from a spreadsheet: a list of potential duplicates in the MassCat catalog given in alphabetical order. However, the program used to spot duplicates, doesn't recognize initial articles. I am now reviewing titles that begin with the word "The".

There are a lot of them.

In a way, it's a little discouraging. It's taken me years (six? seven?) to slog my way through the alphabet to arrive at the letter "T" - only to end up back at "A". Actually, I'm at "B". I feel like Alice in the looking glass: I think I'm going toward something, but in reality, I'm going away from it.

Actually, it's not that bad; it's more ironic.

After five months of working from home, I've finally developed a sort of schedule. I try to do my MassCat work on Monday, Wednesday and Friday like I did in the "old days". That gives me two full days plus the weekend, to do other things like housework or yardwork or just sitting around reading.

But as of last week there has been a change: I'm leading my exercise class again! This is sort of an experiment. I'm leading it once a week and virtually. The first week, we used Microsoft Teams because that is what the Town Hall uses for it's meetings. However, only 3 people managed to log on. And I could only see myself in a tiny box which kept disappearing. In a meeting, seeing oneself in a tiny box is no big deal, but I need to know that I'm lined up so that exercisers can see me and what I'm doing. 

This week, we used Zoom, but after 35 minutes of what was supposed to be a 45 minute class, the program shut down leaving me in mid leg lift. The plan now is to schedule 2 half classes (upper body, lower body), one right after the other and consider the time in between as a break. Beginning tomorrow, there will be an outdoor class in the park next to the Town Hall.

As happy as I am to be back (even virtually) with my class, I now have to review my work schedule. Given that I don't much like to do housework other than dishes or laundry, I could always give that up. But who else will clean? My housekeeper has not been here since mid-March. 

I miss her as much as (maybe more than) my exercise class.

Book Review: The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

Even though the subtitle of this book by Margareta Magnusson is How to free yourself and your family from a lifetime of clutter, I would not call it a guide book to de-cluttering.

It is really a 117 page essay on one woman's experiences, thoughts and reflections on cleaning out the home of someone who has recently died. It is very personal and somewhat self-indulgent, but then, so is this blog.

Ms Magnusson who describes herself as someone "aged between eighty and one hundred" was responsible for cleaning out the home of her deceased mother-in-law. After her husband died, she was faced with the same situation. Now, she is in the process of what might be called "pre-death cleaning" so that her children are not burdened with the task. She does specify that "death cleaning" also happens in anticipation as well as after the fact.

I guess I would describe this book as a pleasant pep talk for shedding unnecessary belongings and living a simpler life, not only for oneself, but for those who follow.

An update on work: For the last few days I've been eliminating duplicates of books that begin with the word "little". There are Lots of Littles. I originally thought of using that phrase as this title of the post, and there were other variations (e.g. A Little Can Be A Lot).

Finally, after 5 1/2 years of merging duplicates, I'm beginning to see the results of my searching methods. Since I usually pull up many records with a general search and hunt for anything that may need fixing, I've already merged some records in the last half of the alphabet.

While there are lots of books beginning with the word "little" I'm going through the list pretty quickly. Who knows? I may actually finish the list - all the way to the letter Z - before I die! Then I'll have more time to death clean at home.

In or Out?

I love this time of year. The weather is getting warmer, the days are getting longer. I'm feeling energetic and motivated to do all the things I've been putting off all winter.

The problem is, the change of seasons means there are even more things to do! I've brought my warm weather clothes out of the spare closet and am putting the cold weather clothes away for a few months. I wear hats. I needed to unpack my summer hats and pack up the winter ones.

I'm more aware of the fingerprints on the refrigerator door and the smudges on the windows. I want to clean the house and have it be all sparkling. I want to give my office a thorough cleaning and reorganization.

But other duties call as well. This is the time of year that flowers and shrubs are growing. With them grow the weeds and other things I'd rather not have in my yard. If I let things go too long, I'll never be able to catch up. I always plant some annuals so that I can enjoy their color all summer long, and I can't wait much longer to do that.

Then there are the herbs. I love using fresh herbs when I cook. I buy a few small pots and transplant them into much larger pots that I keep on the screened-in porch off of the kitchen. It's so handy.

But which do I do first? Can I finish everything I want to do? It's best to work outside when the sun is shining and it's not too cold, but that's also when I want to vacuum and scrub.

I was able to get a lot accomplished this weekend. I crossed several things off of my to-do list, so there are fewer items vying for my attention.

I'll just have to do the best I can. After all, I want to do all of these things so that I can relax and enjoy the results (pretty flowers, a clean house). Driving myself crazy for not doing them kind of defeats the purpose. I need to continually remind myself:

1. Don't sweat the small stuff.
2. It's all small stuff.

Last Day of Class

Today is the last day of class for LIS415. It's been a great semester. The students were both interested and interesting. There were lots of questions and lots of discussion. Part of the requirement for the course is to post to a discussion board on various topics that we covered during the semester. There were some very thoughtful and insightful posts. They were a pleasure to read.

Even though the semester is ending, my schedule is getting more hectic as workshop season is in full swing. The hot topic? RDA. I've developed an introduction to the new cataloging code which I've presented twice and have 2 more presentations scheduled and also a session on the Dewey Decimal System.

I'm seeing more and more bibliographic records created using RDA and I know that I cannot put off using it much longer. One of my summer projects will be to go through all of the training materials for RDA on the Library of Congress web site to that I can tackle the new code in style.

Something else I'm hoping to tackle during the summer are all of those dust bunnies that have been lounging in the corners of every room in my house. They've been getting bolder an moving into places I can easily see. I've been too busy working to worry about them, but my priorities will be changing soon and those bunnies are about to face their demise.