I’ll
be honest. There are times I envy retired friends with all their leisure time to
travel, to socialize, to hike and garden and volunteer and keep their houses
clean and host dinner parties. It isn’t that I can’t do all those things, but
every single one of us is limited to 24 hours in a day, a third of those hours (for those not Twitter-addicted) pass in sleep, and, even awake, I don't have the energy or stamina I had a couple of decades ago. When I read my farming magazines, I
daydream about spending entire days out in the field but then wonder how
soon and how often I would need to take work breaks—not being the spring
chicken I was when Dog Ears Books was a pup, back in 1993.
A spring thaw,
however, brings fresh energy, in the bookstore as well as outdoors. My friend
Sarah Shoemaker’s novel, Mr. Rochester, is due out on May 9, and we’ll be
having a party! A posthumous collection of food essays by Jim Harrison is here
now, and Jamie Harrison, Jim’s daughter, has a new novel coming out in June. The
author of a new work on John James Audubon, Gregory Nobles, will be here to do
a summer presentation at the bookstore. Exciting plans put new life into an old dog. Besides plans, bookstore life also brings surprises, almost every day, and this quiet, rainy
March Friday was no exception. There were visits with friends,
bookstore newcomers from Traverse City and Lake Ann, and a beautiful bouquet of
birthday flowers, arriving a week early from dear friends in Pennsylvania.
Where else would I rather have been today? It has been a good day in Northport and a very cheery day in my bookstore!
