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L is for Lincoln Highway
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm—the wily, charismatic Duchess and earnest, offbeat Woolly—have stowed away in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future, one…
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K is for Kindred
(Octavia) Butler’s most celebrated, critically acclaimed work tells the story of Dana, a young black woman who is suddenly and inexplicably transported from her home in 1970s California to the pre–Civil War South. As she time-travels between worlds, one in which she is a free woman and one where she is part of her own complicated familial history on a southern plantation, she becomes frighteningly entangled in the lives of Rufus, a conflicted white slaveholder and one of Dana’s own ancestors, and the many people who are enslaved by him. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this…
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J is for Joyful (Wordless Wednesday)
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I is for Inspiration
As in, I don’t have any. Posting via the letters of the alphabet is supposed to help, but sometimes even with a prompt, I can’t think of anything. So, let’s see, maybe I can babble my way through enough to count as a blog post. Hmm. Well, we closed on my Grandma’s house, got the money for that, and distributed it to her beneficiaries. I bought myself a new purse with a little bit of mine. Most of it went into savings, we have some expensive home repairs that are going to suck a lot of fun out of life in the next couple of years, but I did want…
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H is for Horses
I’m not sure when my love for horses started. As a small child I loved all animals, but at some point I fell especially in love with horses. Perhaps it was the influence of my friend Aimee, who lived across the street from me in Fairbanks and was a big fan of horses. She lives in California now, and she has horses. Look at that pretty face, the soft gentle eyes. I just want to pet this beautiful horse. Who knows, perhaps this horse is an asshole, but it looks like it would be so very affectionate and loving. My friend Nikki has horses, and when she goes to visit…
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G is for Green
My favorite colors are blue and green. I adore them both. Not so much for clothes or furniture or cars, but for me, they are the cool, soothing colors of nature. Because it is so dry and brown here much of the year, green is more rare for me than blue, and so I find green more precious. We get a lot of beautiful blue sky here, and not enough green. When we go somewhere that is not California, somewhere with lots of rain, and I see how lush and calming all of that green is, I swoon. Then again, there is that beautiful blue of the ocean and the…
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F is for Free
My readers know of the free tickets that we were given on our flight home from Portland in June, and that we used those tickets to travel to Maui last month. I was so thankful for the opportunity to have a real vacation…traveling to Portland for a long weekend is always lovely, and I was thrilled to see my family there, but it doesn’t really feel like vacation, especially since our main purpose for going up was to scatter my father’s ashes. As I’m sure you have guessed, ‘free’ doesn’t generally mean ‘free’. The tickets were for the cheapest possible seats, and on Alaska Airlines these days, that means you…
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E is for Eye
Our flight to Maui last month included a layover in Seattle. Soon after landing, I started seeing shooting lights in one of my eyes. I (very occasionally) get ocular migraines, which start with weird vision squiggles and blurriness, and sometimes progress to severe nausea. They are related to my sinuses, I am sure. I had some trusty sinus meds in my pocket, and just in case, I went into the news stand store and bought some Excedrin, as that is what always works for me when I have a migraine. I took it and worried and hoped for the best, and we boarded our flight to Maui. After awhile the…
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D is for Dinner
The struggle is real, people. Sometimes, I have an absolute craving and as I cook on week nights, it’s easy to come up with ideas…and sometimes by the time I get off of work, I’m still interested in eating that thing and cooking it even. And sometimes, not. If it weren’t for Ted and Maya, it would be much easier, I would just have nibbles for dinner, which is what I would prefer anyway. Actually, I think Maya would be OK with that too, but it’s hard to do with Ted’s dietary restrictions. Sometimes I think of something I want, and it either doesn’t fit with Ted’s restrictions or Maya’s.…
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C is for COVID (Wordless Wednesday)
(Ruining the ‘wordless’ part, but results were thankfully negative)
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B is for Brussels Sprouts, Apple, and Pomegranate Salad
I came across this wonderful recipe vis Smitten Kitchen, whom I follow on Facebook. It’s a light, bright salad, and perfect for Autumn. Our neighbor’s sister has a pomegranate bush, and when she gives them some, he very kindly shares with us. So he stopped by with a couple of pomegranates the other day, and I decided to make this salad to go with our dinner. In her post, Deb (author of Smitten Kitchen) makes it as a salad for Thanksgiving dinner, and I often bring it to our family gatherings as well. Likely I will this year, too. Notes are hers, I just copied and pasted the recipe from…
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A is for ‘Alrighty Then’
The meme there has nothing to do with the name of my post, and the name of my post is my way of committing to post every day this month. Why? Who knows. Just a habit to try to post every day in November, I guess. I’ve done it many years, but then again, NOT several years as well. I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve decided I will use the letters of the alphabet as a prompt, like Nance has been doing. So far I’m not doing very well, ‘Alrighty Then’ for A? That’s a little lame. Oh well, let’s hope I can come up with something better tomorrow.…
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Thursday 13 – Vacation photos
Don’t you hate looking at other people’s vacation photos? Where they invite you over and sit you down and make you watch 2 hours worth of slides on their wall? Well, it’s my turn…here are 13 pictures of our trip to Maui, starting with this one. This is the view from our condo. We could walk through the complex shown and sit on the beach. It was a lovely uncrowded beach with folks swimming and watching the sunset. I know, I already showed you another version of this picture, but I did love waking up to this view every morning. Our first morning in Maui, Ted and I woke up…
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Wordless Wednesday – Rainbow Eucalyptus in Maui
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Meme Monday – Treacherous Road
Last week in Maui, we had some time to kill and not a big plan, but couldn’t go out for an all day thing, as we had plans in the middle of the afternoon. Maya likes her chill time, so she decided to stay home, and Ted and I went for a drive. We were staying in Kahana, which is on the North West side of Maui. Our trusty guide book mentioned a drive that would take you to see the Nakalele Blowhole. I’ve never seen a blowhole before, and our part of Maui was fairly arid, being on the leeward side, so we wanted to go around and get…