Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
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Werner
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Apr 08, 2011 11:12AM
Joy, I hear you (the ducks around here have the same needs --and they're not universally liked, either!). I guess it's like many other things where the beauty of nature is concerned. Both blankets of pristine, new-fallen snow and flocks of wild birds in the sky or the water are beautiful to look at --but they also both can make you need to put a shovel to use at times. :-)
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Right, Werner. Thank goodness for mundane shovels! :)
The worst problem we used to have with ducks & geese was eating the shore line, although their dung was also an issue. They peck at the bank & undermine it badly & the pond fills with silt quickly. Most people don't seem to see this issue. Funny, but I guess growing up in such close proximity to animals for so many years, I often see what they'll do in years rather than moments.
Jim wrote: "The worst problem we used to have with ducks & geese was eating the shore line, although their dung was also an issue. They peck at the bank & undermine it badly & the pond fills with silt quickly..."Jim, I didn't realize that.
We had to make an island in our small pond out of rip-rap (basically #2 stone) in a wire bag. They ate the first one into oblivion in just a few years.
Can you believe our temp is supposed to set a record tmorrow; they predict 91 degrees. Is anybody out there besides me reading, "The History of Love?" I predict it could elict as much discussion as the Larrson books but I am enthralled with it. Yet, I think I will have to read it twice to understand it fully. nina
Is this the book, Nina? The History of Love by Nicole KraussThe description below is from a GR review by Shannon:
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"This beautiful story is about an eighty year old Jewish-Polish immigrant and retired locksmith, Leo Gursky; a fourteen year old girl, Alma Singer, who is trying to find a way to make her mother not sad anymore; and Zvi Litvinoff, the author of an obscure book called The History of Love. What they each have to do with one another isn't at first apparent, but becomes all too clear and inseparable as you read on."
FROM: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
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Another GR reviewer (Annie) said: "A well-crafted, suspense-inducing plotline, along with some moving characters make for a totally engrossing reading experience."
Sounds like a good choice, Nina.
Yes, that is the book. Some of the lines are poetic. The person who read it before me must have thought so as they underlined the ones I particularly liked. One reviewer said, "This book will break your heart and at once mend it." Another said, "This is the book one hopes to find but rarely does." nina
Werner wrote: " I'm not one of their critics, though! , "I'll lay odds you park your car in a garage, Werner.
I spent the day putting down mulch & fencing in the ornamental fish pond at the back of the house. There is a bull frog in it that Lily & Pixie just HAVE to get. The completely destroyed my filter. I'm sure that's mostly Lily. The fence is a continuation of the one I put around the garden on the north side of the house. I just pulled the end off, ripped another fence board & extended it to hit the end of the porch. It's only 2' high, so the dogs can jump it easily, if they want, but it gives us something to point to. Lily found out about it very quickly. I was inside of it putting mulch down when she bounced her chewy off my back. I chased her out & haven't see her back in yet. I'm hoping to catch her &/or Pixie in there tomorrow. I'd like to reinforce the idea before we go back to work.
We had a wild storm blow up today. It was overcast all morning, rained a bit with a temp of about 60. Then a thunderstorm suddenly blew up, the temp dropped by 5 degrees & we got 1/2" of rain very quickly. Wind gusts must have been about 60 mph. I saw the coolest flash of lightening. It was just a big, thick straight line that flickered a bit, but must have lasted almost a full second. I could have sworn I saw sparks coming off it, showering briefly.
I got Speedy in to a stall - took about 5 minutes & I was completely soaked. An hour later the sun was out & it went up to 68.
Ninety one degrees today;flowering trees are losing their blossoms too early. I fear summer is literally around the corner. Where is spring? nina
Actually, Earl, when we park our car in downtown Bluefield, WV, it's only to go to the weekly flea market; and then we usually do park inside the parking deck where it's held. But at home, we park on the street, and we do periodically get some unappreciated decoration from our feathered friends (I didn't say the friendship wasn't sometimes strained :-) ); so I DO understand where the critics are coming from!
91 is too hot! I agree with you, Nina. What did happen to spring? At least we have it here. The birds are making a racket outside now. Very nice to wake up to open windows & their songs. It's 58 out now & supposed to go up into the 70's later today.Marg drove down to Murray on Friday with the horse trailer to look at a horse that Erin broke. She decided he was too much for her, though. Both ways she had high winds to contend with, so had to drive with both hands on the wheel ready to compensate for wind gusts. She was 45 minutes from home when she got stuck in an accident - a UPS tractor trailer got shoved into the guardrail by a sudden gust.
Lots to do today - finish mulching & then weed any other areas that might need mulch in the front. I did the front good last year, so don't need much there. I'll take the truck in to work & pick up a scoop or two on the way home tomorrow. I'll be glad to get that project done. If I can, I'd like to get a sprayer full done out in the woods. It's pretty easy to see the multifloral rose & honeysuckle now. While other things are leafing out, those two still stick out & the garlic mustard is starting to show. The lawn needs to be mowed, too. I'll do that this afternoon when it's hotter. Right now I should get back to the bills. Yuck.
Yesterday was a big racing day. Mom said the Voss races were a lot of fun. That's the first of the timber meets in the Monkton area. Next Saturday is the Manor, followed by the Grand National (Greenspring) & then the Hunt Cup. Yesterday was the English Grand National. 2 horses died. That's a crazy hard course & is 4 miles long. I missed seeing it, but a friend said it was bad.
The Kentucky Derby is really up for grabs this year. The top contender was Uncle Mo. He ran in a nothing race a few weeks ago &, unsurprisingly, won handily. Yesterday he ran in the Wood Memorial, a well known Derby prep race, & there wasn't another Derby hopeful in the race! His odds were 1/7 while the closest competitor was 20-1 & the one after that was 40-1, yet he came in third!!!
Jim wrote: "... a UPS tractor trailer got shoved into the guardrail by a sudden gust. ..."That's frightening, Jim. Must have been some wind!
Yes, 91 degrees is too hot. We've got 45 degrees here at 8:23 AM. yesterday it got up to the mid 60s. Very nice! The snow piles are melting fast.
Well, I was wrong about the temp today, we wound up with a high of 83 - hot! Tuesday the high is supposed to be 60. It was too windy to spray, but I managed to keep busy & am bushed now. Marg clipped Pixie who is looking much more comfortable. She has a thick, poodle-like coat (even though she is a papered Jack Russell) & loves the winter. She'll go swimming in the pond in January & rolls in the snow for fun. Summer is rough, though.
You folks are getting an early taste of summer!Our Maltese, Romeo, looks like a rag-mop these days. He needs to go to the groomer to be shaved down, but we want to wait until the weather gets warmer, especially during the night.
Are you watching the royal wedding today? Oh, those big fancy hats the guests are wearing! What fun! They keep the millinery business alive. (My grandfather was in the millinery business. He sold plumes to hat makers. I have his letterhead from 1918.)I just heard that the Queen has given Kate and William the title of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. An online article says:
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"If the Prince turns down a title, Kate would become HRH Princess William of Wales or Princess Catherine or Kate of Wales."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknew...
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Gee, I'd much rather call Kate "Princess"... rather than "Duchess".
Camilla, Prince Charles 2nd wife, was made the Duchess of Cornwall. IMO, they should have kept Kate a step ahead of Camilla as a Princess! Queen Elizabeth, are you listening???
Yesterday was my birthday so it is interesting to me that my date, April 29th, will now go down in History. And I agree, Kate should outshine Camilla. I didn't agree with one of the comments that Kate's sister Pippa outshined her. nina
Belated happy birthday, Nina! Hope you had a good time.Yes, April 29 will always be the anniversary of William and Kate, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. I wish them well. (But doesn't it seem artificial to give them a new name? Sort of pretentious. But I guess that the way of royalty.)
The royal wedding was beautiful. Everything went so smoothly. William and Kate make such an appealing couple. I watched all of the wedding from before the wedding (when everyone was arriving during the wee hours of the morning here) until they came out and kissed on the balcony.
William seems to be such a caring person and he's so natural and relaxed, with a sense of humor too. Same for his brother, Harry. I think Kate will do well. She seems to be a strong person and William seems very supportive of her. What always strikes me is that he has his mother's expression. I see her in him all the time. I think that is so great! I also think that Harry bears a slight resemblance to Princess Diana's brother, Earl Spencer.
I just found the following article. Sounds interesting:
"Royal Wedding: Lipreaders Reveal What TV Microphones Didn't Catch":
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news...
Nina, I'll join in the birthday congratulations belatedly! Hope the next year of your life is happy and rewarding. (And filled with lots of reading, among other good things!)
Thanks for your good wishes. At this age I can use them. Yes, it was a nice birthday and especially fun to have it on such a historic day. I started it out with going quite early to a lovely garden in the city and then to a nursery to buy herbs and then to my daughter's condo where she had a small gathering to celebrate both my birthday and the wedding; you know whose...We had crumpets and tea among other goodies. nina
Nina, glad to hear you enjoyed your birthday. You're so lucky to have a daughter nearby!
I am lucky as I have two daughters near by but the youngest one works so I don't get to see her real often. However, my other daughter who lives in ID is coming on Wednesday and we are all excited about that. So all the sisters will be together for a short while once again. My ID daughter is a children's librarian so we have fun talking "books." nina
Send soem rain our way; all we get is frost. Ugh. I carry plants inside. nina
They're predicting showers all week here and heavy rain Tuesday night. (That's for Jim.) Sunday was such a gorgeous day. I went for my first good walk of the season (with Romeo). After that taste of good weather, this rain is a double disappointment.Nina, what fun it will be with all three of your daughters together! I guess that's how my mother used to feel when my two sisters and I got together for a visit with her.
I'm ashamed to say that I didn't even recognize the state abbreviation for Idaho (ID). Idaho is one of the states I never think about. All I know is Idaho potatoes. What took your daughter to Idaho, Nina?
Nina, that's great you got your kids together. That is tough to do, we've noticed. It's been a few years since we got all ours together.---------------
We're up to 2-3/4" this morning & it's supposed to rain solid until noon, then occasionally into the night. We got 2" over night. It has absolutely no where to go. We've been getting 1/4" to 1/2" almost every day on top of all the big rains, so everything is saturated.
We're going to want this rain so badly come the summer, I'm sure. This April was the 4th wettest month of all time in our area.
No frost & this weekend is the official frost free date, but it is down in the mid-40's which just feels clammy & cold after all the 60's & 70's plus the damp & wind.
Jim, I agree that the current weather feels "clammy & cold". You put it perfectly. At this time of year the humidity goes up and makes the lower temps seem even lower than they actually are... because the dampness seems to go right through to our bones. I don't understand why that should be. But there it is. Damp cold is worse than dry cold. Interesting phenomenon.Well, I hope the wetness in your area isn't going to create any long-lasting effects.
PS-Jim, on the radio just now they mentioned El Niño as being the possible cause of all this rain. Wiki says that El Niño "is a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon".FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ni%C3...
At Wiktionary, "El Niño: is defined as:
"An invasion of warm water into the surface of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru and Ecuador every four to seven years that causes changes in local and regional climate, associated with a positive anomaly.
FROM: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/El_Ni%C...
At Wikipedia, it says:
========================================================
"El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, is a quasiperiodic climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean with on average five year intervals. It is characterized by variations in the temperature of the surface of the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean—warming or cooling known as El Niño and La Niña respectively—and air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific—the Southern Oscillation. The two variations are coupled: the warm oceanic phase, El Niño, accompanies high air surface pressure in the western Pacific, while the cold phase, La Niña, accompanies low air surface pressure in the western Pacific. Mechanisms that cause the oscillation remain under study.
"ENSO causes extreme weather (such as floods and droughts) in many regions of the world."
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ni%C3...
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I don't really understand it, but it's comforting to know that SOMEBODY does.
PPS-And look at THIS:http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/0...
"El Nino seen triggering next world warmth record."
Oi !
I think the key thing to take away from that Reuters article is, And the climate system is far from fully understood. No one is seeing the whole picture for all our scientific advancement. There isn't a lot of good data about how the oceans are playing in all of this & they're by far the biggest player, but have very little research money devoted to them.I've heard our rains are due to the jet stream dipping south, carrying upper atmosphere cold which is meeting the typical southern warm, & the reasons for it doing so seem to vary.
Who knows, Jim. I just listen to the weather man.
Unfortunately, the weather men & other reporters are paid to be entertaining with accuracy coming in a distant second. Facts often aren't checked, especially when the subject is complicated & politically motivated.
Imagine! Even the weather is controversial! :)
It's complicated. I don't know if the world has ever been simple, but now there is just way too much information to keep up with & half the time even experts disagree.
So true, Jim. We are drowning in rivers of information. A good solution is to concentrate on staying afloat mainly in one or two rivers while occasionally carefully dipping one's toes in other rivers, lest we get swept away.
I just finished watching The Kentucky Derby. Great race, great finish. I particularly like the stories the commentators entertain us with before the race. Interesting tidbits about owners, trainers, jockeys, and yes,the horses.
Katherine wrote: "I just finished watching The Kentucky Derby. Great race, great finish. I particularly like the stories the commentators entertain us with before the race. Interesting tidbits about owners, trainers..."Hi Katherine. Where did you watch it? Thanks for posting this.
PS-Now you've got me interested.
http://www.kentuckyderby.com/
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kent...
SportsWatch - May 7, 2011, 7:18 p.m. EDT
"Kentucky Derby 2011 goes to Animal Kingdom"
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"CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Animal Kingdom, a 20-1 longshot, won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, charging past second-place finisher Nehro and pacesetter Shackleford to capture America’s best-known horse race.
"Ridden by John Velazquez and trained by H. Graham Motion, the three-year-old colt won the Derby in only his fifth lifetime start, the first horse since 1918 to win with so few starts. He paid $43.80 to win."
Caption under picture:
"Jockey John Velazquez throws roses while aboard Animal Kingdom after winning the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., Saturday."
FROM: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kent...
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Alas, I was no further than my living room, watching it on TV.
I had forgotten all about the Kentucky Derby until you mentioned it! I should watch the news more often. I've been trying to finish reading my books lately. They're not compelling enough though, just fairly interesting.
I wanted "Pants on Fire," to win. nina
Do you remember the Spike Jones horse race? Spike Jones and his City Slickers was a band in the 1940s and early 1950s. They had funny lyrics announcing a horse race to the background music of the William Tell Overture. Some of the names of the horses were hilarious. There's a YouTube with the recording at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq2kv-...
The lyrics are below:
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It's a beautiful day for the race
Stooge Hand is the favorite today
Assault is in there
Dog Biscuit is 3 to 1
Safety Pin has been scratched
Ya ya
And at 20 to 1 ... Beetlebomb
Now the horses are approaching the starting gate
And there they go!!
And it's Stooge Hand going to the front
Cabbage is second on the rail
Beautiful Linda is third by a length
And ... Beetlebomb
Around the first turn
Stooge Hand is still in front
Cabbage is second by a head
Cabbage by a head
Beautiful Linda is third
and ... Beetlebomb
Into the back stretch
Dog Biscuit is now leading the pack
Lady Evelyn is second, very close
Banana is coming up through the bunch
Banana coming up through the bunch
And ... Beetlebomb
At the half
Stooge Hand still out in front
Apartment House is second with plenty of room
Assault is passing Battery
Assault and Battery
Notary Sojac is fourth
And in last place by 10 lengths
I believe it is, yes it is ...
Beetlebomb
Around the turn heading for home
It's Stooge Hand and Dog Biscuit
And Girdle in the stretch
Flying Sylvester is third
And Mother-In-Law nagging in the rear
Oh oh oh
And now they come down to the wire
And it's number one
And now number two
And it's very close
There'll need to be a photo finish
Or an oil painting
And now Louis leads with a left
And Louis is in there slugging
And it's a battle
And now they're tearing hair
There's hair all over the ring
There's hair all over the place
I don't know whose hair it is, ah ah
It's mine
And there goes the winner ...
Beetlebomb.
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FROM: http://www.requestlyrics.com/read.php...
Happy Mother's Day to all and to all their spouses.BTW, I think some of our group's booklovers would love this website:
http://bookshelfporn.com/archive
It makes me sorry I gave so many of my books away to the library's book sale.
Our family started a Facebook website. Once you get started, you can't stop! There's so much opportunity for talking to each other and catching up on the news. I can't believe it's so much fun.Not only that, I've found someone on Facebook who was my pupil when I taught 4th and 5th grades over 50 years ago! It's been amazing. She has let other students from that class know and now we're exchanging messages on Facebook. I even had a photo of the students (all girls) in 1962 when they visited us at our apartment to see our new baby. We're all getting a kick out of that photo which Eddie scanned and I posted at Facebook. It's so much fun reconnecting and sharing memories.
Jim wrote: "Wow! That's awesome, Joy."It sure is, Jim! I can't believe how Facebook sucks you in. It's especially fun if you have a lot of relatives around the country whom you don't see all the time. Facebook is one place you can all seem to be together and talk. It's a weird feeling. There are so many different ways to communicate. For example, a whole conversation can go on under one photograph! I can't imagine how much tricky programming goes into developing such a complicated website!!!
Of course, we see a complicated program here at Goodreads too, but Facebook seems even more complicated. I'm "talking" to neices and nephews all around the country. They are saying "hello" to OLD Aunt Joy. :) My sisters have almost 50 grandkids between them. So I'm talking to GREAT neices and GREAT nephews too. It's GREAT! LOL
Joy, I so agree with you about Facebook. I didn't know you were on it too. I would never hear or I should say seldom hear from my around the world grandkids if not for Facebook. I see a picture of a granddaughter on a scooter in Hanoi, Vietnam wearing a raincoat en route to teach her English class and I wrote to say I really wished I could have borrowed her raincoat because it was raining here. She immediately wrote back saying,"I'll bring you a raincoat when I come back this summer." I also hear from a granddaughter in Africa and a granddaughter in law in Mexico and so on. It is totally amazing to me. I am not techinal. nina
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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