I’ve had three virtual baskets of second-hand and new research books waiting for me at on-line retailers since early December. I couldn’t order them because we didn’t have the money at the time.

Today I skipped about paying bills with merry abandon, and then I went to confirm and place the book orders.

All but one of the second-hand ones had sold. And they sold within the last two weeks, too, because I checked at the beginning of January when I went back to writing the hearthcraft book, to make sure they were still there.

This makes me cranky. I’ve used an hour and a half of time trying to track down affordable replacement copies. I’ve given up in three cases; I’m waiting to hear shipping quotes from two sellers on eBay for another.

Life would be so much simpler if I wrote about things about which libraries carried books, so I could just borrow my research material instead of trying to find it in odd corners of the world.

On the other hand, now I also get to place orders for gifts, which were also put on hold for a while. So there is much pleasure in that.