Yes, It's Been a Busy Month

First, happy birthday Adrian and Per. Adrian's birthday was almost a month ago. I was on the road. Per's birthday is today. He is on the road or his back. I'm sure he would prefer the other over the reality. I was not and am not in California to celebrate either. So, where in the world am I?

Virginia again. I have picked up about 4 weeks of work over this summer. Eric drove me back after his long trip across the country in his new car. We drove back over my favorite route. 15 to 40 to 81 to 66. How hard could it be? Virginia has responded by having the hottest June in eons. And most humid. How dare they! Luckily, Eric and Cindy run a cool house, so I've been content.

I guess a bit too content, since I haven't been writing. I have been reading or listening to books too numerous to mention. Really, not going to mention them. Well, maybe just one in conjunction with another. Eric and I listened to Churchill's book The Grand Alliance, Part 1. Oh, it was just part one, no wonder it ended so abruptly. Anyway, I also got Citizens of London on sale through Audible. It covered approximately the same time but was written by a journalist with no stake in the events. Therefore she was able to talk about events a bit more forthrightly. This was all very interesting. You should really read about these people. It always leaves me a little disheartened to know that the people we want to be perfect are merely human. Does this mean Obama too?

So besides work and avoiding the heat, I've been working on my needlepoint until this week. On Wednesday, Eric and I drove to Cass, West Virginia to ride an old lumber train. I promised Karen I would take lots of pictures. They are on my Picasa site. The town is high in the hills, so we finally got out of the heat and humidity of DC. It was a bit too cool for Eric, in fact uncomfortably so. Sweaters and jackets are good things. The wood cutting stopped in 1960. It was no longer profitable since they had chopped down most of the trees. Oh sure, they planted more, but it seems that the red spruce trees they preferred need to have older hardwood trees to shelter them. All of this takes time. So the state bought the property.

It was interesting to be in West Virginia as their Senator Byrd was lying in the Senate. It was interesting to think about what that highly maintained state is going to do now that they have lost their senator.

Oh, and I got a traffic ticket in Maryland on the way to WVa. I'd been driving for about two minutes when I was caught in a speed trap. Sigh. He fixed it so it won't be reported to my insurance in CA. I'm sure he tells all the "offenders" that. Such a deal. Such a joy to be back in my cool room in this now temperate state.

Lost in the Threads

First, a view of my favorite flower, the peony. I bought a dozen to put in front of my window. They were so much fun to watch as they unfolded into the floozies that they are. Just when you think they can't get any bigger, they find a way. Lovely. Too bad they don't grow in this climate.

I've been needling like crazy for the last month. I got tired of working on the right side of the picture, so I moved to the left. I know, impossible that I could move further to the left. I guess I was more comfortable over there because the far left is done from top to bottom. Now I need to fill in the blank top and bottom as I move to the right. Let's see if I like the right better than I did last month.

Lots of stitching means lots of listening. So many mysteries, all fun, but not worth remembering. Here's a few of the interesting books along the way.

First is The Man From Beijing by Henning Mankell. Mankell wrote the Wallender mystery series that I've enjoyed in the past. This one also takes place in Sweden, but includes a backstory involving a Chinese family. Mankell gets pretty long-winded and diatribish at times. Interesting concept, however. Almost as interesting is reading Mankell's biography on Wikipedia. Talk about moving to the left.
My friend Per is seriously ill and in the hospital. Now he's getting seriously sick listening to me talk about The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. I've tried to visit Per regularly at the hospital because I know it has to be a drag having doctors and nurses poking and prodding and ripping flesh while removing gauzes day in and day out. But every time I go, I think about this book. Gawande has been working on ways to improve hospital and surgical routines using checklists. His previous book included a section on reducing infections in hospitals by having everyone wash their hands constantly. You can bet I was watching everyone who came in to see Per. He's been at two hospitals. The first was in Marina Del Rey and they have an excellent procedure, putting on new gloves when they walk into a patient's room, then throwing them out as they leave and then using an antiseptic cleaner. The UCLA hospital has antiseptic cleaner dispensers outside every room with a big sign to use it to prevent infections. I think I like the Marina hospital's procedure best. I never saw them not comply with their practice. Maybe the UCLA folks cleanse their hands every time they walk into a room. Gawande says that even he misses sometimes.

Then today a nurse came in to take vitals and ask about pain. This was a checklist! One of the most rudimentary checklists in a hospital is a nurse doing 4 things - blood pressure, temperature, heart rate and pain (from 1-10 rating). Some used to miss some of the 4 things and it was found that if all were done and recorded, patient recovery improved.

In other words, I liked the book.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has helped be to be more knowledgeable about cell reproduction and uterine cancer and John Hopkins and big Pharma stealing our genes. What a good book. It actually helped me understand my cancer better. I did better than poor Henrietta Lacks. My cancer was found at the very beginning. Hers lasted through two pregnancies. More than that, the biopsy they took of her cells in the early 50's are still growing today and have helped in unbelievable research and medical discoveries. This is a fascinating slice of history.

A Visit with Maureen

My college friend, Maureen, drove down from Seattle to visit her family last week. I got to sneak in a little visit on Sunday. She is just the dearest person. We can be separated for months and it still feels like we haven't missed a beat. Who else knows all the history of the intervening 40 years? Who else can laugh when I say that Reg is finally helping to support me with his Social Security payments? Who else will send a special message to Adrian when I'm showing her how I can take movies with my still camera? She is, after all, the Maureen that Adrian named our dog after when he was little. She was such a big part of his life.

Maureen was staying at Katie's house. Katie is Mo's sister and I haven't seen her for years. Gosh, it was good to see her, too. She's the only one still working. Maureen is still playing in the stock market. Not playing. She is a very serious investor. Sorry we can't see each other today when the market is bouncing back after its heavy drop last week. I don't know if she missed her moment to buy Proctor and Gamble. She's driving home today, so I'll have to see if she bought anything later in the week.

I can see that when I move up to Albany, I'll be making a lot of trips north and I hope that she can visit me more often there.

Finished Game Change on the way to Covina to see Maureen. Poor Mo. It was too much on my mind because of that. The Dreadful Edwardses, the foul-mouthed McCain, the muddled Palin, the over-confident and flawed Clintons, the brash upstart Obama. It was all good reading. As always, the person who comes off best is Michelle. That could just be my bias. It becomes easier to see how the Reps (and Dems) could be wary of Bill Clinton lurking in the background. Tom recommended this as a good read and I agree. Remember, nothing you ever read is gospel, which is why you must read a lot. It might as well be enjoyable while you do it.

The Lusty Month of May

Or so they sang in Camelot. If not lusty, full of sunshine, flowers, strawberries and friends.Isn't that a pretty shot from my local farmers' market? The colors and smells still catch me every Saturday morning. The onion guy asked me if I wanted anything as I was standing there smelling the fresh, clean scent of young onions. It would be a great diet just to take in all these good smells.

This is pretty much how my needlepoint looked mid-April. I almost posted this picture, but somehow got busy. My life is so unbusy that surprises even me. I think I'd identified where the bottom of the picture was at that point, but still working mightily on the middle ground. What do you read while needlepointing? Cranford. Women in that era were always working on a piece of something. Look at the picture. She has knitting next to her. This book is a good antidote to raucous thrillers. Slow moving and sweet. Now I may be able to see the Masterpiece Theater shows based on the book that are saved on my DVR.
Another book to intersperse between mysteries is Villette by Charlotte Bronte. When Karen and I were at the FOB a couple of weekends ago we wrote what we were reading on a huge wall set up for just that purpose. As I was half way through Villette, I didn't feel too dishonest writing that as opposed to one of the mysteries I was reading. Not too. Villette is about the classic orphan girl managing in the world. I really liked it. I was not aware that the Bronte girls were not that prolific. Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre, this book and two others. You can get the Kindle edition of a book with all four books for just $1.00. Amazing.
And then begins my spat mysteries that deal with other genders. Other genders? Well, I've noticed that most mysteries are written from the male perspective. Women are often there to have horrible stuff done to them. The "other gender" in Dressed for Death is transvestites. Not that Venice is rampant with transvestites, but Donna Leon (whose name is much bigger than the title; hum, so are all the other names on this page; never mind) likes to write about issues affecting Venice. They are still mentioned here - huge pollution problem, corrupt politicians, oversexed Italian men. I loved that part where the protagonist's wife asks if he's ever noticed how often the men of Venice fondle themselves. Good story, despite the fondling. Darker Domain has a female Cold Case detective and a female journalist working what appear to be wildly divergent stories. This was nominated for a Times Book Prize for mysteries. The ending is a little contrived, but I liked it pretty much. Glad it didn't win the prize. Can't wait to read the one that did.
Gallow's View is about a Peeping Tom. Hum, why did I think this was from a different gender perspective? I'm not sure. It was well written. This was from the batch of books that were first books in a series. There are many more Inspector Banks books. Even though this was a classic mystery of the slow moving variety, I liked it.
Pirate is not a classic mystery of the slow moving type. It's actually pretty funny in its high testosterone, thrill a minute plot devices. Manly men, gorgeous women, unkillable heroes. Karen read a review that said it was Bond-like. Yes. Poorly plotted, yet moves like a runaway train. Can't put my iPod down. :) I must recommend this one to my brothers. I think both of them would love this. I know I'm enjoying it.

Do you think that the pace of that book is why my needlepoint has moved on so rapidly? I've also found the right side of the picture.