Taken from the liturgy from today's worship service.
Weather: Foggy and gloomy. We lived inside a cloud all day yesterday and it appears that today will be the same. We called our daughter who lives at a higher elevation and she said yesterday was sunny and glorious. I think a road trip to higher climes is in order today.
In the Shadow of the Moon: America, Russia, and the Hidden History of the Space Race by Amy Cherrix. A Cybils Nonfiction finalist. Very well-done and interesting. I just have a hard time imagining that teenagers would pick this book up to read. Print.
Punching Bag by Rex Ogle. Another Cybils nonfiction finalist. A memoir about growing up in an abusive family. Tough topic but very compelling. Audio.
Currently reading:
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Young Reader's Edition) by Jeanne Theoharis and Brandy Colbert. A Cybils finalist. This book's mission is to set the story straight about Rosa Parks and her accomplishments, adapted from the author's adult book published in 2013, it includes new information. Print. 6%.
The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here by Hope Jahren. A nonfiction book by the author of Lab Girl. Oh boy! If we make it out of this crisis alive, it will be a miracle. Audio. 67%
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang. A book club selection. I had to request this book from the library again after I didn't finish it in December. A memoir. E-book. 31%.
On the lighter side:
Ever feel this way?
And now for some bad spelling examples that prove a different point than they think:
More inspiring thoughts:
Don't celebrate MLK day. Do something good for another person on the day.
His cousin Freddie brought him on the heist one hot night in early June.
Friday56:
Carney's father was crooked, but that didn't make him so. It simply meant that he knew how things worked in that particular line.
Summary: Ray Carney owns a furniture store in Harlem and makes enough money to support his family but not enough money to move his family out of the rundown apartment dominated by the sounds of the above-ground subway train which runs nearby. Few people know that he descended from a full-time crook, his father.
When Cash is tight,
especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin
Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn’t ask
where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn’t
ask questions, either. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who
plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the “Waldorf of Harlem”—and volunteers
Ray’s services as the fence. The heist doesn’t go as planned; they
rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops,
vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted
Harlem lowlifes. Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. ---Publisher
Review: I was predisposed to like Harlem Shuffle because I am such a fan of the author, Colson Whitehead. Heck, the guy had written two Pulitzer Prize winners right before this novel, The Underground Railroad (2016) and The Nickel Boys (2019.) This book, unlike its predecessors, isn't a serious and maddening book about slavery and its tentacles, though the book contains plenty of racism and classism, it is a crime novel with racism nibbling at the corners. I, of course, added Harlem Shuffle to my reading list as soon as it was published but I didn't race out to buy it. Then my interest was reignited when Harlem Shuffle took the number one spot for the most best-of-books recommendations of 2021. (See list here.) It made it onto 22 of these end-of-the-year lists, far outpacing other literary heavy hitters like Hell of a Book, the National Book Award winner, which made it onto eight lists, and The Lincoln Highway, which everyone seems to be talking about, was listed on eleven.
At first I was a little put off by the novel. Somehow I started reading it without realizing that it was a crime novel, which was a little shocking. Ray Carney, the story's protagonist, is outwardly an upstanding man that gets pulled into criminal activity by his bumbling cousin Freddie. Ray, whose father was a crook, views himself as "only slightly bent when it comes to being crooked, in practice and ambition" (34). He keeps finding himself drawn into heists and the fencing of stolen goods with the likes of men named Miami Joe, Pepper, and Chink Montague. Yet, he struggles to maintain his upstanding reputation as a good guy. He is a man divided, one clinging to the self-delusion that he is not really a crook. The end of the story, which left the reader dangling a bit, left the door open for either side to win out: the good guy or the crook.
Though I may not have bought into the plot at first, I was all-in when it came to Whitehead's prose. I found myself chuckling more than once at his turn of phrase, such as the description of the sad Chinese restaurants where “the cookies were stale and the fortunes discouraging." And the feeling that one gets when you realize you've been had: “Humiliation was his currency, but tonight Miss Laura had picked his pocket.” And Whitehead's descriptions of life in Harlem in the 1960s made me wonder if the author was into time travel and had made his way back to that time and place to gather authentic images and aspects of the community.
The title of the NYT review of the Harlem Shuffle should be enough to make you want to read the book, if this review doesn't do it: "Colon Whitehead's Warmhearted Crime Caper of the 1960s in Harlem." Who doesn't want to read a warmhearted crime caper? Give it a try.
Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the opening quote from current book. The Friday56 is hosted atFreda's Voice. Find a quote from page 56 to share. Visit these two websites to participate. Click on links to read quotes from books other people are reading. It is a great way to make blog friends and to get suggestions for new reading material.
Top Ten Tuesday: Last Ten Books I Added to My 'To-Be-Read' List.
Currently I have around 220 books I want to read that I've added to my TBR list. That number never seems to change much. I add new books to it as fast as I read ones currently on it. Here are the last ten books I added to the list:
Title: Author: Goodreads rating: Date Added to List:
I hope you can read the titles from the screenshot of my Goodreads 'To Read' page. I'm feeling too lazy to retype them.
Read one book during the year that I consider a challenging book; a book I've avoided reading for years due to its daunting nature. Must be completed by 12/31/23.
Read the current Pulitzer Prize winner announced in May of each year. And read these past winners from a list I created.:
1. 2023 co-winners: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver ✔
Trust by Hernan Diaz ✔
2. 2013 winner: Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson ✔
3. 2007 winner: The Road by Cormac McCarthy ✔
4. 2004 winner: The Known World by Edward Jones
5. 2001 winner: The Amazing Kavalier and Clay by Michael Charbon ✔
3. National Book Award Challenge
Personal
Every year the National Book Award is given out in five categories: Fiction, Nonfiction. Poetry, Translated Literature; Young People's Literature. My goal is to read two of the five winners (or finalists) per year. This award was announced November 15th.
About ten years ago I created a list of 50 classic books I wanted to read. I kept adding titles to the list faster than I read them. I still have about 30 books left on that expanded list. In 2023 I want to read at least five books from my list.
Kids think differently about snow days. To them they are fun days. Here is Ian horsing around on a snow day. (Photo by Rita Adams)
Weather: Right now it is sunny and cold. Don is on the roof taking down the Christmas lights, timing the task to coincide with the dry day. The whole year (all eight days before today) we've had fairly ghastly weather. Actually the weird weather started on Christmas night when it started to snow. It stuck and continued to snow on and off for a week with low temperatures making sure the snow didn't melt during the day. On Tuesday I ventured out thinking it was safe to drive and the streets in my neighborhood were like an ice skating rink. After snow melted we had days and days of rain causing flooding in lots of areas and closing all the mountain passes and other main freeways in the state.
Last week's Sunday Salon was a recap of 2021 with a look at my Sunday Salon posts throughout the year. Check it out here.
Grief: This past Friday my 69-year-old cousin, Brad, died suddenly. He'd been in the hospital for surgery on Wednesday and was cleared to go home on Friday when he just expired without warning. Our whole family is in shock and grief. It has hit his wife, daughter, and twin brother, Steve, especially hard. When my mother (his aunt), aged 92, was told the news of Brad's death, she reflected that one never knows the hour or time of death and we all need to be ready. How does one do that? Don't we all feel, to some degree, that we are all invincible? In some movie, I can't remember which one, it was said that a person is never really gone if we love them and keep their memories alive. So today I will share a small, inconsequential memory I have of Brad.
As a twin, it was rare to be with Brad without his brother, Steve. But this one time my family and I were vacationing in Central Oregon, not far from where Brad and his family lived. We contacted them and invited them to come and join us for the day. Brad's daughter, Whitney, is just a few months older than my oldest daughter. Brad and Whitney came to visit. His wife didn't join us that day. At one point during the visit Brad sat down at the player piano (It was in the house where we were staying) and pumped out and sang several songs to all our delight. I'd never seen that playful, easy-going side to him before. Now it is a treasured memory.
Not a non sequitur: Don and I jumped down a musical rabbit hole yesterday and we ended up on The Traveling Wilbury's, the late-80's supergroup made up of Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne. For some reason this video, 'End of the Line' really touched us and spoke to our grief in the moment around Brad's death. View it here. "Today is only a day." and "I'll meet you at the end of the line." Roy Orbison died between the time of recording the song and filming the music video. His voice is heard singing one verse of the song, while a rocking chair with his guitar in it rocks back and forth. // Brad, we'll meet you at the end of the line.
Death of Sidney Poitier: A much more consequential death to the world, not my family, is the death of the beloved actor Sidney Poitier. He was the first black male actor to win an Academy Award for his role in the film 'Lilies of the Field.' Walter Einenkel, writing for Daily Kos, has this beautiful story his grandfather shared about a Sidney Poitier memory. Read the whole story here, it's short. The grandfather was working on the Broadway production of 'A Raisin in the Sun' in 1959, starring Poitier. The author of the play, Lorraine Hansberry, was very worried that the play would be a flop because all but one of the actors were black. They need not have worried, however. The reception to the opening of the play was a success:
The Broadway audience gave it a standing
ovation, cheering as flowers were brought up to the cast, followed by
ovation after ovation, Poitier glorious and dynamic. My grandfather and
others began calling for “the writer!” and Poitier looked about
before leaping from the stage and into the audience, racing through the
applauding patrons to find and pick up onto his shoulder the
diminutive Lorraine Hansberry and carry her through the cheers to the
stage. // The story never ceases to move me and is the way I’ve always thought
of Poitier, his beauty, his elegance, his talents, and his place in my
psyche: He was a glorious and beautiful giant of a person who
effortlessly lifted up others to ensure they received their earned
glory.
One year anniversary of January 6th insurrection/coup attempt: President Biden made a very strong, impassioned speech about the events that happened one year ago and what the former President is continuing to do to try to subvert our democracy. If you haven't seen the speech and want to, you can view it here.
This has never happened to me before: I went to the Post Office this week and it was closed and locked because of staffing shortages. Later in the day Don and I went to Petco and it too had closed early due to staff shortages. COVID!
Christmas decorations are officially put away for the year. There is always the big, happy decorating event in early December and the drag-your-heels putting away event after epiphany on January 6th. Don and I got everything tucked back into their boxes yesterday and stored away for another year.
Zoom birthday party: My youngest sister turned 60 yesterday (She is top left frame with silly glasses on.) We had to scrap the actual gathering due to COVID concerns so we held her party over Zoom. Not quite the same but a whole lot of love. Happy Birthday, Grace.
Books:
Cybils Award (Senior High Nonfiction) Finalists. I have until Feb. 14th to read and evaluate these books as a Round 2 Judge. Hyperlinks are to Goodreads so you can read short descriptions of the books.
Punching Bag by Rex Ogle
In the Shadow of the Moon: America, Russia, and the Hidden History of the Space Race by Amy Cherrix
The Power of Style: How Fashion and Beauty are Being Used to Reclaim Cultures by Christian Allaire
Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask (Young Readers' Edition) by Anton Treuer
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Young Readers' Edition) by Jeanne Theoharis, Adapted by Brandy Colbert and Jeanne Theoharis
Read this week:
The Power of Style: How Fashion and Beauty are Being Used to Reclaim Cultures by Christian Allaire
The Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Currently reading:
In the Shadow of the Moon: America, Russia, and the Hidden History of the Space Race by Amy Cherrix
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Funnies to make us think:
We are back to Zoom church. Too many new cases of COVID in our congregation and the area.
This could be me and my pastor. We had this exact conversation this week about how crazy the "news" overload makes us.
Unfortunately this is way things seem to go in politics. Ugh.
In the late spring of 1995, just a few weeks after I turned twenty-eight, I got a letter from my friend Madison Roberts.
Friday56 quote:
I heard Carl shout, and I turned to see Roland now on fire,
though not as bright as his sister. Carl simply kicked him into the
pool, where he fell like a rock, extinguished.
Summary: Lillian and Madison became good friends when they attended boarding school together. But when Lillian had to leave school unexpectedly their friendship slipped into a routine of a few letters each year, staying in touch but just barely. So it was surprising when ten years later Lillian received a letter from Madison asking for her help. Madison's twin stepkids are moving in with her family and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. Caretaker not nanny, why? Well, they need to be protected from themselves since they both spontaneously combust into flames when they get angry or stressed.
Review: I like odd and quirky books and I decided to read Nothing to See Here because this book sounded like it had those qualities in spades. Kids who spontaneously combust? Friends so unequal that one is willing to use the other without thought? I've not read Kevin Wilson's other books, but apparently he is the master of telling the absurd story but making it believable. "He takes the most ridiculous storylines and grounds them in reality with an ample dose of matter-of-factness and sentimentality" (Chicago Review of Books).
As I reflect on the book it seems incredulous that anyone would like it, it is just so absurd. But just like the above mentioned reviewer states, the book is also realistic and sentimental. In fact, as I neared the end of the book I realized I was hooked. The ending was tremendous and unexpected. All the characters grow and learn to love themselves better. That makes it worth the read.
Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the opening quote from current book. The Friday56 is hosted atFreda's Voice. Find a quote from page 56 to share. Visit these two websites to participate. Click on links to read quotes from books other people are reading. It is a great way to make blog friends and to get suggestions for new reading material.
After the fiasco that was last year, we had the fiasco that was this year. Fortunately both of my reading groups reorganized and got ourselves dusted off ready for some great book discussions. Of the 23 books I read (or reread) for book club this past year, the titles I list below were my favorites. I did get input from other group members and I factored it into my rankings. Titles are hyperlinked, if you would like to read more about the books and our discussions.
The author said he wanted to write an all-American tale. So he set it during The Great Depression along the great Mississippi River, taking some inspiration from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Grapes of Wrath, and a lot from Homer's Odyssey. It was a fun book to read and to discuss. It was the RHS Gals #1 choice of the year. (RHS Gals #1, read for July meeting.)
The second choice of the RHS Gals club was an unforgettable, inspiring story of a teenage girl growing up in a
rural Nigerian village who longs to get an education so that she can
find her “louding voice” and speak up for herself. It
is a simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant tale about the power
of fighting for your dreams. Much of our discussion centered around the need around the world for education for girls. (RHS Gals #2, read for April meeting.)
Ford is a favorite author of the SOTH Ladies Book Club probably because he sets his stories in Seattle so we can picture the landmarks he references. This story was built upon a little news items he happened on doing research: a boy was raffled off at the 1909 Seattle World's fair. Can you imagine? Around this actual tidbit of information Ford constructed a plausible and enlightening story. (SOTH Ladies #1, read in June.)
This is quite possibly the perfect book club selection. Why? Our discussion covered many topics: colonialism; the Hawaiian monarchy; Hawaiian
culture--which included religion, food, and words; the evolution of
leprosy treatment; cultural and familial reactions to leprosy; Moloka'i;
historical events like the invention of airplanes and WWII; childbirth
and adoption; missionaries and the Catholic Church; friendship and
family. This list is not exhaustive. I'm just giving you a smattering of
topics covered in MOLOKA'I. We had a fabulous discussion. (RHS Gals #3, read for February meeting)
This was my favorite book of 2021. The story is about the family of Shakespeare, specifically around the death of his son, Hamnet. I loved the way it exuded a dreamlike quality. We had a good discussion but others didn't love it as much as I did, maybe because I listened to the audiobook and they didn't. (RHS Gals, read for March meeting)
A family deals with the a secret. Their daughter was born a son. How the
family deals with the secret ends up nearly destroying them all. It is a
very current and important topic. I read this book for book club in 2017 and then again in 2021 for my other club. I liked it better the second time around. We had a great discussion. (SOTH Ladies #2, September selection)
In The Cold Millions readers learn about some the labor riots,
free-speech events, and union organizing that happened in and around
Spokane on the eastern side of Washington State in the early 1900s and about
the powerful mining magnates who desperately fought to keep unions out.
The fictional story felt very prescient as powerful people continue to
fight to retain power and money on the backs of the little people even
today. Everyone in the club enjoyed this book and the discussion reflected it. (RHS Gals, August selection)
This book really plucked at our heartstrings and was the second favorite selection for the SOTH Ladies in 2021. It based on the lives of real people imprisoned in Auschwitz concentration camp during WWII. (SOTH Ladies #2, July selection)
Another story based on a real person. That person is the author's grandfather, who traveled to Washington, DC in the 1950s to speak on a bill that Congress was considering to eliminate several Native American tribes. The story, or stories, is pretty complicated and there are lots of characters. Everyone appreciated the book but found reading it very challenging. (RHS Gals, September choice)
The SOTH Ladies are a church group made up of old-ish ladies like myself. This book, written by the Melinda Gates, now the ex-wife of Bill Gates, is about her efforts/her charity's efforts to empower women throughout the world. This book spoke to us in our hearts because we all believe that the world would be a better place if women were given more rights. Instead of being one of those books that leaves the reader merely depressed at the state of world for so many people, The Moment of Lift
leaves the reader with an empowered feeling that though there is much
to do, there is much that is being done and good actions likely to bring
about permanent change. The book isn't especially well written and was a bit repetitive, but it gave us tons to discuss, which is the point of book clubs. Right? (SOTH Ladies, October selection)
If you are in a book club, what were some of your favorite selections last year?
If you are not in a book club, do you have any suggested titles of books you think would make for good discussions?
Looking for even more suggestions?
Click the links to check my past book club favorites by year:
1. The first inkling of magic comes when Lucy enters
the wardrobe and passes through into the snowy landscape. If this was
your first ever read of this fantasy what was your reaction to this? And
if it wasn’t your first read, was the magic still there and did Lewis
sustain it through to the end?
I first read the Narnia series when I was a preteen, then again as a teenager. Later I read it to my small children, and later we read it to read other in preparation for the movie. Every single time I read LWW I am struck anew at the magic and easy acceptance of it after the initial reluctance to believe Lucy. (Would you?) Imagine stepping into a world of fauns, talking beasts, and a massive lion, who is the king and very wild. I'd be hiding and working frantically to get back to the wardrobe ASAP.
2. If you initially read this as a child, were you aware of and, if so, curious about the Christian allegory Lewis enfolded into the narrative? But if your first experience of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is as an adult does knowing that this is regarded as an allegory affect your appreciation of the story?
I was too young my first time through it to recognize the Christian allegory but I'm certain as a teenager I read it expressly to look for the hidden Christian messages. LWW has the most symbolism of the seven books, I think, especially the bit about crucifixion and resurrection of Aslan. As an adult I can dismiss some of my teenage ideas since I've read that Lewis didn't intend the series to be a Christian allegory.
3. And now a more light-hearted question: who is your favourite character,
and why? (Or maybe you have more than one favourite character.) Because
if story is, to paraphrase Hamlet, the thing that catches our
conscience, it’s individuals, whether human or otherwise, with whom we feel affinity or antipathy and who drive most stories forward.
I've always been a Lucy fan. She remains sweet and innocent from start to finish and so devoted to Aslan and his message of a deeper love.
One more idea that I want to explore is the idea that Lewis tried to match each book with a certain planet. In his review of Planet Narnia by Michael Ward, Chris over at Calmgrove examines the idea in his post, Contemplating the Narniad. Ward proposes that Lewis, who was a classics expert, likely wrote the seven books of the series to match the qualities of different planets. Chris wrote: "Each book of the Narniad is based on the mood, atmosphere and
characteristics of one of these bodies as personified in pagan mythology
and appropriated by medieval Christianity. Lewis, so Ward suggests,
wanted to suffuse each book with those planetary aspects that he had
assigned to them, such as joviality, saturninity, mercurialness and so
on." He goes on to describe LWW as the most jovial of all the books, so Lewis must have wanted its planet of influence to be Jupiter. Ward proposes that Lewis “took certain old familiar pictures in his head and threw them into a
pot labelled ‘Joviality’; and as they simmered there, marinading and
reducing, they began to smell somewhat of the gospel story. But only
somewhat…”
Now that is a fun idea to play around with and one I will attempt to revisit as I continue on with the other books in the series.
This is my personal challenge to read ONE BIG BOOK each year. The book must be a book I consider to be a challenge. In 2020 I read LONESOME DOVE for the challenge. In 2021 it was DUNE. My 2022 book will be:
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
Published in 1939, it won the National Book Award that year and the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. This edition, if it is the edition I purchase, has 479 pages.
My goal: to finish this book by Dec. 31st, 2022!
Join me?
Pick ONE BIG BOOK that you consider a challenge. Finish it by the end of the year. Let me know the title of your challenge book in the comments.
Sunrise. View from our front door on Dec. 26th. It started snowing on Christmas night, so technically we had a "White Christmas."
2021 started off quite good: Biden had been elected President and a COVID vaccine was becoming available. My first post of the year reflected my optimism. Don and I had made a trip to Paradise on Mt. Rainier on a beautiful, clear day. Things were looking up. Sunday Salon (SS): A New Year in Photos. I might have had an inkling that all was not completely well, however, since this is one of the funnies I included in that post:
Then January 6th happened.
Bad and ugly: MAGA-loving "patriots" descended on Washington, DC and stormed the capitol in a clear insurrection attempt. My Sunday Salon post that week asked "Will We Survive This?" Though there was a lot of bad news that week, there was also much to celebrate like the election of two Democratic Senators in Georgia and happy moments with my family. I added more funnies to this post than ever before or since. I guess I figured everyone needed to find something to laugh about. I know I did. Here is one of those funny memes sent to me by my daughter who loves the play Les Miserables as much as I do.
I had to stay focused on the future, something good was on the horizon. My next two Sunday Salon posts focused on the upcoming Biden Inauguration. Surely our long nightmare was coming to an end. After the inauguration on January 20th came and went I lived in the happy afterglow of the events of that day for weeks afterwards. My Sunday Salon post that week celebrated that afterglow and I highlighted many of the virtual moments from that day and the actual ceremony. One of my favorite "events" was the virtual parade. This part of the "parade" is called Dance Across America. It is so much fun to re-watch this even today months after the inauguration. I urge you to watch it, too. It is only 3 minutes long and I guarantee it will make you smile.
There were also the funny moments during the inauguration that took on a life of their own. Among them Bernie Sanders showing up to the inauguration in his big mittens looking like he just stopped off at the post office before he arrived. People had a heyday making Bernie into a meme afterwards. My daughter even crocheted a Bernie doll to memorialize the event. (See more Bernies here.)
It snowed here in February. On my Valentine's Day post I talked about how COVID was still raging in America and we were all waiting our turn to get the vaccine. In the meantime, we still had to attend meetings and church via Zoom. So did other people. This clip is the funniest example of a Zoom meeting going awry, in a courtroom setting. I laugh every single time I watch it.
In mid-March we are starting to feel like we are emerging from a very long winter. (Sunday Salon: Emerging) On one good day, Don and I got our first COVID vaccine. Hope permeated us that day. We still had to remain vigilant and continue wearing masks and practice social distancing, but there was that glimmer of hope that we could return to our lives. It didn't keep me from forgetting my mask just about every time I went shopping. I'd have to turn around and go fetch it from the car.
All year long my brain would focus on the good, the bad, the ugly, and otherwise. This week in April I was just consumed with random thoughts. This funny meme encapsulates the end of my blog post for that Sunday.
In April the weather has turned nice (Sunday Salon - Good Weather edition) so we took a trip to the Washington coast for a beautiful day of fun with our grandson, Ian. The photo was taken at the very moment he let go of the 'Ian' kite at the peak of its flight. Even though it was funny, Grandpa was not happy.
If you look carefully you will see the kite's name is "Ian" like the boy who is flying it.
In May we made a trip to California to take our daughter back home to San Francisco. She'd been living with us while working remotely for the past nine months. We made a little vacation out of our trip, visiting all our siblings along the way before we ended up at Lake Tahoe. It was the first time I'd ever been to Tahoe and I loved it. We had a fabulous time even though we were careful to socially distance and only associate with fully-vaxxed people. (SS: From Lake Tahoe)
Me and my sibs in the front row, our spouses are in the back row.
In June one of the very terrible effects of climate change was in clear focus -- temperatures soared and it was HOT in the PacNW. (SS: Hot!) But we did have fun when family visited and even braved the hot tub in such hot weather.
My sister, Kathy, in the tub with Ian and Rita, Jamie is the naked boy showing us a hat.
In another random post at the end of August there is a lot to report about what we were up to as a family like going to a Josh Groban concert (outside, vaccine cards checked, masked) and visiting the library again, the first time since March 2020. But it is clear from this post that I am starting to get really irritated by anti-vaxxers/anti-maskers. It seems to me that the pandemic will never end with this kind of stuff happening everywhere. But I couldn't help making a little bit of fun out of it, though.
My frustration with anti-vaxxers came to a fevered pitch in mid-September when my family became victims of COVID because of people with their cavalier attitude that "I don't need to get vaccinated because I only hang out with other unvaccinated people." In my SS: Quarantine Edition I outlined how all the people, including my grandchildren, daughter, and her husband, their schools, preschools, daycare, and churches were affected. No man is an island, we all live in the world.
I also learned the stubbornness with health directives we are
experiencing is not new. This clipping is from a
newspaper printed during the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic.
The "teaching" of Critical Race Theory became another bug-a-boo/talking point for the MAGA-loving set. (SS: Oct. 10th) I can't adequately express my sadness at what I see happening in this country.
Thankfully the hot temperatures we experienced all summer cooled down as we moved further into October. We enjoyed lots of fall walks, football games, and the most fun, 'The Hoot and Howl' event at the local wildlife park with our grandsons. (A Fall Photo Diary)
In the SS: Thankfulness Edition I expressed my thankfulness and gratitude for my many blessing, especially my family. But I couldn't help veering off in another direction with a few more funnies and statements to think about. I am so sick of those who think their personal freedoms are more important than the health of the collective whole population.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention frequent subjects in my 2021 Sunday Salon posts, Fred and George, our daughter's ginger tabby cats. They are really funny cats and completely devoted to her. We are so grateful for these kitties, too. Carly got them the day before California went into COVID lockdowns in March of 2020. For many months they were her only companions. (SS: December: Parades, decorations, books...)
Christmas 2021 has come and gone. (SS: Days before Christmas with songs and snapshots) but instead of posting a photo or a funny joke from that week's Sunday Salon, I thought I'd share a photo of Jamie taken in Dec 2020 when he was 3-months-old. You might have missed it since it was included in a collage of the dear boy when he was dressed as an elf in my first Sunday Salon of 2021. Jamie and his brother remind me of what is good and worthy of praise in this world. I've got to remind myself to stay focused on that.
Last of all I am including a link to my 2021 End-of-the-Year Book Survey. This is a book blog after all, though it often seemed more like my Sunday Salons were a political blog, and I really do look through the lens of books as I recall moments in time. For example, I remember the book I was reading while we vacationed at Lake Tahoe (Everything Sad Is Untrue) or the audiobook we listened to on our last trip home from Eugene (Interior Chinatown.) This survey highlights my favorite books in different categories (fiction, poetry, audiobook, re-reads, etc.) and other bookish or blogging-related news from my year in books. It took me several days to compile my answers. Thanks for taking a peek at it.
And with that, I will sign off for 2021 and welcome in 2022.
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