Greatest global online bookclub in town

We arrived at our oldest daughter’s yesterday and no, we can’t get into Oslo, but the dike seems to be doing its job. The snow and wind in Fargo are certainly adding to the depressions, but the cold is probably good for the river level, which is still dropping as of this am. We also have a daughter in St Paul, so may head there, its closer to home, if the roads remain closed for our return home.

I’m still reading Beautiful Boy by David Sheff, having a loved one with such huge addictive problems is such heart ache! The son is recovered at this time, as far as I know, and has written his own view of his past. The daughter here in MO is a phycholgist and works with such troubles, has read both of these books, and says the frustrations are so very accurate.

It was 71 when we got here and today is 42 and very windy, doesn’t seem much like spring, like you with the snow. Spring will surely come?

Jacky

We went to the Chicago symphony last night, an hour and a half drive in the rain. The symphony was great and for the first time in my life I got to sit in a box. A friend invited us. We drove home in a blizzard and this morning awakened to eight inches of snow. No one could get in or out of the driveway and this is a day when many come to pick up their dogs. My daughter, grandaughter and boyfriend finally got the driveway shoveled enough that the boyfriends SUV could make a track out and they finally got out. It is a long driveway. One of the kennel workers finally got here and some dodgs are leaving so all is well. Tomorrow most of the dogs will be gone and life will be a lot less stressful. I hope the weather holds until Tuesday when I fly home to my quiet in a rut life.

Jo, since we’re all virtually moving with you, you can consider that we are all virtually helping you pack. Does that help?

Candace

What a mish-mash of weather! I’ll take a light weight sweater altho even 50 sounds warm to me!!!!!!!! We’ve a wild spread of temperatures this winter and such a small amount of snow. I LOVE it to look at but not to drive in, thank you.

Jacky, I do so hope the levees hold but how will you get to your house? Better plan on staying someplace for a while - you don’t want to swim home, I’m sure. It’d be cold, I think.

Anybody wanna come help pack?

I am sure Jackie knows she may not be able to get into her home. The house and town will be OK, we hope, but the bridges will be closed most likely. My brother in Grand Forks thinks the dykes there will hold. They are built higher than Fargos. They learned from that last disastrous flood. He said two of the bridges in GF are closed and he had hopes that the main one would stay open but I haven’t heard if it has.

I was just reading in the paper about the HBO movie based on Alexander McCall Smith’s book. Wish I had HBO. The actress playing Precious Ramotswe is Jill Scott–not someone I know but that’s not strange, I don’t know most of the current actresses. She described the filming in Botswana as having been accurately portrayed in the book and loved the whole environment and the people. Maybe at some point it will play on one of the other movie channels.

Candace

Jacky, I was wondering how your family was faring with unbelievable flooding. I can’t begin to imagine the feeling of watching that coming. As if sandbagging were not bad enough as a way to try to protect, it is beyond belief that it has to coincide with freezing which makes them pretty much ineffective. The one striking positive is how the people have come together to do everything possible to deal with it.

Jo, better stick a sweater in your luggage coming to Texas–we’ve had some wild swings down here. I removed the protection of hydrants and pipes Sunday and although it hit 78 today, it is predicted to go down into the 30’s tomorrow night which would be a new record. Severe wind and storms to the north of us right now.

Candace

We are in Daytona Beach til tomorrow and will visit with Darlyne and my cousin in St Augustine at Cracker Barrel tomorrow. Kenny’s wife, Johanna loves Mauve Binchy and has given me several of her books, I’ve read only one of them so far and it was interesting.

We are watching the flood news of Fargo, ND, I have two nieces living there, they are sandbagging. Our little village of Oslo is 100 miles north of Fargo/Moorhead, but on the MN side of the Red River. We have a high dike around the 342 of us and hopefully it will hold again. Our entire town would be covered without it.

My sister and one daughter live in Grand Forks, 80 miles north of Fargo, and after the whole town was evacuated in 97, they have a very high dike too, its not been tested, but, we’ll see.

We are really ready to head north, but will stop at oldest daughter’s in Warrensburg, MO, near Kansas City, MO.

I really like have internet access as we travel, and the wi fi works well in most places.

Jacky

I am moving to CO around the 19th of April, Jenny. And even though I’m not ready, I can’t wait!!!!!! WHY does it take so long to pack?

I wish I’d quit waking up so early.

This was my library group pick and I just finished it. It is a story of a family of one natural son and two black adopted sons. The Mother dies and the story goes on from there, with the mother of the adopted boys turning up . It has unusual twists and I will probably write more after we have the discussion. The author also wrote Bell Canto which I think some read. I did. I didn’t find Run a real page turner but it was interesting enough to keep me reading. I am starting Walley Lamb’s The Hour I first Believed. This is about the Colombine event, fiction based on face. The narrator is a teacher and so far there is much about the students.This is a page turner for me. I won’t be able to finish it while I am here but I will be back in December. It is too big for me to haul on the plane going home. I was happy to find this book here as there usually are just dog manuals etc and she did have the
Horse Whisperer which I read a little every year for a few years. I didn’t like it but had no choice. i always bring one book. I did learn to carrry on this time and found there are people who help lift the suitcase if I look pathetic enough.

Have a good trip Jo. This might say my daughter is writing this. I forgot to say I am in WI.

I am still going to TX, yes. And I HOPE all is signed, sealed and ready to be delivered. Packing is such a pain - literally. I have pulled a muscle (nothing serious so don’t fret). The facility wants my books - hot diggity. There are only a few I want to keep available at all times (!) and they get the rest. I think they’ll run out of room!

Weather in TX is gonna be HOT HOT HOT. Darn it - and I mean like in the 80s yet. We’ve just barely been in the 50s!

Tea time - take care ladies.

So nice of you to offer to walk with me, Jo! I would love that. I have been walking with oldest daughters on the Daytona Beach, esp Pamela, sets a quick pace, we took them to the airport yesterday early, and our youngest and her family came the night before, I’ve really enjoyed it all and today we are going to Disney World, but not Clive, too much walking and we have been to both Disney’s when we were younger.

Jo, your move sounds exciting, its such a good opportunity to “clear out” stuff. We’ve only moved once in our 55 years and I know how much work it is. Our middle daughter and hubby lived in Aurora, CO for a while and it is a bueatiful area.

I’m reading Beautiful Boy, the true story of a writer’s son’s struggle with drug addiction, our oldest daughter is a psychologist and has read the son’s book also. The weather turned colder here and there is to be 10 foot waves, we won’t have to worry about rip tides at Orlando.

Jacky

Jo, I think it is almost easier to do things with a short deadline. When I have to much time, I dilly dally. I am always late for church the day we reset the clocks and gain an extra hour. Why are we like that?

Georgianna

Having a deadline helps us focus and accomplish a lot quickly. I’m betting you’ll be packed up for your move, make your visit to Texas and ready for your new adventure in Colorado by the week of April 12. I’m excited for you, Jo.

Candace

Thats good news, Jo–I think. Are you still going to take your trip the 31st?

Well ladies and Jerry, it would appear that I will be living in CO come April 15 or thereabouts. My CO daughter Suzanne fwd’d a message from the Rental Office that a one bedroom will be available mid April. I have to have certain forms, which I’m sure I do have, and must qualify but I have no doubt of that.

wow - I’m gonna be busy cuz I haven’t started to pack yet, although I do now have some boxes and tape. I was going to start that today. But it would appear that I no longer have three months to do all this.

Oh my!

re prizes: I know what you mean, Jacky, about not understanding how Gilead won a Pulitzer Prize. Judith and I went to see the movie, American Beauty. Turned out neither one of us liked it but didn’t say anything to the other or we would both have walked out. We were shocked to hear it won an Academy Award. To me, the movie was absolute trash. Not Kevin Klein, but the other one who did the movie of Bobby Darin, and Annette Bening are so good, I wondered how on earth they felt about that movie, really.

Anyhow, I seldom ever check luggage although I did when I went to CO as I took some books, yarn, etc etc. I’ll be going to TX leaving the 31st of March for my TX son’s wife, whose 50th was earlier this month. My MD daughter-in-law has a birthday this coming Sunday. Looks as tho’ I’d best get on the stick and get the b’day card, right?

You can walk w/me, Jacky; I like to chat while I walk.

Jo

I neglected to say that Laurie King, author of the latest set of Sherlock Holmes tales, threads little snippets of humor throughout the writing.

Mary Russell, protege, apprentice and later partner of Sherlock Holmes, narrates the stories. King, in an example of her numor, has just had Mary get a knife slash across the top of her wrist. She is in a chapel in a church in Palestine on a life-saving mission. She is accompanied in this chapel by the guides Ali and Mahmoud; they are attempting to capture the mastermind behind the plot to kill General Allenby and the gathering of VIPs while at the Dome of the Rock. Mahmoud has just shot the perpetrator which saves Russell’s life. The final sentence in that chapter reads :Had I not been so occupied with reassuring the monks that I was not bleeding to death, I would have embraced Mahmoud with all the passion in my young, rescued body, embarrassing us both forever.”

It may not

I forgot to tell the author of March. It is Geraldine Brooks. She wrote People of the Book and The Wonder Years. All very good IMHO.

March is the story of the absent father of Louise May Alcott’s Little Women. It is of the time he spent in the south during the civil war and it often flashes back to the family at home. He doesn’t believe in killing and when he has an opportunity to kill the enemy to save a black man he doesn’t and is filled with guilt because of this. He starts out as a sales man but becomes a preacher before entering the war. I found this one of the better books I have read and highly recommend it.

I have the book Run by Pratchett (I am not sure of that spelling) but it is by the author of Bel Canto which I liked. Run is our library book group book. I will try to read it while traveling to WI and while there. I leave Wednesday. I am hoping my trip there goes better than the last time I flew there when luggage didn’t come etc. I will try to carry on this time and take as little as possible. This time of year you can’t tell what the weather will be like but as my daughter says, “there is always Walmart”.

So nice to see all the posts again. We are in Daytona Beach, enjoying the sun, and two of o ur daughters arrived, Pam, from grand Forks, had to spend the night at the Atlanta airport, due to fog.

And no, Clive is not yet walking, Jo and Darlyne. He will not let me walk with him, says I talk too much and walk too fast, and the books on tape might be a good idea, although, since you went to school with Clive, you maybe know how “strong willed” he is and not too quick to try new things, unless its his idea.

I’ve been taking his blood pressure morning and night as the Lisinopril seems to really lower it, to the point where I withold it if the diastolic is well below a hundred. Surely wish he could lose some of that tummy, about 60 lbs worth, he doesn’t eat a lot, but so little movement!!

But he feels good, and enjoys looking out at the ocean. They are talking “flood” in Oslo worse than 97, so we may take out flood insurance. Lots of snow south of us, and our Red River runs north to Winnigep, Canada. Oslo is surrounded by a dike and gets surrounded by water if the river gets too wild.

I finished Gilead, and liked the quietness of it, I don’t really see how it won a Pulitzer though, but who am I to judge!

Good to see all the messages again.
Jacky

I do heartily recommend Quicken, and as an offshoot, TurboTax. If you haven’t done anything really wild, you CAN do you own taxes. And I even did mine when I moved from TX to MD and thence to PA. It is really easy and the cost is about the same as if you’d have a professional do it. The cost is for use of the program and also for filing. I do the eFiling of my taxes, in other words I send the Fed return to the Feds and the State return to the State and in a day or three, I get an email back that the returns were accepted.

Is anybody in here besides me a Sherlock Holmes fan? If so, may I recommend Laurie R. King’s addition to the Holmes tales. She’s stays true to the Holmes character yet makes him a bit more human. She introduces (!) him to Mary Russell, a VERY precocious fifteen yr old who has interest in many things above and beyond her years. In the introductory book of the series, THE BEEKEEPER’S APPRENTICE, Mary nearly falls on Holmes who is lying prone tracking bees. Mary is an orphan, who was the sole survivor of a motorcar accident on what is now Highway 1 along the California coastline. Her parents and brother were killed and she is now living in the UK with an aunt who is not interested in Mary but in Mary’s inheritance. Very little is said or written about the aunt; it is plain that Mary is not at all happy with her living arrangements. At any rate, she and Holmes find kindred souls and she spends much time at his cottage in Sussex, where Mrs. Hudson has set up the housekeeping for the great man and is pleased to have Mary around to give Holmes some mental stimulus. They have three or four (three I think) ‘cases’ in this first book and from then on, the cases get a bit better and more complicated. King writes a good book and seems to be quite adept at maintaining the early 1900s feeling in the books.

Movies: I do remember all the Lew Ayres Dr. Kildare films but especially the Richard Chamberlain (?) one. Didn’t they also have Lionel Barrymore in them? I fell in love with Richard Chamberlain (!) and liked him very much in THE THORN BIRDS and SHOGUN. SHOGUN, by the way, is another book I’d heartily recommend. As most of you know, I had two Japanese students living with me (separately) while I was in CA and they were going to college. Aiko said her mother was afraid that the Americans would think Japan is still like that, and I told Her to assure her mother that such was not the case.

My move: My move will take place sometime in June. I had hoped for it earlier but son Gene, who will likely supervise the event as he has my other moves, says April could still bring snow and he has no desire to do anything like that in a foot of snow. Nor do I, truth be told. May is birthdays, weddings and college graduations in his and Sharon’s families, so that means June. I have sorted through some of my stuff, and think I have it pretty much done. My FL daughter Debbie wants my sewing stuff and, since I don’t do much sewing anymore, she’ll get it. I want to do one more quilt - at least piece the top and maybe have someone else quilt it. But the fabric and such like I have, she will get. I plan to keep most of my yarn and embroidery stuff, too. And, of course - never doubt it, my books. I have certain ones I plan to keep and will take most of the rest to donate to Mirasol’s libraries. I say libraries because on the first floor of the apartment building is their high class library, read hardcover books. The second class library is on the second floor and is the paperback section. (LOLOL - the first floor actually has no room for two libraries.)

It’s back to cold again here. We had some lovely warmer days but it was 26° when I got up this morning. It had been in the 40s. Ah well, spring will arrive eventually, I’m sure.

Take care all,
Jo

I was able to catch most of three of those movies. I don’t know exactly when these were filmed but I would think in the 40’s. What struck me was how similar to today the dialogue was regarding red tape, turf and liability of hospitals and physicians. Intelligent writing and portrayals, humor and message, without a single off-color word or gesture. Delightful.

Candace

I do pay bills on line but I still keep my old timey check book register. Of course I don’t have or don’t know Quicken. I do know of it so I appreciated hearing your comments Jo.

Candace I would love to have seen the movie you mentioned. I think of all these channels we get on TV and yetI almost never find a movie I want to see OR there are six on at the same time. of course if have more than few DVD’s and VHS movies so I can watch those.

Jo, what is the schedule for your moving plans?

Georgianna

I just saw a terrific movie on TCM–one of the series I didn’t see decades ago. It was one of the Young Dr. Kildare movies–didn’t catch the name. There are to be more today–hope I get back from my appt to see more of them. This was one when Lew Ayres took a chance on an unproven treatment and ended with his proposing to Laraine Day. What a pleasure to start today with a movie that left me feeling good. Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Lew Ayres.

Candace