dander

My shit luck hit a pinnacle this weekend. There was about a foot of water in my basement. Everything floating. The sump pump stopped working when a fuse went. Thus I've got my own personal Katrina. I'm throwing away a bunch of stuff that was ruined, including a good sum of books. I have photos that I'll post.

Then when dropping a tree the rope snapped and the tree crashed into the roof of my out building. Yup. I have no money to do anything about this.

So I'm waiting for a less windy day to burn everything that was damaged by the flood. This'll be a good way to let it go.

On a positive note, all the garden beds are made and I've planted: peas, spinach, and lettuce. The garlic is looking healthy. I'll post pictures of that soon too.

The clincher may have been today when a bookstore objected to the 15% discount I offered them for their order. "Even the most obscure academic publishers give us 20%!" That exclamation point is a peach, no? I let the bookstore know that there would be no further discount and that if they didn't want to pay that price for the books, that's fine. I won't go into too much detail about how royally pissed off I was about this interaction. OK, maybe a little...to be browbeaten over selling a book of poetry for $5 and covering the shipping myself! Ha, my exclamation. Obviously this person has no idea. I tried to explain that I do all the work myself and that the work I do is not factored into the price, that the price reflects the materials. Any money I make goes into the next or future project(s). Then the person asked if the price is indicated on the books and if not maybe she could sell them at a higher price. Alright I have to go, my chaffeur is here and I am headed to the Rolls dealer to see if I can pick out something elegant but understated.