In which Monday was a holiday

[rolanni]

. . .so the pleasure of setting the trash out is deferred until tomorrow.

Yesterday, I did a little more yard work -- bagging leaves, raking mats out of the rosebush, sweeping the dirt and dead leaves off of the statue in the Cat Garden.  The ground's thawing, but you hit the frozen stuff about four inches down.

In cat news, Scrabble appears to have decided that Socks has gone on to another of his fan clubs.  Mozart, however, is spending a worrisome amount of time in the cat circle with two of the stuffies Socks favored.  I don't think he's sick, just. . .sad.  Anybody know how to do grief therapy with an aging Coon cat?

In this morning's inbox is notification from BN that You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, by Tom Gauld is shipping.  I think this is splendid, but. . .

I pre-ordered this book many, many months ago.  Three months ago, I got a note from BN that the book had been delayed, did I still want it?  I assured them that I did.  Two months ago, they again wrote to tell me that the book was delayed, did I still want it?  Yep, I did.  One month ago, they wrote in all sorrow to tell me that the book was never going to be available -- and canceled my preorder.

Two days ago, I ordered it directly from the BN website, and today it's shipping.

This wouldn't worry me quite so much if I hadn't also gotten a note from BN telling me that there were canceling my order for The Abandoned because they had not received, and had no expectation of receiving, the book from the publisher.  I received that note the day after the book arrived here at the Confusion Factory.

In other news. . .the news is horrifying.  I see that the explosion in West, Texas last night registered as a 2.1 seismic event.  That's. . .quite an explosion.  I've been staying away from any place that offers me pictures of what's left of the town -- the narrative is quite enough.

Added to the attack on the Boston Marathon, and the rupturing of the crude oil lines in Arkansas. . .

Everybody stay as safe as you can, OK?

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Comments

Turning off the news

[mothadventures.livejournal.com]

I live just outside of Boston. Realized that following the news was just making everything seem so much worse to me that I turned it off and am just listening to CD's for now -- drop back in to the news for an hour or so in the evenings, that's plenty.

And am doing therapeutic yard work -- co-manage a food pantry garden that last year raised over 3500 pounds of produce for food pantries. Raised beds, warm enough that we had volunteers in last weekend and have planted peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach. So I've spent much of the last two days working on it, either outside or (joy!) in a nice warm greenhouse starting vegetable seedlings.... and shlepping water. The seeds need water no mater what crazy things are going on in our world.

[readinggeek451]

Barnes and Noble notified me a couple of days ago that a Nook book I ordered in November is now available for download. Great!--except for the fact that it was available back in November and I downloaded it then. This would just be an amusing story if it weren't for the notification email also saying that now they'll charge my credit card. I'm pretty sure I paid for that one already--back in November.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

BN.COM's inventory system is seriously hosed. This month I placed an order for several books, and received the emails saying the books had shipped after they had already arrived.

More than once they've canceled a preorder of mine for a book that I know is coming out, and then I'm able to turn around the next day and put a new order in which they'll then ship. Also annoying is that preorders seem to be last in the queue to go out. For the two most recent Liaden novels, my preorders were still showing as "scheduled to ship soon" days after other people were successfully placing ordering and receiving their copies.

I like having an alternative to the giant river and shop elsewhere whenever I can, but BN is their own worst enemy.

Not just Barnes and Noble

[disassembly_rsn]

I've had issues with pre-ordering from Amazon in the past; it seemed to me that the pattern was that pre-ordering tended to guarantee that I'd get the book some time after it was available in brick-and-mortar bookstores, and that even for Amazon I'd've been better off waiting to order. It put me off pre-ordering from them, at least regarding physical books.

Their Audible unit seems much better RE dealing with pre-order availability, I will grant that.

[otterb.livejournal.com]

I also am trying to order from bn.com instead of the South American river. Recently I had preordered Martha Wells's new book. I was reading people on her LJ saying that their copies were arriving, and bn emailed me that the publisher had delayed publication. I did eventually get it a week or so later. But it was annoying.

Ordering books

[barb-in-md.livejournal.com]

I would suggest to those who are fed-up with BN and the other guy to give Books a Million a try. For dead tree books they seems to carry all major publishers and a lot of minor ones. For e-books you would have to double check specific titles. (Their e-format is E-Pub, as they also sell the Nook). I have always gotten great service from them.

grief therapy

[barbinbandon.livejournal.com]

I wish somebody knowledgable would speak out. When we lost Sammy last year, PJ went into a profound depression and howled intermittently. She didn't last but about two months. They were both pretty old but still.

Sending best wishes for the sadness to pass. All of you.

Therapy for Animals, People too

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

Standard therapy for aging dogs is to get them a puppy. This may cheer them up or just annoy them but everyone will settle down eventually and be fine.

It may seem callous....and so I hesitate to mention this but.....good therapy for humans who have suffered a loss of a pet...the best thing to do...adopt another one. This is not callous actually. It does work. The newbie will take your mind off your grief.

Therapy for aging cat who has lost a friend....bring him/her another friend as soon as possible. Again this may not be received well at first....but all will be fine in the end.

A family who has lost a child but has other children cannot let the grief become overwhelming because the children left have to be well raised.