Footnotes

I finally had a chance to go downtown today to pick up my stash of books. I could see that the stash had grown overnight. Some kind elf, who hadn’t been available when I went in the first time, had added a few books on stroke to my collection. I’m leaving on the 12th to go to Connecticut to help my sisters take care of my sister. The little munchkin had a near-fatal stroke on top of having long standing diabetes.

I picked up the Diabetes Association’s list of food exchanges…note the word “list”. It’s a paperback book 603 pages long. I also got the Diabetes Cookbook for Dummies, a fabulous resource, as well as the Eating Well Diabetes Cookbook.  I guess it’s apparent that I’ll be cooking. And yes, I did read that 603 page monster. I also chose Outsmart Diabetes because I’m an arrogant bitch who believes it can be done. We shall see.

It isn’t very often that I get out of a bookstore unscathed. There were a few other goodies on display that I just couldn’t resist. Julia Child’s little memoir, A Life in France, is delicious. I already started this one. Her sister never worried much about the quality of her French and she made some hysterically funny mistakes. For instance, she went to a hair salon and meant to say – would you like to cut my hair before or after the shampoo? Instead, what she said was – would you like to cut my horses before or after the mushrooms? Her car got rear-ended in Paris and the guy who hit her drove off. She chased him down in her car and cornered him right near a flic (cop). She popped up out of the open sun roof and screamed at the cop – this shit-man just spat out into my butt! I’m sure I’ve made similar mistakes and people were too kind to mention it.

In addition I couldn’t resist What Einstein Told His Cook – Kitchen Science Explained.

The Brain That Changes Itself. I figure this one can’t hurt since my sister is having to create new pathways to replace the ones that got killed in the stroke and I might find some material I can use.

Collapse – How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed. This one is a bit depressing as it reveals the reasons behind the world’s great environmental collapses – Angkor Wat (I already knew about the bacteria in the water but not the whole story), the Mayans, the Anasazi, the Vikings,  even modern Montana in the Bitterroot Mountains. The author is the same who wrote Guns, Germs, and Steel – Jared Diamond.

Frankly, I miss the library. It’s a closed a lot now that we’re broke. I thought I had enough books to last through the holiday, I took out fifteen but..in this house books are like chocolate – they go fast.

These kiosks were put in after the earthquake in 1989. They are one of my favorite changes made to Pacific Avenue. Even after all this time, there’s still one hole in the ground though where Bookshop Santa Cruz used to be.

The weather changed for the weekend. Sunny and warm. I’ve been checking out Crash’s recent temperature charts on his blog and when I see all of those minus signs I can’t help but remember the day I was in Minnesota to nanny my mother and the temperature dropped to minus 28 degrees.

Tags: Life, santa cruz

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