The Library

[Tomereader1]

I buy the Fire Ant Treatments at Home Depot or Lowe's.  You just scatter on the mounds (per instructions) and that's that.  Now, after it rains, there will be new ones, or old ones that have moved location, LOL.  But, it sure keeps them corralled so you won't keep stepping on the mounds and getting stung. 

[BarbStAubrey]

thanks sounds like you've found your solution - It could be that is the treatment Paul uses something that sounds like Android - I've been using the spectrum fire ant eradicator without as quick a response - they are everywhere - I must have had at least 15 mounds alone in the back and side yard - I'm thinking they were coming from the back of the gym and the architect office next to me that both have at least an acre as their backyard - I was going to talk to them and ask if they would check and Paul said it makes no difference - I kill them and several find a way to a neighbor's yard and they start in only to be chased again and again so that it is continuous - I had a couple of mounds in Austin each year, near my driveway where the Spring rains bring them - that driveway was like a slough but nothing like here - this is unbelievable although I'm willing to hear someone say it is an unusual year - so far no such news - my guess is this summer's drought started it and my backyard really dried up - still working on getting some green back there - in the past with a houseful the septic watering system was probably enough but with only one, not enough water in the system and so I need to get some hoses going next year starting the first part of the summer.

Joanne have you ever had an infestation of yellow Jackets? I've had many a hornets nest, mostly where the garage door meets the house or up in and around the outdoor lights but not Yellow Jackets - my daughter has some sort of bee like creature that bores holes in wood and chews up the wood trim around their house but again, not yellow Jackets - both Ginny who lives in SC and Frybabe who lives in PA have been hit with yellow jackets taking over... if it were not so serious it could be a laugh in that the whole world is angry even the insects.   

[BarbStAubrey]

Well the Rangers did it... looks like you'll have a few world series games played in your neck of the wood Joanne.

[PatH]

 
Barbara, just a slight correction, SeniorLearn was the first to reorganize after SeniorNet went down as we had people paying tuition for nothing but an empty website and it had to go up very fast. And it did.

Ginny, I remember how angry you were at this cheating of the students.  Your righteous indignation, and speed in creating this site, along with whoever helped you, created SeniorLearn.  SL has been important in the lives of many of us.  I have learned a lot about getting the meaning out of a book,  read a lot of books I never would have found otherwise, and found a lot of friends, some of whom I've even met in person.
So thank you.

[BarbStAubrey]

Oh now it makes sense - could not understand the information on starting SeniorLearn when you said tuition and cheated - I thought there was no tuition that we paid but you were referring to the Latin Students - now it makes sense - thanks Pat for saying something because I just saw I had mixed up timing and so much was going on at the time that I could not remember how - It was such a punch in our gut at the time but now so many years later to make an error was not a big deal - but now I can see... wow that whole thing was being robbed with no legal consequences - not only robbed of a web site but the online classroom for Latin students and of course all the connections and history among those of us reading books together and sharing poetry and all sorts of topics -

Yes, thank you - as Pat said and I agree - SeniorLearn has been an important part of my life - hearing how others interpret the same sentences I read has been a boon. I've stretched and grown through my association with SeniorLearn - such a great contribution you have made to so many lives. I cannot remember her name but there was someone else who lived in or near DC as I recall and after several years of SeniorLearn she left and also wasn't there someone from California and still helping with the site is Jane - what a gift you have given us Jane along with Ginny.

[Frybabe]

Great, Ginny! I have Natalie Haynes' Pandora's Jar in my library wish list. I am going to see if they have A Thousand Ships. That reminds me, have you read any if Emily Wilson's translations? Her translation of The Iliad was published just last month. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/09/18/emily-wilson-profile

I sincerely hope that fire ants never find their way here. The YellowJackets are manageable at the moment. I am waiting on the guys to come out to plug up the holes into the house. It is not common for YellowJackets to nest in houses; they prefer ground nests. After the holes are plugged, from the outside, if any remain my pest control guy will have to dust the attic. I still have no clue how they are getting in except through the attic. Fortunately, they are at the moment confining themselves to three rooms (the bathroom got included recently), and they are being remarkably nonaggressive for now. According to the pest control guys I talked to, they have been bad this year. I am trying to be careful without having to evacuate. The back room is off limits to the cats until they are eliminated. This extra warm weather is not helping, but it does give me hope they can get rid of them before a frost kills them off for the winter. I do not want to see a resurgence in the house next spring.

[ginny]

Oh good heavens, aren't you all kind!  Thank you Pat and Barbara, that's so nice of you, much appreciated.

We all  know that  it's the people ON a site however who really make the site what it is, and I think those of you in here holding up the Books banner after all these years (and it's NOT easy) are the ones who deserve our thanks as well. It's a good thing.

And it certainly would NOT be here without YOU all.

And  I don't know what we'd do without Jane!

So this is nice to see this morning.

Frybabe, I can't imagine yellow jackets in the house. I sure hope they can be gotten rid of, that's scary as heck.

I really don't know how the cardinal who keeps dive bombing my window here has a brain left. It surprises me because birds, or chickens anyway are quite intelligent. Maybe this one simply has hit his head too many times. It's not his reflection as I thought it was? There IS no reflection on some days and he's still at it. Very strange. Kamikaze bird. I walked out on the  porch yesterday and it was like having spies in the trees, he was all over the trees making all sorts of noises, and just coming short of dive bombing me.

Can birds get rabies?

[PatH]

Frybabe, thanks for the link to the New Yorker article.  I've been wondering about Emily Wilson's translations of Iliad and Odyssey, without finding anything useful about what they're actually like--just "finally a translation by a woman" and "you'll like it"--not a useful comment from someone who's trying to sell you the book.

The article settles things.  Part of what she's doing is the same sort of thing that makes me like Lombardo's translations so much:keeping fairly literally to what the original says, remembering that the original was a performance piece, and keeping to the rhythm and language that make it want to be declaimed, aloud, not just read.  Lombardo did this so well that when we read it here, I actually did read it aloud.  All of it. It sounds very good.

So I want to see how Wilson does it, and her emotional approach sounds like a very good thing too.

If I actually get around to reading it, I'll report on it here.

[Frybabe]

I started reading Illium by Dan Simmons which almost completely baffled me for the first few chapters. Things are making more sense since I read Chapter Five this morning.

The book is following two different lines, pretty much alternating chapters. Group one is following a bunch of post-post-humans on Earth (All the post-human/uplifted have abandoned Earth for who knows where). Their mode of transport (goods and people both) is by way of the fax.

Group two is following a scholar who quantum teleports himself between a scholastic center on Olympos (Mt. Olympus on Mars?) and the time and events surrounding the Trojan War. The head of the center or department is called Muse.

Chapter five, BTW, is set in a good-old fashioned library with real books, which nobody except for one knows how to read.

Has anyone read it? What did you think?

[PatH]

Wow! Frybabe, you're better than I am at unraveling this kind of stuff.  The only thing of Simmons I've read is Hyperion, and I never got all the way unbaffled.  But he did catch my interest with a certain fascination that kept me struggling.  I see from looking him up that he does a lot of this mixing up weird futures with classics.

Tony Hillerman took a few books to develop his style. The books get better and better as you keep reading, with more and more of his best features--vivid descriptions of the landscape, in which his love for the area shines out, and descriptions of the Navaho way of life, culture, and beliefs, their history of repression, and the difficulty of trying to keep to the old ways while living in the modern world. His worst fault is gory descriptions of murdered bodies. Although there is often a forensic point, they are at the limit of my tolerance.  After Hillerman's death, his daughter continued the stories.  hers are somewhat different, but also good.

I've read a few of Stanislaw Lem's books. Solaris is the best known, the attempts of humans to communicate with a sentient ocean which seems to be reading their thoughts and modifying their perceptions.  It was made into a movie at least twice.  I thought the earlier Russian movie was better than the later American one, though neither follows the book closely.  The Investigation is a detective story, kind of a cross between Fran Kafka and Inspector Maigret.

[Fran]

Hi Barb, my ipad is quite old, have quite a few problems with it ,but don’t
think I will invest with a new one. I just finished reading a book on the
Dionne Quintuplets,interesting but quite sad. Knew about them ,but not
as detailed about their life. Lost my husband back in January, so adjusting
to living alone. My Son comes down from Mass. in fact going out to lunch
with him today. My granddaughter living in Conn.also visits often. My
Rag -doll kitten( a gift from the both of them) is my daily companion.
He’s adorable and keeps me busy.
     Hopefully I’ll continue with posts as this IPad of mine at times makes
It a little hard. Nice hearing from you all again, Fran

[Frybabe]

Thanks for the extra info about Lem's writings. I went out to find a synopsis of The Invincible which I should have read first. I would have enjoyed it more, I think. Not a non-human sentient being, but a non-biological sentient intelligence, the book is one of the very early books that microrobots (nanites maybe?) and artificial swarm (hive-mind?) intelligence.  The Wikipedia says that there was an English version translated from the German translation which was translated from the original Polish. I don't know which English translation I heard.

The Wikipedia article mentioned a term Lem coined, "necroevolution". Now, I never got very far with William Gibson's Necromancer but I wonder if Lem's word is the genesis for Gibson's book title. It certainly explain it though, considering I couldn't figure out how his book related to dead people and sorcery. Maybe, I will attempt Necromancer in the future. Some of Gibson's follow-ons to Necromancer looked interesting. I got turned off by the book starting out with a drug party. If I can get passed that, just maybe. But, there are way to many other things to read.

[BarbStAubrey]

Goodness Fran - living alone while still in the work force is one thing and it does make it not only manageable but the feeling you have value to the community but learning to live alone after retirement is a whole other challenge -

Found a movie the other night that I have no memory of its name however someplace up north the post office is reducing the number of post offices in small towns and this women is already 64 or 65 hoping to work 5 more years - she has been alone for about 15 years and the post office in her home that certain rooms were devoted totally to also was the community meetup - there were even several who came daily to just sit and chat but she did not get particularly close to any staying separate as the postmistress - she was offered the opportunity to move to a nearby larger town and work in that post office however she saw that as completely uprooting and starting over and so she took the retirement but except for the guy who brought the sacks of mail each early morning and they visited she found the others in town already had their days filled with friends and was too shy to join them and of course she had developed no hobbies only caring for her chickens and the small farmland she and her husband shared - this was also played like two stories bouncing off each other with a young women who was traveling with no home and stayed a few days at acquaintances closed up summer cabins and making friends with those who gave her a ride to her next destination. Both were following a lonely life and all I could think of is why?

Except for a short scene in the post office, a daily was a retired woman who brought her knitting and later, after the post office closed there is a scene where the postmistress made soup with her garden produce and was bringing it to share with the woman who knitted but through the window she saw others already visiting who brought dinner - and she turns around and leaves for her darkened home.

I've been non-stop getting this house in order but that is what I need to do - I have learned in this street there is someone who does not drive and several streets away there is a woman who when I said I had boxes to give we chatted using email and she too is not driving - I'm remembering my friend Charlotte who called me and said, let's do dinner together every Wednesday and we took turns for years preparing dinner always though we ate  at her house and then the knitting reminds me if you don't have something to look forward to it can be lonely.

Fran have you found any new ways to live being alone? All these books about being glamorous or making a cozy home or planning your finances I'm thinking there needs to be a book about living alone and enjoying life after your body ages. There is that one guy, forget his name that started online to share the seniors who were physically active - swimming, running and for awhile he even featured groups that were playing basketball but that I no longer see - All well and good but some and I bet more than those who are physically able to be active there are those, who for one reason or another can no longer do things - like my friend Charlotte had such arthritis in her hands although she continued to write a note to someone every day and I notice Mary Barry, the British cook has continued with what she loves doing while her one hand is catywampus although, after reading it appears she had Polio as a youngster and it left her with its mark.

Obviously this group continues to read as a meaningful activity as we age but I'm wondering if you Fran have found other than playing with your new kitty ways to fill your life - most of the people that talk about their life seem to talk about family and I'm thinking sharing the pleasantries, their activities even what, how and when they eat - I'm finding it more difficult to eat at prescribed times - and I'm also getting to the point that cooking for one isn't much fun and so I'm eating more frozen meals than I should or eating sandwiches because they are easy and taste good but I really no longer want all the food that 3 meals provide -

Your situation Fran just caught me and I really need to rethink my own life - if you have any tips please share them.

Pat are you living alone? I think your sister is still living on the west coast but not sure if she is living with family - Do you have any family where you are living - For a while it seemed you were going to move to the Northwest but it appears that is no longer happening. Just wondered if you are living alone and if family lives in the area and also, if you have ways you could share that you are doing to enjoy your days and if you are eating regular meals?

And then you too Frybabe - it sounds like you are retired and living alone - I remember there was a partner who you separated from but occasionally looked in on but he passed - and for a bit you spoke of a cat however, I get the impression that your family does not live nearby - and it also sounds like you are maintaining a home, garden and yard - do you eat alone and do you have groups you meet with occasionally - you are a voracious reader however, are there other activities that fill your day with pleasantries?

Oh my goodness I just realized Joanne you are living alone and so is Jane - who am I missing - Wow it appears Ginny you may be the only one still living a couples life - however couples or not aging brings a new standard of living and retirement is not always the bliss they suggest is the goal and friends move on or pass on. Getting out and about is not as easy nor is there many places to get out and about to - all these groups for elders that meet in places like libraries are fine and dandy if driving is still a possibility but just managing the increased traffic becomes too much and where it is nice to move near family and they are wonderful visiting it is still not filling up the days with what makes us smile and enjoy our life -

Ok so I would love to know what everyone here is doing to make their day something to look forward to and how everyone is handling cooking and eating alone.

Just writing this I'm seeing I've been either sorting, tossing, packing and now finding new places for what I've decided I can't live without and still unpacking and having to figure out where and how to store things that I had been collecting for years to do when I retired and have done none of the things I really wanted to do because this move is taking now 2 and a half years to prepare for, a half of year selling and buying and now this December it will be a year unpacking with less and less physical ability than when I started 4 years ago - my old logic says just hurry up and finish so you can do what you know you will enjoy but my body does not allow me to to hurry up and finish and so thinking back, changing diapers was not that enjoyable but there was such joy with the babies and so, until I've completed the unpacking somehow I need to focus on the daily joy of living in this house - Frankly I'm finding more challenges then joys and that is the difference - yep, it is the challenge of enjoying n aging life in a community that is new and little time to explore its benefits.

Ah so is that suggesting seeing the community where we live with new eyes as a single aging person as a benefit that is what allows us to feel the connection that leads to a feeling of satisfaction the enables enjoying life? hmm the wheels are spinning. Again, please would y'all share what works for you - one new thought could trigger new ideas...

[Tomereader1]

I remember seeing that movie, but cannot manage to find the title of it.  It was an excellent movie.

[PatH]

Frybabe, Gibson's book is Neuromancer, not Necromancer.  It's the first of three books that started the Cyberpunk wave, in which people mostly live virtually.  it probably seems dated now.

Barb, I've lived alone since my husband died in 2002.  I did make the move to Portland, in the spring of 2021, and am living near, but not with, my two daughters, two grandchildren, a step granddaughter, and three sons in law.

JoanK is still living in Los Angeles. Her son and his wife live in her condo with her, and her daughter lives quite close, five or ten minutes away.

[BarbStAubrey]

Thanks Pat for catching me up - I did not know you had made the move - I remember you were back and forth from east coast to where you are I think in Portland. Glad to hear about your sister - sounds like you also join those who move near family as we age.

A quiet 'trick or treat' evening here - in fact no one - dark about 6:45, kept the porch lights on till 7: and then closed up... I had heard from the couple across the street, who have 3 but one is in high school, they actually take their children to another nearby neighborhood where the houses are closer together and evidently the other family across the street with 2 young boys did not go out trick and treating... Thank goodness I only purchased one mixed sack of candy - I'll probably take the Reese cups that I'm not crazy about, oh and something else I had never heard of and put them in the plastic container with the remainder of the Pan de Polvo (Mexican sugar and cinnamon coated cookies) for Emigdeo and his crew of 3 when they come to cut the lawn. I usually try to have some kind of treat so they can renew their energy after they leave here while driving to their next homeowner. 

May not be time for a New Year's resolution but I'm starting - read that if you read 20 pages a day you read between 24 and 30 books a year and so with all this unpacking still on my agenda I surely can read 20 pages a day and not feel so overwhelmed and antsy that this unpacking is taking so much more time than I ever imagined.

I'm remembering back years ago when my children were young and just learning to read - we went to the library every other week and they were upstairs in the children's section which gave me time to browse the stacks downstairs - I remember we could take out 10 books at a time and so 2 for each of the children - Paul was not born yet, which left me 6 for two weeks and usually they were read before the 2 weeks were up even during the summer months - but thinking on it I did not watch as much TV then either - in the morning there was the Gary Moore show and Captain Kangaroo for the children and then many an the evening the TV wasn't even on... there were certain shows we looked forward to watching and that was it... Didn't even watch the news every night - Husband worked late several nights a week and on those nights I preferred curling up with a book to watching TV - when he came in and after he ate we still did not watch TV - no wonder I read so many books. Here I am totally in charge of my time and I seem to be wasting more of it watching inane TV - mostly news that now is mostly opinion.

I must admit though I often have the TV on in the evening and night for company - my CD player hit the dust before I moved and I have not replaced it yet. Once replaced I'll have music and no need then for TV.  The other is this computer - daily I bet I'm reading my favorite sites and scooting off email for well over an hour - this is silly when I have so many books I really want to read. Yep, taking myself by the hand and shaking myself about to renew how I approach life... I'm seeing the end of the tunnel to all the unpacking and feeling hopeful again, planning what is next.

Started last night reading my 20 pages -its about time I take time to really understand what is going on in the church - As you've heard the Catholic Church is a mess and the two Popes did not make it easier - Benedict has now passed but where he was supposed to have retired, a first in the entire history of the church, turns out he only retired one part of his obligation and role as Pope and the whole thing evidently was spoken to the three Children in Fatima - There had been 3 visits to the children by Mary, Mother of Jesus after several by Arch-angle Michael, Patron saint of Portugal.

Mary told them each time a prophecy that was doubted and examined and, and, and, till they were all adults and still there were those making sure it was not a hoax - the eldest, Lucy bore the biggest burden remembering the exact words - the third secret was hinted at and only after receiving another sign later in her life was she able to write it all out, since in her mind it was a difficult, shocking, unbelievable secret to share that had to do with the church - On and on but, bottom line I need to get all this understood because it seems the secret that was so shocking was, the church was going to experience a time like never before in its history with evil coming at the highest levels - which could be the Pope or the Curia or the Bishops and the sex scandal - However, Benedict wrote explaining his part and how he was 'forced' to step down and how he handled it...and how it relates to Our Lady of Fatima since he and his secretary did read the third secret as few in the church have read it - it is what Lucy wrote remembering word for word what they were told.

OF course I doubt this is of interest to any of you and if you do not believe then you probably think the whole thing is coocoo but this is something I need to sort out so my reading includes... The Third Secret of Fatima and the Synodal Church written by Pope Benedict and then Fatima the Signs and Secrets and I'm including a secular author who writes about the techniques of how The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian

[Frybabe]

Right, Pat. Thanks for correcting the title. I think my brain is a little whacked lately with to many things to thing about.

Today I find out when I must pick my sister up to take her to the hospital. Driving in Harrisburg stresses me, and I very rarely drive with anyone in the car, so more stress.  Hopefully, I won't have to drive in the dark. Since they don't want her bringing her purse and overnight stuff in until after the surgery, I have the choice of leaving and coming back in with her stuff when she is assigned a room, or just hanging out at the hospital for six or so hours. Then I will be staying with her overnight. I am taking my Kindle with me, for sure.

The wasps are still getting into the house, still can't figure out where they are getting in other than from the attic. Yesterday I found three; two were warming themselves on the radiator in the back bedroom. Haven't seen any in the kitchen for a few days. Hopefully, they won't get energized enough to go exploring. I am concerned about not being here to keep an eye on things and the cats since the pest control guys still have not come out to plug up holes on the outside. Don't know if that will completely get rid of them. Weather warming again up to 70 on Thursday. That will bring out more bees again. We have had close to, but not below freezing weather in the morning for the last two or so days.

 

[Tomereader1]

Barb, the movie you mentioned, that I couldn't think of the name of, is "Colewell" starring Karen Allen.  Very well done movie (and it was really difficult to find on Google...couldn't find it at all on ImDb).  I wouldn't mind seeing it again, so I'll have to check my Netflix and Amazon Prime to see if either one has it.
Hope you are doing okay.

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes yes - that's it... what is astonishing the feedback on the google page was they had no sympathy for her since according to many she had a great job in a beautiful part of the country and if they should be so lucky to go to work in that kind of location they would not gripe - Wow - her plight goes right over the heads of the younger worker - which seems to be the way most of the general public views the losses experienced by anyone who is aging. So many seem to have green eyes for anything and everything they do not have available for themselves - sheesh...

But yes, the movie showed a work opportunity closing were as, there are probably more who experience forced retirement with little time during their work years to develop friends outside of their place of employment - in the movie I thought she was her own worst enemy in that she was too shy to follow through on ways to develop friends - I could not figure out the relationship between the young woman on the road who was also lonely - there were so many aspects to that story that it would be a great movie to have a discussion on as we used to discuss a book in depth with various thoughts shared - I doubt we could do a month long discussion but a week or maybe 2 weeks at the most... I do not remember though we ever discussed a movie in depth as we did books.

Frybabe you're  still dealing with bees - I wonder if their is a comb of honey in the walls of your house - I am still dealing with fire ants - we had some needed heavy rain before the cold front hit and of course that just spread the mound so there are now more mounds then last weekend. I notice they have set up a continuous mound under the fence - I'm betting neighbors had some ant eradication on their property so the ants just moved to the space between properties since I had all the queen killing pellets spread over my yard.

We get an extra hour tonight - fine and good but I am not looking forward to tomorrow evening when it gets dark an hour earlier. I've been conflicted about Daylight Savings - I like the longer evenings when the clocks are ahead but then is the springing forward loosing an hour's sleep worth it... falling back is fine it is the springing forward that takes me at least a week to re-adjust.  Not sure there is as big an issue for kids waiting for the school bus  in the dark - I'm seeing more parents driving their children to school with monster long lines dropping the children off or picking them up and also read someplace that across the board a third of the nations children are being home schooled and in some areas it is more... these unbelievable changes all happened so quickly and you know it will never go back - I'm reeling and feel off balance daily.   I think that is why I'm thinking through and taking on daily activities - gives my day some semblance of order so that turning on the news is cushioned with the security of daily enjoyable habits. 

[PatH]

I don't remember discussing any movies just for themselves though there's no reason why we couldn't have if we had wanted to, but sometimes we had a lot to say about the movies made of books we discussed.  I remember Cranford, and some of the Jane Austen books particularly.

[Frybabe]

Barb, I am sure you are right about the wasps being in the wall somewhere. I am still finding a few, and after several days, found another one this morning in the kitchen. They seem to be getting bigger in size but still very slow and nonaggressive. I expect that to change when the weather gets warm enough. Speaking of warm, it is still unseasonably warm here, going to 62o this afternoon. It won't get down to freezing again until next Saturday.  They are confining themselves to the kitchen, bathroom and back bedroom for the moment.

My sister just had back surgery. When they release her, I will need to spend a night or two with her until she can handle things herself. Today she gets walker "driving" lessons and some PT. Don't know if they will release her this afternoon or wait until tomorrow.

Illium went back to the library until I can settle down. It is not a speedy read.

[BarbStAubrey]

Frybabe I wonder if there is a way they can blow smoke behind your walls in that space between the outside brick or whatever your house is covered with and the inside sheetrock walls - unfortunately it would probably cost a fortune but I do not know of any pesticide that hornets can bring back that will kill the colony - is there a honey farmer in your area - they may be able to move them to a new hive - not sure how they do it but I remember many a home in my Austin neighborhood using a guy up in Round Rock that rid them of colonies that setup housekeeping inside the walls of their home.

Thoughts and prayers for your sister and you also, the extra doings is nothing to flip at - I'm shocked that y'all are expecting a 2 day up and at 'em after back surgery - I suspect your sister will be taking it easy though for the next couple of months - I remember Paul, my son needing at least 6 weeks before he could walk in his usual gate.

Well am I glad I started to look into this whole thing with the Church - found so far and watch 6 documentaries on Fatima and Benedict and John Paul I - I sorta knew about his growing up in Poland during the Nazi and then Stalin's regime but had no idea how intense and how he was part of the resistance nor how the Catholic Religion was one of three pillars to the identification of Poland - Then seeing the story of Fatima of course I had to then watch a documentary on The Lady of Guadalupe whose image is prevalent here with such a large Mexican American population - Again learned so much and how the image is full of Aztec symbols which the Aztec Indians at the time were completely deflated on their back because the Spanish had demolished their culture and this image gave them hope again so they adapted this religion by the thousands.

Never thought of looking at history through religion but this has been an eye opener - I've heard about these events and figures venerated in the church, even celebrated holy days associated with Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of Fatima and remember hearing Pope John Paul I speak, never did hear Pope Benedict speak however, I never really paid attention to what was going on... I doubt if there had never been all this controversy within the Church and all the horror with scandalous behavior by priests and Bishops I would have ever looked into all this - still trying to sort it all out but what I've learned so far has been an eye opener. 

Now my curiosity is spreading to learn more about the back story on the Puritans and how their settling in the new world was handled by the Puritans that remained in England and even how the Puritans came to exist - what religious group did they break away from and when did the other groups arrive in America like the Methodists - seems to me I read someplace that the Baptists were first established here in America - who and how and why did all that happen - I know more about the Mormons and Joseph Smith - I think I saw a movie that showed the Mormons being chased with farms set on fire so that was how they gradually moved west. 

Do any of you have books you can recommend that explain the history of the church y'all attend? Although, first I need a better handle on understanding the current schism going on from Rome - it does affect me rather than just being a cause for researching history.

[Frybabe]

Things are settling down a little now. Fingers crossed that it stays that way for a while. Sue's surgery went very well, and she is recovering very quickly. They loaded her up with prescriptions for a bunch of stuff that she has not had to use, like the Senex and an opioid along with NARCON in case she accidently OD's on the opioid, and valium for leg cramps (leg cramps?) I remember when Valium was called "mother's little helper". The happy pill. Never heard of it being used for leg cramps. Well, anyway, I stayed with her over Sunday night.  Her neighbor, a private duty nurse, has come over to change her bandage out. One of her friends came over this afternoon. Dody likes to cook, so I won't be surprised if she makes Sue a meal.

I've seen no wasps in the house in two days. The pest guy was out to put in a one-way door to the attic so that if there is anything gets in, it has one-way out. The rest of the the job that still needs done if for the guys to plug up every hole they can find into the attic. After I am sure that the wasps are done for the year, I need to get two plastic containers down from the attic. They are a little spattered with bird or bat stuff, so I will have to put some gloves on and clean them with disinfectant before I bring them down. They both should have Christmas ornaments, including the blown glass ornaments I bought up at Corning before they sold the consumer products to  Ball. The glass museum was fantastic and it is still in operation. Specialty glass gift shop is still in operation. I doubt that all of what they offer is made there anymore. However, it looks like Steuben, which as also sold, is now back where (as far as I am concerned) it belongs, in Corning. Steuben glass is to die for, or was. The online photos do not do them justice. On a shelf, under light, they sparkle, they shine. My first trip up was more than fifty years ago. George and I visited several times over our early years together.

Well, that's enough for now. I am better than half way through the last book in Joe Haldeman's Worlds series. I will post something about the series in the next day or so.

[Frybabe]

Okay, I spent the time last night to finish Worlds Enough and Time, the last of Haldeman's last of his World's trilogy. I have mixed feelings about the books. I did not particularly care for many of the characters nor the culture, politics, and religious (such as there was) practices. While I didn't have a whole lot of sympathy or empathy with the characters, the books were very well written and absolutely compelling. You name it, Haldeman covered just about everything: politics, subversion, perversion, nuclear war, plague, cannibalism, murder, space travel in a colony ship, agriculture (on ship and planet), administration and management of resources, religious beliefs and practices, and a hair raising first contact experience. I probably missed a few in that list.

[BarbStAubrey]

Goodness frybabe after looking up the excerpt on Amazon not sure how you got through it... with the world in chaos now and this story is about the destruction of the world - you have more fortitude than I have for sure...

Glad to read the update on your sister - yes strange solution for leg cramps - I would think it would take care of the pain but not stop the cramp. I use that Hyland's product - a couple under my tongue and I can get through the night especially if I've done a lot of physical activity or back when I was flying regularly to see my kid's and their family. Always got leg cramps flying.

There may be one more box of books in the garage parked on a shelf out there but all the boxes that were on the floor are finally done - yesterday did the herculean task of emptying and shelving 8 boxes. I was so close to the end there was no way I was not going to finish. Of course I'm exhausted today but smiling with satisfaction. 

[Frybabe]

Yes, Barb, it was often both fascinating and disturbing at the same time. There are three main population groups, those on Earth, those on New New York, which is a huge space station (don't recall if it said whether it was a hollowed out asteroid or an actual space station) and New Home, the colony ship made from a hollowed-out asteroid. They all were confronted with similar problems to one degree or another. The major war affected Earth the greatest. It was instigated by some underground group on Earth and blamed on New New York. New Home's timeline was speeded up to provide for continued human existence elsewhere should the first two blow themselves out of existence. Plague on Earth affected humans. New New York came up with an antidote. New Home had to deal with the development of virus attacking their crops. An attack on all things electronic left all three without communications and databases for years. Once communications were reestablished, they all shared what information they had salvaged. This is before some group once again sabotaged New New York. That is all in the first two books. The third book deals almost entirely with the colony reaching its destination and establishing a colony. This is where first contact with aliens comes in. I won't try to explain that.

I picked around at my eBooks, deleted some, and finally rested on a fantasy short story called Flourish: The Story of Anne Fontaine. It is part of the House of Crimson and Clover series by Sarah M. Cradit, which has at least 12 full books, and a bunch of shorts. I remember liking the short St Charles at Dusk when I read it some time ago, so decided to give another one a try.

[Frybabe]

It has been waaaaaaay too quiet in here. Is everyone Okay?

Since I posted last, I listened to a book by Lt. Col. Scott Mann (Ret.). Operation Pineapple Express is about a group of mostly veterans here that, after repeatedly being stonewalled by our government officials and their various offices, took it upon themselves to find ways to get Afghani American trained special forces members who worked along side our forces, interpreters, embassy staff, and American citizens and others at risk of Taliban retribution out of Afghanistan during the last days of our pull-out. They were effective enough that even some within the government requested their help. The squads on the ground at the airport put their military careers at risk to help with these unofficial and unsanctioned actions. Imagine my surprise to discover that one of the vets lives locally and one family he was instrumental in helping is now living near here too. The book relates not just the action on this side, but also the efforts and trauma those rescued went through to get "inside the wire" and to safety.

Recently I finished, Underwood, Scotch and Wry by Brian D. Meeks. As you may have guessed by the title, it is about a one-book author, now teaching at a college. The department head is trying to get rid of him. His TA's from a newly formed class course and some of his students rally around him, both to thwart the administration and to encourage him to write another book. It is rather funny, but also a bit disturbing because of some of teacher's proclivities. I never heard of Meeks before, but it turns out he has written a whole bunch of books both under his name (with and without the D.) and under the pen name Arthur Byrne.

So, now I am back to listening to Creation Stories of the Ancient World
By: Joseph Lam, The Great Courses. What strikes me in all of this is how ancient societies seemed to borrow the creation stories, renamed the gods, etc. and changed the narrative slightly to suit their purposes.

That reminds me, I just this morning watched a clip about current archaeological finds that includes, at the end, a tablet of in an unknown language found at Kalasma. Instead of posting the clip, I am posting the paper which the video blogger used as reference. https://www.sciencealert.com/archaeologists-unearth-a-secret-lost-language-from-3000-years-ago

One paragraph got my attention: "Specifically, he noticed that the clay tablet was remarkably well-preserved compared to more than 25,000 others found at the same site in what is now Boğazköy, Türkiye."
So, now I am wondering why that, of all the tablets found at the site so far, why this is the only one that is so well preserved? I sincerely hope the scientists will do an analysis of the tablet material itself to ascertain from where it might have originated. Assuming this is the real deal, it might just point to another site to dig.
 
 

[BarbStAubrey]

Interesting frybabe and to think that you now even have to question the authenticity of archeology finds - Read a couple of weeks ago how they found the remains of a wooden structure that dates man millions of years earlier than we thought - that man was here during the time of the dinosaurs and so where we thought Jurassic Park was a fun fantasy it may be truer than we ever imagined.

Well have I changed my mind - I had enjoyed the Cadfael series and a few other books of fiction during that period in history thinking it was a more predictable time even if layered with at times brutal authoritarianism - well had no idea - found a movie about the early history of the Baltics that included the later early years during the last Crusade, which I read a book years ago on the Northern Crusade, which was the last Crusade - Well this is one time when reading paled in comparison, reading did not do justice to the world as depicted in this movie - not only brutal but everything that happens to anyone during their life is so unpredictable and everyone, including Catholics are chopping each other to pieces - any moment a raid could mean you are dead or a slave - and my word you almost are better off being killed than being wounded.

What we call pagan is really folks dependent on some form of witchcraft that is earth centered - of course for protection a village would have to be a close knit group of people and probably all related to each other in one way or another - there is no privacy or secrecy from one another - Then talk about the Queen in Alice in Wonderland 'off with their heads' - that entire Wonderland chaotic fantasy was the reality of 10th and 11th century Europe - Now I can see how sanitized the stories are in Cadfael and other fiction taking place during that time in history. Don't think I could read another book set during that time - Even books like The Mabinogion with all the stories and myths are showing a sanitized version of reality - seems the heroes were those who could come out of a fight with their head still on their shoulders and who slaughtered many. The men had to have been huge welding axes, swords and spears and some did not even have sophisticated metal arms but things used from the forest or animal skins like slingshots - few horses and the few were usually mounted by leaders from tribes close to Rome - even among the Crusaders there were few horses.

I even got the impression marriage was a class thing - the leaders or nobles married - the rest of the women were there - I guess with so many killed or taken prisoner as slaves living with anyone was typically not long. Hmm had not thought it through but being a child the concept of having parents till you are a teen was just as unpredictable. And of course children had to work hard to help maintain themselves and whom ever they lived with. The seasons of the year seem to be the cultural clock even for the timing of birthing children so they are born late spring to early summer giving them a good start with more available food and flowing streams and creeks.

The story teller for a large section of the movie is a trader entering new territory with few contacts - he makes several trips to various areas and with each trip he penetrates further into the unknown not know if he will be treated as friend or foe - finally he is in a village that is attacked and he spends the rest of his life a slave. After many, I think 10 years he is given a chance for freedom after he fights with his master and although he waves his secretly pocketed rosary a Crusader slices him in half. Like so many movies - I found it by accident and of course it was on one of these strange, what stations?? like Tubi or freevee - I think it was simply called the Baltic or maybe the History of the Early Baltics.

Well huge accomplishment - every box of books has been shelved - just need to sort one shelf but the books are on the shelf in piles. Still loads more to do and still more boxes need unpacking and a hall bath needs the shelves and drawer bottoms covered so I can unpack those boxes and the linen closet shelves are covered but need to be organized - get the towels sorted and old from newer sheets etc. But the fact the books are all done for me is like waking up with a new lease on life. I moved in on Dec 1 and where everything will not be in its place and there will still be boxes and things are still being pulled together - had help clearing and fertilizing the back yard - planting to make the yard mine won't happen till late winter early spring which here will be the end of February but I can actually think past the walls of the house. Getting closer to being able to use my time to read and do my needlework and cook a decent meal or pot of soup. This moving took over a year to set up this house and just shy 2 years to dismantle and sell the other house. I did read many a book while dismantling but not many while setting up. Just can't look at a page of writing when I can see this or that needs doing.

[ginny]

 Yes, time to read, what a luxury that is, isn't it? And so many good books out there TO read, I think my TBR stack is about to take over the house.

I am really, however, engrossed, I guess it's a form of escape,  in those Escape to the Country Shows, the ones on youtube are from 2022- 2011 they tell you the date IN the show, not what they put to describe it.  I love the gentleness of it, and the hope of a new start,  a new life from all ages. I guess I need to put this in the Movie section.

It's a nice 45 minute break in the day, hopeful and gentle. And you learn something about history and local interests all over Britain, Ireland and Wales. Mostly England.

Hope everybody has a lovely Thanksgiving. Do you plan to watch the Thanksgiving Parade? I plan to watch it every year and end up never seeing it.   

[BarbStAubrey]

From what I hear Ginny the parade will be different this year - lots of sexy trans in various costumes accentuating what they will... Are  you planning to have Turkey or something else? I believe Sally is going to fix a ham since really none of us like Turkey not that we dislike it is just not a favorite.

I cannot believe - I need to adjust would you believe to not having organizing books weighing on my mind when I step out of bed - it is almost like swimming way out and having to stop and look around to check where you are... 

[ginny]

We're having turkey. When my husband did the meat, we had turkey and ham, but I'm doing it this year and if I do say so myself, I do one more juicy turkey. hahaha One of the few things (watch it catch on fire) I can actually do.  I like Thanksgiving. It's low key and no matter what one eats or where one is, you can still have a great time.

I think it's nice to get ANY pressure off you, no matter what it is. Terrible wearing thing,  the pressure of "to do."

I bought a magazine in the grocery last week called The Story of a Christmas Carol. I've got the annotated Dickens Christmas Carol but this thing is a really good background with lots of photos and information, as well as a presentation of all the movie Scrooges. Every year this time I think I'll read A Christmas Carol again. Every year I don't. But the magazine is huge and 98 pages and just full of atmospheric photographs and lots of background information.  It's a good read.

[BarbStAubrey]

Do you have the name of the magazine - sounds like a really good worthwhile article.

I'm planning on reading a Miss Read - the one Christmas at Fairacre- and I did order a new one The Christmas Pearl - finally some sit down and read time for Christmas - last year Christmas was a blur amid boxes and more boxes.

[ginny]

I love a Christmas mystery, too.  I save them all  year to read then.

The entire magazine is called The Story of a Christmas Carol. It has a full cover illustration with Tiny Tim riding on Scrooge's shoulder, it looks as if it's from the 40's. Lots of old photographs and drawings. It looks old but there are no credits except it's a Getty image. Lighted lampposts,  horse drawn carriages. Nostalgia, I guess.

I remember the lamplighters. People look at me like I'm crazy, but Philadelphia was one of the last cities to let the lamplighters go. Also the milk wagon drawn by horse, and the ice blocks hauled up to the second floor for the "ice box" refrigerators we  used to have. I am thinking those are the oldest "things" or way of doing I remember, older than the Old Oaken Bucket of the well.

Do  you all remember something that seems "ancient of days" now?

[ginny]

In fact it was a lot later than even I thought:

On April 15, 1959, Mayor Richardson Dilworth, resplendent in a three piece suit, mounted a ladder and extinguished Philadelphia’s last gas streetlight.  The frilly fixture, dating from the early 1900s, was located at 45th and Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia.

Residents smiled and applauded, glad that this vestige of the Victorian era was gone.  In postwar Philadelphia, there was little room for Gilded Age nostalgia. The city had suffered greatly since the stock market crash of 1929.  Streets were crumbling, water and gas mains constantly breaking, and the housing stock dilapidated and overcrowded.  Federal money was flooding into the city, and government officials were happy to use it to tear down the old and build anew, especially new housing developments and highways.  Dilworth was also planning the revitalization of the 18th century fabric of Society Hill, arguably the first residential historic preservation initiative in a major American city.  Under city planner Edmund Bacon’s supervision, Society Hill’s streets would be marked by lampposts modeled on those from the Early Republic, only lit by electricity.

[BarbStAubrey]

Don't remember lamp lighters but yes, the ice man, while delivering one of the older boys would jump on the wagon and toss the ice chips to us as we crowded around -

Yes, the milkman came in horse and buggy - ahum tied up in front of our next door neighbor for well over an hour with instructions from our Mom not to bother or go on Mrs. Thys porch when we see the milk man is there -

The man with the organ grinder and monkey that we flew around the house closing tight all the windows to keep the monkey from entering and taking whatever they saw, bringing it to the organ grinder who of course did not return what his monkey brought to him.

The fruit and veggie wagon pulled also by horses that came at least once a week.

When the WPA turned our dirt road into a cinder and tar covered road and in summer with the high heat the tar melted and ran - we kids took a stock and twirled some tar on it and that was like our lollypop for the day.

Flying kites from a nearby hill and the blimps glided by low enough so they saw us and we them and they would wave at us.

We still had shoemakers that did not sell many handmade shoe - did repair as their main business but also the men would go to the shoemaker and have him slice off a piece of leather and put a few holes in it, finish the entire edge on one of the tools from his elaborate polishing and grinding machine and voila a belt was sold.

Shopping for groceries there were no paper sacks - groceries were wrapped in brown paper that came off a roller and then tied with string and a wooden handled was attached if it was a heavy bundle with many groceries. No grocery aisles but shelves to the ceiling with a rolling ladder so the grocery got everything you ordered.

And butter was cut with a wire from a large tub kept in the cold case. And at the butcher shop you could ask for bones for your dog but many would take the bones home that had just a bit of meat still on them and throw them in a pot with some veggies and home made noodles for a pot of soup.

[BarbStAubrey]

[Frybabe]

Gosh, you two make me feel like a youngster. You've triggered my nostalgia machine. The earliest appliances I can remember were the washer with a roller bar (How could I forget that; I got my arm rung once) and the refrigerator had an ice box in it, but it very small and looked more like an attachment than built in. We still had a butcher shop and the pharmacy with a soda fountain. Our bread and milk (glass bottles with a thin layer of cream floating at the top) were via motor truck, and the pedal powered popsicle/ice cream cup vendor was around every summer. Every summer someone would come around with their pony hoping to entice folks to have their children's photos taken. Our mail man (who we called Uncle Harry because he was a wartime friend of my Dad) walked the block carrying his mail bag and accompanied by a trail of us kids escorting him.

The earliest books I can remember reading were Mother Goose, Reginald Rabbit and Marmaduke Mouse, and Black Beauty. Other early reads included The Black Stallion and the children's version of The Three Musketeers. TV came to our house in 1954: Winkey-Dink with the plastic over the TV so we could trace whatever was offered, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, and Pinkie Lee, and of course, the cartoons. The Honeymooners, Our Miss Brooks, Roy Rogers, Wyatt Earp, The Cisco Kid, Alfred Hitchcock, Father Knows Best, Superman, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and I Love Lucy were all there or would be very shortly. There was the Saturday Matinee at the movie house which was mostly westerns and Ma and Pa Kettle.

 

[PatH]

Nostalgia is right.  We had the same deliveries, Barb, but no horses and no organ grinder.  there was also a bread man, who sold brand name bread and baked goods, and an egg man, a farmer who sold his own fresh eggs and chickens,  And a mom and pop grocery store that delivered.  The grocery store is still going, though with a different family.  It has a history of 100 years.

The summer JoanK and I turned 14, meal preparation was assigned to us.  We had to plan the meals, get approval from our mother, and be the ones who called in the grocery order and dealt with the vendors, who were somewhat amused.  We could ask for as much advice as we wanted, but we did all the work.  After that summer, things went back to normal, but we had always done a lot of hanging around in the kitchen.  It was great training for when we left home.

[BarbStAubrey]

Oh my the entire meal planning and cooking at 14 - I remember helping and by 14 it was natural to cook oatmeal for ourselves but not a whole meal much less for weeks at a time - and yes, I too remember the delivery from a small grocery - the delivery was usually a young boy - the store had a bike much like the Good Humor ice cream bikes - a large box in front and that was where the groceries for delivery were placed and come to think of it there was the cleaners who picked up and delivered and in the 50s when I had my children there was a diaper service that did come in a motor vehicle that picked up dirty diapers in the exchange for clean ones - I remember having a diaper pail in the bathroom where dirty diapers were put with some water and forget now if it was washing soda or Epsom salts - oh now I remember it was 20 mule team Borax. I wonder if today's moms even know what a real diaper is or how to pin one on...

Been reading Old Friends by Tracy Kidder - interesting - not sure what to call it - written like a documentary with no author opinion as she documents the daily doings of a group in a retirement/nursing home - those included are not the wealthy with private rooms in the home but the average and below average who are there because of something like medicare paying and so they all seem to be sharing a room and how they make their side or corner of the room their own and how they make friends with their room mate and what they do with their day etc etc.

No agenda by the author who is just giving an account of what it is really like and how those in the home think or feel about their situation and  surroundings and their roommates - interesting getting into the personalities of each and how they handle their living circumstances and who joins with others forming  an unofficial group - still cannot see myself in their shoes and thank goodness that does not have to be my end of life situation -

I'm a little concerned about my sister who is just younger by 2 and a half years than I am and lives alone in Newburg NY where she retired from  the local Collage, St. Mary's on the Hudson - I believe her title is professor emeritus - she was the professor of philosophy, a position that I understand they have not filled after her retirement. Having read the recent law passed in NY about forcing people to isolate either in a home or their own home for various reasons determined by the state I'm concerned how such a forced reclusive life would work for her... She really is not up to moving and there is no one to help her living way up north as she is... She never was close - for 35 years she was a nun and I am sure it is difficult to even know how to pickup and enter the give and take of family again... some of the grandboys, grand nephews to her visited but the visits were very awkward -  at this point all I can do is trust and realize it will be what it will be...

That is one message I'm getting from reading this book - those who isolate even in a nursing home do not do as well as those who make friends. 

[BarbStAubrey]

British novelist A.S. Byatt has died at 87- November 16, 2023.

A scholar and critic, Byatt is best known for her 1990 novel Possession, which she won the Booker Prize for and which was made into a 2002 movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Through this award-winning book, as well as her 11 novels and six short story collections, she came to be known as as an academically-minded writer, stating herself that, “I am not an academic who happens to have written a novel, I am a novelist who happens to be quite good academically.”

Though Byatt achieved great success through her writing — with books like Angels and Insects being made into a1995 Oscar-nominated movie and gaining a teaching position at University College London — she had her share of tragedy. When her son Charles was 11, he was killed by a drunk driver. Though she didn’t overtly write about her experience with grieving his loss, it had decidedly changed her writing: “I suddenly thought, Why the hell not have happy endings? Everybody knows they’re artificial. Why not have this pleasure, as one has the pleasure of rhyme, as one has the pleasure of color?”

Byatt had three daughters with her husband, and leaves behind a writing legacy that includes being named one of the 50 Greatest British Authors Since 1945 by The Times of London, and being made a dame of the British Empire in 1999 for her contributions to literature.