I saw THE ODYSSEY and wow, what a knockout. The three hours flew by. Only wish I could have seen it on an IMAX screen. And certainly don't wait to see it steaming. It will lose so much of its power.
Not much on TV right now. I might have to rewatch some classic shows. I watched the first LUCKY and didn't think much of it. I didn't like SUGAR either. LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE is about the best thing on.
Reading SYMMETRY by Lisa Halliday.
Saw a play today. ATHENA about two teenage girl fencers. Great acting but the play seemed geared to a younger audience.
We have had some of the worst air in the country this week. It is reeking havoc with my sinues and anyone with lung problems can't breathe very well.
Hope you are breathing well where you are.
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My brother, who lives outside of Boston, is also heavily affected by the Canadian wildfire air. Not to worry; Trump is going to tariff Canada for the smoke -- that'll fix them! No smoke here on the Panhandle, just unrelenting heat.
This has been a birthday week here. Jack turned 14 on Thursday -- how did that happen? Friday would have been my mother's 104th birthday, bringing back a lot of reflection. Saturday was the birthday of Erin's fiance, Trey.
This weekend was the Blue Angels Air Show, and wise people stayed home. It's the most popular weekend here after July 4th, drawing on hundreds of thousands of people. Parking lots were full by 3 a.m. Thursday morning, the bridge to Pensacola Beach where the Blues would perform was closed to all but residents and those with special permits -- anyone else trying to cross the bridge was to charged $200. By Saturday, the bridge going in was closed. There was some flack on Thursday because one of the jets flew far lower than protocol allowed and the wake overturned tents, tables and chairs and blew sand all over the people below. Trump and Hegseth thought it was no big deal, but those in charge of the Angels were furious. Christina worked as a police dispatcher over the weekend on her 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift and said it was a wild time. There was a long involved 100 mph police chase involving a stolen truck that ended up with the truck crashing, two police cars damaged (one catching fire), and one police officer nearly killed. Other cars and property were heavily damaged and the main road going through town was closed. The driver was a nineteen-year-old kid who just "panicked." At one tie, multiple cars from the Park Service, local police, and the Fire Marshall were involved in the chase. Luckily, early reports of pedestrians being hit turned out to be false, but many cars, sidewalks, and lawns were damaged, along with a recalcitrant telephone pole and a fire hydrant.
Jack wanted to go Lambert's Cafe in Foley, Alabama for his birthday -- a popular restaurant where the waiters throw rolls to diners from across the room, so we headed there Sunday morning, when most of us were available. When we got the line extended all the way through the large parking lot and off to the side, with at least a forty-five minute wait in the hear before we could enter the building. We went to Texas Roadhouse instead. We followed that up with some department store shopping for Jack, Christina, Jessie, and Amy; I happily stayed in the air conditioned car. Then a tropical storm hit and only department store-adverse me stayed dry. Sunday was also National Ice Cream Day, and out favorite ice crem parlor celebrated with a "Fill Your Stanly" day -- four large scoops of homemade ice cream in you Stanley cup for $10. Couldn't pass that one up, so off we went that evening. I opted for four fruity flavors -- strawberry, peaches and cream, lemon, and banana pudding -- all delicious but the spoons they had cold not reach the bottom of the cup without sticking your hand into the cup itself. I managed but had to wash my sticky hand afterward.
A little more to come.
Back again.
Walt Senior and Ellen went travelling this week. Ellen's sister Kathy, who has stage four cancer, lives in the Villages outside of Orlando and they wanted to get together, probably for the final time. Kathy cannot travel, Ellen's dementia is getting worse, and Senior has severe arthritis and heart problems. Senior wanted to drive them to Kathy's in his truck, but is is at least a six-hour highway trip and Senior has not driven on highways for a number of years, so Christina volunteered to drive them there. They did not listen to her, and a week ago on Sunday, Senior and Ellen headed off in the truck, giving Christina little notice. They evidently made it, styed nearly a week, and drove back Saturday, but remained incommunicado for the entire week. Christina figured nothing bad had happened because they did not get calls from either Kathy or the police over the week, but we still have no idea how the week went.
A new wheelchair is allowing my brother to be taken outside for walks. Despite the smoke pollution, the change of scenery and being able to get out for a few minutes is doing him some good. His Alzheimer's is progressing slowly and he remains lucid most of the time. Erin and Trey went to Fort Walton Beach this weekend to pick up a new snake for Mark, who works weekends. Amy and Kaylee made it through their first month as roomies with only minor problems that can easily be worked out. Walt turned down the full-time TSA job in the hope that maybe (cross fingers) one of the executives at his current company will come through with a better job for Walt by September's end; the TSA still has Walt on board with a part-time job. Our HOA is insisting we mow our lawn in the deadly heat or be fined $100 a day. Mark is having problems at work and has been keeping his resignation letter on him at all times; the problem stems from a director who is pitting the employees against each other; every member of Mark's department has also written resignation letters, just in case. Jessie is still trying to explain basic finance to the new financial director of county transportation. All the animals are doing fine.
Read only four books this week, in part because I got into working a very tricky jigsaw puzzle. THE BROTHERS MCKAY is the latest Longmire novel from Craig Johnson, very good, and heavily influenced by Dosteovsky. J. D. Robb's CEREMONY IN DEATH is the fifth in her Eve Dallas series, which I am slowly working my way through; this time she takes on a Satanist cult. John Saul's FACES OF FEAR (my FFB this week) was another kid in danger book, this tine with a psychotic plastic surgeon. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Pendergast novel, COLD VENGEANCE, was the second in the Helen Trilogy in which Pendergast learns that his wife, long thought dead, is still alive; unbelievable as always, but fast-paced with a lot of plot twists. Currently reading John Farris's 45-year-old CATACOMBS, a spy-guy lost race thriller with echoes of H. Rider Haggard.
Have a great week, Patti. Stay safe and breath easy.
Love the beach picture. It reminds me of some old family movies my father had of his parents and various cousins at Atlantic Beach in the '40s.
*sigh*
We had some bad air too (though not as bad as Detroit or Western New York, we were over 200 at times on the AQI scale). Also, a lot of thunderstorms and torrential rain on Saturday, though our neighborhood was fine.
We definitely will NOT return to the UBS Arena for another concert after an unfortunate experience last week. It took so long to get off the highway and into the parking lot, then wait for a shuttle bus to the Atena ( no way Jackie could have walked it) that we missed almost half of the Earth, Wind * Fire set. Without a thousand people outside they should NOT have started the concert on schedule. Besides, we've rarely been to a concert at Jones Beach (for example) that started less than 20 minutes late. Oh well, at least we had a nice night at the Marriott.
I've been hearing about the terrible air quality, Patti. I hope for all of our sakes that this passes and that we take action about it.
Western NY had a whole week of Air Quality Alerts with Canadian smoke shrouding everything! Officials recommended staying inside...and we mostly did. More bad smoke is due to hit us today. But the temps are moderate.
Katie contacted Carvana and they came out and took her 2014 Nissan Altima away and gave her a check. Easy peasy!
Patrick said NYC had plenty of smoke, too. He's working from home.
You liked THE ODYSSEY more than I did. But it took in a lot of money at the Box Office. Stay safe!
I don't see what we can do about it with all those thousands of miles of trees in Canada. We need more rain in so many places.
It seems like one birthday after another for the House family. I admire you Jeff for still going to outdoor concerts.
Although we actually had one on Thursday we had to cancel due to smoke and bad air.
I have little interest (I must admit) in The Odyssey. Turning the clever trickster into another angsty Nolan hero? Why?
We started the second series of Sugar. So far, nothing happened. We didn't like episode 6 of the final series of Hacks (Jimmy & Kayla look for a comic), but episode 7, with Cherry Jones as a "powerful" Hollywood lesbian was a hoot. We started (Apple) The Taste of Murder, which is worth watching if only for the gorgeous Capri setting (though some was filmed in Croatia) and the food, though the mysteries aren't bad. The bad part is the awful angsty teenager, a 15 year old acting out because her mother was killed in a hit & run.
For All Mankind series 4 has too much of the U.S.- Russia-Helios competition for my taste, though it's still worth watching.
Series 25 of Silent Witness went away from the 5 2-part episodes format for one connected 6 part story, though each episode had separate stories as well. I'm glad they went back to the other format afterwards.
Jerry, to se the Blue Angels here there were no cars or overwhelming crowds involved. We just walked across the street to the park and saw them fly over the tall ships on July 4. Granted, it wasn't the whole show.
Scary about Senior and Ellen 's Road Trip, though I'd find any trip to The Villages scary. Glad they made it.
Good deal on the car, George.
Yeah, Brooklyn has had its share of bad air, though not as bad as uours.
This last concert was indoors, luckily, as it was another hot day. Our next is August 6, so I'm hoping for cooler temps.
I read in the NYT that most of the Canadian wildfires are in totally remote areas without even a road, so impossible for firefighters to get to, even had they been close enough, something Trump is too fucking stupid to understand. Tariff yourself, genius, it will do just as much good.
Much of WI was in the Hazardous level of air quality. We have a air quality alert until Noon today. I have stayed inside for the past few days and not done any outdoor exercise. My wife wore a KN95 mask when working in the garden.
Boy #2 was shipped off to Seattle early Saturday morning for a week long visit with family. His flight left at 6AM and he and I stayed overnight near the Milwaukee airport rather than leave home at 3AM.
My wife and I spent part of the weekend looking at kitchen appliances. I mostly hung out while she looked. I barely thought about work all weekend and was happy about it.
I heard WINTERSET HOLLOW by Jonathan Edward Durham. Fantasy novel with a MOST DANGEROUS GAME theme. Fun and well done and the narration was very good.
Also heard JUST PLAIN FILTHY: THE STORY BEHIND BOOK BANNING'S TRIAL OF THE CENTURY. There was a wisecrack online on how new nonfiction book titles are always a variation of [topic]: CHANGED THE WORLD AND WAR AND LIFE AND IS MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER. This title is the same. Author covers book banning and censorship in the U.S. with a little talk about a school district court case from Long Island that went to the Supreme Court.
Watched THE BLACK BIRD (1975) on Tubi. George Segal as Sam Spade's son with another search for the Maltese Falcon. The edgy racial jokes are just racist now. Ignore that ick factor and still a fun film.
We are supposed to have another hot week here, at least for this area. We do a short walk in the mornings when we can and keep an eye on the plants so they don't die. Otherwise we are not doing a lot.
Last night we watched PROJECT HAIL MARY. It was Glen's pick but he did not like it. Doug and I liked it a lot. I thought it would be the other way around. Maybe someday I will read the book.
Glen did not have a lot of luck with his reading. He took a short break from ATLANTIC by Simon Winchester to read another graphic novel, SEOUL BEFORE SUNRISE by Samir Dahmaini, which he did not like that much. The plot was too thin. He is almost finished with ATLANTIC. He did find some interesting parts in it, but not enough.
My reading has been better in the last few days. I finished FLOATING HOTEL by Grace Curtis. Doug read it and recommended it, plus I am a sucker for novels set in hotels. The story is described as cozy science fiction, but I disagree. Not cozy at all. Sort of humorous, but the story is serious, and way too much violence to be called cozy. I liked it, it was a good read, and it had a lot of intrigue. And only 324 pages.
I am now reading THE SISTERS by Robert Littell. It is about 300 pages long, and at 1/3 of the way through, I am loving it. Cold War espionage, my favorite. The Sisters are two CIA agents who are plotting some kind of crime and using CIA resources illegally. The only book that I have read by Littell that I did not like was THE COMPANY, and that was because it was 800-900 pages long. And I will probably try it again someday. LEGENDS was my favorite book by Littell and I still have many of his books to read.
Kevin has flown by himself from Madison several times but staying in a hotel alone is a whole other thing.
I never can follow spy stories. I don't know why. I am trying to watch ANDOR on Disney and even that is a chore. I think I did read the LeCarres though. Maybe I was smarter or more focused then.
I haven't read a le Carre in a while but remember them being slower and not too thrillerish. Some spy stories nowadays have too many twists and not enough characterization.
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