Sunny Sunday Salon, July 22

Sisters and hubbies aboard the ferry heading toward Seattle. If you look really carefully you can see the Space Needle behind us on the left. It is windy in the front of the boat, you can tell by our hair.

“Instructions for living a life. 

Pay attention. 

Be astonished. 

Tell about it.”

Mary Oliver

Weather: Sunny but not uncomfortably warm, YET.

A really horrible photo taken by me of the beginning of the Yellow Submarine movie.

Yellow Submarine: This week is the 50th anniversary of the first showing of the Beatles' psychedelic cartoon, Yellow Submarine. I've never seen it before. (Remember I am experiencing a late-in-life case of Beatlemania.) So Don took me on a date to see the film at our local Indy movie theater. I loved it! The artwork is so creative and, well, artsy. The music was remastered a few years ago and sounds fantastic. I loved everything about the experience.

Seattle skyline taken aboard the State ferry right before docking.

Family visit: My sister and her husband came up for a quick visit and to hike Mt. Rainier. We had a few days of fog around the mountain but the old lady did show off her grandeur a few times during their stay. We also took the ferry from Bremerton, on the Kitsap peninsula to Seattle. Ferries is part of the highway system in Washington, so the cost isn't awful. The trip takes about an hour and the view of the iconic Seattle skyline is well worth the time and cost.

Book Clubs: both my clubs have met since my last Sunday Salon post. We had very good discussions over both books.

• Truth Like the Sun by Jim Lynch. Lynch is from Olympia, Washington. I enjoy reading his books for the local flavor. This book is about the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle and one man in particular who made it possible. Then fast forward almost fifty years and the same man is running for mayor of Seattle. Old grunges and old "news" starts to surface about his past life. The book is based on many actual events but the main characters are not real. Oddly, few gals finished the book and only one gal actually liked it. That didn't keep us from having a robusht discussion, however.
• The Leavers by Lisa Ko. Paulie is an illegal immigrant from China, her son, Daniel, was born in the the USA. One day Paulie doesn't come home from work and no one knows what happened to her. Daniel is eventually adopted by an American family but he can't get over the feeling that everyone he loves will leave him. This book gave us plenty of fodder to discuss as the topic is so clearly in the headlines these days. I highly recommend this book for book clubs.

Chris Stapleton concert: My husband is a big country music fan. Consequently I have come around, since my high school days of hating country music, and find it fun, too.Saturday night we went to a Chris Stapleton concert at the White River Amphitheater. Overlooking all the drunk people and the people who thought they needed to talk about work throughout the concert, getting louder as the music increased in volume, it was fabulously fun. Before singing the song Tennessee Whiskey, he introduced the band by singing tidbits of the information about his band mates. I loved it. (Justin Timberlake wasn't there.)

Hanging out in diapers, doing the bear crawl.

Darling boy: Ian and his mom have been here a lot this summer since they are taking swim lessons at the nearby YMCA and I try to meet them there is help with the showering. He loves the water, but doesn't really do anything the teacher asks of the students like blowing bubbles, holding breath, or jumping into the pool. Oh well, he is young.

Books read since last Sunday Salon:

• Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert. Building on the concept of quantum entanglements, Gilbert writes an important book about the interconnections of relationships and the tragedy of illegal immigration, sacrificing one for another. This was a slow starter for me but I came to really think this book had something special, worth wading through it to get to the finale. Print.
• Rumi's Little Book of Life. Poems by Rumi. Print.
• The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang. A graphic novel telling the story of a prince who liked to cross dress and his friend and dressmaker. I adored this book. Print.
• Art and Wonder. Edited by Kate Farrell. Visionary poems and art work from the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York. Most of the poems were new to me. I liked the way poetry and art were paired. Print.
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honey. I first thought this book was just an unfunny version of the Rosie Project because Eleanor clearly seemed to be somewhere on the autism spectrum, but it became so much more: mental health, parental abuse, the value of friendship, healing. I loved this book and want to read it with one of my book clubs. Audio.
• Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman. The second book in the Scythe series. It advances the story of the first book and sets new fact out before us. But the book suffers from middle-book-in-trilogy syndrome. Print.
• Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card by Sara Saedi. A memoir about another person in the country illegally. This time from Iran. I couldn't make myself read the whole book but I read over 100 pages. The writing was fine but my interest lagged. Print.

Currently reading:

• The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. A lot of folks have recommended this book based on Russian folklore. Audio. 22%
• Paris for One and Other Short Stories by JoJo Moyes. Last week's Top Ten Tuesday topic was about Short Stories, a form I enjoy very much. Wanting to read something for the Paris in July Challenge, I picked up this book and I'm enjoying it very much. 56%. Print.

Updates:

• My dad's health has stabilized and my parents are making plans to take a short three-day vacation to Central Oregon next month. My sisters and I are working on plans for his 90th birthday.
• Daughter #2, Carly, is settling into life in San Francisco. She started work as a Genetic Counselor on July 9th, though most of what she has done so far is either training or shadowing. She is also studying to take her profession certification exam in August. We have transferred title to the Subaru to her so now she can licence it in California and start paying her own insurance costs. The pain of growing up!

Fight with the wisteria, or the campaign to save the dogwood tree: Last weekend Don and I spent the WHOLE day Saturday fighting with the wisteria, which had totally overgrown its space, in an effort to get it out of the dogwood tree. We ended up cutting down the whole thing, had to fight to get its death grip on the tree loosened, and just about killed ourselves in the process. Never again. We will cut/prune/destroy any shoots we see coming from the stump! I promise.

"A balm of kindness and empathy." Won't You Be My Neighbor? Go see it at a theater near your home. We need more Mr. Rogers in our lives today, with everyone from the President on down filled with uncivil, unkind words and actions. This movie reminds us of the need to listen to our better natures.