Book 23: The Better Angels by Bette Bono

It's not often that I read a book written by someone I know. This is the first one that I've blogged about.

I may have met Bette about 10 years when I was a volunteer on her husband's mayoral campaign. Recently we've been in two writing classes at the library together: Hidden Stories and WPA Mural Inspired Writing.

She once mentioned she was working on a book about seniors and time travel. I was psyched when I ran into another person from our class who told me that Bette had sold her book.

In The Better Angels, Aggie May learns that she has developed the ability to travel in time--to move into the past. At first, these visits are brief and disorienting; Aggie wonders if she has Alzheimer's.

After a visit from the other AARP (the American Association of Remarkable Persons) Aggie begins training with other remarkables to find a missing artifact--an early photograph of Abraham Lincoln.

I enjoyed learning about the mechanics of time travel. In a weird way, I'm reminded about the mechanics and mythology of vampirism. In some books or films, time travel is done in a machine. Sometimes a person wakes up in a new reality. Sometimes an altered reality is more like an alternate universe rather than a straight timeline change.

I hope The Better Angels is the first in a series of books. I want to read more about Aggie's travels.

Christmas in Cornelius

North Carolina, that is. Jeff and I arrived here at his sister Melissa's Monday afternoon. We had tentatively planned to go to the Bark and Brew and the dog park, but were too tired. A chilly rain wasn't too inviting either. Instead we had pizza and watched TV.

On Christmas Eve, we took Jeff's mother to lunch at her favorite restaurant. Then we took Lola and her cousin Jake to the local dog park. It was a beautiful day in the mid-sixties. Can't beat that. After the dog park, we returned for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of beef tenderloin.

Unfortunately, today didn't go as well. Jeff is sick--he's achy and dizzy--and has spent most of the day in bed. I just hope he recovers by tomorrow.

On the Road on the Darkest Day of the Year

Today is the winter solstice, the first day of winter, and the darkest day of the year. Jeff, Lola and I drove from Norwalk to Winchester, Virginia. Our destination is Cornelius, North Carolina to spend Christmas with Jeff's family.

It's been ten years since Jeff and I have made a long road trip, and it's Lola's first. Cornelius is much closer to Connecticut than Hilton Head, South Carolina; Saint Simons Island, Georgia; or Stuart, Florida: our earlier road trip destinations. I guess I'm out of the long drive practice, the six hours in the car today was tough. I drove the first half and Jeff the second--our usual split.

After we checked into our hotel, we took Lola to the local dog park. We tried to find a winery tasting room, but I guess our information was outdated. The tasting room wasn't where we expected. We did find Old Town Winchester. Old Town is a pedestrian-only brick walk consisting of a few blocks with stores and restaurants. It was charming; if it were only about ten degrees warmer--we could have eaten outside.

We have another five-to-six hour drive tomorrow. It will be getting warmer, so maybe we'll have a chance for outdoor dining.

The Week Before

I woke up around 4 yesterday morning thinking it was Saturday. Luckily, I soon realized my mistake. I've been wishing that we'd get another day before we leave for North Carolina, and in a weird way, I did.

As usual, I didn't get all that I wanted to do done. Had a few obstacles this week. On Saturday, a portion of the ceiling in our master bedroom collapsed. Oddly enough, one of my neighbors had a similar problem, but it was in her bathroom. Another bathtub leak created problems in our lobby. At any rate workers came to repair all the damage. They patched up the ceiling Thursday and painted it yesterday.

On Tuesday, we had a full day of freezing rain. I only left the condo to take Lola out. The next day, my car was encased in ice. As I worked on the car, ice slid off it in sheets. Some fell into my trunk (I had opened it to get my ice scraper and brush.) Ice also fell around my car and made the ground slippery. I started to dump some ice on the small grassy divider between parking spaces, but I realized the ice would slide back in my spot. I ended up filling a large grocery bag with ice and dumping it into my bathtub. This kind of day is another reason to move south.

The rest of the week has been cold. I remembered that Sherwood Island is always paved and well-tended after storms. Lola and I have gone for long walks there the past few days. It's going to be a little warmer today and hit the 40's tomorrow when we leave for North Carolina.

I have a tutoring session later today and need to finish packing. Jeff and I are getting take-out for dinner to make it a little easier. Hope to get on the road by 8 AM tomorrow.

A Post of Photos

I was looking through some photos on my phone and decided to post a few.

This is Oyster Shell Park; I liked the color of the trees.  They reminded me of these.

Here's another painted stone I saw along the Norwalk River Valley Trail. 

Last week as we did a loop at Oyster Shell Park, Lola and I were surprised when a hawk swooped down, flying about four feet off the ground. It landed in this tree. Lola stood and stared in the hawk's direction for a few moments.  

It's amazing how much larger the hawk appeared in full wingspan than it did perched on this branch. I stopped to take some photos; I couldn't get a good shot. While taking the pictures, I dropped a glove and bent to pick it up. When I looked up, the hawk was gone: thin tree branches swaying in its wake. The hawk had moved on to a taller tree. 

Apparently hawks are generally solitary and territorial. I guess this is the same hawk I've seen before at Oyster Shell. 

Jeff gave me this ornament on Saturday evening. I love it; I've often said that I would loved for Lola to have met Spike. Here she sits with us and angel Spike. 

Art & Text Reception

Norwalk is one of 13 public libraries participating in exhibits about art and text. Basically, artists are creating visual representations of poems in paintings or other artwork. I love the idea of the exhibit and knew two people whose poems had been selected, so I went.

I got to the reception early and entered the library by the back door. I checked out the exhibit, but didn't realize the reception was held in the front of the library. The downside was that I was too late to get a seat, and the room was warm and crowded. I didn't appreciate the poetry as much as I would have if I were more comfortable. I still enjoyed hearing the poetry and how the artists interpreted the poems.

After the adults read, we heard from poets and artists from grades 6 through 12 at Winston Preparatory School, and finally a few poems from participants at the Norwalk Housing Authority Stem Club. These kids were in grades 1 through 5.

I love to see kids involved in the arts at a young age.

Book 22: Blue Labyrinth by Preston and Child

How many times will I write "another good one from Preston and Child?" I hope many more times.

Blue Labyrinth is the 14th Pendergast novel. The novel opens with the corpse of Pendergast's son deposited on his doorstep. Pendergast follows up on a clue and is attacked, which leads to his incapacity.

It's up to Margo Green and Constance Greene to save him with a timely assist from Vincent D'Agosta.

Good characters and a good story prevail. This book isn't quite up to the level of White Fire, but few books could be.

Pacing

I'm a regular reader of Laura Vanderkam's blog and receive emails from her. Last week's email advised me to pace myself. I have a bad habit of underestimating how much time it takes me to do things. That leads to putting too many things on my to-do lists for the next day.

Sometimes it works to just put fewer things on a daily list; sometimes it works to list things to do for a week.

At one time, I was concentrating on three ongoing things each week: buy and get food on the table, take Lola out for walks, and do the laundry. Those chores were the minimum I needed to get done, besides work.

Recently I've prioritized working out and that has made a huge difference. For the next week I need to prioritize cleaning, Christmas prep, and packing.

There's always more to do.

Thoughts about Co-Stars in June Bride

June Bride is one of the last movies Bette Davis made for Warner Brothers in 1948. The gist of the plot is that magazine editor Linda Gilman (Bette Davis) and her team are sent to Indiana for a magazine feature on a June wedding. A new member of her team is a foreign correspondent Carry Jackson (Robert Montgomery) who had been involved with Linda in the past.

Bette Davis wasn't known for her comedies, but I enjoyed her work in It's Love I'm After, The Bride Came C.O.D., and The Man Who Came to Dinner. She's good in June Bride too.

I never liked Robert Montgomery in this film. He was annoying, smirking, and making faces. I recently read on IMDB that Bette wanted either Jack Carson or Dennis Morgan for the part of Carey Jackson. Jack Carson is underrated; he was good in both comedy and drama. Dennis Morgan was wonderful as the sailor in the comedy Christmas in Connecticut. At any rate, neither Jack Carson nor Dennis Morgan would have annoyed me as much as Montgomery did.

Here's more from IMDB: Bette Davis was originally cast as the lead in Christmas in Connecticut. Barbara Stanwyck was terrific, but I wonder at what might have been.

Two Weeks

Yesterday Jeff and I finalized our holiday travel plans. We decided to build in some extra travel time to have an easier drive. We even made a motel reservation for a night on the road.

Then Jeff said we only had one more weekend before we leave. Realizing I only have two weeks to shop, pack, wrap presents, etc. hit me hard. I have a lot to do and not as much time as I thought I did.

It's been years since we've traveled for Christmas holidays and this will be our first time with Lola. Luckily we're only going to North Carolina and not farther south.

Here's hoping for a fun road trip.

November Review: Hits and Misses

Here's a mini month-in-review post.

Since I started prioritizing my gym visits in October, I went to the gym at least three times a week...until Thanksgiving week. I was literally on my way to the gym on Sunday (technically December 1st) to complete my third visit that week, when I saw a weird symbol flashing on my dashboard. I pulled into a parking lot and consulted my manual. The symbol warned me that I had a foreign object in a tire, and I shouldn't drive. One of the few legit reasons to not go to the gym.

I wrote a blog post every day in November. I had considered nanowrimo; instead I committed to nablopomo. In hindsight, I don't think this was a particularly well-thought out goal. There were days I struggled to think about something to blog about, and the time spent blogging could have been better used for other writing.

That was my big failure: I didn't write 500 words a day, in addition to whatever blogging I did. I only wrote and/or edited about 2,300 words. Also, having a goal or blogging daily in November made it too easy to stop blogging once December rolled around.

I need to re-focus.

Book 21: Girl Sleuth Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her

A few weeks ago, I was talking to my brother about Nancy Drew. I knew my sister and I had read her books, but I didn't remember if they were too girly for Jim. No, he told me he read the books and joked about "a ruse to get the chums out of the house."

A few weeks later, he sent me the book Girl Sleuth by Melanie Rehak. It focuses on the two women who were most essential to creating the iconic character Nancy Drew: Mildred Wirt Benson and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. Both were college-educated career women making their way in the business world.

The  book did a good job in setting up the historic backdrop of Millicent's and Harriet's lives and their competing visions of Nancy Drew.

For more on Nancy, check out this.