random thoughts on the weather, germs, and very very cheap books

it was a cold, wet, and gloomy day in austin today. the cool weather has kept us all cooped up in the house for days on end (ok, maybe only a couple of days, but a couple of days in the house with sunny can seem like days on end! don't get me wrong, i love the kid, but today he was literally running laps). sailor is much better (she's even resolved all of her sleep issues - i think they were primarily illness related), but now jon is sick, so he was sleeping and sneezing most of the day. apparently i don't have anything much of interest to write besides the cold weather and the various stages of disease afflicting our family.... oh, and we spent way too long at a library book sale today. i have absolutely no willpower in the face of very very cheap books. i end up with all kinds of random things i don't need nor will i ever read. (witness my bedroom. if you haven't seen it, picture a room with four walls of shelves, filled to overflowing with books of all shapes and sizes. it says something about the state of my mind these days that while i once found the overabundance of reading material exciting and inspiring, i now think it collects lots of dust and contributes to our allergies. sigh.) and yet i still try to cram as many books as i can into one paper bag. it makes me feel very strange to see these beautiful like-new hardcovers, worth over $20 new at a bookstore, going for maybe 25 cents. it says something odd about the value of the written word. (i guess blogging says something similar. all of these billions of words hurled into cyberspace because we all think everyone is interested in what we have to say. at least i'm not wasting paper. :)