Monday stuff

I’m looking for a suitable place in our office to display the thoughtful and nifty plaque my mother-in-law made for me for Christmas. Thanks, Sandra! (I really like it. The grimace comes from trying to hold the camera steady.)

I packed and shipped a total of 14 books this morning. While I was at the post office, I noticed a TV news crew shooting footage at the seedy apartments just down the street. I supposed it was the local station. I’m told the building has electricity, but no heat, forcing the tenants to heat with stoves and space heaters. I’ve seen miserable-looking dogs chained outside the apartments on several occasions. Doesn’t look like any place I’d care to live.

Speaking/writing of which, we noticed surveyors tramping around in the woods behind our house this morning. They said they were laying out the boundaries for the partially wooded and undeveloped lot just south of our house, which suggests to me that it is being purchased and may soon have a house on it.

We rather enjoy it being wooded and vacant, but unless we’re prepared to buy it, there’s nothing we can do to prevent its development. We just hope the house is built to the same standards as ours.