I recognize that there are people who love to be outside, love to dig their eager hands into the fertile ground, love to clip and prune and pull, love to plant and tend and fret over the earth's bounty.

I mean them no disrespect when I say that I am not one of them.

I'd like to say that it all goes back to having grown up doing yard work in the Midwest. It is certainly true that when I mowed the lawn back there, I faced harrowing enemies. For years I battled mutant weeds, weeds that sprang up some 4 feet in the span of an evening. I'm not kidding.

Let me recommend a book. It's called "Passage," and the author is Connie Willis. Willis is a Colorado native, now living in Greeley, and at this point, has won more Nebulas and Hugos (the top science fiction writing awards) than anyone else, living or dead. "Passage" is destined to win her another one. She's written many fine books; "Passage" is her best.

Last week, for the first time in some 20 years, I went to my place of work, and it was NOT a library. It was a very odd feeling. It all started back when we were doing the library's 2001 budget. It had become very obvious that our business operations, ably led by Karen Hudson, were too small. We now have an annual budget of some $10.2 million - more than two people crammed into one office were really able to stay on top of.

Last week, I talked about my analysis of my computer needs. I confess that I had an ulterior motive. Apple has just come out with a new operating system, called OS X (oh-ess-ten). I was trying to figure out if, or when, I should make the move.

I've made the platform move five times now. My first computer used the CP/M operating system. My next machine used MS-DOS. Then, at work, I used Windows, which I hated. Then I used a program called GeoWorks, with its own operating system. Finally, I jumped onto the Apple Macintosh.