Vermont Sugar Free Syrup

The title comes from the first item on my shopping list, which also happens to be scribbled with blog ideas.  I have few uninterrupted blocks of time to do this, so I have to jot down my thoughts and hope to remember what they mean later on.  For instance, I have "pets--fish" written, and have no clue what that was about.

I do find it funny that the sugar-free pancake syrup I buy is called "Maple Grove Farms Vermont Sugar Free Syrup," as if it came out of a real tree in some idyllic northeastern landscape.  Not a big fan of artificial sweeteners, but hey, gotta have my low-carb gluten-free pancakes.

Okay, I also have "bullies" down here, and don't know what that's about either.  But ah--here's one: "card catalog."  Now that will bring me to a topic.

I was a lover of the card catalog.  If you don't remember, it was a great oaken bureau found in the library. On the face of it were rows of small, but very long (when you pulled them out) drawers. Each one had a bronze handle and a label of the alphabetical section contained within it.  The drawers were stuffed with 3 x 5 typewritten cards that told you, by author or by title, where to find the book you wanted. It was a great system.  It worked.  But then came computers.

I am not against technology.  Writing on my laptop is ecstasy.  It might even be possible to make a helpful  program to use as a substitute for the card catalog.  However, the likelihood of our town's public library selecting such a system was about as likely as me winning the Pulitzer Prize.  For a time they kept both.  I did try the computer search on many occasions, as a test for my blood pressure.  It could bring a man to tears. I would type in the correct author and title of a book that I could see on the shelf and the computer would say it did not exist.  I remember it clearly.  It was D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths.  

Well, one day the inevitable finally happened.  I entered the public library and beheld the empty space. My beloved behemoth was gone.  I had begged them to keep it--just as a back-up.  I had even volunteered to personally keep it up to date.  But they were determined.  All was lost.  My hopes of ever finding a book easily and efficiently again had disappeared--poof!  

But you know, something positive has come of this tragedy.  Now forced to wander the stacks, hoping against hope I will find what I'm looking for...I have discovered...a whole bunch of cool books I might not have seen otherwise!