personal news

Actually, I’ve been back for about a week—from Puerto Rico, that is. I flew down a few weeks ago (my last post was actually from P.R.) to help Allysen’s mom with the final packing, and—I thought—her move up to her new place here in Massachusetts. Well, the schedule was optimistic, so I returned, not with my mother-in-law, but with my dog-in-law, Diego. (Seen here meeting a Roomba for the first time.)

Diego and Captain Jack don’t get along too well (both see themselves very much as alpha dogs), but they’ve settled into an uneasy truce. Diego’s ward Fay now plans to move up in another week or so, which is how much longer Diego and Jack must get along. Meanwhile, Fay’s little condo here in Arlington sold quickly, so a more or less essential piece of this move has fallen into place. And we and the Landshark have been kept very busy moving stuff!

I’ve been back home for about a week now, but Allysen and Julia are still in Ponce, packing and seeing to the adoption of puppies. It turns out all the reliable rescue groups in Puerto Rico were already overwhelmed with abandoned dogs, and the shelter in Ponce was having an outbreak of parvovirus. So we got the puppies vaccinated ourselves, and a friend of Allysen’s mom helped us find some new homes. Three of the seven have been placed, and homes lined up for at least three more. The puppies are wonderful, but what a job!

Here’s the one we call Foremost. (Hindmost was the last to leave the crate; Foremost was first.)

Meanwhile, the labor of packing continues. Allysen’s mom has a lot of books, and a lot of art, and a lot of fine things like shells and geodes and brass pieces of various kinds. Somewhere around thirty cartons of books, home movies, DVDs, CDs, etc., have been making their way to our house via media mail, and now that I’m home I need to get back to work building additional shelves in the basement. (Mind you, this is after giving away or selling a huge amount there in Ponce.) Some of this stuff will go to Fay’s new place, of course. But I have a feeling at least half is going to be here for the long haul. So I guess I’d better hook up that dehumidifier that’s sitting down there doing nothing.

I got back just in time a) for a foot of snow to land on us, and b) to attend Arlington Robbins Library’s “Books in Bloom” event, an annual fundraiser that combines having a small army of local authors sitting at tables with their books, with a series of amazing book-themed floral arrangements. It was an enjoyable event, though it drove home to me what a small proportion of the overall reading audience actually reads science fiction. Or at least the audience that attends events like that. I did get to chat with the new library director, and talk to him some about ebooks and libraries, and how groups like Book View Café are trying to break down the barriers to easy access to ebooks for libraries.

Toward the end of the event, I was mumbling that I hoped I’d sell at least one book, to pay for the glass of wine I’d bought. Less than two minutes later, someone came along and bought a paperback—just enough to pay for the glass of wine! Perfect.