Dancing in the Dark

I am making progress on my dancers, as you can see. These are the daily update shots for my first three days. The man emerged on day three. I'm hoping for other colors soon. I'll try to do some detail shots for my next update so you can see the three layers of color that make up the shadowy dancers.

Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many chapters did you read today? I've been mostly off my computer, just listening to LBJ getting to be Vice President. Caro is a Wonderful writer. He has written a lot about Jack and Bobby Kennedy as well as LBJ. I am wondering why I was so fond of Bobby when he was running for president. I am hoping that he had matured by then. What a brat. Jack is still a bit of a cipher.  I know he was idealized hugely after his assassination. Caro is such a careful writer, I have a feeling that I will finally be able to figure out who Jack Kennedy was by the time I get through his presidency. Caro mentions all the other books that were written about these people. He looks at points that were made from several sides, looks at all published material, reads unpublished documents, interviews those who are still alive. I think you get a very balanced picture by the time you are done reading.

This book is four sections long on Audible. Each is over 8 hours long. I have finished section one. I just checked, we will be heading to Dallas by the time I end the second section. The Kennedys used LBJ to win the '60 election. After that, he was not important to them. That means the next section will be about the diminution of a very powerful man. Oh boy.

I've decided to stitch again while I'm listening to my books. I've had problems finding needlepoint I like, but I decided to look again. Eureka! These three just arrived today. I was going to ask for votes, but there aren't that many people who read these. So I'm going to start with the dancers. That lady in the first picture is kind of intriguing, but  

let the dancing begin.

Finished The Barbarian Nurseries. Loved the fact that they ended up in South Pasadena. Let's hope they grew up a little along the way. As far as Hitlerland goes, it was great to the end. I'm trying to decide now whether to jump into Caro's new book about LBJ or The Warmth of Other Suns about the migration of blacks from the South. Not as easy a decision as which needlepoint to start with.

Why I Like History

As usual, I'm reading two books at once. This time it is The Barbarian Nurseries, written by Hector Tobar of The Times, recommended by Natalie; the other book is Hitlerland, written by Andrew Nagorski, who we saw at the recent Times Festival of Books.  A novel and a history book. This is a good combination for me because it underscores to me my preferences in books. 
The Barbarian Nurseries is well written. It does what a novel is supposed to do, tells a story. There are problems, there is human silliness (things that happen because too many assumptions are made), there is a resolution. A thick slice of some interesting lives. And really, I'm enjoying it. But it isn't my favorite kind of book.


Now, Hitlerland. Num. Nagorski writes about a part of history we all know well, some maybe more than others. He does the thing I love, he writes about the people who are slightly peripheral to the big story. These are Americans who were in Germany between the wars. They meet Hitler, they see the Brown Shirts. They even see Jews or people who associate with Jews being brutalized. So interesting. But I realized the thing I like best is that I know the ending to this story. Maybe not the ending to every individual highlighted in this story. But I do know how WWII ended. I don't have to listen to the end of the book to know how it turns out. I can just hear every individual's story and enjoy it as it comes. 


Those who know me well know that I read the ends of books all the time. The semi-official rule is that I need to have read/listened to at least 1/4 of the book so I know most of the cast of characters. Then, once I know the end, I can go back to hear how we got there. That is particularly true of mysteries. But there is no mystery in history. We might all have different interpretations of historical events, but the outcome is usually pretty clear. 


So, hurray to Hitlerland, The War to End All Wars, and 1861. I've finished the last two and I'm close to done on the first one. All excellent. All about the people who impacted history or were impacted by it rolling over them. And I didn't read the end first with any of them.

OK, I'm Here

We need a new car. It will cost $1500 to fix the radiator hoses next time I go in for a car checkup. Why not just buy a new car? This one is a 2000. Not old by my standards, but, well, 12 years is getting on in car years and I've sunk a lot of money into it already. So... We still have money in our Winnie kitty (she does our investments. This type of activity is probably frowned on.) I don't want to make monthly payments, so this is what we are going to do. Hit Winnie!!! So, I go into the Gweb and find this website for Hyundai.  My car is not there.  I've done research on Edmunds.com. It looks like the Elantra will be the best buy. At least Edmunds knows there is a car out there called the Elantra.


We saw one on the road yesterday. It looked good from behind. Adrian thought that was funny for some reason, but based on that two minute view of a car's backside I decided that gray was not a bad color and the trunk looked reasonable. Is that enough? Is that enough to stop him from laughing?


No. 


We are now negotiating on when to sit in a car. Looks like Monday will be a good day. Time. So much to negotiate. Do you know that when you get to be old you look at every step of a process as a mountain? It's true.


We're going Monday. I'll let you know if we decide to buy or not. Cars seem to be pretty small potatoes when you consider that a dear niece is waiting to receive a baby from Ethiopia. Baby-car-baby. OK, baby wins big time, but she will not be receiving same until all her process has wound its way through 1000 steps. I'm sorry it takes so long. My hope is that I have a new and reliable car at hand for when I need to visit somewhere to see this beautiful child on US soil. It will all happen. It just takes steps and time. So many mountains.


It is also Kevin and Natalie's 10th anniversary. May 4th. I just learned from Rachel Maddow that the day is called Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you. The force is with Natalie and Kevin. May it also be with Tyler and Cathie (awaiting their baby.) And us in SoPas.