Sunday Salon -- Home

Sunrise today, North Vancouver, Washington

Weather: RAIN! Apparently we are in the grips of yet another atmospheric river. Sound wet? You bet. Flooding in some towns north of us. Sigh. 💧

After the feast. My daughter's other son was out hunting up an adventure in the backyard.

Thankful for family: We just got home from our trip south to meet up with family for Thanksgiving dinner, Black Friday shopping (only one store), a football game, and lots of food. My mom is hoping to move to a retirement setting by next year so it is likely that this will be our last big gathering in her home. It is sad to think about but I understand, too. It is a lot of work keeping a house in running order and though she has nice neighbors, it is no doubt lonely at times, too. I like thinking about Mom in a setting where she doesn't have to fuss about food and has potential friends a door away. 😇

Carly got back to San Francisco and home by 8:30 this morning. Her 'boys' were happy to see her. Here is George giving her a big cuddle.

Early Trip: Our California daughter had to catch her flight out of Eugene very early this morning. The plane was set to start loading at 5:10 AM, so we had to get up around 4:00 AM in order to get her there on time. We decided we wouldn't go back to Mom's house after dropping her off but would just continue our trip north to home, packing the car ready for our early getaway the night before. Ordinarily our car trip home from Thanksgiving weekend is long and tedious because of all the increased traffic, making it a five to six hour ordeal. Well, we discovered a neat trick -- start the trip north at 5 AM and you won't hit any bad traffic at all. We were home by 9:00 AM, which included a long stop for coffee and a breakfast sandwich. The photo (above) was taken from the parking lot of the coffee shop right at the moment of sunrise. 😀

"We call her 'Poor Kitty'": this is a statement that our grandson made several months ago about our ancient cat, Demi, who is nineteen-years-old and, no doubt on her ninth life. We left her home for the few days we were gone for the holiday with plenty of food and water, a clean litter box, and run of the house. We came home to a very unhappy cat, a filthy house with messes of every kind for us to clean up, and a cat in deep need of a bath. She got huge globs of wet kitty litter stuck between the toes of her back feet and tracked the stuff all over the house. Poor thing could barely walk with her toes spread apart due to the the sticky mess. We had to bathe her and then dry her with a hair dryer. She's still upset. Before the cat bath we had to attack the house to clean up all her messes. Welcome home. 😕

Reading:

• Completed this week:
• Without You, There is No Us: My Time With the Sons of  North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim. Helen@Helen's Book Blog and I read it as a read-along. It was enlightening and disheartening. I've always thought that the average people living under such a crippling regime must surely pine for freedom. Now I am not so sure. Watch for my review which will be highlights from our read-along discussions. Nonfiction. Print.
  
• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. What a complicated and interconnected plot. Don and I listened to audiobook together and we both enjoyed it so much. Audio.
• Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu. This was last year's National Book Award winner. An Asian-American man is found guilty of being complicit in his own life as generic Asian man. It is told as though through artistic directions and settings of movies. Very clever yet profound. Audio.
• Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix. The sixth book in the Old Kingdom series. What a joy to re-enter the series after a several year hiatus. Audio.
  

• Currently reading (I'm still trying to finish three more nonfiction books for Nonfiction November Challenge):
• The Other Talk: Reckoning with White Privilege by Brendan Kiely. YA. Print. 36%
• The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (With Recipes) by Kate Lebo. Print. 55%.
• I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death: A Memoir by Maggie O'Farrell. Audio. 43%.

Happy December!

-Anne