With all of the difficulties in getting a fix on why so many have so much trouble accessing this site, I feel like the tree falling in the empty forest, not knowing whether no one is hearing the noise I am making, or if perhaps I am just not making any noise at all. And my next question is: did I mix metaphors in the last sentence, or having hanging gerunds or participles or chads or something? It doesn’t read right to me. Oh, well, we will all just have to deal with it.

It’s a chilly March Saturday in Washington, not one for many outside activities. The next week will be the same, it appears.

We started off the morning by going to the opening of the annual used book sale at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. (As an aside, I saw that BCC first opened in 1926. My mother graduated high school as part of the first graduating class at University City High School in MO in 1930. I assume the two were opened at the same time. More or less.)

How many books do they have on sale there? Really a lot. Perhaps even more than usual. I wanted to be selective, and I think I was. I only bought seven books. But (G-d willing, as they say), I think I may go back tomorrow to see if I missed anything important.

What am I looking for? My usual search is for books signed or inscribed by authors which, at the same time, hold some interest for me. Some I will hold on to; some I will put up for sale. (Most of you know we sell books under the name of A. Richard Books and More, on the abebooks.com website) The cost of the books at BCC is $3 each. You can’t go wrong.

I think, of the seven, the book I like the most is “No Dream too High”, inscribed by the author, Buzz Aldrin, who of course walked on the moon. On a clear night in a deserted part of the planet, with the right equipment, do you think you can see his footprints? (Interestingly, I wrote this last sentence before opening the book. Now, having opened it, I see that the first chapter is called “The Sky is not the Limit….There are Footprints on the Moon”. Hmmm.)

In fact, the titles of all thirteen chapters ring true to me (this is a book of “life lessons”) – including (for me) “Keep a Young Mind-set at Every Age”, for my grandchildren “Show Me Your Friends, and I will Show You Your Future”, and for everyone “Practice Respect for all People” (this goes along with my last two posts, on people with disabilities). So this book wins “Best of the Show”.

Next, winner of the “Most Unlikely” category is “The Accidental President of Brazil” by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who led Brazil from 1995-2002. I wasn’t expecting to see this book, inscribed by the author. But I have a lot of books by leaders of other countries – Britain, France, Israel, Germany, Cambodia, the USSR and Russia, to name a few that come to my mind.

“Most Popular” goes to Bob Woodward for his book “The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat”, inscribed by Woodward. It gets this title because this is the third copy of this book that I have owned, and the first two were sold very quickly.

I do like books written by politicians, and I picked up a signed copy of Mitch McConnell’s “The Long Game”, one that I had not found before. I don’t know how to categorize it, especially as McConnell is still hospitalized after his fall. Let’s just leave it at that.

In the “Best Foreign Book” category, the award goes to the 5th book, “On the Wrong Side: My Life in the KGB”, inscribed by the writer, Stanislav Levchenko. I think I have another copy lying around downstairs, but I can’t pass up a signed book by a Russian spy. Don’t know why.

The other two are more ordinary: “Whatever It Takes: The Real Struggle for Political Power in America” by Elizabeth Drew, a signed copy of a 1997 book about the Clinton/Gingrich struggle, and “Leadership in Turbulent Times” by Doris Kearns Goodwin, about the two Roosevelts, Lincoln and Johnson.

We took a break after the book sale (lunch and down time), and then went to the Avalon (our neighborhood non-profit theater) to see “The Quiet Girl”, the Irish film nominated for best foreign film at this weekend’s Oscars. It’s an unusual film, slow moving with minimal dialogue (and what dialogue there is primarily consists of sentences of 1-3 words, not harangues or diatribes). The ending, especially, is touching, and the 12 year old lead, Catherine Clinch, does a fine job.

Tonight I already know what dinner is (because it’s a repeat of last night’s) and I believe that the Nats Spring Training game is being televised, which will mark the first game we have seen since we have returned from seeing two in person in Florida.

Then will come the big question. Do we turn our clocks back tonight or in the morning? Either works, as long as we don’t do both. (Ha! A quick reading subscriber thinks that when I said “turn our clocks back”, I am turning them back counterclockwise, and he has pointed out that this would probably not work out well for us, but I say to him the following: when I say “turn our clocks back”, I really meant “back to the future”, which is another way of saying “turn our clocks forward”, but who would want to say that?)