LEAVE IT TO PEEVER

To loan or not to loan

– Bumper sticker of the week: Everything is connected.

– Quotes of the week:

"Modern technology

Owes ecology

An apology." Alan Eddison

"In America today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops." Paul Brooks

– Proposed Galesburg bookstore in the news: A proposed bookstore for Galesburg, whose owner was looking for a revolving loan from the city, was out at the first council meeting, back in at the second. Somehow, that's not too unusual. I am a person who loves bookstores. I could spend all week inside a Borders. One of my favorite places for independent bookstores is Madison, Wisconsin. Unfortunately, we ain't no Madison. The times are tough on independent bookstores. The main problem is twofold: Amazon.com and the high expense of printed material, affecting newspapers, books, and magazines. Amazon’s answer is Kindle, an electronic device that acts like a book. You can buy books, magazines, and newspapers and read them all on the Kindle. Life is not getting any easier in the publishing business. A bookstore in Galesburg needs a big enough inventory to draw people in, needs to be comfortable, and needs to serve coffee. What we don't need is another comic book store. Maybe a coop bookstore, where you can turn in a book for a new one. Anything short of that will not likely work. I wish the proprietor luck. He will need it. It is a long-shot at best, but one I hope succeeds.

– Ten things you learn as you grow older:

1. At least one time during the night you have to go to the bathroom. Hopefully, you get up.

2. No one asks you your opinion about the future.

3. Remembering what day it is becomes less important than remembering your name.

4. When someone mentions you should be worried about tomorrow, you just laugh.

5. Any talk about the Social Security Administration running out of money makes you break out in a cold sweat.

6. Having someone help you with a bath is the closest thing to a sexual encounter you can remember.

7 . You can cuss and rant and rave and blame it on Alzheimer's.

8. When you go to the doctor, you can count on getting your money’s worth.

9. Trying to please everyone makes you a lot less anxious.

10. You realize that all that time and money you spent on trying to stay young didn't work.

–Rain, rain, go away: We had a lousy winter, and now a lousy spring. I can't wait for summer.

– In the spirit of positiveness, let me say these three things:

1. The strip club in town has really not hurt us.

2. Finding a bar in town is pretty easy.

3. We got tap water that tastes as good as any bottled water, although it's getting just about as expensive.