Still Reading

and driving . . .

The title of today’s post is informative for those who know me. For the rest of the world, it’s just a reminder of two of my favorite things, which I have been able to combine in my career as a title searcher in both Connecticut and New York. Here in Connecticut, we record documents at the individual town halls, so before the computerization of everything, we had to drive to any of the 169 towns where we might get an order (obviously we tended to concentrate in one area and take only orders that involved a reasonable drive). In New York the recordings are by County so many people stayed put all day; but I was so used to traveling that I took work in adjacent counties to the one where I lived. Since Mum died in 2012, I’ve been back in Connecticut and have continued to search here. I remember when the first Clerks began scanning in documents as well as having them printed in books as are stored from the beginning of the State’s history at the various town halls. Now I can do most work completely remotely, but needless to say, I miss both the driving into the country and the interaction with the humans in charge. Occasionally, there might be a need to delve further back, but most of my work nowadays involves current commercial searching for particular items which are all computerized—such as fixture filings, Federal Tax Liens, etc.

So now to the present and hopefully future. Friends and I who have been suffering from various ailments have made a pact to hold Jimmy Carter as our shining beacon to be able to vote in this most important election of our lifetime. It’s amazing how a drive to save democracy can make the aches and pains of old age seem trivial. And I truly believe the American experiment is on the line right now. I’ve been learning a lot more history from various great Substackers, and some take this current rightward shift all the way back to Reagan. I lived through all of that though, and I have never seen such incivility in public discourse. The Civil Rights era of course was fraught with drama, and change came grudgingly if at all to the Southern states. There are many great authors who have discussed this subject too. But I’m an English major who got involved in local politics only when I got a job with the Model Cities Program in 1969 (if my memory serves me correctly about the year). Lyndon Johnson was President after the assassination of JFK, and of course there were riots in the streets and the convention of 1968—which pundits today are calling to mind since the Democratic Convention begins Monday in that same City of Chicago. I have faith that we will experience hope and joy at this year’s meeting because we are all on the same page. I hope that the young people who have grievances over international issues will realize the greater threat of not voting will play right into the autocrat’s hands. For any young person on the fence, I highly recommend Brittney Griner’s book Coming Home about her confinement in Russia. And the other book that I am reading about Central America (Jonathan Blitzer’s Everyone Who is Gone is Here) puts a very human face on the political hot potato of immigration. Young people who are eligible to vote and are registered should exercise that right every time they are able to do so. And that’s the school marm in me talking, although I never made it a career but was certified to teach at one point. My last thought on this is that I am excited to get to my newest book, Shameless, by Brian Tyler Cohen, inveterate Substacker and YouTuber. I had pre-ordered and sure enough it arrived this week. The subhead is “Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy” with a foreword by Congressman Jamie Raskin.

Now getting down off my soapbox, I have to share that I just finished reading another birthday book I had asked for—the latest installment of the Isabel Dalhousie series by Alexander McCall Smith which is entitled The Conditions of Unconditional Love. Some of you may be more familiar with the super best-selling series, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency with Mma Ramotswe, and I love those books too. However, Isabel is a philosopher by trade (in fact she publishes the fictional “Review of Applied Ethics”) and I find the author has been able to incorporate quite a bit of our current dilemma into his writing with a philosophical take on some of the thorny issues. As I was reading, I could see myself using some of his words to apply to current events. But since this has been my bedtime book, I neglected to make a note of the specific quotes. So I’ll just recommend the whole book.

And finally, in case you’re wondering how I have time to read so many books at once—I basically do little else. Sometimes I have a paying work assignment, which of course takes precedence, but all of the other chores associated with domestic life have never been my strong suit. I will give a shout out to The Fly Lady, Marla Cilley, for inspiring me to at least keep my sink clean. It really does make a difference to feel that there is hope for me to eventually declutter and learn how to keep house one step at a time. I have a white porcelain kitchen sink which I purposely had installed when we remodeled many years ago. I had not been involved in any design ideas because it has never been of interest to me; but when I saw that they had installed a metal sink, I realized that some things do matter. I had them change it. And just yesterday I finally got a new can of Comet cleanser which works wonderfully to keep it looking new after many years. By the way, that cost me only $1.19 which was delightfully shocking with everyone complaining about rising prices. But before I go off on another tangent and make this much too long for my usual post, I’ll leave you with the idea of taking Sunday to be thankful for all the good things we enjoy every day. TTFN