photography

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

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…..

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!

Minnesota State Capitol

I learned something interesting recently. There are only four self-supporting marble domes in the world and the second largest one is at the Minnesota State Capitol in St Paul. It is made of Georgia (US State) marble and weighs more than fourteen million pounds and has a diameter of 87 feet.

The largest is St Peter’s at the Vatican in Rome. It has a diameter of 138 feet. The other two are the Taj Mahal in Agra, India with a diameter of 58 feet, and the Rhode Island State Capitol with a diameter of 50 feet.

The building was renovated in 2017 and the interior is impressive.