I don't know if it's allergies, heat, or a genetic predisposition to sloth, but every year about this time I have the same thoughts. It comes down to this: I want more time to lie around and read. This is, in fact, the only thing I really DO want to do, particularly when my alternatives are such things as mowing the lawn, repairing screens, or fixing the fence.

[This week's library column is from Claudine Perrault., manager of our Lone Tree Library. - Jamie LaRue]

On my report cards from grade school, teachers used letter codes as a simple way to share observations they had about each student, such as, "P" for "Plays well with others" or, "O" for "Outstanding Achievement in this subject." Every semester I received an "L" at the bottom of my report card, which was the code for "Demonstrates Leadership Potential."

My favorite books, to begin with, were science primers. They interested me for several reasons.

For one thing, they were full of amazing facts. I still remember one of them: light traveled at 186,284 miles per second. You never knew when you might be able to slide a sizzler like that into ordinary conversation.

Only, of course, it turns out that the primers were wrong. Recent experiments have succeeded in getting light -- once thought to travel at the absolute upper speed limit in the universe -- to move even faster.

Last Saturday, July 15, marked the opening of the new Highlands Ranch Library.

I don't know if it's just that this building marks a big jump in the level of our services, or if it's that I always get intensely introspective around my birthday, but I find myself truly awed.

One of the big lessons of life is that some accomplishments take the talents of many people. As I wandered through the new building Saturday, I saw plenty of evidence of that.