I have now been in the new job for 2 1/2 months. I know all the staff in the Tech Services area by name and face, and I am getting to know lots of other people in the Library too. I'm learning the quirks of the place and the issues. I'm participating in all kinds of things around the Library and the campus. A recent highlight was something they call Eastern N.C. Literary Homecoming which is a wonderful event that draws authors from this part of the state to do readings and performances in a weekend of wonderful literary celebration - I was in heaven for two days getting to rub shoulders with the likes of Doris Betts and Randall Kenan and Clyde Edgerton and Margaret Maron and several other great authors.

I am finally computing away at home and at work happily, and ACQNET is not only up and running but it's becoming more active. Keith and I are still trying to figure out the software but subscribers aren't complaining - they have been SO patient! I spent many sleepless nights in August and Sept. worrying about what people must be thinking.

We are about to get going with the AcqWeb redesign which I am very excited about. More about that soon.

The weather here has finally become reasonable and is quite lovely when it's not 90+ degrees all day.

If only the rest of the world would come back to sanity! Get this election over and please make the markets settle down! As a young person I had parents who lived through the Great Depression and I always believed that I would see the day when it would happen again. Yes, I think we are in for some difficult times. I am grateful to be where I am with the resources I have, although they are being strained by the move. But I have nothing to complain about!