Another first-in-a-while excursion finds me at the Rose Main Reading Room for the first time in maybe 2 years. It does not enchant me like it used to, but then nothing does, save, perhaps for PRAY. She is why I am here, to research a single footnote I spotted in an online book excerpt, one of those things where you get snippets of a book minus a majority of its surrounding content, in this case a bibliography. So I have to come to the library to get the book to get the footnote so I can go downstairs and wrestle with the microfiche machine, a beast I had a lot of trouble with the last time I used it, though to be fair it had probably been over 25 years since my last use of those things, at which time I was a virtuoso of the contraption.
I walked here, as is my wont, and the wind on the bridge was making my wheeze in minor agony. I hate being in the rain more than being in the wind but man, high winds feel like a giant tongue trying to lick me out of its mouth.
I remember stepping outside when Sandy was increasing in strength, just to feel her. She was mean. It was like flame and nanosands peeling away my face and body.
At the library, yes, the SASB, which does not stand for Soprano/Alto/Soprano/Bass. We live in such modern times that to access a single page from a book at this august institution takes at minimum 45 minutes but probably longer. I should have just followed the other option, which was to buy a copy used for $8.99 + $3.99 shipping. For $13 I could have that single page and its footnote delivered straight to my front door, versus spending $5.50 in subway fare and two hours of my day getting it here.
Alright, I’m not as irate about this as it might sound. Instead of sitting here being pissy I’m going to look for PRAY yet again in this building. I know her to be here already but I’m going to see if she double-dipped.
