The weekend past

 * Never got a call despite being told my framing job was supposed to be done. I was unwilling to invest the hour's round trip to drive down there in the rain in case it was done. I called the place and was told "the framer gets in at 1 pm, she'll call you" but she never called so

a. the message did not get passed on

b. the framing job was not done

I admit this frustrates me slightly - the lack of communication. I mean it's fine if something takes longer but if I call to check a call back would be nice. I won't be able to get it until after spring break now; I hope it's safe there. I have already paid for it and have a receipt so if the worst happened and it got lost or damaged I guess I can demand the cost of the framing back plus the $35 I paid for the painting session. 

But I really want it back and framed.

But this is something I've seen - increasingly poor/inattentive customer service. I know people are busy and often low-paid and all that but given how much time I devote to e-mailing back to students and similar it would be nice to get a little reciprocity there. 

I'd pay more for stuff if customer service were more reliable. But again: it's a bimodal situation where the hyperwealthy get what they need and the rest of us are just left hanging

*  I didn't quite get the ribbing on the vest done even though I have an exam to give tomorrow. I guess I figure it out during the exam. It's my small class so it should be OK; I am just out of energy to do more. 

Part of this is DST; I don't like it, I don't sleep well for a couple days after the change and I will have to go in in the dark tomorrow (I have to turn on the muffle furnace before my 8 am class and I don't relish walking across uneven ground on my bad knee to get there; I might break out my cane again for security - I keep it in the car just in case)

Part of this is just teaching fundamentally four classes (covering a gen bio lab means a level of preparation before hand more than I'd do for a majors' intro lab). So I'm more or less teaching four classes this semester and it really feels like three is my limit along WITH trying to get research and service done.

* We had two more interviews (online) today. At the end of the day, too, after teaching three classes.

* Telling myself I'm not allowed to look at my retirement funds (heavily in stocks) until I actually plan to retire; today was a bloodbath. And Social Security's probably gone; it feels like the plan is for all of us to work until we die.

In truth: I am just very tired. And it feels like nothing has been all that successful lately. 

*  Most actively reading "Death of a Bookseller" (Bernard J. Farmer, not the newer one - this is from the 50s at the latest). It's another of those British Mystery Classics. I'd never heard of Farmer before, but he's a pretty good writer and the story is fairly complex and moves along. Fundamentally: Wigan, a police officer, makes friends with a "runner" (A bookseller who goes around picking books and trying to resell them for a profit). The man lucks into a very rare manuscript, and then is found dead (stabbed). Another runner is picked up on suspicion, and there's a lot of circumstantial evidence against him, but Wigan suspects justice is being miscarried (and this was back in the day when capital punishment was common; the suspect is scheduled to be hanged). A number of other booksellers either seem to be suspects, or Wigan tries to draw them in to get help from them to free poor Fred Hampton (if he is innocent). Right now it's taken an odd turn (I'm perhaps 1/2-2/3 of the way through) where it's suggested that Fisk (the victim) was into the occult, and was trying to summon the devil, and it's implied the devil could have been the one who killed him. It seems a bit jarring given the "police procedural" tone of the rest of the book, but I'll see where it goes.

It's a good story though and I admit I hope poor Fred IS innocent, and that he gets acquitted in time. There's also a woman bookseller (Ruth)  who's an unpleasant piece of work. And there's a bit of a look into the antiquarian book trade in the 1950s - again, with the complaint that some of the wealthy collectors (most of them Americans) don't care about books, they only want them as an investment

(though given events of today - maybe they're better than stocks?)

I sort of collect books. I haven't bought any old-ish ones in a long time, though, mainly through lack of access for places to buy them - the few used book shops around here carry mostly recent publications, and I haven't really done much antiquing. And this climate is hard on books, so they often aren't in as good condition as in cooler/less insect-plagued climates. 

But it's interesting to read about.