The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Ben Stein’s Pet Peeves
I had heard stories about this before Ben Stein spoke on CBS Sunday Morning. People that cannot keep up with their mortgages are dropping their keys on the counter and walking out the door.
Which does not solve your credit problems, people.
Worse than that is that some are leaving their pets in the houses they abandon. Can you imagine? As if the bank is going to show up the next day and magically find a new home for the 70 pound labrador that has no idea what in the hell is going on.
I might have some sympathy for people that were caught up in the market by unethical lenders. Perhaps. But this just makes me sick.
http://www.youtube.com/get_player
Rewarding Bad Behavior
To the best of my understanding, we should buy the biggest cages that we can afford, assuming that we have the space. So I did. I bought this King’s Cage. You see that little bird on the bottom? Kiwi is about that big. Her old cage is (seems) half this size.
After our volunteer meeting yesterday, some friends from the Refuge helped me put it together. They made fun of me for getting the enormous thing for such a little bird.
Manu, my foster bird, was convinced it was for him. He is no longer speaking to me.
I moved Kiwi in tonight. She was perfectly happy to play in it. Then she figured it out. She flew back into her old cage and started to growl. When greys are really upset, they growl like little dogs. I got her back to the big cage and gave her a snack. It looks big and empty by comparison. I have some perches and swings coming in from Windy City Parrot early this week and I plan to make some more toys, too.
After some cleaning and moving around, I set up Kiwi’s cage for Manu. Because it is bigger than what he has and he doesn’t throw his food dish. He thinks such behavior is silly. He was not impressed with the new digs, but I think he is just offended with the hand-me-down and will lighten up tomorrow.
I put them to bed about an hour ago. I heard some flapping around, which must have been Kiwi getting her bearings in the dark. She has settled down.
Space is really tight in that room now. Might have to get rid of the TV!
Back at the Library
I hadn’t been at the Library in three weeks. Online sales seemed to have dried up while I was out, so I arrived early, anxious to get started. Stacy, another volunteer who was working the earlier shift, said that a couple of kids with a scanner came in, scanned just about all of the books and bought 13. She thought they were just college kids trying to make an extra buck, but it seems a bit more ominous to me.
I opened a box and there was a copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns, the new book by the author of The Kite Runner. I was all set to buy it, but Amazon suggested it would go for 10 or 12 bucks. I listed it for $11. It sold before I left that night.
Between my second and third boxes of books, I saw a trade paperback copy of Norman Mailer’s last book on the Classics shelf. One dollar. OK – that one is mine.
Anyone working retail (as opposed to owning a retail business) will tell you there are times when the customers just interrupt you. That happened all night. For a total of $10, but our director keeps saying that every bit helps. As I suspected, it has definitely picked up since Chicago finally thawed out.
Anyway, I went through four boxes of donations and listed about a dozen books. Productive night, I’d say.
Edit: Ha! Two books sold before I had even left the Library last night. The second was a cookbook. Low Carb for the Slow Cooker – if you can believe that!
Oprah’s Puppy Mill Show
At the Refuge – Peachie
Kiwi and the Nephew
At a Conference
This is New
Used Books Online
I was just lamenting that my travel schedule is picking up and I will be leaving both the Library and the Refuge short-handed while I do my real job. Then I happened to log in to the Used Book store’s Amazon account and saw that one of the books I listed sold for $125.
And I feel better now.
At the Refuge – Fred
The Next Dark Age 
