Merryann's galerij
As you can see, Fairypig did not at all like being on the glass floor very high up. It is true that I told her we were going to get some pizza while in Chicago and then we ended up here instead. And…
Honeybee and me. We spent over twenty years looking out for one another. Work on the Library stopped somewhere around the time I lost her. I'm gathering it back up now. I suppose when it's done, the…
About the Books. July 29, 2015. Please click 'next picture' to continue.
This is a short (and true) story about 'the books'. The books were in the house when we moved in. Some of us couldn’t read them because we didn’t know German. Some of us (like me) couldn’t read…
We moved every other year or so back then. The first move after that house was the only one in which we had to consciously decide: should we leave the books?
Why hadn’t Fred Grunwald taken them when he’d moved out prior to our moving in? Did they belong to the house? There was no way for us to know the answer. My mother feared the new owners of the…
After that first move, it wasn’t discussed again for decades. We moved. Our books moved. The Grunwald books moved. We never exactly considered them ‘ours’. It was as if we expected Fred to…
Of course, we didn’t really expect that…not really… but well, yes…I sort of did in a fuzzy kind of young human person way. The books had belonged to someone. A name was carefully written in…
Between my tenth and fifteenth years we moved about every three months. Plastic grocery bags were new on the market. I became expert in stacking books in them and pretending to be a woman with two…
My mother talked now about ‘letting some books go’ but since I was allowed the rare treat of Mountain Dew when carrying books I didn’t encourage her in that sort of foolishness.
Years went by. My Mom bought a house and still lives there. I grew up and settled into my own home. The time of moving the books was over. Other people in my family move things around, but I…
A few years ago I met a German man and it took my Mom about twenty minutes to connect that with the Grunwald books. I carried two of them from her house to meet Peter, almost as excited as my Mom to…
What I learned is that there’s a difference between German and Old German. Guess which language the Grunwald books are? I returned them to my Mom with some sketchy facts. “This one is about the…
A year later, my Mom reached some new place in her life and parted with all of the Grunwald books.
I put them in a cardboard box (using plastic bags for book moving is now passé) and brought them to my home.
You didn’t think I was going to carry those books for all those years only to take them to a thrift store now, did you? What if Fred Grunwald knocked on my door? How could I explain that?
Remember the German man from a few years and paragraphs ago?
He gifted me with a big chunk of his time to really look at the books.
They certainly are a diverse bunch! Most aren't illustrated, but the illustrations they do have...
...are lovely.
Books cover subjects such as school teaching...
religion...
chemistry...
business management...
stories for youth (with Owls, who feel this story is nice, but would be nicer with pictures of them also)...
romance novels (Auguste's book)...
plays...operas...
...and short stories!
I can read a word or two in some of them now, and thanks to Peter they got time and attention they hadn’t received in decades.
I am particularly fascinated with this visual snippet of how names changed in America. Otto Gruenwald in 1823.
F.A. Grunwald in 1901.
If Fred, Otto, or Auguste show up, I’ve got their books, still safe. In the meantime, I am glad they are listed in LibraryThing now, and on their bookshelf.
Speaking of shelves, here’s a couple of photos of the new wooden shelves. All the books are now on shelving that accommodates book height and depth. (Please excuse the slant. Nobody ever wants to…
The Library is coming along nicely.
In an estimated two years, all the books will be listed on LT and properly shelved. These are some of the 700s.
I do so hope I don’t run out of space. But I'm not going to worry about that now. This is a picture of me, in a happy state of bookeuphoria. Thank you for visiting. Feel free to view the rest of…
Orange Owlet
All work came to a halt today, when Orange Owlet suffered the worst accident to befall anyone here since the inception of the Library.
Plunging a full thirty inches from the worktable to the floor, Orange Owlet lay motionless.
Stunned, the other owlets could only watch helplessly as rescue workers raced to the scene.
Within seconds Orange Owlet was placed in traction and airlifted from the accident site to the Next-to-Typewriter Emergency Center. The patient was covered in obsolete Atlanta Medical Center sticky…
Doctors were initially apprehensive as to their patient’s chance of full recovery. Orange Owlet’s eyes remained dilated, regardless of light applied. The large gap between his head and body…
The next concern was in the loss of functionality. An M.R.I. was performed. Thankfully, it revealed no irregularities.
The patient was moved to a bed in the recovery center. Within minutes, his friends arrived to visit, bringing cards.
After sufficient time in physical therapy, Orange Owlet was released from the hospital and cleared to return to work. Everyone waited tensely as he began his first timing. We are very relieved to…
After his shift, talking with his friends and co-workers Orange Owlet confided that he’d been a bit nervous until the sound of the ticking began, at which point his professional instincts overrode…
The result of this accident is heightened awareness of safety needs in the Library. (Out of cute owlet photos, I'm now displaying Library pictures. This is an old picture showing the need for taller…
Plans are underway now to install a guard rail around the work table. It is management’s clear intention to surpass the requirements of OSHA. New training programs have been enacted, instructing…
The Library staff will continue to work with the Owlet Safety and Health Administration to ensure all safety measures are being taken. (A large view of the juvenile fiction shelves, with some young…
Thank you for caring about Orange Owlet enough to read about his recent injury. All the rest of the pictures are of the library in which he works. Here is a small and lovely picture of some 500s.
Young Adult fiction. Through the gap, across the room, the 700s (Arts) and 900s (Geography and History) shelves are somewhat visible.
A little better view of some of the 700s and 900s.
The Library would not be complete without the Law Books. I just wish I had room for more! I'd love a set of federal ones!!!
Huge 'Thanks' to this typewriter. It's still doing a great job for me!
This is Orme, the Book Dragon. Like any good dragon, he guards his hoard.
This is the first stack of books, cataloged into LT, labeled with their index cards, and shelved properly and neatly. I feel great! (We've progressed a bit, the owlets, Orme, and I, since the day I…
I'm Mary Ann. Thank you for visiting my Library. I hope your day is filled with joy!