Kevin came home for spring break with two assignments: attend a live poetry event and a live fiction reading event. We went to hear The Moth (an NPR live program) and the readers were doing non-fiction stories about sus, which I thought was suspicion but it turned out to be shady behavior. None of the stories were great but none were terrible either. The audience favored sad stories rather than violent ones. The poetry slam was in Ann Arbor.
Also went to Pompeii: Under the Clouds. Every review was extremely positive but the four of us were a tad bored.
The weather is still ugly mostly.
Watched Michigan beat Arizona. Watched THE PITT, DTF ST LOUIS, THE ROOSTER
Listened to Bill Nighy's podcast "Ill-Advised"
What about you? Is it nice there yet?
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I suppose it is nice here, although it seems too warm to me. We are doing pretty well with our yard work out front; we finally pulled out almost all our overgrown Santa Barbara daisies. And have potted some plants, with more to go. April is here and we no longer have cool, overcast skies in the mornings to ease the heat.
I am posting this Sunday night because I don't know when I will get on the computer tomorrow.
We are watching mostly the same shows as usual. We have finished the first season of Grantchester. We may take a break from that to watch another season of Professor T.
Glen is now reading A SHORT HISTORY OF EVERYTHING by Bill Bryson. He has read other books by Bryson and liked them. He says that this one is more variable. It covers a lot of topics and some are better than others.
Before that he read another graphic novel by Mimi Pond, about a woman working at a diner in the 70s. It is a semi-memoir. He gave it 5 stars. I may read it soon.
Last night, I finished reading SOVIET SOURCES, a Cold War spy story set in Russia by Robert Cullen. I liked it a lot. It took a long time to get started, but the more I got into it, the better it was.
Tonight I will start reading DEATH IN A DARKENING MIST by Iona Whishaw, a Canadian author. The setting is British Columbia in 1946.
Tracy, when we visited my brother in March, he gave me a copy of the Bryson book to read; I read the first hundred pages or so and really enjoyed it. Now that we are back in Florida, I have to get a copy of the book to finish it.
Now that Spring has sprung the weather is very nice, with the usual allotment of April showers (occasionally, April deluges). There is something comforting about April rains. For some reason, they smell differently. Perhaps it is psychological, knowing the rain is one of Nature's ways to renew itself. Whatever the reason, they make me happy.
A bit over three years ago, a sexual predator targeted Jack, befriending him on the phone without anyone's knowledge. Before the two were to meet face to face, the police got word of it and intervened, arresting the predator on other charges of child abuse. Since then, the man has been in jail on a number of other charges. He is now soon to face trial on Jack's case. (He was evidently been transferred to a mental ward for several month, but has now been cleared to stand trial so he is back in the county jail -- separated from the other prisoners for his safety. Last year, both Christina and Jack were subpoenaed and deposed in the case. Recently, Christina was again subpoenaed for another deposition, this time scheduled for last Thursday at 10:30; she got a call at 8:30 that morning rescheduling the deposition until the end of the month. Just the fact that she was being deposed mace her anxious; now that it has been postponed, the anxiety is still there...and growing. Wheels of justice move slowly.
On Good Friday, we went to another Bingo night with Walt Sr. and Ellen. Jessie also stopped by for a couple of hours. Christina won one round -and got $25. Walt Sr. brings along a bag of soft drinks and fig newtons (his favorite) to share with us. Walt Sr. is one of those who is happiest when he is sharing. Their apartment complex recently provided everyone with new trash cans; residents were asked to toss their old trach cans in the dumpster -- but the old trash cans were still perfectly good and to throw them away would have been wasteful. So Walt Sr,. put the old trash can in the back of his truck. Being Walt Sr., he would often strike up a friendly conversation with anyone he happened to meet on his travels doing errands. Then he would ask each person if they wanted a trash can. It took several days, but he finally gifted the trash can to the manager of a restaurant where he and Ellen had gone to. The restaurant was happy,
Walt Sr. was happy, and the trash can was spared from the dumpster. Mission accomplished.
Sunday was our annual Easter outing at Blackwater State Park, about forty-five minutes from us, where we would rent one of the two large pavilions for the day. The park is in a wooded, swampy area alongside the Blackwater River, which is a sleepy stream by that area, perfect for floating and splashing. It's a quiet restful location where we can recharge and just enjoy each other's company. There's plenty of food. Jessie brings along Easter decoration for the picnic tables. Erin made yummy carrot-less carrot cake cupcakes this year because she doesn't like carrots (she also does not like onions -- there is something sincerely wrong with that girl!) We used to organize an Easter Egg hunt for the kids, all of whom, except for Jack, should have logically aged out. We usually do joint craft. This year we planned to do "button Easter eggs" but Christina was not able to buy buttons, so we settled for tiny, colored beads and glued them to make nifty Easter egg patterns; as usual, Erin and Amy did outstanding, intricate jobs, while everyone else made noble and acceptable efforts -- except for me. Rather than an Easter egg pattern, I glued together a rather inept rendering of Kristi Noem's husband, complete with large hoohas. for some reason no one thought it was unusual that I would veer from the normal and unexpected. Go figure.
Not much more to come.
Weather has been nice here, very up and down at home. It's been warm with occasional rain. We're mostly packed and leaving for home after breakfast. Three months seems about perfect for a winter break, especially this year. We'll be home Thursday.
Watched series 3 of Slow Horses. Watching For All Mankind, The Morning Show, Tehran, usual others. Call the Midwife. Several French series. Silent Witness. Great British Baking Show.
Jackie is watching several other shows in the afternoons, including Rizzoli and Isles.
I'm a big Bryson fan and may read this one too.
Reading and enjoying Lucy Mangan's Bookworm, Jane Gardam's short stories, and Devon Milhesuah's Blood Relay, a first mystery set in Oklahoma with mostly women in all the main roles.
I hope to watch ALL OF MANKIND but am not sure I can fill in the blanks. Love Bill Bryson books. I used to enjoy hearing his strange combination of accents on TV in the UK. The House family has the best holidays. It really is too bad Jack and Christina have to be dragged into that story again. Is Tehran worth it, especially given our current situation.
Back again, briefly.
Very little television this week. FATHER BROWN, WILL TRENT, and a double dose of DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN.
Only three books read this week. KILLER ON THE ROAD by Stephen Graham Jones took all the usual tropes and blew them up exponentially. He is an amazing writer, but I usually have a hard time getting into his work, but once I am in there, man, oh man! I also read Michael
Connelly's THE POET, Connelly's fifth novel and the first to feature Jack McEvoy. I had previously read a few of Connelly's Harry Bosch novels but this book -- a knockout -- has convinced me to read much more of his oevre. Finally, I read Dean Koontz's latest novel, THE FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, a historical novel covering a decade and a half, beginning in 1931. I have mentioned before my love-hate relationship with his work --his sentimentality, his overabundance of description, and a certain triteness to his characters. This book had all of the above, but it still knocked my socks off; it probably the best book he has written and the main character -- a young circus freak named Alida -- is the most realized character he has ever drawn. The plot -- often the case with Koontz -- is totally unbelievable, and there is the author's trademark mystically religious underpinning and -- of course -- a noble dog (a shepherd this time, rather than a Golden) and a truly evil father figure. The result is a powerful read that has stayed with me for days. I may well have to reassess my opinion of Koontz.
Currently reading S. A. Cosby's KING OF ASHES, which I should finish today. In the gueue are Stephen Graham Jones's THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER, Nikki Erlick's THE POPPY FIELDS, and (most likely) Will Murray's SECRET AGENT X VS. DOCTOR DEATH; the final John Dickson Carr short story collection, THE UNEXPECTED INSTINCT, came in this weekend, so I'll try to fit that one in this week also.
I hope you have a great week, Patti, as well as great weather. May flowers are must around the corner. Stay safe. Stay well.
Tehran is from the Israeli and Iranian points of view. So far, the U.S. is not a factor in the story.
I wonder if people living in CA don't think about the weather much unless it's fire or floods.
MY cellphone tells me that all of my passwords need to be changed for various reasons. A guy is coming out to change them and maybe put in passkeys. I don't know. Once an icon appeared for passwords, I knew I was in big trouble.
Our Nissan Rogue is all packed up and in 15 minutes we'll hit the road back to Western NY. We had an 80 degree day in Ohio this weekend, but this morning it was snowing! Crazy weather
Patrick and Katie are having fun in London, England. They're going to see DRACULA and PADDINGTON in the West End before they head for Paris.
Stay safe!
Jackie is impressed at how much time your kids spend together.
We stopped at Port Orange (just south of Daytona Beach) for lunch as always, and I was surprised to see that the Panera had closed since January. Making do with First Watch instead, though this is the first time I've had lunch here rather than breakfast/brunch.
Still some snow on the ground here in Winnipeg, but the roads are clear. The side streets and back lanes are full of potholes and you must try to avoid them or your vehicle may be damaged. Started reading a new UK book about Richard Booth, the book dealer primarily responsible for the establishment of the Hay-on-Wye book town in Wales. I made an overnight visit to Hay-on-Wye about ten years ago and managed to limit myself to buying four books. Already had purchased several in London to haul home to Canada. Looking forward to having a visit later in the week with my nephew Colin and his family from Victoria, BC. His wife Barb is a violinist, who the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra flies in for performances.
I always hoped to get to Hay-on-Wye (And western Canada) Thankfully, there is no snow here.
Was rather hoping Manitoba and Canada generally would be better than much of the US is about fixing roads these years, but that's too much to hope for, I imagine. Safe travels for all those still doing so.
Central New Jersey (Philadelpha area, usually thought of as southern NJ, but not so much if one's looking at a map...but, it's not in the NYC suburbs so there is That) is finally getting some consistent post-winter weather, a bit coolish but pleasant enough (no hurry for the summer heat to arrive). The sapling the county planted in front of our yard seems like it's starting to bud, but the grass on most of our yard seems unwilling/unready to come back up...lots of tufts of skunk grass popping up in yards of our block, instead, better able to weather that off-again/on-again winter we've passed through.
Totally inconsistent weather. In the 20s tonight.
We've been to Hay on Wye many times from 1978, when my friend Bob got Richard Booth himself to let us in some locked stores. We were there the day of the Royal Wedding in 1981, while the women were glued to the TV.
Bought many books over the years, and Jackie got a lot of children's books to use with her classes.
There is (or was) a mystery bookshop.
I'm so glad you and Kevin got to see some good live readings. I think that's a really useful experience for a young person, and of course, great for you, too.
Another late entry from me. I was gone most of last week to a work conference in Minneapolis and spent Monday and Tuesday catching up. I did get to see Boy #1 and his two cats in Minneapolis. Boy #2 declined to travel along with me. The cats don't get along but it is still early in the process. One cat was not eating and my son called the vet to have the cat's broken tooth pulled. He was thinking that or the cat anger were the cause. Then, he tried a different food and the cat ate that. Go figure.
I started driving home at about 5 or 6PM on Friday. Usually a 4.5 hours drive. Driving in the rain storm with water on the road had me pull over at a rest stop and decide to sleep in the van. I have camping equipment in the van but the summer-weight bag was not enough. After continuing to try and add layers I never got much sleep and left for home at about 4:30AM.
Spent a decent amount of time last week and subsequent weekend working to replace a bathroom exhaust fan and clean out a couple birds nests. I'm halfway done on the project. I think.
Listened to S.A. Cosby's RAZORBLADE TEARS and it was pretty good. Two ex-con and ex-killers dads who rejected their gay sons go out for revenge when the married sons are murdered. Cosby writes a lot about the guilt they carry. The fact they can only deal with this through violence is just an accepted fact to them. There is no other option.
I've had analysis paralysis with TV. So much to watch. I logged into Tubi and found several films I'd like to see. I put them on the always growing list. I did start OUR MAN IN HAVANA on Sunday or Monday. Tubi also has a slew of B and C-grade trash that I enjoy from video rental store days of bottom shelf dreck and exploitation.
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