another book-crazy weekend

Saturday saw the success of getting about 15 boxes of books and highlighted the disappointment that sometimes happens in what is essentially a one-man operation.

While I was distracted elsewhere someone grabbed 2 boxes of chapter books I had set aside and someone else got the 32-volume 1997 Encyclopedia Britannica. That was a huge dissappointment.

And with Sunday came 14 more boxes, bringing the total to 90% of the goal.

Today was the famed Book Fair and we got about 35 boxes of books from them to add to the pile. I was assisted by a very nice lady who help pick and package the books and sat with them as I took the first load to the storage facility.

I'll take the load from the high school tomorrow.

It looks like another 5 or 6 major loads will finish off the project.

I'm hoping to involve a Chicago shipper in sharing costs and smoothing the way into Constanta.

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I'm sick but found a surprise...

My cold/flu has me feeling like poop, but I made it out to get books.

I got about fifteen boxes from the high school, A good mix of adult and kids' books. And on the way there I found a surprise book sale that netted another ten unexpected boxes of books.

There was some bad news today. I've heard the Post Office is restructuring some of it's services and getting rid of M-Bag Surface Mail. Presumably M-Bag Air Mail will remain, but it's more expensive. More to follow.

dodged a bullet and another book source

After I dropped off the most recent stack of boxes of books I rearranged the pallets and I see we're rounding the bend and going into the stretch. I can see finishing the book-collection aspect of this project in the next couple of weeks. We'll be finished by the first of June, I'm sure.

I seem to have caught a bug working in that warehouse. I hope my flu shot holds up, but it doesn't look good.

However, there was some bad news/good news.

After I left the storage facility I headed to the Book Fair to nail down the details of charity day. I heard a clunk!! from the back of my pick-up and then a sharp bang-bang-bank-bang as I was driving down the highway. I looked to see if the straps had come loose from my load (they hadn't) and then I slowed to a stop. I looked underneath and didn't see anything dragging or missing and nothing leaking. But the noise persisted.

I spotted a Chevrolet dealer's sign and nursed it there where the guy said it could be the transmission or U-joint, both expensive proposals. He climbed under and found a piece of my tie-down strap wrapped around my drive shaft. He cut it away and sent me on my way without charge. Amazing!!

Between the car dealer and the book fair I saw a sign for another book sale at a church. I stopped and chatted with a guy there and he says I can help myself when the sale is over. I hinted at the need for money, too. I'll make a pitch next week.

I need to start fundraising on the primary mission, sending kids' books to Peace Corps grade school teachers. That financial cupboard is bare.

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more and more...

Work today resulted in twenty-five boxes of books to be transported tomorrow. There are some amazing volumes. Some had me laughing as I thought about people finding them in Romanian libraries.

I got word from the high school that they'll loan me a couple students to help pack books and that I'll be able to leave them in the school gym until Tuesday, because the storage facility won't be open on the weekend.

I made a pitch to the Greek Orthodox Church priest to have the parish adopt a village school and supply English books to create a library. I'm hoping they do it to match the library the Romanian Orthodox church will be creating.

the mood is elevated...

This week seems to be going very well. A local high school is having a big book sale this Saturday and one of the entire region's biggest book sales winds up on Sunday. On top of that, one of my used book store contacts has offered me more choice books from his basement stash. Not only that, next weekend is another large sale.

Also the American contact in Focsani tells me that they are confident they will have the money to pay for the container.

I'm also negotiating to share a 40' container so we can send 20' of books pro-rated at the 40' price. It should trim the cost a bit, if it comes through.

they say it'll snow tonight?

The project has been quiet lately, with no word on funding. This always has me a bit concerned as I am worried about sitting on 20000 books and no money to send them.

The book collection has been a bit slow lately, as I wait for several book fairs. I'm nibbling at the warehouse of books, sorting out a few boxes here and there. In the past week, I've taken about 40 boxes of books to the storage facility and completely rearranged the pallets in anticipation of the 3 major events coming up.

The collecting process should be absolutely finished by mid-June. If the money comes through the books should be on-site by early September.

I don't know what the guy at the storage facility will do if I don't have the books out by then. I have nowhere to put them, they'll just be thrown away.

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