Greatest global online bookclub in town

It’s so nice to sign in and find so many old friends posting.

This is the name of the book I’m listening to in the car. It’s by John Nance, the aviation consultant for ABC, and is fiction about terrorism and planes. I always enjoy authors who really know the inside reality of the topic, whatever it is. He reads it himself and conveys the stress and tension of coordinating airport functions with the public’s needs and expectations. Don’t know where it’s going but it is holding my attention.

The Dick Francis book I mentioned before, “Enquiry,” had a real surprise ending.

Candace

Georgiana, I am so sorry to hear that your husband isn’t doing well. That must be your first priority of course, but don’t forget to take care of yourself. Caretakers sometimes forget that.

Darlene, Garvin and all friends, how nice to hear from you again.

We (as well as most of the country) are in the middle of a heat wave. The temperatures in the afternoon are in the lower hundreds but with high humidity, the heat index is around 110 or higher. Going outside is like being hit in the face with a wet towel.

I hate keeping my house all closed up with the blinds and curtains drawn but it does help keep the heat out.

I am reading a book by Sherryl Woods “Flowers on Main”. It is a light read and I am enjoying it.

Take care all. Stay well.

Judith

I know how it is when a spouse isn’t doing well Georgianna. He has to be your top priorty. It is good to hear from you. Hang in there and keep in touch.

My oh my where does the time go? Jo, I know you wiil be glad when you get things unpacked and put away. I think your rocking chair on the porch sounds wonderful.

Judith the story of your cousin’s son is so sweet. i think it is great when folks can connect and find out they can be friends as well as be related. Thanks for sharing that story with us.

Good to hear from Garvin, too. I like Nashville. I never lived there but lived in the surrounding area as a kid.

Just no way to tell you how much I appreciate this group. I made a copy of ‘my story’ that we all did for WedeWede and gave it to a new friend today. It tells about my life. As I read it I recall some of the friends that are no longer with us. I learn from all of you. My husband isn’t doing well and it seems to take more time to keep up with stuff every day. I really enjoy hearing about what you are reading and doing though.

Georgianna

Your visit to Nashville sounds delightful, Garvin. I visited friends there in the 40’s–enjoyed browsing in a wonderful used book store while they were at work. Your quote from Charles Darwin’s wife is intriguing enough to make me look into the book. How great that your daughter is really enjoying retirement and using the time to do what she loves to do.

Candace

I seem to have missed 2 or 3 weeks worth of news and have enjoyed catching up this morning! Judith’s Incredible Weekend. Candace’s Little Cat rescue mission. Jo’s “unpacking & getting settled” stories. The reunion at Oslo. Kindle Owners’ experiences with trying to find books. Guess I’m glad that I’m using my Kindle mainly for classics — more now than I’ll ever live long enough to read — but it’s there.

Last weekend Rosy (youngest daughter) and I went over to Nashville to celebrate Ariel’s (eldest adughter) birthday. It was HOT. Nashville abounds in ethnic restaurants and we went to Turkish and Japanese this time. Her end of Nashville is the old grounds of the Belle Meade plantation of yore — so that is the name of highway, malls, restaurants, etc. The plantation house itself is open to the public (at an admission fee) and has had a lovely tea room/lunch room in the old stables — featuring wonderful old-time Southern food. We planned to lunch there one day but found it closed now — they will locate on a nother part of the grounds.

Ariel retired two years ago after 30 years in the library system. She’s hugely enjoying retirement. Always was a craftsman — and now it is quilting and knitting. You should see her stacks and shelves full of quilting material, Jo! SHE will never live long enough to use it up! But what beautiful things she’s made — not only full size quilts (not many of those) but also smaller gorgeous projects.

One of my birthday gifts to her was Carol Ann Duffy’s “The World’s Wife.” Even my librarian daughter had not yet heard of Ms Duffy — who was named as Britain’s newest Poet Laureate last month, following the hallowed footsteps of Wordsworth, Tennyson, etc. Y’all may have seen articles and book reviews of this book — Ariel does not take the paper, and not having been daily at the library lately hadn’t heard about it. The book (poetry always comes in “a slim volume”) contains poems about the wives of famous men down through the ages. The easiest one to remember is a purported diary entry by Mrs. Charles Darwin. Something like this:

Went to the zoo today.
I said to Charles, “Something about that chimpanzee reminds me of you.”

That’s it! Of course all the other poms are longer, much longer — and some tend to run to darkness rather than humour.

Well, this is enough to bend your ears — or eyeballs for this time.
Cheerio, all!

I sympathize with you Jacky having the house worked on. I am having mine painted and there are at least three men working on it and I don’t know where to hide. They are just doing the trim as the house is stucco but I am never sure which window they will be at. My bathrooms have windows. It will be nice when it is done though,

Give my regards to any who may remember me at the reunion. I doubt there will be many from the class of 49. There were all of 15 of us.

So good to seeing familiar names, its been very busy in Oslo, family visits, and community activities. We finished our Beth Moore study of Daniel, I’ve been hosting and leading Mon am’s. An odd coincidence, I’m reading The Ezekiel Option, which has references to the subject matter in our study. Joel Rosenberg wrote it and also wrote The Last Jihad, he was on the last chapters, when 9-11 happened, and the Jihad book is about terrorists taking over an American plane and doing what happened to NYC. He has been on morning and talk shows because of the timing ect.

Our son got his crop planted, although late because of our latest Red River flood. The fields look good—-so far.

I enjoy reading of your moving adventures, Jo, you have a good attitude to handle the adjustments. And I love hearing of those kittens.

We are having our house resided with steel siding and new windows. Last night we slept with no windows, they are being stained, varnished ect. We had a warm night, thankfully. I sewed American Girl doll clothes in our basement yesterday, as we had carpenters in and out all day. Our youngest grand daughter, Savannah, likes her doll, she will be 7 in July, and her folks are taking her to the new AM Doll store in the Mall of America for lunch with her doll. I hardly knew when it was my birthday as a child, times have changed!

This Sat Oslo has an all-school reunion in Grand Forks, not many of my class of 53 show up, but in a small town we know a lot of the folks that do come. I’ve been in a sextet singing group in our church for years, and we are asked to sing, we have no sopranos, but two ladies from the Catholic church with lovely higher voices agreed to join us, so we are doing Moments to Remember, the Four Lads, and May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You. The Catholic organist, retired, accompanies us, and her husband rented a baby grand piano as otherwise it would have been the band’s keyboard. We mostly all grew up together and have lots of good memories, including singing When I’m Sixty Four, dressed like old women—none of us has seen that year for quite a while!

Sorry for the length of this, its been a while, Jacky

Good luck with the Kitty. You are a good person. I read Dick Frances every now and than and like him.

Being charged for maintenance under your circumstances is unbelievable, Jo. Good you persisted.

Getting Little Cat and her kittens inside and into a box in the bathtub would have made a good video. Over hours on Sunday I grabbed the four kittens, one at a time then attempted to pick up Little Cat in a towel. She remained on the porch, I retreated to apply six bandaids. Later I left the door open (cooling the porch in the process) figuring she might be drawn to the cool air. It worked but when I moved to close the door she was out in an instant. Later I put food down and got out of sight behind the door–almost crushed her head as she tried to escape. She raced toward the door I’d opened -down the hall to the bathroom–up over the sink onto the windowsill. Today I put on heavy leather gloves and a long-sleeved jacket and got her into a large crate. Took her to be spayed and she’s already back home, recuperating in the bathroom. Saturday I’ll deliver the kittens to a privately run no-kill shelter with a good reputation for success placing cats for adoption. Little Cat I will let back outside here where she can stay or not, as she chooses. She’s so intelligent and well equipped for survival it would be cruel to try to keep her inside.

Your weather sounds wonderful–we broke the record set in 1980–104 today–no rain in weeks–our nights stay in the 70s. Rocking on the porch sounds like a nice way to spend some time.

Almost finished with a tape “Enquiry” by I believe it is Dick Francis. Someone here will know if I remember right without going to the car and looking on the box–the English author who writes about horses and jockeys. I hadn’t read anything of his in years and enjoyed this a lot.

Candace

I would like to sit on the porch and rock also. I have a patio but no rocker there. I also have gotten drivers licenses in many states and have never had to have the id proven. Where did you have to go to get that?

Hey Jo, I’m thataway inclined but it’s an awful fur piece to CO.
Anon

Y’know the pictures we’ve all seen of a group of seniors sitting and rocking on the porch of wherever they live? Well, we’ve got the rocking chairs! So I think I’ll gather up some knitting or sewing or something and go ’set a spell and rock.’ You’re welcome to come and join me if you feel inclined. “Tis a lovely day here.

I too got lost finding the place in the first place; it’s at the intersection of one-way streets and if you don’t plan right - - - - -!!! At last however. Of all the states I’ve been in to get a driver’s license number, it’s the first time I ever had to go somewhere to get the vehicle ID verified. IF that was required, someone there did it. Oh well - it is what it is.

Isn’t it nice to know that a mostly wild animal trusts you with her babies? I guess you still haven’t caught her, eh?

What a wonderful weekend, Judith - it often takes a generation or two for prejudices etc to be forgotten. It was the same with my family. Back in my grandmother’s day, I suppose someone insulted someone else and grudges were held. Two generations later, cousins etc are meeting for the first time and finding out none of us are too bad after all!

We all complain about the cold, ice, snow, fog etc., then when summer comes we complain about the heat and humidity/dryness — we can’t win so we might just as well accept. No change will ever me made unless global warming does a number on us!

Temps here have been in the low to mid 70s so far and it has been quite nice actually. I was talking with Cindy the other day (she’s the leasing agent and the one to contact when you have a problem), and she said one woman insisted on a second floor west side apartment facing the mountains. So that’s what she got and no more than two weeks later, she was complaining about how hot it was, her apartment was an oven, etc etc. I’m glad I’m on the ENE side. I can see a bit of the beginning of the mtn range, but at the same time, I’m not roasting in my own oven! LOL

I went to Cindy with a complaint about the force of the wind (no kidding) created by the AC fan. Temp at 75, AC comes on, I’m sitting on my sofa (futon) with a blanket around me cuz it’s so bloody cold with the wind. She told me they could come and do something to it but it would cost me $72 to do so. My eyebrows went to my hairline and I emailed her that I had never in my life heard of a facility-provided convenience like AC/heat having a fee charged when something goes haywire; it wasn’t something that I had caused or done and I thought a fee of that magnitude was waaaaaaaay out of line, etc etc. Twice I made that complaint. Well, apparently someone else agreed and the force of air was cut in half. Personally I think the equipment is too powerful for this small apartment BUT at least I’m neither smothering or freezing.

I also think that $10/month for a large dog cage for storage is a bit ridiculous - but that’s me. And y’know what - there are no empty ‘cages’ for storing stuff. And what’s more, my daughter’s garage is getting full. ;-0

ah well - this too shall pass! LOL

Take care all,
Jo

Thanks for sharing your wonderful story–it brightened my day! There are times when emotional exhaustion is a wonderful sensation–this is one of those.

Candace

Thanks Jude, for that sweet story. I wonder why I’m not surprised at this coming out of you about your wonderful family.
Huggz a bunch,
Jerry

What an incredible story Judith. It is so good to hear something like that. It has been raining here forever it seems, we really had no spring and I needed a story like that. True, the rain is good for the plants but it also has been colder than normal so they really just sit there. Summer will come and I will probably complain about the heat and humidity.

Friends, I just had to share with you the most incredible weekend I have ever had! About 45 years ago my cousin joined the navy and was stationed in San Diego. He met a woman there and they married and had two sons. When the two boys were small, their dad, my cousin, was killed in an auto accident. The mother with the boys moved and we lost track of them. Several family members tried to find them through the years but were unable to. The last name is Davis, a very common name.
The youngest boy, Casey, contacted one of his aunts in Arkansas a few weeks ago and wanted to come meet her and her sisters and see where his dad had grown up. He was very worried (he told us later) that he would be rejected because he hadn’t heard from anyone in almost 37 years. Well… one of his aunts called around to all of the family and organized a family reunion to meet Casey, his wife and their 8 year old son. There were about 45 people there. Casey was overwhelmed. We all cried a lot and hugged even more.
It was just so wonderful! I am emotionally exhausted now but so excited to finally meet Casey and know that he and his brother have become such fine men.

Judith

Glad to hear, Jo. Sounds like you’re working through all the adaptations of settling into a new place. That’s a great idea to deal with your extra “stuff.”

I still love my Kindle. There has only been one book I wanted that was not available. It was one of Grisham’s. It’s up to the publisher to make them available or not. I wonder if the increase in some Kindle pricing represents a new arrangement with the publishers who probably make more with a best-selling authors’ printed versions.

My project this morning is finding a no-kill shelter for four kittens. I’d been feeding a little stray cat for several weeks hoping to catch her to spay–too late. She started warming up to me last week, letting me touch her lightly–setting me up for her master plan. Overnight Tuesday she moved her family to my front porch from wherever she had been going after eating here. She is very smart, a real survivor–has read me perfectly and brought them to me when it was weaning time. I guess none of you would be interested….

Candace

It was good to hear from you Jo. You had a lot less trouble getting your driver’s license than I did. It took three times getting tested plus getting lost trying to find the place the first time. Your plans for your Mother’s things sound good. Your kids will appreciate it. Keep in touch.

I’ve been around Loveland pretty much now, and I find it is fairly easy to do so. A couple of one-way streets had me driving around a larger area around the DMV and driver’s license place but I did finally manager to become a bone-fide citizen of CO. Somebody is coming up with a bill to make people not smile on the driver’s license. What a pile or —- that is; smiling is good, for heaven’s sake. Wonder who thought that one up and why. Maybe I’ll send a letter to the editor; will be my second already since I’ve been here. The first was about singers and the National Anthem. I suggested it would be nice if the singers would sign it the way it was written with no added notes, and sung fast enough so folks would know it’s not a funeral or a love song. Singers should also quit with the emoting, such as bending over or screwing up their faces or other such methods to show how much they are ‘feeling the song.’ It got published. The second one I wrote was a method of getting rid of houseplant bugs when bringing an indoor plant back inside for the winter. That involved buying cedar pencils, not the painted one, breaking or cutting them into about 4 inch pieces, splitting them lengthwise, removing the lead and then sticking the wood pieces into the dirt - 4 to a 4 inch pot, etc. It really work. The bugs don’t like the cedar.

Boy, do I digress.

I’ve found a doctor’s office (Suzanne’s dr actually), a therapist for my stiff shoulder, an opthamologist, a great super grocery store (King Sooper), some nice restaurants, and a pharmacy. I’m not doing meds by mail anymore!

I did tell y’all about the storage units. I have the boxes that were packed with my Mother’s stuff: china, crystal, glassware, etc. Suzanne is currently in Los Angeles getting training for her job. She’ll be back around the 25th and once she gets herself put together and has a schedule of some sort, we will go thru the boxes, take pictures of the stuff, and then put the pictures on a website for all the kids to sort through and ask for specific things. When we get that set up, I’ll send all the kids an email to look for the website and state their preferences.

There are several boxes in her garage. Fortunately Paul’s truck is too big for the garage.

I look pretty decent on my driver’s license, and my license plate number (one front and back; PA was only the back) is way easy - 079 TRY. Can’t get much simpler than that.

It is so nice to have a a washer and dryer available in the apartment and not have to run to a laundry room elsewhere in the building or in town somewhere. All I have to do is get them folded when they’re done.

Except for the lack of storage in the apartment, it is really a decent size. The balcony is nice and there’s enough rain that I haven’t had to water much. I do have an African daisy (aka Gerbera daisy) that son/DIL in MD gave me for Mother’s Day. The pot is really too small and I have room in planter boxes which Suzanne carried from the car to the cart and then to the balcony. Did I tell you mgmt has several of the wire grocery carts you see people carry folded up or open? They also have this thing (!) on a wheeled-base and then a piece of plywood nailed on. It’s used for bulky stuff like planter boxes, soil, filing cabinets, etc. I still don’t have a cabinet up over the desk shelf for the computer stuff, books and paper etc. That comes next month.

The top of the bathroom vanity comes to JUST under my boobs! No kidding - it is 36 inches top to the floor. And no shelves of any sort in it! Ridiculous. I will get some wire shelves which Target has and is perfect for adding additional space in kitchen cupboards. The height of the kitchen cupboards is the same and it is too high to do some things. They are taller than the one I’m used to. Only the bathroom one seems awkward for some reason.

I guess I’ve about worn out this subject - but if anything exciting happens, I’ll let you know.

Take care all; stay warm or cool as required, and stay healthy.

Jo

Well, I broke down and used two of the storage units - which are like an oversize dog crate. They are too small for a St. Bernard but he would fit. Anyhow, two of ‘em. G’daughter and I bought some shelving units for the closet but these aren’t as big as they look and yes, she did check the dimensions. Maybe I should have also. Anyhow, we need to get some more.

No possibility of moving to a two-bedroom apt; now that I’m in, I’d need a medical reason. Sheesh.

What an exciting day for Jenny et al. Small communities are so great in many ways. I wouldn’t have missed that party for anything even if I did just sit in the corner and snooze.

That’s good thinking Candance. I really get so tired of all the negative stuff. That’s all they talk about and skip the important things like being non-partisan about things, and of course the issues at hand.

Happy to hear Jenny won; now things can settle down some.

ROFL, Jude. Well, at least it gives him something to do.

I have problems reading about storms and water; that’s how my father died in WW II.

A book club meets here once a month and I went to the June meeting. They did sort of discuss books but mostly the talk was about what’s going on here, the other residents, and everything but books. I’m not sure how long I’ll last here.

I read that Cedar Cover series and it is really good. I like McComber’s stuff; they are romance novels but it isn’t described right down to the nth detail. She describes the kissing rather well and of course their knees always get weak, etc etc. The story is usually pretty good, too.

I think I’ll like it here all right. There is no dining room for the residents; we all cook in our own kitchens. The facility dining room is for big parties or that sort of thing. It’s in the big lobby of the apartment bldg but off to one side. It’s a HUGE lobby.

Are you feeling better now, Jan. I do hope so.

Good to hear from both Jan and Garvin. It sounds as though you’ve been enjoying your Kindle.

The Three Cups of Tea in excellent and very informative. That man accomplished nearly impossible tasks.

Has Kindle fallen off its pedestal? Folks were so enthused about it but now it seems as though they are too impressed with themselves.

Richard Bachman is the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull (at least I think he’s the one. No, he’s not. Bachman is a pseudonym for Stephen King!!!!! it was first used by his grandfather. I went to google.com to check. So, since I know nothing about him except I liked his Green Mile, I won’t say anything.

Is Ok, just busy. I e-mailed her and she said she would try to get on the blog.

I’m almost finished with the latest in this series, Tea Time For the Traditionally Built. I think it’s one of the best ones.

Also am on the last tape of The Regulators. It occurred to me today it reminds me of something I read decades ago about what people who took LSD experienced–hallucinatory images, wild colors, etc. I don’t know where I read that but this seems like it could be written by someone under the influence. It continues to be incoherent, inconsistent with no logic or point.

I did just download The Dangerous World of Butterflies after listening to the author.

Candace

Where are you? I hope you are ok.