The Bookmobile Is Back. The Part Came From Ohio.
due november 18. same atlas. i checked.
In September I laid out what I called the Ohio Theory, DocFenwick laid out why I was wrong, and the board laid out a thread that is still going. One item on my list was the parish bookmobile, off its route since June, waiting on a part. The part was coming from Ohio.
The bookmobile is back. The parish paper printed it on the 17th, very calmly, the way that paper prints everything. The part came from, and I am quoting, "somewhere in Ohio." Somewhere. Not a city. Not a company. Somewhere.
So I went on Wednesday, because the bookmobile is at the landing on Wednesdays, and I asked. I want to be fair to everybody involved. The librarian, who also drives it, was polite and busy and told me it was a fan belt assembly and that the shop in Henderson ordered it out of a catalog. I asked which catalog. The answer was "the one with the parts in it."
I asked to see the old part. It is gone. The shop kept it, or threw it away, or sent it back. Nobody is sure which. The new part is under the hood, where I am told it belongs, and where I am told I do not.
While I was there I checked out two books, because I was not going to stand at a bookmobile and not check out books. One was a large-print western. The other was a road atlas, the same edition as mine, and I opened it to Ohio at the counter on purpose, to see what would happen. Nothing happened. The librarian stamped it due November 18 and said, "Enjoy Ohio."
DocFenwick will say a fan belt is a fan belt, a catalog is a catalog, and parts come from where parts are made. All true. Here is my read anyway. Ohio did not send us a person this time. Ohio sent us a part, and the part went into the one vehicle in the parish that visits every school, every landing and every post office, once a week, on a schedule. I am not saying it is listening. I am saying it gets around.
The air conditioning works now, mostly. That part came from Texas. I have no position on Texas yet.
I relay. You decide.
In Truth and Terror.
— Beau
