Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
message 6201:
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Jim
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Jun 18, 2016 04:27AM
They are around here too, Nina. They grow all over the place in some of the worst soil, too. Pretty little trees. I hope yours makes it.
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Nina wrote: "Redbud trees are very prolific around here and especially in the Ozarks in MO/not far away. I am sorry we are having a problem with ours but hopefully it will be fine after it is sprayed."I'll have to look up Redbud trees when I have time. My cousin passed away this week and I'll be away at the funeral for a couple of days. Have to get packed and ready.
Joy, I want to express my sympathy on the passing of your cousin. Not easy to lose a family member. Take Care, nina
Nina wrote: "Joy, I want to express my sympathy on the passing of your cousin. Not easy to lose a family member. Take Care, nina"Thank you, Nina. I'm back from the funeral. My cousin was 94 years old. He was always the life of the party. We all have wonderful memories of him. It was good to see all my relatives once again.
I looked up Redbud trees. They are beautiful! Spectacular! Here's the link for images: https://www.google.com/search?q=redbu...
Loved looking at the lovely redbud pictures. It reminds me of spring in our area as there are so many to see as you drive down our streets. It is lovely here in spring and not so in summer/hot....love the dogwoods also. Do you have many of them?
Nina, I don't see many dogwood trees around here but downstate on the Taconic Parkway, I remember them as being so beautiful as we drove along. Lovely white blossoms.
We have a bunch of dogwoods around. The white grow wild in our woods, as do the gray. Gray ones don't have much of a flower, though. I've planted a white, pink, & red in the yard. The pink died, but the white is doing fine. The red one is much slower growing, but doing good, too.
A Quote for Joy: "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies..The man who never reads lives only one." George R.R. Martin
I love the delicate blossoms of the dogwood and pink or white they are equally lovely. I have never seen one with red blossoms. Post a picture next spring.
I vaguely remember pink dogwoods.
Hi! I haven't been on Goodreads for a long stretch of time. Hello all. I love those red bud trees - mostly the ones that look purple. A house near my job had a beautiful full purple blossomed tree in April and May. Now in June there are no flowers.
Dogwoods are also found on Long Island. When we moved up here we learned that the dogwoods do not survive.
Joy you still take the Taconic Parkway? I like the thruway because there are many rest stops - even if just to stretch one's legs.
Linda, to answer your question, we haven't traveled on the Taconic Parkway recently. When I was younger, we traveled on it regularly. I wonder if it still has those "drops" that make your stomach go up and down inside you as you ride in the car. I used to enjoy that feeling, as though it were a ride at Playland.Good to see you here, Linda! Thanks for posting!
Deer can pop up anywhere on the Taconic. Several years ago I was riding alone early in the morning, probably 7am by the time I was on the Taconic. There was only one other car on road. We both drove up a hill and just over the hill there was a deer in each lane sitting/lying down on the road. We both stopped. The deer looked at us, the other drive and I looked at each other. Nothing happened. Finally, I gave a gentle tap on my horn and both deer slowly got up and walked off.
Linda, deer are such beautiful animals. I always feel so sorry for them when I see them innocently crossing the road. You must have been amazed when you saw them lying down on the road. Maybe they were claiming their territory! :)
One night when we were approaching our driveway into our lake property straight ahead of us leaping from one side of the road to the other against a low in the sky, were deer leaping. I wish I had had a camera. It was truly breathtaking.
Interesting evening, of the Chinese curse sort. On Saturday, I noticed the inside shop door was closed (unusual) & I couldn't find the cheap drill I use for sanding bowls. Didn't think much of it, but last night I noticed my wheelbarrow was missing. I really looked around & found my little chainsaw & 1 (of 4) jack stands was missing, too. I thought I was losing my mind. I went in & asked Josh & Marg about it. We searched all over, but none of it turned up. After much thinking, we believe someone stole the stuff Friday night. Marg must have scared them off when she turned on the back light & called the dogs in. They've been barking a lot at night & got a possum Wed or Thur night, so it's a bit difficult to tell.
I still find it hard to believe someone stole the items, but my neighbor, the county constable, says he thinks someone did. The cheap corded drill was right next to 2 far more expensive cordless drills. The little chainsaw was right in between my big chainsaw, weedeater, & Honda generator - all of which are worth far more. Josh's Dewalt jigsaw, in its carrying case was sitting outside the shop, under the overhang, right next to the door. They practically had to trip over it, yet never touched it. And they took 1 jack stand & a wheelbarrow? Weird.
To top off my trip to the Twilight Zone, Erin's cat had a chipmunk cornered up a downspout. The little buggers have multiplied & are tearing up all sorts of things, so I decided to help her. I knelt down & tapped the downspout. Nothing. I tapped it a bit harder. The chipmunk slid halfway out. Both it & the cat turned around & ran. Mighty hunter.
:(
So I yelled to Marg to unleash the hounds, specifically the Jack Russells (Lily was being punished since she jumped out earlier.) I called Amber & Pip over & they bracketed the bottom of the downspout!
I tapped the downspout & the chipmunk slid out a bit, but scrambled back in.
I tapped again & it slid halfway out & then ran straight ahead!
Both dogs looked at the chipmunk, actually turned their heads to follow its progress, & turned back to point at the bottom of the downspout!!!
So I reached out quickly with my left hand & caught the little bugger. Of course, he then put his teeth through the end of my thumb. They were amazingly long top incisors & very sharp. They didn't quite make out out the other side, but did tent the skin out. I grabbed him with my other hand & squeezed until he opened his mouth & let go. Then I called the stupid dogs over & let Pip have him & he finally took care of business. Sheesh!
My thumb is fine. Bled a fair amount at first, but stopped soon enough. Very much like getting blood drawn.
Anyway, I'm hoping this evening is a little less weird. I called the cops last night, but the deputy that was going to come take the report got called out on a domestic dispute on his way over, so I told them I'd call in this afternoon when I got home.
Not the best of times, Jim. Hope the worst of times are over for you. Glad the thumb isn't worse and too bad when anything is stolen/it's scarey to think someone like that is near. Glad he or she didn't come into your house. Take Care and try to enjoy your weekend.
Jim wrote: "Interesting evening, of the Chinese curse sort. On Saturday, I noticed the inside shop door was closed (unusual) & I couldn't find the cheap drill I use for sanding bowls. Didn't think much of it, ..."Jim, that IS strange about the missing items. As Nina said, it's scary to think that people like that are around.
One time we left our car unlocked in our driveway. When we got into the car the next day, we found that the glove compartment was open. On the car seat was everything that had been in the glove compartment, but nothing was missing. There might have been some loose change missing from the cup-holder. Ever since then we try to remember to lock the car door!
About the chipmunk, all I can say is... he ASKED for it! LOL Hope your thumb is OK.
It wasn't that bad. Just weird. My thumb is fine. I've been using it all day without a problem. His teeth were kind of brown, but it must have been clean dirt or else the way it bled cleaned it out good. I never even put a bandage on it. The stolen items could have been far worse. A nice young deputy came out today. I'd printed him out a statement along with a copy of the receipt for the chainsaw, so he's going to put the SN into a database in case someone pawns it. I've also given the information to Stihl. I'm not sure how much good either will do, but it was worth the time. If a Stihl dealer gets it in for repair, it will be flagged.
The deputy, Daniel, just shook his head at what was missing, especially when he looked around a little. There were so many more valuable things they could have taken. I told him the wheelbarrow probably had a flat & he had to turn away shaking his head & chuckling. It's pretty ridiculous.
Jim wrote: "... The deputy, Daniel, just shook his head at what was missing, especially when he looked around a little. There were so many more valuable things they could have taken. ..."Sounds like a young kid being mischievous.
I don't think so & neither do the others, but we may never know.
Can you lock your workshop at night?
I just received a list in the mail of the author, Ann Patchet's group's favorite books from the last seventy five years. You may or may not agree with them. I pretty much did agree but it is broken down in years starting in 1940. If you are interested in reading it go to:Parade.com/bestbooks and you'll get the list.
Nina wrote: "I just received a list in the mail of the author, Ann Patchet's group's favorite books from the last seventy five years. You may or may not agree with them. I pretty much did agree but it is broken..."Nina, thank you for the great link.
"The 75 Best Books of the Past 75 Years" (online article by Ann Patchett):
http://parade.com/485659/annpatchett/...
My GR records show that I read 5 of Patchett's books a while ago. I've written reviews for only 2 of them. Here are the links to my 2 reviews:
Bel Canto: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... [A short review but this was one of my favorite reads!]
State of Wonder: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The following link shows the names of the 5 Patchett books I have read. I didn't realize I had read so many of them! :)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Interesting list, Nina. Certainly not what I would have picked, although I've read about 2 dozen of them, but few after the 60s in their list. I agree that The Old Man and the Sea, Charlotte's Web, Fahrenheit 451, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Silent Spring, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Wrinkle in Time, Where the Wild Things Are, Slaughterhouse-Five, & the Harry Potter books were 5 star reads.
The Long Goodbye was good, but I didn't care for it as much the last time I read it. I didn't like Foundation & never got through the original trilogy, although I've read & loved many books by Asimov. He was a better nonfiction & short story writer, IMO. I read The Once and Future King a long time ago, but preferred several other versions & never wanted to read it again. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy never thrilled me. I finally (after almost 40 years) managed to get through 3 of the books in audio.
A People's History of the United States is one of the more active reviews I ever wrote. I only gave it 3 stars:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Ditto with King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. He spends so much time whining about getting hit by the van that it really turned me off. I don't care much for his writing for the past couple of decades, anyway. I liked his early books, though.
I never read Lolita, but read Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle which made me want to avoid Vladimir Nabokov from that time forward.
Jim wrote: "Interesting list, Nina. Certainly not what I would have picked, although I've read about 2 dozen of them, but few after the 60s in their list. ..."Jim, that was a great post! Thanks for posting it here, with all the book links! You reminded me that I may have read Nabokov's Speak, Memory when I was a member of an in-person book group, before I joined Goodreads. I vaguely remember slogging through the book. That's why I remember it. :)
Nina wrote: "One night when we were approaching our driveway into our lake property straight ahead of us leaping from one side of the road to the other against a low in the sky, were deer leaping. I wish I had ..."Deer leaping can be a nice sight unless you are driving. :)
Today, we are attempting to go Strawberry picking in Granville NY - about 30ish minutes from home. Not sure if they had torrential rains late yesterday. If the ground is very muddy we will just had to buy already picked and packaged strawberries at the farm stand. Next month is blueberry picking time. Many of the picked blueberries somehow end up in your mouth!!
I agree, Joy. Nabokov's book was a slog except when it shocked me & then I wanted to skip along. He was a weird one & I don't understand why folks keep his books alive.In all fairness to this list, it did better than some. If I ever managed to put one together, it would be a lot heavier on SF, fantasy, animals, & mystery. This list, like most, is mostly full of general literature with a lot of books praised for their PC content, the sort I generally avoid.
I don't know why The Godfather didn't make the list. It's not only popular, but spawned decades of entertainment & shaped the way most people think of organized crime. It's as important as Chandler's contributions, IMO. The Hornblower books should be on there, too. Neuromancer spawned an entire subgenre of SF & inspired many of the computer innovators today. While The Hobbit was first published in 1937, the rest of the trilogy came out over a decade later & should have been included.
I'm a little surprised they had no animal books. The Art of Racing in the Rain, Where the Red Fern Grows, Old Yeller, Irish Red, & All Creatures Great and Small should have been on their list, IMO.
They were really light on nonfiction books, too. Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals, The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, & Future Shock should all be on a 'best of' list. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End & Bad Science are both extremely relevant today. I'd put them all before Zinn's history which is dry reading & biased.
One big problem I have with lists of this sort is they concentrate on individual books while it's often the author, their body of work or specific groups of their work, that should really be judged. Isaac Asimov published works in almost every category of the Dewey Decimal System, so remembering him simply for Foundation does him a great disservice. His 3 Laws of Robotics (starting with I, Robot) are definitely his most enduring contributions to the world in general. Now, long after his death, they are most relevant since we're actually building robots & AI. Scientists are finding they have to build in self-preservation & are fighting over allowing them to kill humans since, of course, we want to turn them into soldiers.
They didn't put a single book by Eric Sloane on the list! He wrote many on a variety of subjects, mostly bits Colonial US history, but his art really stood out. If you ever get a chance, read Eighty: An American Souvenir/Limited Slipcased Edition. He sketched & painted a lot in New England as well as Arizona. The Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta should be on the list, too. From drawing Little Annie Fanny in Playboy to the fantastic cover art for the Conan books, he was another American icon who was very influential in both the art world & in fantasy writing.
I agree with some of your additions, Jim; "Future Shock," and that author just died. I read that book when it first came out. I also think "Gone With the Wind," was the best portrayal of the Civil War era in the south ever written. And it wasn't on the list either. And speaking of animal stories, shouldn't "The Yearling," have been listed? and yes, one of my all time favorites, "The All Creatures..."
Linda wrote: "Today, we are attempting to go Strawberry picking in Granville NY - about 30ish minutes from home. Not sure if they had torrential rains late yesterday. If the ground is very muddy we will just had..."Enjoy your strawberries, Linda!
Jim wrote: "I agree, Joy. Nabokov's book was a slog except when it shocked me & then I wanted to skip along. He was a weird one & I don't understand why folks keep his books alive. ..."Thanks for posting about those books, Jim.
I'm currently listening to an audio CD of The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson. I find it fascinating. It should certainly be on a "best of" list, as you say.
Thank you for recommending it a short time ago. My husband has listened to it and I've bought 4 hard-cover copies to give to my sons. What I especially like about the book is the descriptions of the various personalities of the "innovators", their working habits, and how they collaborated with each other.
Nina wrote: "I agree with some of your additions, Jim; "Future Shock," and that author just died. I read that book when it first came out. I also think "Gone With the Wind," was the best portrayal of the Civil ..."Nina, they only did the last 75 years. The Yearling was first published in 1930 & Gone with the Wind in 1936, so they're too old to make the list. I'd agree with them otherwise.
I hadn't realized that Alvin Toffler died just a few days ago. Thanks for letting me know.
Joy H. wrote: "...Thank you for recommending it a short time ago. My husband has listened to it and I've bought 4 hard-cover copies to give to my sons...."Glad you're all enjoying it so much.
I didn't read the book by Alan Bennet, "The Lady in the Van," but the movie was quite interesting. Have any of you read the book or seen the movie?
Of course, Maggie Smith was her usual self. Need I say more?
Nina wrote: "I didn't read the book by Alan Bennet, "The Lady in the Van," but the movie was quite interesting. Have any of you read the book or seen the movie?"Haven't read or seen it, Nina, but Alan Bennett's work usually guarantees a good experience. I've just now put the film on my Netflix queue. Thanks for telling us about it.
I enjoyed reading Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader. He has a wonderful sense of humor! Don't miss reading it! I know you'll enjoy it. Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
As I said in my review, it's an easy, relaxing read.
Joy, that is one of my very favorite books and I have it in my bookcase and maybe some day will read it again. we got lots of rain and now have a flood in our solarium and my husband is moping so better go see how far he has gotten,
Nina, I hope nothing got damaged in the flood.
Not damaged, thank goodness. But, my ninety year old husband climbed a ladder this morning to repair the leak in the roof and thankfully he wasn't damaged either. We must wait until it rains again to see if his repair works.
Hope it works out, Nina. Glad your husband is OK too.
Hi, I am out of the hospital and three weeks cardiac rehab! Still recovering at home. Hope to post more soon.
Congrats, Mary! Hope all goes well & we hear more from you soon.
Mary JL wrote: "Hi, I am out of the hospital and three weeks cardiac rehab! Still recovering at home. Hope to post more soon."Mary, that's wonderful news! I wish you a quick recovery. Thanks for posting with the good news! It's good to hear!
You'll do well, now Mary. All the bad stuff is behind you and all you have to do is get better fast. So glad you are on the up side.
Thanks to all. Not much pain--just tire quickly and need to rest. Surgery was 4 weeks ago today.Not getting much read, though---therapy wears one out.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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