Wordless Wednesday

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

Did you ever pick up and read a book that made you wonder why you didn't discover it much sooner? The Bridge of Sighs has a copyright of 2007. That was a time when I was going to the library very often and trying to keep up with current bestsellers and I missed reading this one. On the back cover of my copy is a review from The Washington Post Book World and it says exactly what I felt while getting lost in the depths of this novel.

"A story of constantly evolving complexity and depth....[Bridge of Sighs is] Russo's most intricate, multifaceted novel....Enormous and enormously moving."

If you are in the mood to read a great American story the ad below will take you right to it. You could also check libraries. I actually got my copy at a thrift store here in town and now that I finished it my copy will go back there for them to sell it again.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Hurricane Florence

Eyes on the news this morning. Watching the news of the storm and looking up some information online. One place to go is The Weather Channel's information page for this latest storm. From there you can find links to evacuation news and to the Red Cross.

One thing that always confuses me is those who in the face of all the pleas to evacuate choose to stay behind. What makes them think they are more special than all those who left? What makes them think that it is too much trouble to have a few days or even weeks of discomfort vs dying? What makes them think it is okay to increase the workload of first responders and put their lives at risk to rescue you or verify your death? You can't keep the trees from falling or the water from rising by staying behind. If you need help you can use the Get Help page on the Red Cross website.

For all those in the path of winds, rain and flood I wish you well. I hope all of you are in a safe place.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Amazon Prime Reading

In our house we have an Amazon Prime subscription and enjoy the benefits. My husband has become a shopper and packages show up often for things like his favorite Trader Joe's mints and coffee since we don't have a store in Jackson. He has also found boat parts and other hard to find locally items.

I, on the other hand, am not a big shopper. I feel like I am coming to the time in my life where it makes sense to move toward living more minimally. However I do enjoy a couple of Prime benefits, namely Prime Video and Prime Reading.

With Prime Reading you can have 10 books at a time out on your account. When you finish one you return it and get another. With about 1300 books available for Prime Reading I have plenty to choose from and I am sure the selections change over time so I am not afraid of running out of enjoyable reading. Being able to have 10 at a time means I can download onto my tablet and have vacation reading on that slim device and not have to pack heavier books. Having 10 at a time means also that if I download one that I really don't like, which for me is very rare but happens, I am not left with nothing to read. I love this!

The last two that I read and returned are The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and The Physician by Noah Gordan. The former was okay but I admit to just skimming parts of it when I felt the author went too deep into the most minor details of his thoughts. As for whether you believe in God or not I leave that up to you. The Physician was a wonderful book. It was historical fiction about a boy driven by a desire to be a doctor that takes him from being an orphan in England to studying in the Middle East and back again during the Middle Ages. I don't want to put spoilers for books in my posts. Let's just say this one was a great read!

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

The ads below are affiliate links. Clicking on them to shop on Amazon will not cost you anything but could add a few pennies to my yarn fund. Thanks in advance for clicking and shopping!

Mac and Cheese for Dinner

I am admittedly not and never will be what I call a good cook. I try to get something edible and somewhat healthy on the table for dinner each night. Some of those nights go better than others. Sometimes I get a "This is good." from Jim and I did that last night.

Dinner was a simple meal of baked mac and cheese and broccoli. I used whole grain pasta, made a white sauce with cheddar, jack, Parmesan and cotija cheese in it. I was using up little bits of each of those cheeses from the fridge. I also sauteed a chopped bell pepper and onion and put them on as a topping before putting the casserole in the oven to bake.

I would also like to point out I am not a food blogger or a food photographer either. I must say however that last night I got lucky and my sauce was creamy and the topping added just a bit extra flavor to keep this dish from being boring.

What did you have last night?

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Sense of Anxiety

The leaves are beginning to change here around Jackson. At the higher elevations it is obvious but here in town the tree across the street is showing the first signs of change by showing off a glorious yellow glow.

With the coming of fall and going into winter lots of big events are lined up. Thoughts of all that needs to happen and thoughts of spending so much time traveling start a sleep reducing train of thoughts that run through my mind over and over. Along with my racing thoughts come a real physical fight or flight kind of feeling. I feel tense and a bit shaky. All of this piled up on someone is is a introvert is hard. Forcing myself to break it down to one step at a time helps, exercise helps, but it is still there.

First up is a visit with my mother. I am going with a sister to spend a week with Mom. These visits can be tough. She loves to have company but she is bossy and judgmental. Listening to her negative barrage of opinions about everyone can be emotionally draining. Then a cycle of guilt starts about not wanting to be there for a visit at all. I need to see her and I will go and take walks and deep breathes, count to 10 and put a smile on my face.

Next Jim wants to take a vacation this fall. Now I know this is a good thing. I will love the trip we're  planning and I will tell you all about it here later but once again I have to leave my nest to do this.

Last on the pile of things on my mind is still a probability but is likely to happen. After the first of the year we will (I hope) be making a permanent move to our home in Phoenix. But that means I need to plan and organize breaking down my household and setting it up again. I feel like I could be almost professional about this by now. Consider that I have moved in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and tried to set up retirement homes in 2016 and 2017 and well made plans for those last two moves got derailed by the needs of others.

Add in all the holidays and the desires to be with family and there you have it. A fall and winter designed to keep this introverted lady out of her nest and away from her crafts and books. Maybe by February I will feel settled again. I hope so. I am never bored at home.

Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

This day.....

According to Google photos 6 years ago today I was taking pictures of ducks on the pond behind our house in Victor, Idaho.  I remember enjoying sitting on the deck and watching them. It was such a peaceful time and a great place to live. Great that is except for Jim driving Teton pass each day to get to work. Winter there was the worst.

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Call the Midwife

The PBS series Call the Midwife is my current Netflix evening entertainment. Jim watches the news so I put on some headphones and get lost in the story on my tablet. I am at the last episode of season 4 right now. Netflix has the first 6 seasons and PBS has 7 seasons and there will be 9 seasons done with the current news I can find about the show online. That will take the nuns and nurses into the 1960's and I am looking forward to seeing it all.

Do you have a current series you are enjoying?

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Another Book Post

Three days in a row of blog posts and exercise. I didn't get these things down during Labor Day Weekend but am on a roll this week. I have a lot of changes and travel coming up in my life between now and the first part of 2019 so I expect there will be more interruptions. Despite these happenings I have every intention to keep up the habit and established routines of walking and blogging whenever possible.

My daily steps and stairs are done and I am drinking a tall glass of water while cooling down and writing. In the background I am listening to a Fresh Air Podcast that is an interview of John Kerry.

I have a backlog of books I have read and not recorded here. Today's post will chip away at that list by one book. The book I am talking about today is a Reader's Digest Condensed Book, Volume 1 from 1992. If by some strange chance you are interested in reading any or all the stories in this volume I found that a few sellers have a copy to sell on EBay. Please note that I am an EBay affiliate so I would get a few pennies of yarn money if you make a purchase.

So here are the copies available as of today (9/6/2018). No guarantees that they will still be there when you click.

• lancemcc0719 has a copy for $4.77
• stuff4you22 is selling a copy that has a dust jacket for $9.85
• bawoods2011 copy info says very good condition for $6.00
• grandmashouse347 has the least expensive copy at $1.55 for a book said to be in good condition

The stories in the volume were all good and I enjoyed them all. Included in this volume is Night Over Water by Ken Follett, Doctor on Trial by Henry Denker, Beast by Peter Benchley and Dear Family by Camilla Bittle.

My favorite of the four included works of fiction in this volume was Dear Family. It is a story of a family struggling and even triumphing through the years of the Great Depression. Beast was the book I liked least in this group. I found the idea of an evil, thinking octopus a bit far fetched but your appreciation of this book by the author of Jaws my vary from mine. The other two books included in this volume were certainly worth my reading time. I have read a few of Ken Follett's books and enjoyed them all.

Time to get on with my day.
Back with more again soon. Take care and stay cozy!

Catherine Gaskin, A Falcon For a Queen

From the information page for this book on goodreads.com.

Tells the story of Kirsty Howard, who leaves China when her parents die and seeks out her grandfather in Scotland. It is a strange world she finds at Cluain - an arrogant and lonely old man running one of the finest whisky distilleries in the world with two women running the house.

If you wanted to know about a working whiskey distillery in Scotland this book gives a peek into that life. There is also the mysterious death of Kirsty's brother as part of the story. The solution to that comes toward the end of the book with very little build up that would make for a good thriller. With that said the book was entertaining if not a stay up too late reading page turner.

The Amazon ad you see below and the link you see in this paragraph are affiliate links. Clicking on them will not change a thing for you but may add a few pennies to my yarn fund if you shop on Amazon. The price for this book currently starts at 0.00 for Kindle Unlimited readers to about 100.00 for a new collectors copy.

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Labor Day Weekend

Hope all who read this had a great weekend and made some new fun memories. Jim actually had all three days off which in the hospital business is kind of rare. As I said in a previous post my son and daughter in law came to visit. We spent one day on the boat on Jackson Lake and another on a drive to Dubois, Wyoming for lunch.

Dubois has a great spot for lunch, the Nostalgia Bistro. I have linked the name for you to use for more information about location and menu. Just across the street and a few doors down is a great coffee shop that is worth your time. We all got drinks for the ride home there. For more about this great place click here.

The evenings were spent with card games like 5 Crowns and Cribbage. The cribbage board pictured shows one of my very few wins and the fact that I double skunked my daughter in law and that never happens. She plays cribbage very well. As a beginner I would jokingly accuse her of making up rules so that she would always win.

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John McCain

Even as a Democrat I always had great respect for this great American. I am posting here to mark the day we as a nation said goodbye to this man, John McCain. More than that I cried along with his daughter as she said her farewell to her father and reminded us all his loss was a personal one too.