Score de December

December seems to be the month to score inventory windfalls. . Last year it was the Jazzman, the year before it was The Bookman. December, 2008 ended with the Shady Doctor buy.

Shady Doctor was a psychiatrist who made a pile of money back in the1990s as a proponent of "Repressed Memory" syndrome. A Google search of the dearly departed showed he was most controversial, involved in a number of lawsuits and that his license was at times, questionable.

Shady Doctor apparently had a number of mental problems himself. He was anal to the extreme - every one of his hundreds of CDs was alphabetized, he had a 5 foot stack of binders with the warranty papers for every electrical appliance he ever bought and his shirts were arranged by color. He was a compulsive collector - multiple DVD players, VCRs, exercise equipment, camping equipment and enough Pfaltzgraff dinnerware to outfit a small department store.

His house was in a very sketchy part of town, one where even I felt compelled to lock my car doors. It once belonged to his mother and started out as a simple 5 room workman's cottage.

For reasons known only to him he left it entirely as is (and it needed a makeover)and built a sprawling garage and second story addition. Other than the library (which was a secret room) the addition was all white paint and grey linoleum. Very drab, very depressing.

The library was amazing- it had 2 secret entrances - one from the master closet and the other from the wet bar. The walls were lined with custom made library shelving and the shelves were filled with books. One side held his 30 year old medical books and 20 years worth of bound issues of Newsweek, the other side was full of Easton Press Books. Easton Press is one of the Holy Grails of bookselling. And these weren't just any Easton Press Books, these were all signed first edition Science Fiction Easton Press books.

The sale didn't attract many buyers with interest in custom leather books. Many of shoppers were neighbors who bought armloads of CDs & sports memorabilia but just rolled their eyes at the books. The book room was filled with very overweight young men, wearing backwards baseball caps & baggy pants and in need of a shave, accompanied by their girlfriends who wore very tight, very low cut pants that showed off their “muffin tops” and thongs all talking on their cell phones and trying to describe what they were seeing. In their words the room was full of “old books and other old s----“!

Science Fiction isn't my forte though I know it sells. I called a fellow bookseller, who prowled around on E-bay and we zeroed in on 17 books with potential. At $25 each I didn't want to buy any duds. Come Sunday everything would be 50% off so a return trip was in order.

Turned out that most of the Easton Press books were still there. I bought 10 and some audio books for Lou and left.

Upon delivery of the audio books Lou asked me 'Why didn't you make an offer for all of them?"

"Humm" I thought upon arriving home, "why not"?

I e-mailed the estate sale proprietor and offered to buy and haul away all the remaining Easton Press books at $10 per book. I estimated maybe 100 books were left. Wrong. There were 210 volumes and she accepted my offer.

Gulp. Very Big Gulp. Very, Very big Gulp.

Didn't think I could back out without incurring the wrath of the Estate Sale Dealer. Whose wrath I could not afford to incur - she's an important cog in my inventory strategy wheel. Oh well, I'll just pay the minimum on my Visa bill this month.

13 boxes later I was the giddy but scared owner of 250 Easton Press Books.

I think I've just advanced a step or two above my usual bookselling rank of bottom feeder.

They are all headed for E-bay. Stay tuned.

By Their Books Ye Shall Know Them...

I think a person's books can tell more about them than almost anything else in their household. Saturday I went to an estate sale in search of books to sell.
The ad promised "1000s of books". There wasn't even 1000 but there were a great many. I find that estate sale givers always overestimate the number of books.

The former owner was a life time member of Weight Watchers, a Methodist, a diabetic and had a superficial interest in architecture, decorating and drawing. She was very fond of anything published by Rodale Press (a notorious publisher of penny books) , dabbled in natural healing and did a bit of travel, all of it domestic. At one time she'd practiced law and officed out of her home. Given the number of "how to succeed as a solo lawyer" books she wasn't very successful.

She also spent more time at Half Price Books than I do, which meant the bulk of her books were worthless on the resale market. Oh well. I did find a few gems but some days are like that.
Even in Australia.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Thursday Thirteen

What does one write about for the Thanksgiving Thursday Thirteen but 13 Blessings? It may be a cliche but that's what Thanksgiving is, a holiday full of cliches.

1. My family. We may be quirky and our family reunions gather up the most eclectic group of individuals on the planet but we all respect each other's differences and get along.

2. My partner. 12 years and counting and she's as wonderful as she was when we first connected.

3. The Internet - it gave me my partner, my second job and it makes my first job every changing and ever interesting. Can't imagine life without it.

4. My job. In these uncertain times I feel blessed to have a job that is relatively safe. That I thoroughly enjoy it is an added bonus.

5. My two daughters. On their own with college degrees in hand. Supporting themselves at jobs that don't require them to say "and would you like fries with that?".

6. My new son-in-law. The wedding was delightful from start to finish. Every woman should have husband as sweet as Jason. She's in good hands.

7. Our new President. Finally someone I voted for won. The new feeling of hope in our country and the new interest of the young in politics is a refreshing change from the same old same old.

8. My On-Line book sellers group. I've learned so much from them and they have had such a positive impact on my book business (and its bottom line).

9. My fellow teachers. A few drive me round the bend at times but all in all you'd be hard pressed to find a harder working group of folks who do it for the kids.

10. My blogging class - Lordie those kids are fun! They keep me on their toes and the growth in their writing is joy to behold.

11. My kitties. They always greet us at the door with purrs and meows.

12. Electricity - Hurricane Ike reminded the entire city of Houston that Ben Franklin's birthday ought to be a national holiday.

13. My life. Other than an occasional ache and pain it's all good.

When Does Parental Choice Become Neglect?

We have several students who NEED to be on medication. Badly. Not just your ordinary run of the mill ADD medication but serious drugs. The kids throw things, run away, defy all authority, refuse to learn and do their very best to ensure their peers can’t learn. They can’t control their behavior – they have severe emotional issues.

The parents can’t or won’t agree to medication. Some pay lip service to the idea and then they don’t fill the prescriptions, they let them lapse or they “forget” to administer them. They send the meds to school but don’t follow through on the weekends. The school nurse goes as far to driving to the pharmacy that accepts Medicaid to personally fill the scripts. Money can’t buy the service she provides.

One parent keeps talking about “that diet I read about on the Internet”. Only problem is, the gluten free, additive free , sugar free, diary free diets that are suggested as possible alternatives require great discipline, organization and vigilance on the part of the parents. The Texas food stamp allotment doesn’t stretch far enough to cover organic produce and hormone free beef and this is a parent who can’t manage to get their child to school on time..

Another parent wants to “home school” because the child never has any problems at home. Of course the child doesn’t – they get to do whatever they want to at home. Technically we can’t stop the parent – the home school laws in Texas are pretty loose. We try to squash the idea since the parent is a high school drop out with poor parenting skills. They are sober now, but a past substance abuse problem took a toll on their cognitive skills.

Yet another doesn’t want their child to carry the “special ed” label. She fears it will mark her for life. Once a school wants to apply it, she ups and moves and enrolls her in a new school without telling anyone about his prior problems. She knows it takes time for the records to arrive and the wheels of school administered testing grind very, very slowly. The child doesn’t have a special ed label yet, but she’s has a number of others - “holy terror”, “spoiled”, “better your class than mine” – none of them flattering.

These kids take up some 90% of their teachers, the nurse, the counselor and the Principals time, leaving the rest of the children to muddle along on their own. They keep their classrooms and the school in an uproar. Everyone walks on eggshells waiting for the next explosion. They aren’t learning and they aren’t happy – they have no friends and the other kids shun them.

So when is it parental choice and when is it neglect?

My next gig?

Who thinks up these things? And why are they so addictive?

Are You More Qualified than Sarah Palin?
	You are 92% more qualified than Sarah Palin. You're no short-term political stunt, you're the real deal, the VP the American people deserve. I guess your phone was off the hook when John McCain was calling around looking for a running mate... must've been one of those pesky robo-calls.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

At least I'm not PigPen!

Which Peanuts Character Are You?
	You are Schroeder. You are brilliant, ambitious, and brooding; you tackle tasks with extreme focus. People don't always interest you as much as other pursuits, though, so you can come off as aloof.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Obama supporters sing national anthem outside White House

Celebrating in the Streets

Part 1- Barack Obama Victory Speech Grant Park Chicago, IL

An Amazing Night

Joan Baez - We shall overcome

Can't get this song out of my head!

It's been a tumultuous couple of days. Days filled with smiles and hope, tears of joy and unabashed sappiness and patriotism. Last Tuesday night is a jumble of images.

Grant Park filled with thousands of people - young, old, black, white brown - a cross section of America cheering their new leader. It's the first time I can remember a President acknowledging his victory, not in a hotel ballroom where only a select few are invited to the party, but in a public park, open to anyone regardless of the thickness of their wallet. A speech that reiterated that in America anything is possible.

For me, though one of the most memorable pictures was that of the jubilant crowd storming The White House and dancing in streets outside the gates. I wonder if His Shrubness had a flashback to Marie Antoinette and mob who marched on Versailles? Nah, history was never his strongpoint. Nor was being President.

So many thoughts, so many songs...the old anthem of the Civil Rights Movement says it all..

We Shall Overcome

Pigs Might Actually Fly

The Houston Chronicle,, Houston's oh so very conservative, always go with the status quo and support "bizness" newspaper endorsed Obama.

This is huge folks. The Chronicle hasn't endorsed a Democrat since 1964. They really didn't have a choice that year - Lyndon Johnson was a Texan.

The fact that our hometown newspaper has turned its back on The Shrub's successor has me feeling cautiously optimistic about Tuesday's outcome.

Blogging 101

Every since I discovered blogging (has it really been more than 4 years!) I've been wanting to teach a blogging class. I dabbled with it last Spring - it turned out to be more of a dress rehearsal and I'm trying again this school year.

Still tweaking it - I'll get it right one of these days. It's a work in progress but it's a delightful work in progress. Roughly 20 kids and I spend 2 hours once a week learning, writing, getting frustrated, being perplexed and giggling. They are learning, I'm learning and the results are really quite amazing.

The Turmoil After the Storm

It's been 3 + weeks (is it only 3 weeks???) and Houston is trying to get back to normal. That's Houston, it will take Galveston years to get back to normal.

Almost everyone in Houston has power again and the traffic lights work. The streets are piled head high with stacks of branches, tree trunks and assorted destroyed flora. It's depressing to say the least.

The folks who have been hard hardest are as always, "the little people". I'm one of the lucky ones, I Iwas off work for 7 days but still collected a paycheck. Some businesses were closed for as long as 2 weeks and many of them couldn't or didn't pay their employees. People who make minimum wage, the day laborers who stand on the street corner and the bus boys in the kitchen couldn't work and didn't get paid. Those folks, who live pay check to pay check are really, really hurting.

Texas is offering up extra food stamps but the food stamp allowance is paltry at best and it doesn't go far.

One of the apartment complexes in my school's attendance zone had the roof ripped off. I took one of the students home last week and suddenly found myself in an alternate universe. The tenants don't have money to rent a motel room or to move. Furniture was piled up under the "covered parking" and ruined possessions were piled around in heaps and stacks. The place still doesn't have power and the roof was made of blue FEMA tarps. Pieces of the ex roof littered the court yard. The complex has an absentee owner who, as long as he gets his rent money does not appear to be in any hurry to get the repairs up and going. Texas Laws favor the landlord totally. Amazingly the tenants must pay their rent, even though their apartments are barely livable.

That just seems downright wrong. This is American isn't it?

Is There Something in the Water?

We’ve always had some students who were “different”. But there were just a few. The past couple of years it’s been an explosion. Where are they coming from? I don’t think it’s because of better diagnosis – the kids we’ve enrolled are not “slightly disturbed” – they are very, very disturbed.

We students who take serious anti psychotic drugs, students who have violent rages & students who are schizophrenic. We have more and more children who are autistic. Some are diagnosed and some aren’t , but after a number of years in the profession any seasoned teacher can spot the “look” across a crowded room.

Perhaps it’s because I’m at a low SES school but I still find it amazing that a child can reach age 5 or 6 without a parent realizing something isn’t “quite right”. Maybe they don’t note the milestones in the baby book as obsessively as a helicopter parent does or perhaps they are just in deep, deep denial .

Once the paperwork process starts some fight it tooth and nail and others ignore all communication from the school and don’t show up at the STAT and ARD meetings. Papers sent home get lost and are never signed – and without those signatures the schools hands are tied.

Then the parent and child up and moves and the process starts all over again. And again and again and again. It’s not uncommon for a child to reach the 5th grade without a diagnosis. And you can’t start treatment without a diagnosis. That results in 6th graders who can’t read above a first grade level and have no social skills what so ever.

Who gets blamed for that ? Why the schools of course.

No, it’s not the fault of the school. I really do think there is something in the water.

Ike Still (or Again)

School starts up next week and I've been working on an Ike FlipChart / Animoto. I know the kids will want to talk about their experiences so next week the library will be hurricane central. We'll pull out all our hurricane and weather disaster books and put them on display. The district has given us a work day to put things to right again and they kids will be back on Tuesday. I am quite sure there are many parents heaving great sighs of relief.

Signs of Normal Life

I finally got to mail packages today and I found an open Starbucks! Life is improving (even if we don’t have power).

My little local Heights PO has no power and they are selling stamps but only for cash. They aren’t accepting packages. So Lou and I went over to the River Oaks Post Office which has some power and they took them! They can’t take credit cards but they can transact business.

On the way home we found an open Starbucks. They only had hot coffee and drinks made with soy because there isn’t any fresh milk to be had – at least not in my part of town. A soy latte isn’t as good as a milk one, but hey I’ll take it.

We also saw that Hickory Hollow, one of our favorite barbecue places had set up a tent in their parking lot and was selling barbecue. You don’t need electricity to make good Texas barbecue! They had a line of happy looking customers.

Once I got home I took some ice, coke and water over to the Heights PO because the folks there looked they needed a random act of kindness. I also told them River Oaks was open so they could direct their customers. They were so thrilled that the normally grumpy supervisor gave me a spontaneous hug

Lou, who has electricity is going to do a load of my laundry in return for the use of my internet.

My new scanner still hasn’t arrived, but that’s OK, there won’t be any garage sales this weekend anyway

Life Goes On.

_._,__

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

We replaced these .........

With this .

.

........\/

Guess which one is the most beautiful?
If you gussed #2 you are correct.

#2 is the generator!

Report From Hurricane Central

To add insult to injury Mother Nature sent us a thunderstorm that would have been noteworthy under normal circumstances.

Interstate 10 is once again masquerading as the Grand Canal and our street (we live 10 blocks from 1-10) flooded. That’s only happened once before – during Allison. No water in the houses. We are on pier & beam and 5 feet above grade so should we have water in the house we'd expect to see Noah and his ark sailing down the street.
Picture compliments of KHOU TV

I am blowing kisses at My Beloved for getting us the honking big generator. Being married to someone who is a commercial construction manager is frequently a blessing.  Especially in the aftermath of a hurricane.

Yikes! Ike"

All is OK at our house, other than no power – it went out at 3:45am. My Beloved, who believes in being more prepared than an entire troop of Boy Scouts, installed a honking big generator some months ago. Said honking big generator kicked in so we have some power .

We have fridge, microwave, ceiling fans and upstairs A/C. We also have the TV & the satellite dish – My Beloved does have her priorities! In fact, she Tivoed this morning’s golf tournaments and she’s watching them.

She forgot to include the internet but I took care of that problem. I have my priorities too!
I snaked an extension cord and have the router plugged back in so we have DSL. Some of the plugs in the house work and some don’t – it depends if they on the same circuit as the appliances that are working.

We have a gas stove and water heater so we can cook and clean. Actually we can’t clean to much because there is almost no water pressure. It comes out of the faucet in a tiny trickle. One of the city water plants has no power.


Ike was a BIG STORM. It came right up I-45 from Galveston and it’s an unwelcome guest who refuses to leave. It’s now 3pm and the skies are still filled with dark clouds. Our guest has been with us for more than 24 hours – that’s unheard of.

The storm started getting bad about 4pm and conditions got really dicey round midnight. The rain was horizontal and the wind blew it in under the doors. Our house shook when an especially fierce blast came round – gusts were up to 90 mph. . I was asleep and work up from dream where I was all alone on a raft in the ocean. We could see the transformers popping – they lit up the sky with an eerie glow..

No flooding in my neighborhood but the Bayous are out of their banks and I-10 looks like the Grand Canal. So we can’t go anywhere (not that we would).

Downtown looks like a war zone – we have many tall buildings with all glass facades and once a couple break the pieces start flying around like bullets and take out many more. The same thing happened during Hurricane Alicia 25 years prior. And of course, out of the open windows fly computers, papers and office supplies. 

Interstate 45 into Galveston Island is blocked by numerous yachts that broke loose from their moorings.  It is a surreal sight. 

The upcoming week should be, to say the least interesting