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A little of this, a little of that October 30, 2021

/ For the Love of Books / 4 Comments

This blog is supposed to be about books but my mind has definitely not been in that space these days. I still read, but not as much, and I still look for interesting books, but my mind is definitely not in it.

Today, I’ve been trying to land in a lighter place to share a less intense moment with you, in place of books.

In that regard, I do have pictures of a pair of large plants in my living room, one is blooming again for the third time.

The other one has been slower to decide if it wanted to bloom at all but looks to have made the choice. The buds are just beginning to come out. Out to the left in the second picture in case you are having trouble finding them.

They are so pretty, it’s a shame I’m allergic to them.

The slower plant doesn’t get as much light but makes a decent showing anyway.

(The camera doesn’t do a good job of showing true colors. Probably my fault. It really is not this dark and I don’t know how to fix it. Oh well, at least I have pictures lol)

I try to keep them around until I can’t handle it any more and then cut off the bloom stems.

So far so good. They have escaped with their life intact.

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I’ve been in some intense conversations over the last while and it is not easy to shift gears and move on to lighter things.

The good thing about all this, though, is the progress I’m making in sorting through some of my old baggage.

There is something about saying things out loud to another person that puts a different spin on things.

I’ve heard my comedian/singer friend Mark Lowry say after he spouted out some ridiculous stuff – well, it made sense in my head.

I know what he means. Sometimes things we’ve believed or felt don’t hold up to scrutiny when sent out into the world and perspective changes to something better.

I’m happy when this happens. It usually means a move forward.

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So that’s my day. No new books that I’ve seen so far.

There will probably be more installments in the intense but profitable conversation.

And I have a list of Saturday chores that I may or may not get done. We’ll see how it goes.

I’m getting close to finishing the current read and it will be a chore to decide what should be next. There are way too many to choose from.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Happy reading…

… on this pre-winter day that can’t decide whether it wants to be cloudy or sunny.

Another this and that kind of day September 28, 2021

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I have nothing much in my head at the moment but I need to come up with a post to meet my daily goal commitment. Besides the discipline of putting something down on paper is actually good for me.

I guess it’s not really fair to say I have nothing in my head. I’ve been reading, trying to work my way through the burgeoning stack, and it has been disappointing. The just-finished read was a collection by an author I normally like, for the most part. The collection was disappointing because all three books were short on story and long on attraction. Lots and lots of time spent aware of each other. It’s boring listening to the same basic thoughts over and over again. A good story with some meat on it makes me happy. Anyway, I can’t even tell you the name of the collection because it’s been removed. The minute it was over.

Currently I’m reading a romance somewhat similar but at least it has a healthy story line running right through the middle of it. It isn’t a very long book either so there isn’t room for it to be plumped out with over the top attraction angst.

Courting Calla: A Christian Romance (Dixon Brothers Book 1)

CALLA VAUGHN has spent the last three years desperately trying to get her life in order so that she can go back to culinary school. No matter how hard she works, though, she feels like she is just treading water and can’t see any way out of the hole dug for her by a con artist who stole her identity.
When flowers she sends to her best friend with a dinner invitation accidentally get delivered to IAN JONES, she decides to cook him the best meal he’s ever had. By the time she admits that the flowers were never for him, he is as convinced as she is that God orchestrated the mistake in the first place.
All that’s left is to tell him the dark secret about her father’s widow. She waits a little too long, though, and is carted off to jail for questioning on felony charges before she gets a chance.
Will Ian understand her situation, or will the deception surrounding Calla destroy any trust he has in her?

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Work has been taking up a lot of my thinking time too. I won’t bore you with the details but a new software program on one of the sites I frequent is still under construction even though it is in full use. Navigation seemed impossible on one task. Today was a good day because the sticky issue has finally been resolved. Another file closed, at least it looks like it from my current point of view. Fingers crossed.

That’s mainly it for my day.

The weather was warm today, in the 30’s C and it should be like that again for several more days. I’m happy for the chance to experience a little more warmth before the bitterness of winter sets in. The illusion of summer is gone though, with darkness quickly falling hours earlier than it did on the longest days. The leaves are turning color and falling faster than I’d like. I’m sad to see the end of summer this year. It’s gone by much too quickly.

There have been bright spots, though, lately. Chatting with friends I haven’t talked to in a while.

There are always things I’m can be grateful for and they over-shadow the sadness whenever I let them. At this moment I’m choosing to see the good things in my life since it looks like I’m digging myself a bit of a hole with all this talk of melancholy over summer’s demise.

Tomorrow’s another day, and it’s looking better already since one dreaded work task has been successfully completed.

If I’m going to squeeze in a bit more reading before lights out I’d better get moving.

Happy Reading to you.

It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old lady is not snoring.

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She can’t snore, the rain is making way too much noise.

Crazy weather.

Yesterday was tank top, shorts, and sandals.

Today is t-shirt, heavy fleece jacket, jeans, and socks with slippers.

I took a video, the rain was so impressive. Only a half hour and the yard is flooding and I needed proof. It turns out, the video plays sideways and I have no idea what I did to cause that. It also turns out I have the shakes worse than I realized. No idea idea about the why for that either. I have not yet started drinking! lol

This isn’t NBC, as one of my favorite podcasters always says, so I will go ahead and post it here anyway.

Well, I guess maybe not. WordPress isn’t recognizing it for a reason I have not yet discovered but must explore.

I’ll share a picture instead. No I won’t, it looks like I figured something out. The video is uploading.

My flooding backyard/hear the rain

Not too bad for a first ever attempt at uploading a video on here.

You can’t tell from this angle but the flowerbed below the railing is flooded. The drainage trough at the back under the trees is flooded too. After an hour or so of pounding rain it has changed to a gentle rain. By the looks of it I won’t be watering the flower beds for a few days.

My lawn is a lovely green even after all the hot weather we’ve had. All because of mulching. This is the first year the summer lawn clippings have not been picked up and it looks better than it ever has in the eight years I’ve been here.

The weather guys promised the threat of a thunder storm for today. If a really good one comes through later today I’ll try another video. After the heavy rain that already passed through, though, I’m not holding my breath for an awesome storm.

Today has been a nothing new-books day so I’m grateful for the wild storm showing up to give me a little post material!

Some of the recently ordered new releases arrived in today’s Kindle mailbox so it’s been a good day afterall.

A good day to you too. I hope you ordered some of those new books.

Happy Reading