In case you guys want a place to communicate. Not really watching, reading or going. Just making a million calls and signing a million papers and trying to decide what will fit in the new place.
Tell me about your week.
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Love that picture, Patti! And I wish you well as you get ready for your move. It's always a huge hassle, isn't it? But at the same time, change has its good side, too.
There might not be a Major League Baseball anytime soon with the lockout at an impasse.
Moving is always a complicated process. I hope things go well...and as quickly as possible so you can finally sit back and relax!
We've had snow, cold, and sleet last week. This week is starting out cold--we woke up to 17 degrees (windchill 4 degrees). But temps above zero are in the forecast for later in the week.
Patrick is in Vegas running a half-marathon and Katie is in Newport Beach, CA visiting a friend. My kids get around.
We're watching the slaughter in Ukraine and wondering if Putin will make good on this nuclear threats. Stay safe!
I have found that moving is easy. Unpacking, though, takes years. Best of luck in your new digs.
Saturday was the sixteenth anniversary of Michael's death. It was a Sunday and he was getting ready to go golfing and just collapsed in front of Jessie and the girls. Jessie was trying CPR while Ceili and Amy telephoned for an ambulance. We rushed over as the EMTs were working on him. I found the girls (then 9 and 7) upstairs crouched in a corner of their bedroom, holding each other. They continued to work on Michael in the ambulance and at the hospital, finally pronouncing him dead. He most likely died the moment he fell. We moved Jessie and the girls into our apartment that night. Since Michael was adopted, we knew nothing about his family health history, but he had had a severe attack of colitis a few years before, had high blood pressure, and some heart problems. He was 31. What a waste!
Keeping upbeat, Kitty's problems have eased just a little bit. She is still finding it hard to breathe, although her lungs are clear. Her chest and abdominal muscles are working overtime to force in air, which is causing her some pain. She has stopped her chemo lite and is now taking a low-dose chemo pill in an effort to pull up her numbers. We will find out next week how this is working. The poor girl also has a pinched nerve in her foot which required a very painful injection. Despite it all, she remains beautiful and cheerful (well, occasionally fearful) and we have various medical appointments up the wazoo.
BIG SKY and John Oliver are back -- yippee! Most of the television we watched dealt with rootin' tootin' Putin trying to destroy the world as Ukrainians are showing the world just how to be brave in the face of overwhelming odds. Now Putin is threatening nukes. If it wasn't for the fact that Putin has been pure-dee evil from the git-go he be a total jamoke. The remainder of our television viewing has been re-watches of Nordic mysteries (aka, comfort food).
As for reading, I read Bill Pronzini's collection DAGO RED, "Barbara Allan"'s ANTIQUES RAVIN', and Mike Ashly's anthology LOST MARS. Currently reading Connie Willis' Library of America anthology AMERICAN CHRISTMAS STORIES. Coming up is Joe Lansdale's FISHINNG WITH DINOSAURS, Bill Pronzini's THE FLIM FLAM AFFAIR, John Connolly's THE NAMELSS ONES, and Lee and Andrew Child's BETTER OFF DEAD.
It warmed up here over the past few days and the tiny lizards warmed up and were once again skittering through the sidewalks and lawns after a few cold weeks. We had three days of heavy fog in the mornings and almost a week of overcast weather. This morning the temperature dropped and lizards are once again gone. **sigh** I enjoy looking at the lizards, some of which are missing their tails because of neighborhood cats.
You probably don't need lizards in Michigan, Patti, but I hope you do have good weather, good friends, good times, and a stress-free week. Stay safe.
Pretty quiet - and quite warm - week down here, other than spending yesterday afternoon at a cousin's apartment for brunch. She moved down here with her second husband eight years ago (to Atlanta and to Boynton Beach in the winter), but he died last year. Another cousin and his wife own an apartment in Delray Beach and spend the winters down here. And a third cousin lives in Broward in Pembroke Pines. She is still working, even though she is about 70, as a case manager/supervisor for seniors. We had a pleasant afternoon and will see them again at a restaurant in a few weeks before we go home.
It's amazing how much time you can waste just doing a lot of nothing. I get up early (between 6 and 7), go online (do Wordle first), read the NY Times, Daily News, and Washington Post, check various blogs and websites, etc. We eat breakfast after 8 am when Jackie gets up, then waste the rest of the morning on the computer.
We go out to lunch (brunch once a week) between 12 and 1, go for a walk, usually end up at Publix or Trader Joe's or Target or Walmart or Costco, or a combination of several. Get back mid- to late afternoon and catch up on things, then start streaming television sometime between 6 and 7, until 11. I'm not getting a lot of reading done either, other than short stories.
We're pretty much watching the same shows mentioned previously (finished a couple of them, including Upstairs, Downstairs, ONly Murders in the Building, Reacher and Professor T (English version). In addition to Poirot, we've added the Joan Hickson Miss Marple series (which we saw starting in 1984) to our Saturday night lineup. When we get through those, we will go on to the Julia McKenzie series. Can't watch Geraldine McEwan in the role, though I like her otherwise.
Good luck with the packing, signing etc. A few weeks and the worst will be behind you.
Have your moving goes well.
Read the new Sara Gran-The Book of the Most Precious Substance and now reading Scoundral by Sarah Weinman.
Rewatched Miller's Crossing. Great movie. Enjoyed the interviews conducted by Megan.
Glad John Oliver is back. Finished watching Reader and 1883.
Going to a retina specialist today. My cataract surgery did nothing, so I have to see what other options I have.
Soon all the packing, unpacking and paperwork will be behind you, like a dream. I do hope you’ll be happy in your new digs.
Now that Olympics and All Creatures are over, there seems to be nothing on our measly basic cable to watch. News, of course, all bad, but I’m mostly avoiding it as it’s bad for my blood pressure. Instead, I’ve been reading short stories in half a dozen anthologies, bouncing between them.
It’s really storming here now, wind is howling and it’s pouring. We don’t like the wind, but we need the rain, which is forecast for the rest of the week.
Glad to hear that the moving is going quickly. The last time we moved was over 20 years ago and I don't remember it going very quickly at all.
Reading: I finished the second book in Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael series, ONE CORPSE TOO MANY, and I am now almost done with THE POSTSCRIPT MURDERS by Elly Griffiths. Still reading READER, I BURIED THEM by Peter Lovesey.
We are watching Doctor Who (the seasons starring David Tennant), Star Trek TNG, Perry Mason (the original series), Kolchak the Night Stalker.
Rick, I am very envious of all the rain you have had.
Thanks for some reading material here. All my books are packed. What I have three weeks left. I guess it is kindle./
Sorry, Steve. My friend, Kathy has had a similar poor experience. Thanks, guys.
He looks a little like a did as an eight year old.
I spent almost all of Saturday at the high school for the Solo and Ensemble competition and a girl's basketball playoff. I was assisting with the concessions and hanging around. My son performed four pieces and qualified for the state competition with two of those (one is an ensemble). When I got home from the girl's basketball game I exercised and did not get to sleep until midnight-ish. I was WIPED OUT on Sunday.
I listened to Asimov's first FOUNDATION novel. I tried reading the novel about 40 years ago and never finished it. This time around I ended up remembering quite a bit of the first couple chapters read as a kid. It's no wonder I lost interest in the novel because the plot is political intrigue and maneuvering, and not the SciFi shoot-em-up story I would have been interested in.
A busy week here as I try to promote and prep for several work events.
Despite it leaning heavily into soapy while funny, and being about exclusively well-off women, I did watch the whole first season of RUN THE WORLD (Starz) over the last couple of days. This being tv of that ilk, not only are all the women always made up "perfectly" and often wearing clothing that requires some body glue, and their men are clearly spending at least an hour a day in the gym while also similarly primping and doing their well-paid glamor jobs in what time they have left. It makes an interesting contrast to the series which follows, BLINDSPOTTING, previously recommended and slightly less comedic, about families doing considerably less well financially for the most part if about as boho-lite.
Also enjoyed the even more-wealthy/boho mild farce of ANOTHER KIND OF WEDDING, a film running on Showtime but a Canadian indy, so could pop up most places. Kathleen Turner and Frances Fisher play the divorced (from each other) matriarchs of a family where the (woman) ex (the striking Jessica Parker Kennedy) of one brother has since fallen in love with and is about to marry his older brother, and the rest of the clan includes their sister (Jessica Paré) and her man, who grow pot among doing other boho stuff together, and Cristina Rosato is at the periphery of the wedding, intentionally set as improbably drawn to Wallace Shawn as a modelesque young woman who lusts for older fellow academics. (Shawn on hand as Turner's casual date/friend for the wedding weekend, as Turner's character is bi, vs. Fisher's being a lesbian and a bit of a cougar in that context.) Several of the younger male cast members look a bit too much like one another, which can lead to some confusion, particularly as my gaze wasn't as fixed on them when they're onscreen, particularly with their womenfriends.
So...those were pretty much fun. Any film with Paré, Turner, Fisher, and Shawn was going to get at least a few minutes of my attention, and I stuck with it.
Glad things are Still Mostly good for most of us...with some tough anniversaries and disappointing results (and FOUNDATION never really being the best thing Asimov wrote, nor even in the better half, even if probably the most popular these decades). Filling in some of the last paperwork in re: our parents' financial estate is perhaps unsurprisingly disquieting for my sister and myself, but it's certainly time.
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