Found Pictures: VW Camper

It never ceases to amuse me, the random pictures that I find tucked away in books.

With a much-needed influx of books received last weekend, I finally found another gem:

This one has three inscriptions on the back. They say: "'87 VW Camper"; "HCts Beach lot - camping area - Paia - Date was Brian - Ross' 60th Bday Gathering"; and "Paid 400 - to Donald Gusman of HCts - sold it for 2400 - couldn't get it to run well."

I haven't yet figured out what "HCts" means, although the town mentioned, Paia, is here on Maui. The rest seems self-explanatory.

I have often wondered what sort of person uses a photograph as a bookmark. For me, pictures are precious and I would never use one to mark my place in a book. But this one in particular fascinates me. Who takes a picture of a vehicle to commemorate a party they went to? And then writes down the name of their date on the back? Why no picture of the date?

On the other hand, I would like to congratulate the owner of this picture for selling the showcased vehicle for $2,000 more than they paid for it, particularly since, as they say, they "couldn't get it to run well." Good show!

Tales from the Bookstore: Necklace

Two weekends ago, when I was at the bookstore, I admired the necklaces that a man and his wife were wearing. It turns out that the man made these necklaces from glass that he's found on various beaches around the world. He doesn't do anything to the glass, just fashions it into a necklace as-is, with truly beautiful results.

The man was delighted that I had complimented his artwork and said that he had more necklaces in the car. A few minutes later, he came back in with the necklaces in-hand. He insisted that one of my fellow volunteers and I both pick one free-of-charge. Here is mine:

And a close up of the glass:

I wish that I had taken a photo of the other volunteer's choice, a piece that looked black when lying flat, but a deep, rich green when held up to the light.

I was deeply moved by this freely-given gift. It brightened my whole day. In a world where we seem to be hearing the worst news all of the time, it's nice to know that people can still surprise and humble me with their kindness.

Tales from the Bookstore: A Taste of Home

Several weeks ago, I missed my day at the bookstore due to a bad case of death-flu. Since coming back, pickings there have been a little slim. These last few weeks, we've had the least amount of donations I've seen since I started volunteering there some 8 months ago.

Needless to say, found objects have been a little scarce. However, the weekend I came back from the death-flu, I found this lovely little bookmark:

Oh Powell's, how I do miss thee, one of favorite things in my adopted hometown of Portland, Oregon.

The find was not too much of a surprise; a lot of people move here from Oregon and vice versa. But it sure gave my little heart a thrill.

Found Pictures: Cute Dog

The universal response to this picture (thus far) has been: "Awwwww."

Evangelism

The husband and I were talking about evangelism the other day. The conversation was prompted by the behavior of a friend, who is what I would call a "conspiracy theory evangelist." This person is constantly harping on various conspiracy theories and predicting imminent doom and gloom. I find it tiresome because I do not believe in conspiracy theories. I also like to enjoy my life without a constant fear of impending worldwide disaster.

At any rate, our conversation strayed to another friend, who has become a bit of a "health food evangelist." Personally, I have pretty big walls up when it comes to discussing eating habits. I am an anorexic who has thankfully been in recovery for some 12 years, but food is still a touchy subject with me. Those "anorexic thoughts" never quite go away, no matter how much you grow emotionally and mentally. So when a friend, out of blue, tells me that my current eating habits are the root cause of all my life's problems, that tends to get my hackles up.

My husband, on the other hand, is an evangelist himself. He's an "anti-religion" or "anti-theist" evangelist. He really hates religion. A lot. And he will bend almost any conversation you have into a diatribe against religion, which gets on my nerves. Not every bad thing that's ever happened in the world has been caused by religion. And I'd like to have a conversation without discussing the "evil" that is religion.

Being surrounded by all these evangelists got me to wondering. Is everyone an evangelist? Do we all have something that we just can't shut up about? Or is evangelism something that strikes from time to time? Perhaps only a certain type of person becomes an evangelist and I just tend to attract them.

Am I an evangelist? I've been thinking about that a lot. Perhaps I go on and on about some topic that bores my friends to tears and/or annoys them. I like soccer a lot, but I try not to blab about it too much to people who don't care for it. I also like books a lot. I think if I were ever actively an evangelist for anything, it would be reading.

Mostly, I worry that I'm a "self evangelist." Perhaps I talk about myself too much. I do have a blog, after all, which is kind of the height of self-promotion.

I have no conclusions here. Just thinking out loud. Perhaps I should become an evangelist for anti-evangelism.

A Banner Day for Found Items

Lots of great stuff at the bookstore last Saturday! I now wonder if there was always this much stuff to be found and I wasn't looking. What have I missed out on all these weekends?

The theme of last Saturday seemed to be postcards. I found three of them:

I find it interesting that two of them had a "space" theme, even though I found them in different books, neither of which were space-themed themselves.

I also found this shellacked Canadian two dollar bill bookmark:

No one else wanted it, so it came home with me, even though I don't tend to use bookmarks. Why would you pass up shellacked money?

Found Pictures: Lady in Repose with Kayaks

She's a little hard to see; I didn't even notice her the first time I looked at the picture. I suggest viewing the expanded version.

I wonder where this picture was taken? It looks like a beautiful spot.