Sad State of Affairs

I have recently re-employed an old instrument belonging to the library. This creative (though ancient) gadget is used to apply tape to the spines and binding of books. It has not been used in many years; I had to scrounge for the tape to use in the machine. Last week, I had to order more stock of this special tape.

Why has this old machine come back into fashion? It's due to the sad state of affairs here. Alas, we cannot afford to buy new textbooks. Instead, we must keep using the old ones, no matter their state of disrepair. I have repeatedly taped (and retaped ad nauseum) math, history, and science textbooks.

Now, it's not that these books have been shoddily cared for (in most cases). The problem is just that the books are old. Most of our textbooks have not been purchased new in nearly a decade.

So we are making do with what we have. And that means I will be taping, taping, and retaping. I will probably use more tape than what I have ordered. (And when this is all over, we might not really be saving that much money.)

In the spirit of reusing and recycling, I thought I'd recommend Dumpster Diver by Janet S. Wong. (I needed a happy face.)