Patricia Abbott (pattinase): Monday, Monday,

Monday, May 19, 2025

Monday, Monday,

What's up?

28 comments:

Jerry House said...: Hope you're feeling refreshed, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed.

Mark landed safely in Albuquerque after spending a few days here. It was great having him around and listening to his stories about his animal friends. There's a chance Christina, Jack, and I will visit him late next month (and perhaps take a side trip to Santa Fe); nothing is firmed up yet, though.

Saturday was Christina's birthday and she and Jessie postponed their monthly sister Day so Christina and Walt could take a birthday getaway trip to Wakulla Springs and St. Mark's Wildlife Center near Tallahassee. Great scenery, crystal clear waters, and a popular destination (especially at the start of the summer season). To celebrate her birthday, a couple of manatees showed up, along with more than a dozen alligators. Sunday saw more alligators and some deer. A relaxed and happy mini-va-cay. Among Walt's many other talents, he is a professional photographer and likes taking pictures of local wildlife. This trip, though, his best picture was of some delicate water lilies on calm water. He did take some wildlife pictures earlier in the week -- especially a brilliant close-up of a cottonmouth swimming toward him at one of the Navarre Beach tidal marshes. The snake finally noticed him and scooted back among the reeds, but not before giving Walt a fantastic picture.

One full week of school left. I am Jack's ride home from school every day. I always stop by the local gas station/convenience store before going to pick him up for a large cup of coffee and (usually) two chicken tenders for my lunch, which I eat while waiting in the car line, either listening to NPR or reading a few pages of a book. It's a relaxing part of my day. The people at the convenience store see me when I come in and, while I'm pouring my coffee, they get me my chicken tenders without my asking. I'm happy for the attention, but I am now hesitant to ask for anything else from the hot bar -- fired fish, shrimp, burgers, pizza, etc. -- because they are so kind to automatically get me the chicken tenders. One of the clerks always adds a third chicken tender gratis (without my asking) -- I think that's part of the burden of being a universal sex symbol. One of the younger clerks (she's probably mid-thirties, but I am no good at estimating age) always calls me "Sir," and I don't dare tell her how much that ticks me off. I'm too young to be called a "Sir," at lest in my mind's eye. Another clerk (retire after 25 years on the police force. and who may be either male or female...who can tell/) constantly gives me hints on how to pay less for my coffee, while a third clerk will often not charge me for my cup of joe. My family is constantly amazed at how well I am treated there.

My computer was hacked this week and I was locked out for three days. When I was able to get back online, the screen kept going lob-loolly, somewhat akin to the opening of the old television shoe THE OUTER LIMITS. All better now, but I was not able to work on my regular Monday BITS & PIECES for my blog. Maybe next week.

To be continued...; 6:13 AM
Jerry House said...: ...like the proverbial bad penny...

I started streaming WYCLIFFE on /Britbox again and am about halfway through the series. liking it more and more the further I get into it. Jack Shepherd, who plays the title character, reminds me of a kid I went to school with who was noted for his one-arm pull-ups. I hadn't though of hnim for over fifty years. It's amazing the memories that come back to you when you least expect them. I also watched the late night comics, as well as the final WEEKEND UPDATE for SNL's 50th season. Poor Scarlet Johansson! She has to put up with a lot.

I read the first two volumes of THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM: THE COMIC EDITION by Jin Cai, Twilight Lu, & Silver, based on the seminal SF novel by Cixin Lui -- murky, confusing, poorly designed, and basically unreadable; I won't be continuing. The other graphic novel this week was Dennis Hopeless & John Barber's DOCTOR STRANGE, VOL. 5: SECRET EMPIRE. This one was a hodgepodge of stories leading nowhere. I think I've outgrown the current Marvel universe...and I have no idea what the "Secret Empire" actually was. I had much better luck with novels this week. MURDER UNDER THE SKIN was the second Pentecost & Parker novel from Stephen Spotswood; I'll joyfully move on to the third later this month. Cornell Woolrich's FRIGHT (originally published under his "George Hopley" pseudonym) was my FFB. a devastatingly effective and uniquely written piece of suspense. Hugh Greene's COSMOPOLITAN CRIMES: FOREIGN RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES covered thirteen stories from ten writers (writers with two stories each were Grant Allen, Jacques Futrelle, and Maurice Leblanc) and spanned the years 1895 to 1918; great stuff for those who like it (and I do). I also read two (kind of) collections from Britain's Detection Club. MORE ANATOMY OF MURDER was actually a paperback reprinting of the last half of a collection of true crime essays, ANATOMY OF MURDER; this one had three fascinating pieces by Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, and Freeman Wills Crofts. It may be my imagination, but true modern crime writing seems to have gone downhill from the days of William Roughead and Edmund Pearson. ASK A POLICEMAN posited a tricky mystery and four members of the Detective Club were asked to solve it using the others' detectives, and coming up with four perfectly valid and completely different solutions. An interesting approach and a unique conceit from some of the top Golden Age mystery writers. Currently reading Donald Hamilton's 1954 suspense novel NIGHT WALKER, and hope to get to the new Robert Crais later this week.

It's a warm and happy morning here. I hope you have a warm and happy week, Patti. Take care.; 7:00 AM
pattinase (abbott) said...: Wonderful trip but have a nasty cold (haven't tested for COVID). Will try to write more when I recover a bit from the 14 hour return last night. Too old for jetlag on top of cold.; 8:29 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...: Patti, glad you had a good time and made it home safe and sound. I feel the same about traveling. We did go to Arizona in December to see my sister (who is doing OK so far, fingers crossed), but otherwise I want to avoid airplane travel as much as possible, or at least keep it to no more than three hours. Jackie wants New Orleans for our 55th Anniversary, but airline scheduling is horrible now - the only non-stop flight is at 7:30 am! We'll see.

We've seen GYPSY four times in the past, twice with stars you'd consider mostly actors (Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly), twice with singers (Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone). But no one came close to the powerful operatic voice of Audra McDonald, who Jackie said "blew the rest away." Great performance. And speaking of Sondheim (of course, he wrote the brilliant lyrics for GYPSY), we're seeing the OLD FRIENDS tribute show to him (and yes, Bernadette Peters is in it) next Saturday.

The weather has been mostly good but still a lot of ups and downs - Sunday was 82 degrees, while Wednesday and Thursday will be in the 50s. Also having plenty of rain, so stayed home a couple of days last week.

Plenty of television, of course. Finished several of the French series we were watching, at least up to what we've been offered - THE DOC & THE VET (or is it vice versa?), CASSANDRE, The ECLIPSE. Added two more, the third recent one set in Strasbourg (where we never visited), this one REFORMED (MAX). It's about a young woman who decides to become a Rabbi (much less common in France than it is here) is one. She's not all that self-confident, but in the first three episodes she has dealt with a bris, a reluctant bar mitzvah boy, and a funeral. We like it so far. The second is another medical show, P13 or J13, something like that. That was MHz. Another sort of Jewish-related show is the Canadian BEING ERICA (originally 2009-2011; on Prime Video). She keeps going back to the past to try and change the "mistakes" she made. The Jewish part is, her parents are divorced and her father has, belatedly, decided to become a Rabbi.

Also finished the latest CALL THE MIDWIFE series (#14) and SPOOKS (MI-5; series 9 of 10). Watching THE LAST OF US. Started series 4 of the Finnish ARCTIC CIRCLE (MHz).

Jackie is a big Billy Bob Thornton fan, so we started watching LANDMAN (Paramount +) but she turned it off after 15 minutes, for some reason. We went back to it this week and so far, it's nasty but riveting.

Will see if I can think of anything else going on here.; 10:13 AM
Diane Kelley said...: Glad to have you back, Patti! Hope you get better soon!

Patrick had some jet lag from his trip to Japan and Taiwan. That 12-hour time difference is a killer! Diane is busy packing for our next trip to Ohio for her niece's High School Graduation. Last June when we attending another High School Graduation Party, we both got Covid-19!

I've got two more episodes to watch of the finale of ANDOR on Disney+. I'm tempted to watch FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH that begins this week. We have our tickets for the final MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movie with Tom Cruise. We haven't seen a movie in a theater since A COMPLETE UNKNOWN.

Get well and stay safe!; 10:22 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...: A couple more. Now that we finished REBUS, we started rewatching PRINE SUSPECT on Britbox. First thoughts on 1991: EVERYBODY smoked, and pretty much constantly. The men had some really terrible haircuts, and some of the women did too. I spotted Ralph Fiennes as the boyfriend of a murder victim. Helen Mirren did a nice job, but I don't know if I want to watch it all over again.

Jackie finished MAESTRO IN BLUE on Netflix, and then Harlan Coben's CAUGHT (set in Argentina). now she's watching another nasty one, one of George's favorites, MOBLAND on Paramount +. Helen Mirren is sort of Lady Macbeth here, but much less subtle.; 10:34 AM
pattinase (abbott) said...: I might spit this out in bits today-between naps. Really liked Lucca, a smaller city with a fantastic wall of 2 1/2 miles which we walked just as I was getting this cold. Wondered why it was so hard.. The nineteen in Florence on Road Scholar got along like Jerry's family. All on the same page politically although we tried to keep off that subject.; 11:05 AM
Kevin R. Tipple said...: Glad you are safely home and had fun. I hope it is not Covid.; 11:54 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...: Did you get to the Leaning Tower of Pisa? That's not far from Lucca. We didn't get to z Lucca, but did ho to Assissi and Perugia.; 12:54 PM
pattinase (abbott) said...: I did get to the Leaning Tower, briefly. In all my photos it looks straight. Maybe I righted it accidentally. A favorite of my friends and me was a trip to a restoration workshop where they tried to repair paintings from 1200 onward. Fascinating. They did it for free except for materials. Thanks Kevin. I don't think it is Covid but I probably should check. Although it is four days into it now.
Watched the first REFORMED, which I really liked. As I have said before I relate to Jewish culture since my child neighborhood was heavily Jewish.; 1:04 PM
Jeff Meyerson said...: When we went to Pisa in 1974, the Leaning Tower was really leaning! As you climbed up, you really felt yourself being drawn to the downhill side. And there were NO GUARDRAILS until the very top. Jackie is bad with heights in general, so she was hugging the building as we climbed. I believe it had gotten so bad that they had to close the Tower, and over the years they have taken steps to shore up the downhill side and make it lean less. (Wikipedia says it was a 4 degree lean due to unstable foundation.)

Just checked. It was stabilized by "remedial work" between 1993 and 2001, so the tilt, which had reached 5.5 degrees in 1990, was reduced to 3.97. That's still quite a bit.; 2:57 PM
TracyK said...: Not much new here. We had the lemon tree pruned and the smallish bamboo in one corner of the yard cut down, because a neighbor complained about it growing into their yard, which I sympathize with. We won't miss the bamboo but we still have shoots of bamboo coming up here and there in other areas. I have a medical appointment on Wednesday, which we hope goes well.

Patti, glad to hear that you are safely back. Sorry to hear that you are ill and jet-lagged and hope that you are better soon.

Re shows we are watching: We finished up NCIS: ORIGINS season 1 and NCIS (original) season 22 last night. We still have few episodes of ELSBETH Season 2 to watch, which we will do in the next few weeks. We have two more episodes of THE ORVILLE to watch in Season 3, then that will be done. And we are enjoying rewatching THE MENTALIST, CSI: NEW YORK, ELEMENTARY, and DEATH IN PARADISE.

I finished two very good books in the last week: CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD by Sara Gran, which I borrowed from Glen, and THURSDAY NIGHT WIDOWS by Claudia Pineiro. The CLAIRE DEWITT book is the first in the series and Glen has the other two, so I will be reading those too. THURSDAY NIGHT WIDOWS is set in Argentina and the author is from Argentina. It is about the families living in an exclusive community during the 1990s. It is crime fiction, but focuses on what leads up to the crime and not on who did it.

Glen is continuing to read a book that he is really enjoying: HIGH: A JOURNEY ACROSS THE HIMALAYA THROUGH PAKISTAN, INDIA, BHUTAN, NEPAL AND CHINA by Erica Fatland. He has read other books by her. Right now he is in the part where she is in the Everest base camps.; 3:17 PM
pattinase (abbott) said...: I have read several Sara Gran books but not this series. Whenever I have gotten a cold while abroad it always seems a bit different than ones contracted at home. I wonder if different germs lurk in different parts of the world.
We had a driver that took us from Florence to Pisa and then to Lucca and he told us a lot about the remedial work. We were only there for sixty minutes. I will post a picture and you tell me why it doesn't seem to lean much.; 3:44 PM
Todd Mason said...: Welcome back (less welcome, the disease which hitched a ride on you). Looks like the young one did a good job resetting the Pisa Tower with his construction kits! I'm not getting to Oahu to inter my father's ashes at Punchbowl Military Cemetery, but my sister and newly formalized brother-in-law are in the air from California by now to do so (our father died in 2020, but this was the first time circumstances allowed for the interment with our mother's ashes there). Soon they will be on their way to live in Uruguay. I have some pesky health matters to attend to of my own, that made the prospect of flying not too pleasant.; 5:59 PM
Todd Mason said...: Different strains are indeed likely...particularly if picked up on the plane on one leg or another.; 6:01 PM
Jerry House said...: Todd, take care of those pesky health matters. We need you around.

Patti, what's the problem? I turned my laptop to a 45 degree angle and the Tower looks just fine.; 7:44 PM
pattinase (abbott) said...: I still have Phil sitting on my closet shelf, Todd and he died in 2019.; 8:11 PM
Todd Mason said...: Thanks, Jerry, I'm trying. Lying next to me at the moment is the cat who was my parents' last, a very sweet tabby who's 14-15yo...can't take any kind of powder and leave Alice two cats and all my books/magazines to juggle...particularly since I hate cleaning litterboxes less. You, too, with the computers...; 9:20 PM
Todd Mason said...: Do you have another, preferred place for the ashes, Patti? I'm not sure how much my parents' families relish paying their way to Hawaii to see their site...in part because we haven't heard from them, for the most part, about the matter at all. Alice and I have the ashes of our late cats on the living room's mantelpiece...; 9:30 PM
Anonymous said...: We have a plot in Philly but now my brother is in Fort Meyers and will “rest” there. Since no one lives in Philly now, no sense returning there.; 9:57 PM
Todd Mason said...: All sympathies...splitting the difference between most of our mother's family in West Virginia or nearby, father's in Vermont and nearby, and where they met in Alaska (with at least some of our maternal cousins still there) didn't seem to work out to much. Our father in his last years misremembered meeting our mother in Hawaii, since he had been stationed in Hawaii with the USAF for a while (and was witness to a catastrophic failure of new jet hardware that killed at least a couple of airmen feet away from him at the time...I imagine losing that memory, if he did, was a blessing)..as opposed to their meeting in Fairbanks around the turn of '63, when both were in the FAA. So, the idea of a military cemetery didn't seem the worst...we knew it was likely to be maintained (not counting on a malignant narcissist admin to come in, looking to destroy streets in DC to celebrate his own birthday...).; 10:59 PM
Jerry House said...: Todd, the D.C. Highway Department will soon be singing "Tanks for the Memories"!; 7:00 AM
Jerry House said...: BTW, Todd: https://bitsandpieces.us/2025/05/19/i-am-curious-as-to-what-todd-did/; 7:25 AM
Todd Mason said...: Jerry, as George knows, my lack of enthusiasm for STAR WARS stuff might've led to drunken heckling and "...This is a Knife" reference jokes, if I ever drank anymore, much less in Jedi bars. (I've been seriously drunk perhaps three or four times at parties, including once in early childhood...my parents didn't see me draining the post-event cocktail party glasses till I was three pillowcases to the wind already...as perhaps a forty-pounder then, that wouldn't take much nor long (no personal memory of this, just recounting from the folks).

However, "Todd" is always a good joke name for an uptight or lodged pole character, which helps to blunt the sinister resonances of the name.

Decent "what's Darth Vader's fetish?" joke on @FTER MIDNIGHT last night, with the punchline that "he's clearly a choker..."; 11:57 PM
Gerard Saylor said...: I enjoy reading everyone's updates. Glad the Italy trip went well.
My father's ashes (died in 2020) are at my mother's home. She kept hunting around for a cheap earn big enough to fit both their ashes.
My mother, wife, and Boy #2 all went to Minneapolis last week for Boy #1's graduation (with Distinction) at U of MN. He earned an Aerospace Engineering degree. I good trip. Although, for every drive there are arguments over navigation and how trustworthy the directions are from google maps.
I signed up for a ARC program with Libro.fm audiobooks that is offered to library people. My wife was plugging the service but there were not many I was interested in. Checked out FROG: THE SECRET DIARY OF A PARAMEDIC by Sally Gould. Australian lady becomes a paramedic. I enjoyed her writing for the section on how depression and alcohol dependence snuck up on her after 2-3 years of service. Follows the usual one-shot memoir about work life. Her time as a student and trainee. Short pieces about different ambulance calls and crises. The longer sections on depression and booze. Well done and narrated by the author.
I started FEAR THE WALKING DEAD and am on Season 2. Last night I found out there are 113 episodes. 113! Hoo-boy.
Have a novel by Ray Banks at home and need to get back to it. I was having some trouble understanding the thick Scottish dialogue. Still easier than trying to hear it.; 12:07 PM
pattinase (abbott) said...: Congrats to Boy 1. I hope our President does not bring funding in those programs to a close.; 7:50 AM
Gerard Saylor said...: Decades of the United States leading the world in scientific achievement and advancement and a single con man and his cowardly followers are actively working to destroy it all.
All a part of their hatred of higher education.; 12:36 PM
Todd Mason said...: And actual thought generally, vs. reflexive resentment and spite.; 3:55 PM