Had two sets of friends over for early dinners (all takeout) and this is enough to buoy me for a day or two. And my son and his family came over yesterday. I ordered middle eastern food, which they picked up. A very nice day. Kevin is almost as tall as his father. He's quiet but not in an angry way. He does get tired of hearing about the President and Covid-19, I am sure. We are a very political family. It seems hard to talk about anything else. Hoping this will not be the defining time of his life the way Viet Nam is for me. Does each generation have that moment: a war, a depression, a crisis of some sort.
Reading Richard Ford's book about his parents (Between Them). Finished Eight Perfect Murders (Swanson), which I liked, but he did lean awfully heavily on other writers' work. I know that was the point of it, but still. Reading Born a Crime (Trevor Noah) for my book group. Still working on City of Nets at lunch every day.
Rewatched The Last of Sheila, which I don't think held up that well. Finished Srugim, which I am very sorry to be done with. Watching the documentary on Lennox Hill Hospital and the one about Babies (both Netflix) Was disappointed in the first episode of Grantchester, but the second was better. Looking forward to Perry Mason although the reviews are so-so.
Sometimes as I type this I see that I need an awful lot of stimulation. I don't even list the podcasts I listen to. Am I a greedy consumer of stimuli? Not sure. There are very few minutes in my day when something is not going in my ear or eye. How about you? And there is always the fact that I don't drive and am alone. I wonder how others in my situation fill their days?
15 comments:
Things are pretty quiet here. A co-worker of Jessie's tested positive on Thursday. Although she had no interactions with the co-worker, she and her girls are self-isolating for a week just to be sure.
The county schedules Erin's graduation for this past Friday at the Pensacola Bay Center, a large auditorium. Erin opted not to go to the ceremony. She spent most of her senior year taking college classes and basically let go of any ties to her high school some time ago. Because we are both high-risk, Kitty and I were not going anyway and Jessie and her girls were isolating. We're hoping that Erin's college (FSU in Tallahassee) will be open in the fall -- they plan to be, but who knows?
Christina and Walt left yesterday for a well-deserved week's vacation. They rented a cabin near the Alabama-Tennessee border. Walt has a new camera and he rented a special lens so he can take wildlife pictures there. Walt (and Christina, if it is not muggy and there are no mosquitoes) hopes to do a lot of hiking. The cabin has a screened-in porch and Christina brought along some unfinished craft projects and some good books; she plans a long, quiet relaxcation while enjoying the beauty of the foothills.
We beached a lot last week because we won't be able to it this week. We won't beach without Christina or Jessie. With my bad back and Kitty's bad legs we can't risk a fall. We'll miss our morning times of just sitting and watching the waves come in and out, the friendly, the soft, warm breezes, the socially distant people and their frolicking dogs, and watching the sand crabs scuttle around and dig their homes in the sand. Next week, for sure.
President Tinyhands is whirling more and more out of control. **sigh** His not-so-merry band of evil trolls, gnomes, racists, and enablers are whirling with him. His polls are dropping. His not-Juneteenth rally was a bust. And his handling of Covid-19 and the protesters plump up his negative numbers. I wonder what he will now do out of desperation to be re-elected. November can't come fast enough.
Reading has been slow this week. Max Allan Collins' latest Nate Heller mystery about the Dr. Sam Shepard case was a high spot. We moved on Season 13 of SUPERNATURAL and saw a couple of good thrillers on Netflix but for the life of me I can't remember the titles.
The cat seldom threw up this week.
Better times ahead. Enjoy your week, Patti!
I'm glad you had the chance to see family and friends. I think that really does buoy a person up. Interesting question about what will define this generation. I wouldn't be surprised if it's at least partly Vivid.
Whoops! I meant Covid, of course. Autocorrect 😒!
Diane and I visited a friend who is recovering from a fall. He's using a walker to get around. We met in his garage, everyone wore masks, and we sat on lawn chairs over 6 feet apart. We talked about everything but politics.
During our Facebook PORTAL session yesterday, Patrick and Katie celebrated my Fathers' Day cheer. They gave me a Buffalo Bills mask to protect me from covid-19. We discussed the Netflix documentary, 13TH, which we all were deeply affected by.
Last Friday I went in for blood work and this Friday I'll be meeting with my internist for my Yearly Physical. I feel fine...and want to keep it that way.
Stay safe!
I'm a Peter Swanson fan who was also somewhat disappointed in "Eight Perfect Murders", but his great second novel, "The Kind Worth Killing", will keep me going on Swanson for a while. I loved "The Last of Sheila" when I originally saw it years ago and have been thinking of a rewatch, but none of my streaming services has it. Sorry to hear it didn't hold up. The new "Perry Mason" is grim and violent--right up my alley. Matthew Rhys is perfect.
My situation is somewhat similar to yours except that I live in a 42 unit condo, so I have lots of neighbors, most of whom have been keeping a very low profile during the plague. I spend most days just dawdling around, and I must say I'm very good at it. Two of my favorites, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, had new releases last week, and I spent a lot of time over the weekend listening to those.
Not a good week here. Surgery was successful, I'd say, but they really neglected to explain the whole recovery period, etc. Still having a lot of pain so not reading at all, watching fewer shows than usual, and barely being able to sleep. For the first time I can understand how people get hooked on opiods. Maybe it's good I don't have any.
Weather has turned hot and will stay hot and humid for the foreseeable future (next week +). All I do is sit around trying to get comfortable. Jackie has had to walk to the store to get food.
CITY OF NETS is on my list, but it is so long I have not taken it from the library yet. Reading the latest Andrea Camilleri book, THE SAFETY NET. Always good to visit Salvo Montalbano. Also reading the 7 short stories by Linda Castillo in her Kate Burkholder series written in between the novels, about as long as much attention span is these days.
We are spacing out SRUGIM so we don't finish it too fast. Finished BORDERTOWN. First series was probably the best. We recorded Perry Mason last night. Watching LEWIS once a week. Much better than MIDSOMER MURDERS. Colin Dexter showed up in silent bits in many of the episodes, if you knew where to look. I really dislike the Welsh HIDDEN but Jackie wants to push on to the end. I don't think I will bother with series two. Jackie likes SWEET MAGNOLIAS on Netflix, but way too much of a chick show for my taste.
So sorry you are having pain, Jeff. Boy, it's a hard time to have any other issue to deal with. Although since it is going on and on, we are all bound to.
I had that Swanson on my Kindle but I can't find it. Yet if I go to Amazon they tell me I already bought it.
My daughter loves THE LAST OF SHEILA so it might just be me. Or it might just not be the right time for following its fairly complicated plot.
Glad you got to "be" with your kids, George.
Some time, we all ought to "zoom". I wonder what that would be like.
Was able to reload the Swanson. Thanks for the reminder, Michael
Visited with my youngest daughter yesterday. Now that the weather is better I feel less isolated. My apt building has a patio in back and the city has a small park next door so I spend a lot of time outside reading although I end up talking tom neighbors most of the time. My apt building has about 240 residents so there is always somebody walking by.
Starting reading Dune for the first time since 1965 and enjoying it more that I expected. Of course as soon as I start something long my library sends me notices that several holds are in. Today they are starting curbside pickups.
Watched The Lost Bullet and Da 5 Bloods on Netflix. Liked them both. The first is a French thriller. The second the new Spike Lee. The Lee would have benefited being about 10-15 minutes shorter. I liked the new Perry Mason although it bears little in common with the original except the characters name.
Anyone else had this problem? Got a book from Amazon that was shipped in a box twice the size of the book with no packing. A bit dinged due to sliding around for a few days.
Loved seeing Trump's rally turn out to be a bust. He must be furious. Of course it will probably turn out to be Obama's fault.
If there is anything you need just let me know.
Thanks, Steve. I will be in touch. I don't know what is up with my library. I see books are in but am getting no notifications to pick them up.
On several occasions, I have gotten things from Amazon that seemed packaged carelessly and am wondering if they are handing some of their orders off to another party.
Glad to hear you got some social stimulation, Patti, it seems to do you good.
I lived alone (with cats) for about 30 years, and was perfectly happy staying at home most of the time, reading, gardening, listening to music and doing stuff on the computer. Since I got married, I still don't go out a lot, and Barbara does the errand running, so I'm still content at home. I do some socializing over the telephone, or by email or texting, but that's it. I haven't left our property since March 5th, and that's fine with me. I guess I'm a hermit, or partly so. I read a lot, I finished a book last night. I'll start another this morning. I do have to mask up and go around the property with an arborist this morning, our bi-annual trimming back of the Vine Maples and some other things.
We finished watching all the episodes of Building Off The Grid, and Barnwood Builders, things we enjoy in the category of junk TV.
I did nothing this weekend except walk the dog. Father's Day involved watching a movie, reading, and sleeping. I cannot recall what the movie was. Let me think... Oh, yeah INSIDE MAN from 2006.
I learned some family friends are moving to North Carolina this summer. First I heard but their house is already on the market. Their eldest daughter is set on attending college in NC and this next next is her senior year in HS. Since both their jobs - accounting and real estate valuation - can be had most anywhere they figure to establish residency and get in-state tuition. I was surprised to hear the news. They are not people we see very often but the son and dad are both in Scouts. I like them and am bummed out.
I started reading SMONK by Tom Franklin. Some great writing but I do dislike it when dialogue does not come with quotation marks. I think I am going to bail on the GORMENGHAST novels. A driving reason is that I hate holding thick paperbacks - they flop all over. And the silliness of the novels is kinda stuck in the humor of the the author's time.
Boy, I hate dialog without marks too. It's hard to see as anything other than affected.
When you finally settled down, Rick, it seems like you struck gold.
Jeff, my brother wrote a message that he spoke to a neighbor for the first time in a while. The neighbor's hip replacement surgery was put off for five months because of COVID. The neighbor was on Percocet for those five months and the withdrawal was quite awful.
Oh I was perfectly settled down, at 60, when I met Barbara.
Post a Comment