Monday, March 09, 2026

Monday, Monday


 

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13 comments:

David said...

12:01 Monday Monday. So far so good to me,

12:02 AM
Todd Mason said...

12:25. First read as Stand Up (Comedy) for Democracy. But, indeed. And for more of us to take it more seriously than voting one's hatred and irritation ahead of the interests of ourselves and the nation and the world as a whole.

12:28 AM
Jerry House said...

An interesting week. Christina was hired as a part-time police dispatcher on= Tuesday. She starts her training today and is beginning to get the new job jitters. She has then skills and the experience to do well on the job but try to convince someone of that on their first day...

Amy is recovering slowly from her operation, but it will be until mid-May before she can put weight on her ankle. In the meantime it hurts a lot.

Wednesday, Christina, Jessie and I flew out to visit my brother and his family in Massachusetts. We booked tickets from Pensacola to Providence, with a layover in at Raleigh-Durham on Breeze Airlines (Motto: When Spirit is just too fancy), saving us each over $140 on tickets. The rental car drive from Providence to Arlington, Massachusetts, is less than an hour and half, and well worth the savings. Jessie had booked and prepaid for the rental car, but had to also place a deposit. For some reason, the rental car computer decided to flag her credit card and it took close to forty-five minutes to straighten that out. (The computer would not allow either Christina or I to pay the deposit with our cards because the rental was in Jessie's name.) That finally straightened, we headed off. Christina had booked us into an Extended Stay America Suites hotel, rot realizing the the "extended stay" referred to the time waiting in the hotel lobby. It seems that there were TWO Extended Stay hotels, one right next to the other. The hotel at number 32 was directly on the road and the one at number 52 was directly behind it. We went to number 32. It was late and the one person on duty was not behind the desk. It took about ten minutes before she showed up and, after checking her computer, told us we did not have a reservation. What was most likely she said, was that we were booked into number 52. So we headed over there, where we had to wait about ten minutes for the one person on duty to show up. He checked his computer and, indeed, we were registered there. He then told us how much we had to pay. Problem was that when Christina booked the reservation through Booking.Com weeks ago, she had paid for the room and Booking.com had taken the money out of her checking account. Booking.com had never bothered to pay the hotel. It turns out that Booking-com is based in the Netherlands and calls to their 800 number can go anywhere in the world. Christina got on the phone and ended up talking to some guy in Japan, who had to elevate the complaint to his superior, who had to elevate the complaint to his superior. In the meantime the lobby clerk noticed someone leaving the hotel and got mad. Don't know what was going on but the lobby clerk literally ran out of the hotel after the guy and was gone for about five minutes during which we imagined all sorts of bloody confrontations. The lobby clerk came back, unbloodied, and said that he was going to get our room ready for when Christina for when Christina settled things about the payment; he then grabbed a can of spray room refreshener and vanished down the hallway. Christina in the meantime was still being elevated. Until she wasn't and she lost the phone connection. She dialed the 800 number again and got some guy in Germany, who elevated the problem to another guy, who elevated the problem further up the ladder. Finally, everything was settled. Their computer in the Netherlands (or Japan, or Germany, or wherever) talked to the computer in Massachusetts ad we got the key cards for or room, along with specific instruction on how to find it because, you see, the room was not numbered. We collapsed in out beds, not really concerned about the mold in the bathroom, or the fact that two lights and the alarm clock in the room did not work, and not even concerned about how uncomfortable the mattresses in the room were.

More of our exciting travel adventure to come.

7:05 AM
Jerry House said...

Back again.

Un the morning, Christina and Jessie checked out the hotel's complimentary breakfast, which consisted of acidic coffee and granola bars. Luckily there is a state law in Massachusetts that there must be at least one Dunkin Donuts per mile. Before we headed out the we told the (new) lobby clerk about the lights that did not work in our room and were told that they did not have a maintenance staff but maybe they could borrow a guy from number 32, and besides, she had no idea where they kept the light bulbs. On the way to Dunks we heard on the radio about RFK Jr.'s war on Dunkin because 16-year-old girls were ordering coffees with 1500 grams (milligrams? pounds? something) of sugar, so I urged Christina to count all the 16-year-old girls in each Dunkin' we visited over the next few days (and there were a lot of them); she refused. (BTW, RFK, Jr., you are concerned about unhealthy options at Dunkin' Donuts and you concentrate just on the coffee?) It was an absolute joy driving through the older towns in the Boston area, just admiring the magnificent homes; we just don't get those stately images in Florida. (We also don't get the snow or ice, although we do get some ;poorly maintained roads.) Finally we made it to Kenny's.

My brother is much frailer now and tires easily, although the Alzheimer's had not seemed to have advanced much. He is still engaging but6 his wit has slowed. His voice is much fainter and it is difficult at times to understand what he is saying, and he has to concentrate to get the right words out. But, underneath it all, he is still Kenny, and for that I am thankful. his wife, Carmen, took a toss a few weeks ago and broke her arm and shoulder and is unable to do much around the house; she is scheduled for a series of operations today. Daughter Julie and her husband Tom live with them, but Tom's job often requires him to be out of town for weeks at a time. Julie and Tom have two daughters, Lily (age 2 and a half) and Emma (age 8 months). Navigating household chores can be very difficult. Carmen often has to take an Uber to do shopping or go to appointments; otherwise Julie would have to also take Kenny and the two young ones, because no one can be left home alone. Most of their shipping is now done via Amazon. On top of all, plumbing work needed to be done and the plumber was there, in and out of the house, for almost twelve hours the first day we were there.

We spent a lot of our time there helping to ease things. Jessie drove Carmen to a dentist appointment, which also gave Carmen some precious alone time. Amazon% delivered about twenty packages and we helped open and sort them, as well as break the packaging down for recycling. We also installed some need baby safety locks on cabinets and such. Friday we went out and did some needed shopping for them. We kept Lily and Emma entertained, or perhaps they kept us entertained; Lily is a very happy, energetic child with a great imagination and a patented catch-phrase of "oh my goodness;" while Emma is a contented baby just thiiiis close to crawling -- she gets around quite nicely by rolling around the room to reach whatever toy gets her attention, thank you very much. Emma is also very cuddly, which worked out well because Christina is a baby stealer. Jessie spent most of Friday helping Carmen get their taxes organized -- something that had been worrying her greatly. Friday morning we went to Target and picked up a number of items that they needed or that would make their lives easier. I had a fantastic time with Kenny and we both enjoyed remembering the time way back when when Cousin Donny fell in the cow manure and had to be hosed off, naked, in the front lawn. And playing with Lily and Emma was more than special.

And still more to come...

8:04 AM
Todd Mason said...

Glad you could overcome the corporate hassles to visit and lend aid and comfort, Jerry, as well as further experience the New Generation. And, of course, Brainworm is angry that the one thing he might want to drink or eat at Dunkin is as sugary as it is, particularly as he thins out the population through re-indtroced, easily-prevented plagues, so as to cut down on wait times.

9:09 AM
Anonymous said...

Or, even, re-introduced.

9:10 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...

Jerry, that was quite the adventure. I don't think I'd have stayed at their version of SNL's Blaine Hotel, but I'm sure you saved money in the end.

Quite warm here now, low 80s much of the week. It is supposed to be 60 in New York today.

I've been feeling under the weather for the past couple of weeks, every few days. Nothing specific. Jackie thinks it's stress-related. Gee, I wonder why.

I found one way to turn off the noise from Washington: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn. Even if you don't read much fantasy, you love books and libraries, right? Good one.

We like the three actresses on How To Get To Heaven From Belfast (Netflix), but much of the script is almost incomprehensible. The Night Agent is also on Netflix. I think I enjoyed Shrinking more than anything else this week.

George, have you watched War Machine on Netflix? Jackie watched the new Alan Ritchson movie yesterday.

Hope you're enjoying Florida, Patti.

10:26 AM
Gerard Saylor said...

Today I stand in memory of Bill Crider's dislike for daylight savings. I was over an hour late to work this morning and I blame it on DST.
Heard the audio of James Lee Burke's HADACOL BOOGIE and was quite disappointed. Plot and story quite disjointed. I've taken to think of Robicheaux as a unreliable narrator.
• He sees ghosts.
• He goes into blackout rages where he beats and pummels people. At leas three times in HADACOL.
• He tells us about his dry drunk behavior he blames on alcoholism but are just as likely mental trouble and a screaming, howling cry for therapy. He also blames behavior on changed brain chemistry due to alcohol abuse.
• At one point he and Clete commit torture on a gangster. 10 minutes later they brace someone else and Dave says how he doesn't want the bad guy torturing someone in his Parish.
• He excuses away his and Clete's behavior. They are only violent against bad guys after all. Yet, it's Dave telling us how bad those bad guys are and, therefore, they deserve it.
• His violence is done during his work in law enforcement and against both fellow police and citizens. He always slides by.
• There is a strong motif in Burke's work about the lasting effects in Louisiana of racism, slavery, government corruption, family influence, power of wealth, and neo-colonialism. Dave will complain about corruption and police violence and two pages later does the same dang thing.

10:34 AM
TracyK said...

Later in the day we are going to a doctor's appointment for Glen.

Only new thing we are watching is not really new. We are getting back to the latest NCIS shows, which had not been airing for a couple of months. All them we watched last night were good.

Glen has been reading a lot. He read LOS ANGELES'S BUNKER HILL: PULP FICTION'S MEAN STREETS AND FILM NOIR'S GROUND ZERO!, by Jim Dawson. He says that the information on the locations gets too granular but that the history of filming in the area is interesting. And it includes some nice vintage photos. He also read ON TO THE NEXT DREAM by Paul Madonna. It is based on the author's eviction from his rented home in San Francisco, where he had lived for years. Paul Madonna has done three graphic novels based on work featured in the San Francisco Chronicle. We have all three of them, but haven't read them yet.

Now he is reading THE UNSETTLED DUST, short stories by Robert Aickman.

I finally finished CONTEMPLATION OF A CRIME by Susan Juby. That is not to say that I did not enjoy it. I liked it a lot. I just read slowly now and sometimes it takes a long time to finish a book. The author is Canadian and the setting is a small island off Vancouver Island. The heroine is a Buddhist butler who gets involved in the rescue of her rich boss after he and his son are kidnapped. The characters are eccentric. This is the third in a series and I liked the first two also. I especially like the way that the main character, Helen, handles unexpected and stressful events.

I am now reading DO ADMIT!: THE MITFORD SISTERS AND ME, a graphic novel by Mimi Pond. (Glen read this first and liked it.) It is about the author's obsession with the Mitford sisters. I am finding it interesting because I have read so much about them already and always like to hear more. This is more a rehash but in some ways it does bring things together better than some of the biographies of the Mitford sisters. It is 450 (unnumbered) pages and I have read about a third of it.

Now, off to get ready for the clinic visit.

12:58 PM
Anonymous said...

I have been sick for a week and cannot get my strength back. So too my housemates. It has been 85 here and that’s too hot. We have watched Grace and a strange movie called Little Siberia. Home next Monday. Got to see my brother, Jeff and his wife, Ruth on Sunday.

12:01 PM
Todd Mason said...

All sympathies--all the same bug? Escaping the big freeze, only to get big heat. Hope the reunions were pleasant

9:11 AM
Anonymous said...

Thanks!

10:26 AM
Anonymous said...

Thanks!

10:26 AM

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