Government Employees, Books, and Bamboo

No, there's not really a connection between government employees, books, and bamboo except that those are some of the things I've been concerning myself with lately. My last encounter with a government employee was earlier today at the post office. I'm pretty sure I aged visibly while watching her put together my passport renewal application. It took a full four minutes for her to get the fan situated as she liked it before she even sat down. It then took her another couple of minutes to find the staple remover (which was sitting on the desk in front of her). She also mumbled to herself the entire time about personal things that I couldn't have known, and/or cared about, laughing at her own private jokes at regular intervals.

The bamboo I've been concerned with, on the other hand, has been a good thing: a new floor in the front study. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. This matches the living room, dining room, back study, and halls that I had done earlier in the year. If the flooring store hadn't gone out of business, I think I would have liked to do the master suite in bamboo as well. Thanks, Paul, at Stone Horse Tile, for installing all of the floors for me.


As far as books go, I've been doing quite a bit of reading lately. I read Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, a novel about a girl who attends a prestigious prep school in New England. It wasn't what I thought it would be, but the main character kept my attention throughout. I started reading Paul Toth's novel Finale, but I've put it down for the moment. I'm not sure that I care enough about his main character to finish the book. I'm currently re-reading Atlas Shrugged and loving it (again). It's amazing how relevant it is to what's going on these days in the political arena. I also have quite a stack of books waiting to be read, both fiction and non-fiction. I view all this reading activity as a precursor to writing. I've set myself a deadline for getting back on track with my novel; I've dallied enough.