Have you ever noticed that brief little sliver of time between when your little toe hits the table leg and when the pain hits? You know it is going to hurt, but the thought somehow shows up before the pain does. The anticipation of pain shows up before the pain.

Step on a lego? That just hurts immediately. No anticipation.

I went to the dentist the other day for a couple of fillings. An entire appointment full of anticipatory pain. There was a bit of pain–the painkiller shot was not fun–but nothing like I was anticipating. My body yo-yo’d between tensing for pain and forced relaxation as I told myself to chill out.

I think there is a lot of anticipatory pain. The fear that something is going to hurt colors much of what we do and think, some of us more than others. The fear can be physical or emotional.

I think most of the time–like my dentist appointment–things don’t hurt as much as we fear.

Beginning of September and already one tree has given up. Sigh.

Saw this at the local Costco. Pretty funny. I looked it up and, while it isn’t a real thing you can buy, there is a whole industry on Etsy and other sites with these things. Very well done.

Library of Congress: Fascinating Facts

When you publish a book, it is recommended to register it with the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) helps uniquely identify the book and is related to copyright. Part of the process is to send a copy of a physical book to them. This isn’t required, but many publishers send them in.

The LOC receives over 15,000 books PER DAY into their possession. This is a ridiculous number. Not everything is worthy of being added to the LOC permanent collection, but nothing is thrown away and some of the approaches are pretty clever.

The library started in 1800, which is also amazing.