tense!

[luciab]

I am working on the last of three writing assignments due this week, and for some reason, I am having a hell of a time with verb tenses on this one. I am reviewing a library that I visited yesterday. I keep wavering between "I found" or "I saw" and "The color selection is." Well, both of those are true and accurate. Sometimes I want to say that a specific thing occurred while I was there but may possibly be different at another time, while some things are constant. The color selection will be equally appealing at all times (until it gets all grimy and icky, of course.) Can I shift back and forth?

And something else: I have said that there is not a staff desk visible from the entry doorway. I want to follow that with "What is visible are shelves of books" except that shelves of books ARE visible; it isn't shelves IS visible. Still, "What are visible" just doesn't sound right.

Otherwise, this paper is fun to write-- there's much more room for opinion and less room for egregious factual error. Damn, I hate egregious error.

Feel free to weigh in on these or other topics.