Author: ExpatAlien

Author of Echoes of a Global Life

Summering Along

Summer is half over. Moving along. I don’t have much to show for it. I’m hoping my book will come out the second week of August. Fingers crossed.

Books I have read recently. Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd. Kind of a weird book about chimpanzees attacking each other in central Africa. It was really three stories in one and I found I was skipping over one of them because I didn’t really get how it was important to the rest of the book. I don’t know, I wasn’t crazy about it.

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl. I have read several of her books and I usually find them entertaining. She mostly writes about food but this is a novel about a dress. The history of the dress, the people surrounding the dress. All set in Paris. It is very light reading but good for a distraction.

I forgot all about doing the Monday photo thing. I just get distracted. The news is so disturbing lately. There was an article in The NY Times today about the couple who were caught out at the Coldplay concert. They were having an affair and the camera caught them embracing at the concert and then everybody filmed them ducking out of the camera trying to hide themselves. Of course it exploded all over the internet. The point of the article was that the guy actually did the right thing and resigned. He took responsibility. He probably didn’t have much choice and I’m sure he got a good severance package since he was the CEO of a company but these days it seems so few people are taking responsibility for their actions. People just do whatever they want and think it doesn’t matter how it will affect others. Pointing fingers directly at congress and the orange one. I really wonder how they can live with themselves.

In order to rid ourselves of all these pesky immigrants, ICE has 10,000 job openings. Can you imagine? What will this country look like this time next year? I shudder to think. And the food banks are already becoming bare. The poor are getting poorer by the minute. And they are erasing our history, taking down information from websites and information posters. Are we just waiting for the storm troopers to march down our streets?

This whole Epstein thing is ridiculous. The orange one has already been convicted of how many felonies and sexual harassments. Does anybody really care if he cavorted with a pedophile? I really wish somebody did. But I’m sure the orange one will get to Ghislaine first and shut her up. If there is anything there.

To the question whether there is any hope outside this world, since life in this world seems to be without hope, Kafka answers: ‘Plenty of hope—for God—an infinite amount of hope—only it is not for us.’ 

Maybe too dark. Maybe not. Time will tell.

A few photos from The Numbers Game #82:

Alebrijes on Raspberry Island

From the Minnesota Latino Museum: “Alebrijes are a Mexican folk art of colorful and fantastical creatures, often the combination of multiple animals (for example, the head of a fox with the body of a goose, fish fins, and horse legs). “

These creatures are made from papier-mâché and/or wood. When I visited Oaxaca in January I saw a lot of these but they were much smaller. These are giants. They are here for the summer located on Raspberry Island in the middle of the Mississippi River just south of St Paul.

In other news….

I read the second book in the Chara series, Ocean. You will remember I read the first book, Atmosphere a few weeks ago. Ocean is the second book in David Scott Moyer’s Chara series. It continues with the original characters from the first book and adds more humans from Earth into the mix. However, they have a very different mission and threaten to destroy all the first mission was able to accomplish. This book is full of tension and suspense and surprises. Again, I found it hard to put down. I recommend it and look forward to the third book in the trilogy.

I also read and enjoyed The Wedding People by Alison Espach. I found it kind of predictable but it was an overall “feel good” novel with good insights into human relationships and self discovery.

It is has been super hot here and my air-conditioning decided to quit working at the peak of the heat so have been a bit stressed lately. Was told I have to wait a week for service. Plus I just bought a new unit so not happy. Plus plumpie just started a war so am dreaming of foreign shores….

Have a great day! 🙂

Miami and the Keys

It was raining. It was hot. It was Humid. It was Florida.

Miami Beach

The Miami Design Preservation League was founded by Barbara Baer Capitman in 1976. The Art Deco District became the first urban 20th century historic distric on the National Register of Historic Places. Capitman fought for the district and was known to stand in front of bulldozers to protect the buildings. Over 800 Art Deco buildings remain.

Calle Ocho or Little Havana

Cigars, food, music, roosters…

Hemmingway House Key West

“The first thing that happened when we were back in Paris was Hemingway with a letter of introduction from Sherwood Anderson.
I remember very well the first impression I had of Hemingway that first afternoon. He was an extraordinarily good looking young man, twenty three years old…., rather foreign looking, with passionately interested, rather than interesting eyes. He sat in front of Gertrude Stein and listened and looked.”
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

Around Key West

Atmosphere, The book

I know I have said this before. I pick up a lot of books and don’t finish them. I either get bored or I don’t care about the characters or the story line is too convoluted. Sometimes I make myself skim it to the end just to see where it goes. Sometimes I skim through it so I have something to say at book club. 

I just finished reading Atmosphere by David Scott Moyer. I had none of those problems with this book. I read it in two days, couldn’t put it down. 

Atmosphere is a sci-fi story that takes place on a planet light years away from Earth. Twelve humans are sent to scope it out for possible settlement. Moyer has created a whole world for them to find. He includes all kinds of details to set the stage. Maybe he has been there? There are back stories for all the humans and some of the aliens they encounter. There is history, biology, science and emotion. It is a loving environment but through the whole book there is an underlying feeling of dread. I kept thinking, something is wrong. Something is not as it appears. There must be a twist. I was constantly looking around, on edge, eager to get on to the next page. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the Trilogy. 

Atmosphere is available on Amazon

Friday All Day

I’m running out of photos. When I lived in Boston I went to see the Mayflower. I couldn’t believe how small it was.

I recently decided to check out the relatively new dating app on Facebook. I’m in my 60’s so looking for age appropriate men. Most of them look like old men. I mean, okay, I’m not young. I shouldn’t judge. But seriously. I guess it must be the genes. Of course I live in the midwest so lots of photos of fish, motorcycles, dogs. People who camp, fish, hike, kayak, cycle, swim, hunt, and generally love the outdoors. People who are “fit” and go to the gym everyday. A lot of emphasis on “fit”. Cycling hundreds of miles. Seriously? I started going to the gym three times a week cycling through the weight machines. It has changed my life. I can’t believe the difference. But it doesn’t define me. It isn’t who I am. I wouldn’t put it in an ad. The most promising ads say “no trumpers”. At least you know where they stand. But it’s not enough. I think I’ll just go back to fantasizing about my exotic latin lover who swoops me up and takes me off on a wild adventure. I guess I need to write a novel.

Last night I watched some of Masters of the Air, a TV show on Apple+. It is about US B17 pilots based in East Anglia. It is pure Spielberg. Drama, bravery, love, loss, emotions, and lots of battle scenes. Okay in small doses.

I also watched some of Shantaram which mostly takes place in an Indian slum. It wasn’t the greatest. I think I might have to read the book.

So all in all kind of a glum Friday. In an effort to turn it around, I will leave you with this….

Ahhhhh…..

Memorial Day
custard cemetery south dakota man reading bible national cemetery military cemetery
Photo by Charles Criscuolo on Pexels.com

Dreamers

Soldiers are citizens of death’s grey land,
Drawing no dividend from time’s to-morrows. 
In the great hour of destiny they stand,
Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.
Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win 
Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives.
Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin
They think of firelit homes, clean beds and wives.

I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats,
And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain, 
Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats,
And mocked by hopeless longing to regain 
Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats,
And going to the office in the train.
by Siegfried Sassoon, Selected Poems (1968)

Another Memorial Day, another year. In 2012, I was living in Washington DC and made the effort to travel to the Mall to see the Rolling Thunder demonstration. It was called Rolling Thunder because it consisted of thousands of motorcycles riding from the Pentagon into DC down to the Vietnam Memorial. Their main mission was to bring awareness and accountability for POW’s and MIA’s and was heavily attended by Vietnam veterans. In 2012, it was the 25th Anniversary of the event so larger than usual. In 2020, they re-named it Rolling to Remember in order to pass the torch to a younger generation and to bring attention to the veteran suicide issue as well as POW’s and MIA’s. During the pandemic, it shrank considerably but is now back in full force. The ride starts Sunday at noon in the Pentagon parking lot. I’m sorry to miss it.

Friday Photos

I am featuring random photos each week that pertain to my upcoming book, Echoes of a Global Life. Here are a few from Europe during the 70’s.

With my teenage passport photo thrown in.

Other things… I had Jury Duty this week. I spent all day Monday sitting in a windowless room with a bunch of people I didn’t know. Then I had to check the website twice a day to see if I needed to go back in. That was the extent of it. I was glad I didn’t have to go back and sit in there but I was kind of looking forward to being on a Jury.

Books.

There has been a lot of talk about The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. Several people told me I should read it. I’m sorry to say I couldn’t finish it. I just couldn’t get into it. It seemed very long and drawn out. Same with This is Happiness. It seemed to go on and on and nothing happened. There were parts I liked and enjoyed but they were broken up with lots of nothing. Just my opinion.

I really liked Miss Benson’s Beetle. It was a real mad cap adventure and held my interest throughout. Of course it was subject matter I could get into, relate to on some levels. I Hope This Finds You Well also held my interest and I enjoyed it but I think it could have been shorter. It kind of dragged in parts. It was almost funny but not really. Sad/Funny. It is about office dynamics – good, bad and ugly.

I read From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough. It is a memoir of Lisa Marie’s life. I found it hard to read. It kept jumping back and forth from Lisa Marie speaking to Riley speaking and it was often hard to tell who was talking. Not very well edited. And when it started to just list all the celebrities they spent time with, I jumped to the end. Actually I just looked her up on Wikipedia to find out what happened.

So that brings me up to the current book I am reading – The Chancellor – about Angela Merkel’s life. So far very interesting.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Photos
With my mother in Colombia

I am featuring random photos each week that pertain to my upcoming book, Echoes of a Global Life. My photos seem to be fewer and farther in-between during this period. Can’t find much. Here are a few of Africa during the 70’s.