Monday, October 20, 2025

Monday, Monday

                                                Out my window-11th floor

I have always been a David Strathairn fan, even in his most frightening movie, BLUE CAR. In this domestic drama (A LITTLE PRAYER), he's a father trying to keep his family together when his son seems intent on blowing it apart. I was able to rent it on Prime. 

Finished DAY OF THE JACKAL, which was very good. Still an episode left of TASK on HBO and enjoying SLOW HORSES.  Getting ready to begin THE DIPLOMAT.

Saw a great concert at the DSO with a trumpet concerto by Branford Marsalis.  

We finally got some rain.  The trees have a lot more color than this photo indicates

Reading Andy Green's book on the making of THE OFFICE. A nice break  

Highly recommend the Martin Scorsese doc  on Apple. Rebecca Miller did a great job with it. 

10 comments:

Jerry House said...

Today is National Sasquatch Day and I am really not sure how to celebrate; it's also National Chicken and Waffles Day, and I can handle that.

Christina and Walt and Jack and Bumblebee the snake all made it safely back from Albuquerque, stopping along the way to retrieve Mark's twice-broke-down Jetta. The Jetta had been repaired but still needed a new battery before they could get it home. It did emit a nasty burning rubber smell for those last 300 miles, though. The smell vanished after they got it home and it has been working fine ever since. Go figure. With the load of Mark's larger belongings and the excess belongings of Walt's parents who recently moved here, the living room is beginn ing to look looking a lot like a warehouse.

Erin surprised us by posting a picture of the latest member of the family. Rockstar is a white rabbit with black ears. He (she?) is very sweet and cute and friendly, according to Erin. Meanwhile, NewerCat Rose is settling in very nicely. She is still hiding in the spare bedroom/study, but will come out from under the big chair to give Christina some loves and cuddles. We hope she will be fully integrated by the time Mark arrives at the end of the month.

Pensacola saw over 3000 people at their No Kings protest Saturday. Evidently a few MAGA protesters tried to disrupt things but were no match for the peaceful protesters. Because of my mobility issues, I did not attend but was there in spirit, BUT I did were my anti-Trump tee-shirt on Saturday! (Way to stick it to the Man, Jerry!) Saturday was also a time of reflection because it marked thirteen years since my sister passed away. Linda was a force of nature and full of laughter and joy. There was not a single person in this world who did not love her, and her passing has left a permanent hole in my heart.

Other than that, it's been a quiet week. We had a tornado warning yesterday morning from 6:50 to 7:15, along with a very agressive thunderstorm, but I'm not sure if we had an actual tornado. Mark actually called at 6:50 to be sure we were aware of the warning.

Watched the usual shows on television. The new season of BEYOND PARADISE BEGAN and the second season of KAREN PIRIE ended. Meanwhile, I spent too much of the week playing on the internet and going down many, many rabbit holes. I'm also having a great time posting Halloween-season-themed items daily on my blog.

I devoured Lee Goldberg's latest Eve Ronin book, FALLEN STAR, reading it in one long session. I also read three novels published by Hard Case Crime: George Axlerod's BLACKMAILER, Russell Atwood's LOSERS LIVE LONGER, and Day Keen's HOME IS THE SAILOR. Over the opast 21 years, Hard Case has published 181 distinct books and I have now read all but seven of them. I hope to finish those seven before book #182 -- Max Allan Collins's RETURN OF THE MALTESE FALCON -- is published in January. I also read two negligible graphic novels with confusing artwork, murky colors, and jumbled storylines. **sigh**

The view from your window is gorgeous, Patti. May you enjoy the color all week. Stay safe.

George said...

Western NY is finally getting some much needed rain, too!

I'm enjoying SLOW HORSES, but Diane and I are way behind on watching all the shows we've DVRed. Too many yearly doctor appointments (how they all got scheduled for October I'll never know) and social outings with friends who are about to leave for Florida for the winter. Stay safe!

Jerry House said...

UPDATE: Rockstar is a male! And he is about to be neutered today, although he is blithely unaware of that.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Good morning, all.

I've always liked Straithairn too. His first movie was RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS 7. Never heard of BLUE CAR, but I find it interesting (reading the plot) that he was called "Auster." Oh, and speaking of SECAUCUS, we just saw John Sayles in a POKER FACE episode as a Police Chief.

I looked up Straithairn's Wikipedia page, and the picture brought to mind a T-shirt I have that says "It's Weird Being The Same Age as Old People." I'm not kidding myself how old I am or how I look, but Straithairn is two months younger than me, and frankly looks a LOT older. And if you see the scene in the first episode of THE DIPLOMAT with Celia Imrie (who is a few years younger), she has a shocking number of wrinkles on her face.

Part of this was brought on by thinking about our upcoming 55th anniversary this week. You think, "Wow, I must really be old" or "how did I ever get this old?" I don't feel that old, but, anyway you look at it, 55 years is a long, long time. I know we've been incredibly lucky in so many ways. (Yes, I thought about Patti and Phil and Jerry and Kitty here.)

*knock on wood*

We did get some rain, though hardly as much as promised, but where we live is elevated so we don't have flooding issues here, no matter how much rain there is, except on the corners where morons don't clean the leaves out of the drains first. How can you move to a place where you have to worry about flooded basements every time it rains?

We had an up & down week, with highs ranging from 57 to 71. I did get my eyeglass prescription, and will pick out frames at Costco tomorrow. We got our flu shots this week, so are pretty much set for the next six months *until the next Covid booster).

We did watch the first two episodes of THE DIPLOMAT, as well as the first two of TASK - man, Mark Ruffalo is not aging well, and the first three of the Scottish VIGIL, as well as three of UNTAMED (love the Yosemite setting). Jackie tried BLACK RABBIT (she called it a darker, nastier THE BEAR), but she didn't like it and gave it up. Jude Law does a flawless American accent, something that has changed for the better (much better) over the years. I can remember going to the theater in London 50 years ago, and the only "American" accent they could master at all (unless you were a Laurence Olivier or Peter Sellers) was "Deep South."

Books. I liked John Scalzi's THE SHATTERING PEACE a lot (in his Old Man's War series), and I'm reading Margaret Mizushima's latest K-9 book, DYING CRY.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Jerry should do an ad for Hard Case Crime. I bet few have completed so many.
Yeah, I always have a bunch of doctor appts around now too. Ugh.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I have no idea of who I look older than or young than. I have never had good facial recall. Phil's was even worse. He didn't always recognize me.

TracyK said...

Sorry to be so late. Our week wasn't very busy. This morning Glen went to an appointment with his ophthalmologist. Then breakfast and grocery shopping. The grocery bill was huge and it always seems to be like that now.

We have started watching the new season of all three NCIS shows (not including Tony and Ziva). Will get to ELSBETH (Season 3?) sometime soon. Also have been watching HELL ON WHEELS, and watched the first episode of Season 3 of PROFESSOR T. Tonight we will watch BROKENWOOD.

Glen is continuing to read A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE: REDISCOVERING THE NEW WORLD by Tony Horowitz. And liking it a lot.

I have been reading THE DENTIST by Tim Sullivan and finished it last night. I was very pleased with the book. The plot was very good, complicated but realistic. I liked the protagonist, Detective Sergeant George Cross, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. I liked everything about the book, including seeing what a person with Asperger's would encounter in a job, and how the person's coworkers may be affected. I have already ordered the second book in the series.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Interesting how we stumble on a new series. Did you see it mentioned on another blog, reviewed somewhere, on the shelf at the library? I have never heard of Sullivan.

Gerard Saylor said...

I've been watching SOLAR OPPOSITES on Netflix. SOLAR is a Hulu series but I rarely use the Hulu app. Animated silliness and adult humor about a alien family on Earth.
Started reading one of Simon Scarrow's adventure stories about Roman Britain. I'd not read any of his books in a while. I looked the author up and discovered he's been publishing one a year for the past couple decades. Dang.
I spend a lot of time at work working and worrying over fundraising for a building expansion. As with any big capital project we need big donors to cover a significant portion of the cost. Our expansion budget is fairly low, too, at $5 million. We need to get private funding for half of that.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Patti, yes, Lesa's Book Critiques is the blog (lesasbookcritiques.com). You should check it out. Every Thursday is "What Are You Reading" day and I've gotten quite a few ideas there.