A wonderful novel by Laura Lippman has helped me get through a difficult week. I have a blood clot, not the scary kind but a small one on a superficial vein. No clue how this happened but lots of sitting with my leg up and a late night visit to the ER courtesy of my son. Am also reading OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN AND THE INVENTION OF THE AMERICAN MUSICAL and watching lots of documentaries on YOU TUBE. CRITERION has a nice list of movies this week if this thing doesn't go away. The Lippman book got my interested in Joan Mitchell so I am looking into her work.
Finished THE DIPLOMAT. She certainly makes time for romance amidst saving the world. SLOW HORSES ended well too. So too MAIGRET.
Going to see ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER again. It really needs the big screen.
What about you?
9 comments:
Get better soon, Patti. Keep that leg elevated and follow your doctor's advice. Don't for the love of all that is holy, listen to RFK, Jr. Do not take ivermectin and be aware that if you take Tylenol, it may retroactively make Megan autistic. Please, please take care of yourself. We want you around for a long, long time.
I fell back this weekend, changing all the clocks but not changing my sleep patterns, thinking of Bill Crider and his dislike of going from Standard Time ot Daylight 'Savings Time and vice versa. Twice a year, like clockwork (ha! see what I did there?) Bill would become uncharacteristically grumpy and I find myself following suit.
Miraculously, while I fell back, I did not Fall back. My back problem has not gotten better and I would have fallen over a dozen times if not steadied by two canes. It's a pinched nerve that refuses to become un-pinched and the pain and the resulting muscular weakness has not been fun. I spent most of the last few days lying flat since moving is something my body no longer likes to do. I have slept a lot also; it is amazing how muchn pain can exhaust you.
Thursday was my birthday and Christina took me out for tacos. Despite the agony of moving, they were delicious. Then on Saturday, eight of us went out to celebrate...ME! We went to a fondue place -- something I never knew existed. (Fondue was popular 55 years ago when I was married, but it's popularity had faded almost immediately. We actually received a fondue pot as a wedding gift, used it for two or three weeks, and I never touched fondue again, until now.) They served a four-course fondue extravaganza with various cheeses, sauces, and meats. Preparation time for each entree was slow and the entire meal took over two and a half hours. It was surprisingly, a lot of fun and we laughed a lot. It was also surprisingly filling. I soldiered through the pain, amazed people by getting up after only six tries, and shambled ever so slowly out of the restaurant. When I got home, I laid down and did not move for more than twelve hours, and then only to change the clocks. I'm doing much better today, but it is early hours. Christina wants me to check in with a doctor and I'm afraid I might have to, although they have been of no help in the past. (Several previous conversations: "Well, we cam operate and there's a 25% chance it will get better, a 25% chance it will get worse, and a 50% chance it will stay the same." Thank you, doc, but no thanks.)
Amy is settling in with her new job. Turns out she is working in the =same building as Jessie, just one floor down. Also in the same building is Trey's engineering firm. there is an opening in the Environmental Protection department in the same building and Erin is thinking of Applying. Just one big happy family. Erin had also started going out with Walt and a friend on their early morning bird photography jaunts; those morning sessions have resulted in some great photos.
To be continued...
Back again.
Walt is remodeling the pantry, removing old wire racks nailed to the wall and replacing them with wood cabinets. The IKEA cabinets arrived Friday. Because IKEA recently opened a warehouse fairly close by, they were able to deliver them for a reasonable price. (The nearest IKEA store is five-and-a-half hours away and shipping costs had previously been exorbitant.) The delivery guy saw Ben and Sebastian's cages when he brought the boxes in, and asked (in an awed tone) if there ere any snakes there. Christina told him, no, but we do have snakes in one of the bedrooms. The guy asked in a hushed voice if he could see them. Christina checked with Mark and they went into his bedroom. Mark asked if he wanted to see them out of their cage. Will they bite? No, Mark said, pacing his hand in front of Dana the snake's mouth. You can tough them if you want. The guy was in seventh heaven and called his partner (who was waiting in the truck) and then He came in and was impressed by the snakes. He asked if Mark had any rattlesnakes and Mark said no. Then the guy said very proudly, 'I have rattlesnakes." There is always something interesting happening in this household.
Speaking of snakes, somebody in Albuquerque was trying to rehome a gray rat snake because he was going overseas for the military. Mark had offered to take it, but the deployment kept getting delayed and months passed by. The day Mark moved back to Florida he got a call saying he could pick up the snake any time. The snake is staying temporarily with a friend from Mark's old zoo. So it looks like Mark (or, more likely, Christina) will once again be making the four-day trip to Albuquerque and back to pick up a damn snake. In the snake's defense, it is very cute, according to Erin, Amy, and Kaylee, judging from the photos Mark has shown them. It was decided at the fondue lunch that the snake, previously referred to as the "Military Snake," should be named Millie. Mark said he could go along with that.
Not much else has been happening here. Mark has discovered that his new job has added a number of neat animals, including manatees. So there's that.
Little TV this week. Many of the shows I had been watching completed their runs. I am gritting my teeth because I have to wait until January for the second half of this season's HIGH POTENTIAL. I tried to watch a couple of movies, but could not concentrate because of my back.
Not much reading this week, either. I read the Hard Case Crime novel DUTCH UNCLE by Peter Pavia and the first Samuel Craddock mystery by Terry Shames, A KILLING AT COTTON HILL. I'll definitely be reading more about Craddock in the future. I also dead the graphic novel THE SANDMAN UNIVERSE: DEAD BOY DETECTIVES
Whoops! Accidentally posted mid sentence. **sigh**
Continuing mid-sentence:
by someone with the unlikley name of Pornsak Pichetshote; previously, I never thought I would be bored with the Dead Boy Detectives...just goes to show... I also read McBAIN DUET, a collection of two novellas issued by The Mystery Guild and the only Ed McBain book I had not previously read; it was interesting, but not major. Currently reading another Hard Case Crime: Peter Blauner's CASINO MOON. I have been dipping into two collections: THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene, a massive collection of tales set in the world of Stephen King's THE STAND, and ADVENTURES OF MAX SPITZKOPF, THE YIDDISH HERLOCK HOLMES by Jonas Kreppel, a collection of the fifteen stories originally published a pamphlets in Vienna in 1908. The Spitzkopf stories are pure pulp, written to thrill a Jewish audience during a time of oppression and bigotry (has there ever been a time when that was not so?); while aware of the underlying themes, I am also able to read the tales as pure camp. And, I am almost finished with Sam Gafford's HODGSON: A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, a very short book of essays, articles, and blog posts about Hodgson, the celebrate early twentieth century fantasy writer; Gafford was one of the few Hodgson scholars out there
Have a great week, Patti. Relax, read some good books, enjoy some shows, and tell your blood clot that you are done with it. Stay safe, stay calm, and do not tear down the East Wing of your apartment.
We're in New Orleans for our belated anniversary celebration. We got here Saturday - no thanks to the actions (more inaction,) of the TSA. It's nice weather - sunny in the upper 60s, rising through the 70s this week.
Yesterday, Deb and John picked us up at the hotel at 7 and whisked us to the Pfeifer mansion in Slidell. After breakfast (with the twins) at a local Waffle House, they spent the day preparing a huge Greek feast, including lamb chops and leg of lamb, a Greek salad, grape leaves, spanikopita, etc. Jackie had a Junior's cheesecake shipped and someone brought baklava. It was a lovely day, even if I wasn't feeling well after what I ate Saturday.
We'll see what we're going to do today, depending on how I feel.
Flying these days is no picnic.
Jackie: "I don't get it. Trump can get whatever he wants from Congress but he can't get that?"
She's talking, of course, about getting rid of changing the clocks.
We left Saturday morning, before the change, then went back an hour when we got here, and a second hour that night, which, perhaps, explains why I slept from 9:00 to 4:00 am last night.
It is currently 8:28 am, but actually 10:28 EDT as it was Saturday morning.
Somewhere Bill is looking down and shaking his head.
We finished THE DIPLOMAT this week, OK bugnot as good as previous series. Jackie complained every episode of not understanding why she wanted to divorce Hal, and neither of us was impressed with the guy she was sleeping with. Then suddenly the last episode turns everything around with, again, no explanation?
Still watching whatever else we were watching. STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS seems to be going in for comic relief every other episode, and suddenly Spock is a stud moving from woman to woman.
Late night ER visits are rotten. You have my sympathy.
I, too, think of Bill Crider when the clocks move. I bought the Campbell at the U of WI library book sale. Also picked up MINE BOY by Peter Abrahams. A thin paperback first published in 1946 about apartheid in South Africa and I plan to start that next.
Been reading the short story collection AMERICAN SAVAGE by Bonnie Jo Campbell. Was a national Book Award Finalist in 2009. For whatever reason, some of the stories fill me with dread for what is to come.
Finished the 26 hours of KING SORROW by Joe Hill. That was a loooong ride. Started a Scifi, THERE IS NO ANTI-MEMETICS DIVISION by Qntm. A government intelligence unit finds and contains devices or beings that erase or eat memory. Enjoying so far, difficult to write a story and constantly address how memories and people are regularly forgotten.
Visited my mother last week and brought along Boy #1. A quick visit but I was able to assist with some appointments. The job market seems to be getting worse - not that the GOP will admit to it - and Boy #1 stays on the hunt.
Sorry to hear about the medical stuff - NOT FUN! I am glad you're enjoying the Lippman, though. I've not read her lately, to be honest, but she's got a lot of talent. The book about Oscar Hammerstein II sounds interesting. American musical theatre has a long and fascinating history.
At ER. Back tomorrow.
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