Well, I’m not sure how to get ready for more winter…seems like bad weather is the theme this year. Not really, really bad weather, just the kind that is continually inconvenient. The kids already have two days added to their school year, they are only a couple weeks away from July now…can we even add more days? It’s already changing vacations, summer camps, etc.  Oh well. If life were a finely oiled machine, we’d be part of the machine and that would be oh, so, so boring.Yesterday Kelsey and I went to a library in Arlington…yes, Arlington, yes a library. This is well off our beaten path but part of her academic quest. I walked about “downtown” for a few minutes while she was studying but then came back to the building just to soak it all in. Imagine, people gathering in a building of old fashioned books; I have bought into the common notion that books are “out” and iPads and Kindles, et.al., are “in.” But this buzz in a place of books is puzzling.  There must be a study going on somewhere that’s been commissioned by sociologists to determine the group dynamics of  libraries in the electronic age. In the old days you didn’t have a choice, if you wanted the resource material, off to the musty smelling old building you went. But now…since people don’t “need” to go to the building, I assume that they are physically present because they really want to be in that particular environment. Our visit yesterday was startling, the place was jammin” and there weren’t special events…just books. And some sort of mood. Now I know that Arlington is considered a hotbed, or perhaps warmbed, of social activism and maybe that’s the reason. Lots of people were coming, going, just being in that place as part of a day. Now, I am going to have to find a library in our neck of the woods and see if the same mood exists. I hope so.Arlington, the town, has changed a great deal since I moved to Virginia almost thirty years ago. Most of the old buildings are gone and have been replace by glistening min-towers of millenial dwellings and businesses. Sterile is the word that comes to mind. Which is way out of character with the mood in the library which was just a couple of blocks away from the building in the shot below. This is an attractive, eye catching office building, or at least I think an office building. There are chains and ropes and “No Trespassing” signs at the main entrance where this was taken. I thought that perhaps the building was vacant but then thought it more likely that this was part of FDIC which is only a block away. In any event, the look is striking. Sterile yes but tones and lines Frank Lloyd Wright might have embraced as symbols of a century yet to come. 

Well, I’m not sure how to get ready for more winter…seems like bad weather is the theme this year. Not really, really bad weather, just the kind that is continually inconvenient. The kids already have two days added to their school year, they are only a couple weeks away from July now…can we even add more days? It’s already changing vacations, summer camps, etc.  Oh well. If life were a finely oiled machine, we’d be part of the machine and that would be oh, so, so boring.Yesterday Kelsey and I went to a library in Arlington…yes, Arlington, yes a library. This is well off our beaten path but part of her academic quest. I walked about “downtown” for a few minutes while she was studying but then came back to the building just to soak it all in. Imagine, people gathering in a building of old fashioned books; I have bought into the common notion that books are “out” and iPads and Kindles, et.al., are “in.” But this buzz in a place of books is puzzling.  There must be a study going on somewhere that’s been commissioned by sociologists to determine the group dynamics of  libraries in the electronic age. In the old days you didn’t have a choice, if you wanted the resource material, off to the musty smelling old building you went. But now…since people don’t “need” to go to the building, I assume that they are physically present because they really want to be in that particular environment. Our visit yesterday was startling, the place was jammin” and there weren’t special events…just books. And some sort of mood. Now I know that Arlington is considered a hotbed, or perhaps warmbed, of social activism and maybe that’s the reason. Lots of people were coming, going, just being in that place as part of a day. Now, I am going to have to find a library in our neck of the woods and see if the same mood exists. I hope so.Arlington, the town, has changed a great deal since I moved to Virginia almost thirty years ago. Most of the old buildings are gone and have been replace by glistening min-towers of millenial dwellings and businesses. Sterile is the word that comes to mind. Which is way out of character with the mood in the library which was just a couple of blocks away from the building in the shot below. This is an attractive, eye catching office building, or at least I think an office building. There are chains and ropes and “No Trespassing” signs at the main entrance where this was taken. I thought that perhaps the building was vacant but then thought it more likely that this was part of FDIC which is only a block away. In any event, the look is striking. Sterile yes but tones and lines Frank Lloyd Wright might have embraced as symbols of a century yet to come. 

Well, I’m not sure how to get ready for more winter…seems like bad weather is the theme this year. Not really, really bad weather, just the kind that is continually inconvenient. The kids already have two days added to their school year, they are only a couple weeks away from July now…can we even add more days? It’s already changing vacations, summer camps, etc.  Oh well. If life were a finely oiled machine, we’d be part of the machine and that would be oh, so, so boring.Yesterday Kelsey and I went to a library in Arlington…yes, Arlington, yes a library. This is well off our beaten path but part of her academic quest. I walked about “downtown” for a few minutes while she was studying but then came back to the building just to soak it all in. Imagine, people gathering in a building of old fashioned books; I have bought into the common notion that books are “out” and iPads and Kindles, et.al., are “in.” But this buzz in a place of books is puzzling.  There must be a study going on somewhere that’s been commissioned by sociologists to determine the group dynamics of  libraries in the electronic age. In the old days you didn’t have a choice, if you wanted the resource material, off to the musty smelling old building you went. But now…since people don’t “need” to go to the building, I assume that they are physically present because they really want to be in that particular environment. Our visit yesterday was startling, the place was jammin” and there weren’t special events…just books. And some sort of mood. Now I know that Arlington is considered a hotbed, or perhaps warmbed, of social activism and maybe that’s the reason. Lots of people were coming, going, just being in that place as part of a day. Now, I am going to have to find a library in our neck of the woods and see if the same mood exists. I hope so.Arlington, the town, has changed a great deal since I moved to Virginia almost thirty years ago. Most of the old buildings are gone and have been replace by glistening min-towers of millenial dwellings and businesses. Sterile is the word that comes to mind. Which is way out of character with the mood in the library which was just a couple of blocks away from the building in the shot below. This is an attractive, eye catching office building, or at least I think an office building. There are chains and ropes and “No Trespassing” signs at the main entrance where this was taken. I thought that perhaps the building was vacant but then thought it more likely that this was part of FDIC which is only a block away. In any event, the look is striking. Sterile yes but tones and lines Frank Lloyd Wright might have embraced as symbols of a century yet to come.