I was surprised when I came to my blog this afternoon. I last came here in ten days ago! I knew it had been a while since I had visited it, but I thought it was only a few days. But in my defense, I have been busy.
I have been reading quite a bit and posting my Olympic torch story on Facebook.
Writing yesterday about my reading caused me to overlook all of the sports that took up most of my television viewing this past weekend.
Sunday was the final day of the English Premier League football (soccer for us Americans) season. Manchester City won it again on the last day to claim its fourth straight championship. This is a record in itself. And six in the past seven years. Arsenal was second. My Tottenham was fifth. I hoped for fourth place, but my Aston Villa took that spot. Newcastle was 7th and West Ham 9th. All in all, a good showing for my favorite teams.
The golf PGA championship was this past weekend with Xander Schlaffle (a favorite) beating Brian DeChamboux (a LIV golfer) by one stroke to win at 20 under par. It was his first major championship win.
And finally, the Men's NCAA Lacrosse Quarterfinals were this weekend as well. The semis will be this Saturday with Notre Dame(1) vs. Denver(5), and Virginia(6) vs. Maryland(7). The final match will be Monday, the 27th.
I don't know if there is any golf, but I suspect so.
I've made some changes to my reading. A few days ago I began reading a spy novel by Anthony Price, a favorite of mine. He wrote during the 1970s and '80s. The stories usually involved Cold War intrigue between Britain and the Russians, sometimes a mid-East nation. The central character was almost always a British agent named David Audley, a civilian with serious credentials of historical expertise in British history.
The current book I'm reading is "War Game" and involves recently recovered gold from about the 1640s and Oliver Cromwell and the King. It has rekindled my interest in English History which I majored in at college.
I have decided to add another book to my current reading. It is one of three by the author C.V. Wedgwood. It's called The King's Peace 1637-41.
We got back this morning from our quick trip to Pennsylvania for our youngest daughter's wedding. It was a very small private affair with just the parents of the bride and groom. The mayor officiated. Josh's stepfather built a very nice altarpiece and had it in the front yard. Josh's mom decorated it.
I reviewed a few pages of the book I'm writing and made some corrections. I will probably make some more as I begin to write more seriously. At this point, they were only ink changes on the printout. I did not make them on the saved copy on the laptop.
I finished the library book I've been reading for the past few days. The title is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
Griz
Grizzly, or as we all knew him, Griz, was put down today. He was 15 years old, and dying of cancer. He was Sabrina's dog. He was here when Summer was born.
He was a good dog and loved his family - Sabrina, Summer, Serenity, and even Josh. But he loved Sabrina the most.
Where they lived - a second-floor apartment with 19 outside stairs - it was difficult for him to get outside. He had a chain leash that would allow him to go down the stairs by himself, do his business in the grass, smell around a little, and then come back up the stairs.
Once in a while when he was younger, he would get to go to the park and run around in the dog exercise area. But he was a handful for Sabrina. Over the past several years, he didn't get to go anywhere where he could run.
His diet was terrible. He ate anything. Yet it never bothered him. Sabrina made him a sandwich today while waiting for the vet to come to the house - he was too big for Sabrina to take him. And she had both girls at home as well.
We would always bring him a toy and a box of treats when we came to visit. He would destroy the toy by the time we left a few hours later. The treats lasted longer.
Goodbye, Ol' Buddy. See you on the other side of Rainbow Bridge.
It seems like I keep returning to this same topic - catching up. I've spent the last several days organizing my files on the laptop and the thumb drive. I wanted to do some writing on my book, but by the evening I was too tired to do anything but read.
I have done some re-reading of my old blog posts and am amazed at how well I sound (in writing). I can see that I have lost some of that ability ignoring the blog. Hopefully, I can quickly pick it up again.
I did find a list of blog topics that I wanted to write about. It's dated March of 2022 so probably not many have been written about yet.
I did read some more in Moby-Dick (from now on, I will abbreviate it as MD). The chapters are very short. though today's was an exception. It was where the narrator meets Queennog (sp?) for the first time. It was quite a hilarious meeting. They have to share a bed in the Pub - not really unusual back then.
I gave up on the map thief book - actually, it was called The Map Thief - because of all of the minute details about the early maps and the mapmakers. I will re-read my own book, The Island of Lost Maps, again. I enjoyed the first time and am considering it for my third mystery selection.
Going through my saved documents on my memory stick this afternoon, I found this document. I thought I'd post to the blog since it was written before COVID started.
6 February 2016
My new exercise passion is Pickleball. It’s a combination of tennis, ping pong, and badminton with shades of racquetball thrown in. Played with a paddle resembling something between a ping pong paddle and a racquetball racquet, on a court about half the size of a tennis court, with a baseball-size whiffleball, it was invented in the Pacific Northwest back in the 1960’s by some enterprising young adults who wanted something different to do one day. Today it is played across the country, primarily by the older generation, and especially around retirement communities and other locations where such geriatric folks find themselves.
I got into it last October when I saw an ad about a “pickleball open house” in the local weekly newspaper. So a good friend, Chuck, and I decided to try it out. And we got hooked. So hooked since that time I have suffered black toe from too small shoes and a shoulder injury from swinging the paddle. The shoulder is still injured from falling on the ice after a recent snowfall. I haven’t played in three going on four weeks. I’ve tried to stay in the mindset by watching YouTube videos.
My stamina and breathing are better, it helps my knees, and helps keep the weight off. We play two mornings each week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, for about an hour and a half each time. I usually get in 4-5 games, which last from 5-15 minutes each, usually averaging about 9-10 minutes. It all depends on the competition. Usually, my games are shorter since of the about 40 members, I am decidedly the worst, or as I call it, the least skilled of all of them.
The uniform is modest. Just sweats or shorts, a T-shirt, and some tennis shoes are all one needs. I often wear a ball cap since my hair is not washed before I go in the mornings and it tends to scare the others. I also wear a baseball glove for my paddle hand since I do sweat a lot. When it is cold, I wear the pair. We play indoors at the pavilion complex at W&L where the college plays volleyball and similar sports. This is during the winter. When it gets warmer during the summer, we will play on VMI’s tennis courts.
Secretly, I hope this will eventually lead to my return to running. But that’s another story.
Several changes have to be made to my/our schedule.
Sabrina told us yesterday that she and Josh are getting married next Friday, the 17th, by the mayor. It will be at the home of Josh's parents. No other guests will be there. We will go up that morning, stay the night, and drive home early Saturday morning.
I changed my haircut appointment from the 17th to tomorrow. The car got serviced today. It needed new tires and several other things. The total bill was just under $1900! And we just sold the Saturn yesterday to a local Kia dealership for $1500 yesterday! Unbelievable.
With the additional we just spent on the car plus giving a money gift for the kids, there will likely be no savings this month.
Reading-wise, I am getting into a groove of sorts and will be discussing the books here in the coming days. I'll be introducing them first. I am reading volume 1 of a four (so far) set history of England by Peter Ackroyd. I enjoy his writing. He does put a lot of information in whatever he is writing about, but I enjoy. Volume 1 is titled FOUNDATION and begins with the early Vikings, Saxons, and Romans, and goes to the first Tudor kings.
I finished my book club book last night. It was titled "The Girl with a Clock for a Heart". I enjoyed it. It is a complicated (at least to me) mystery in two time periods, 20 years apart. The ending was a surprise with a twist I did not see coming. It's a June read, so I am returning it to the library for now and will attempt to get it again before we meet to help me answer the questions.
For now, I am reading an old paperback (1966) about a man who lost his sleep center in the brain, consequently, he doesn't sleep. It is a tongue-in-cheek mystery about lost gold, the IRA, and other extremist groups. I should finish it in a couple of days. By then I will have picked up another book or two from the library I want to read.
If I have time before dinner I plan to organise my writing notes. I don't know if I said anything before, but I am going to attempt to write that novel, but only for a hobby not for selling.
I still have Foundation by Peter Ackroyd and Lincoln on Democracy Mario Cuomo on my reading shelf and have just added The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell and The Mystery of Courage by William Ian Miller. The courage book is one I've read twice before.
I talked to Jerry this morning and will spend some time in the next day or so updating here.
It was a good in that I was able to finish my putting my Vietnam photos into a special small album that I can keep on my desk.
The rubber band is only for extra protection to keep the photos inside. The motto Animo et Fide is Latin for "Love and Faith". This was the motto of the unit - 7th Squadron, 1st Air Cavalry. I was initially assigned as the troop/company commander of D Troop. It was called Powder Valley for the radio call sign.
I may have others but these represent the bulk of my memories. I was there from January 4, 1969, to December 23, 1969. I got a week or so drop because of Christmas.
Other than that, I didn't do much. I did talk to Barbara, a good friend from the Jackson House, who volunteered with me. She still does. We also volunteered at the Lexington Library which she also still does. She and her husband, Scott, have been friends since we came to Virginia in 2010.
I didn't get to read today so hopefully can do so later.
Continuing to recover from my dental procedure. I am eating soft foods along with some crunchy foods - a cookie, for example. I haven't tried a sandwich yet - that will be a few days from now - but did eat some Spam meat and a slice of cheddar cheese, both cut into small bites. I cut them up to make it easier to put into the right side of my mouth. I don't want to try to pull the food apart with my teeth yet.
I'm getting into the May book club selection, The Girl with a Clock for a Heart. This will be a change for me since I have not particularly enjoyed the selections this year.
I put another book on hold at the library today. It's about a man who stole maps from distinguished libraries in the early 2000's. It's different from the one I may choose for my third book this year - The Island of the Lost Maps.
I did another 24 Vietnam photos today. Hopefully I can finish the album by the end of the weekend. I am throwing some away.
I'm still not sure of what I want to write - a novel/mystery or a memoir. I certainly have enough information to write the latter, several times over if I decide to. I did start a Graphic Trees notebook to help with ideas.
Gooing to close now and look over some of my writing notes.
Well, it was a success. I had four front-bottom teeth that were bad and had to come out. Actually, one had fallen out about a month ago on its own. It took all of 20 minutes to numb the area, pull the teeth, and get me out of the chair. Now I have to wait until at least May 30 - my next appointment - to be molded for a partial. The partial will be anchored on each side by the canine tooth still present.
The first challenge of course will be to relearn to eat without any front teeth to pull apart the bread of a sandwich, or just help move the food around inside my mouth.
