TWO REVIEWS FOR THE PRICE OF ONEWithout a computer at home, I

TWO REVIEWS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE

Without a computer at home, I have had quite a bit of time to read. Consequently, I have read two books in the last three days. They were both riveting and difficult to put down. Each introduced me to a different world.

The first was "Free Food for Millionaires," by Min Jin Lee, a young Korean-American writer. This was her first novel, and it has been highly acclaimed. The world it opens up is that of the Korean-American community in New York City, as seen through the eyes of the heroine, Casey. She has been raised a Christian but by adulthood is a closet one, if at all. She lives quite a free lifestyle as she becomes involved with several boyfriends and the high-flying world of investment banking. She is an interesting and strong character -- she loves fashion and especially making hats with her personal flair, although there isn't a strong demand for them. It is a book about love but also about growing up, maturing and forgiveness. Unfortunately, it was a bit on the sensual side for me, but other than that, I enjoyed it a lot.

The second was "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. It paints a vivid picture of the world of the traveling circus in the Depression Era. It is told from the viewpoint of Jacob Jankowski, both as an elderly man and in his reveries about his youth and the circus years. This one I read today -- I couldn't put it down. Again, there were a few details that were difficult for me to read but they were apparently accurate to the era, according to the research done by the author. I love elephants, so this was a great book for me.

Now I am out of books except for a self-help one, but that might be a good change. ;-)

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There is news on my friend, Les, in Australia. He is able to sit up and eat now, although his talking is still garbled. He has a sore, possibly from lying on the floor (they think he might have been there for two days). I don't know what his future has in store. My grandfather had a bad stroke and he fully recovered except for numbness in the tips of his fingers, which frustrated him badly, but my grandmother was there to button his shirts and so forth.

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I am doing fairly well. I scared a friend by telling her that I was rinsing out my foot-soaking pan with Clorox water, as she felt that could be harmful to my toe. I told her that I rinsed out well afterwards but she alarmed me enough that I quit using it and am using a bit of alcohol instead. Then the looks of my toe also scared me yesterday so I called the after-hours Urgent Care advice nurse -- I thought it could be infected -- and she called my doctor, who was fortunately on call. He told her that these things almost never got infected so I was most likely fine, and she relayed the message to me. After asking me a few questions and her liking my answers about what was happening, it sounded like things were as they should be and I hung up feeling very relieved and happy. Just tonight, though, another friend who I had told about the Clorox water rinse e-mailed me an article about how even slight contact with broken skin by water containing bleach could be damaging, which has me a bit nervous. I don't think that I have done anything that could permanently harm my foot but I am sure glad I quit using even the well-diluted Clorox rinse on the soaking pan!

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It continues to be too warm for me here. I keep waiting for the cool-down they say is coming, but so far it hasn't arrived. I will be glad if and when it does! But it is summer, after all, and so things will generally get worse before they get better. I am a spring and fall person!

A NEAT THOUGHTSave the Earth . . . it's

A NEAT THOUGHT

Save the Earth . . . it's the only planet with chocolate!!!

(From my friend Edith in Toronto.)

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The above photo was one I took at the Newport, Oregon Aquarium on October 19, 2005. I had a comment on it yesterday by a guy named Steve Worthington who makes bronze animals. They are very interesting, especially the turtles.

I have always loved turtles. I had quite a nice-sized one when I was a girl but my mother made me leave it outside, and I came home from school one day and found it dead, chewed up by a neighborhood dog. I was devastated! We obviously didn't know much about turtles at the time; it probably needed a fairly decent-sized aquarium.

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I am feeling quite a bit better today. I was sure yesterday that I had undone all the good work I had accomplished in the previous couple of days -- my arm was that sore! But the icing of the upper arm and shoulder along with the exercises have worked wonders. I was even able to get most of my work at the business done last night and this morning, with just a short stack to be filed tomorrow.

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Our weather is beautiful. It is sunny but there is a cooling breeze so it's not getting too hot. The afternoon should be perfect for Jeff to mow the lawn, as he plans to.

PT IS SCHEDULEDI was able

PT IS SCHEDULED

I was able to call my HMO's nearest clinic this morning and schedule my physical therapy evaluation for tomorrow morning. I will be glad to get that done. I notice that my arm is fine -- unless I use it! LOL! The muscle where the pain is also seems to be a little bit swollen.

Physical therapy isn't a covered benefit under my health plan so I don't know what kind of cost to expect. I can look in my benefits handbook, I suppose, if I can find it.

I really want this arm to get better. I want to buy some Round Up spray and get going on spraying some weeds around the place. I don't know how long it will be before I can do that, though. Perhaps I should buy the Round Up tomorrow afternoon and do the spraying when we have a clear, calm day and deal with the damage to the muscle later. LOL!

The weather right now is quite pleasant. I hear about a lot of heat elsewhere in the country and in Canada. We are lucky but it's hard telling when that heat will come our way. I wish cool weather to those of you who are sweltering!

RUSTING IN THE RAINThere

RUSTING IN THE RAIN

There are a few funny thoughts that are expressed here in Oregon when the rain is coming down like it is today. One of those is that Oregonians don't tan, they rust. Another is that we grow webs between our toes. I feel like I'm both rusting and growing webs. ;-)

Fortunately, I was able to get my car washed this morning and into the garage before the rain started to come down. This meant I was also able to keep from bringing my groceries into the house before I got soaked.

My groceries cost me over $60.00, and I didn't get all that much. The high gas prices are trickling down to just about every aspect of our economy. But I don't want to say too much about that subject, because it's one that really irritates me. I'll just say that when my Aunt Joan starts talking about how she and Uncle Bob may fit a trailer to one of their bicycles to use it to go get groceries in Twin Falls if the gas prices become too unaffordable, I get angry, because these are elderly people. Aunt Joan seems young for her age but Uncle Bob has had cancer and is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. I wonder if the oil company producers and executives realize how much hardship they are causing!

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I especially love the Ziggies today, as they fit my wacky sense of humor. The man who draws the Ziggy cartoons (and I can't quite read his name at the bottom) is masterful at coming up with fresh, funny ideas. I think I would be well-spooked by a talking toilet, though. As for tire balancing, I have just passed the 6,000 mile mark in my car, and my tires will get rotated (I assume that's the same as balancing them) when I take it in for its 8,000 mile service at the local dealership's fast lube department. (The "fast lube" title is somewhat of a misnomer, because there can sometimes be quite a wait for service there.)

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The big news right now is Scott McClellan's tell-all book about the Bush administration, and how we shouldn't be in Iraq. Do tell. This is especially being brought out on CNN today. It's kind of nice to have a distraction from the infernal, eternal electioneering but I wonder if Scott McClellan's book will actually say anything that many of us didn't already suspect. At this point, I don't intend to buy it.

MY BIG JOB YESTERDAYThis was how my garage looked yesterday,

MY BIG JOB YESTERDAY

This was how my garage looked yesterday, and had looked for several weeks:



The cause of the mess was a neighborhood cat that had gotten shut in the garage without my knowing it. The clawing off of the insulation near the only window in the garage was due to the cat's fruitless attempt to get out.

It took me a while to feel up to cleaning up the mess, due to my sore arm and also because I'm not supposed to bend over (doctor's orders). However, since it's just me here, I decided that if it was going to ever be removed, I would have to be the one to do that. I used a dustpan to scoop up much of the insulation. There was a little bit of insulation on my gardening gloves but once I could remove that, I was able to wear them and protect my hands, which helped in completing the cleaning job. Here is a shot of the garbage bag full of the shredded insulation:



Since posting the above photos on my Flickr site, my Flickr friend Cynthia commented underneath the first that there was a Flickr group that this picture would be well suited for called "CSI: Cat Scene Investigation", so I posted both of the above pictures there.

I have to say that naturally the trapped cat left some unwanted momentoes of his visit, which I also scooped up with the dustpan. Thankfully, I seem to have foiled his further attempts to get into the garage.

The cleaned up area looks like this:



I did get tired and feeling like I didn't want to press my luck regarding my health after a bit so there are a few small pieces of insulation remaining, but I will take care of them later. At least the huge mess is gone!

This encourages me as far as other chores that need to be done in the house, especially some messes that Socks has made here in the office while in here during the night. More material for the "CSI: Cat Scene Investigation" group! ;-)

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Last night we had the weirdest weather I can recall seeing. A thunderstorm rolled in from the mountains and brought with it some lightning and thunder, although not much hitting near to me. Mostly, I watched out my back door with amazement as the rain drove horizontally across my back yard. I was glad I wasn't out in that! The cats were somewhat spooked by the thunder, with Silver taking to my lap for comfort and Socks running around as if she didn't quite know where to hide. I was glad to see that pass through! Other areas around Portland had fairly good-sized hail, but thankfully it didn't hit us here. Wacky stuff!

WISHFUL THINKINGI

WISHFUL THINKING

I believe that the signature tag above is totally wishful thinking, even though there are a few flowers (mainly daffodils and camellias) blooming outside my house. None of the variety in this graphic, though. It has been quite cold here, enough for people to wonder when Spring is actually going to get here. We've been in the 40's F during the days and around freezing at night. It's still flannel pajama time!

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My Australian friend Jen sent me an e-mail directing me to a site where she had recorded her voice to go along with cat pictures, and she gave me permission to post the URL. I love hearing her Aussie accent, although she thought she sounded more like a Brit. You can hear it by going here. It's really cute!

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I watched -- or rather, tried to watch -- the movie "A Death at a Funeral" yesterday evening. It is a British film, and on the jacket it was called "a jet black comedy", which should have warned me when it came time to watch it. I managed to stand an hour of the 90-minute movie, and I was pushing it at making it that far. The movie is rated "R", which should also have warned me, as I prefer to watch films with milder ratings, although once in a while I let an "R"-rated movie slip through, as I did with this one. For me, it's not the actual rating so much as the content and why the movie has been given that rating that makes the difference. At any rate, it definitely was not my thing and I don't recommend it to anyone. I will be giving it 1/2 star when I rate it on Blockbuster Online, and that's being generous.

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After writing about hypersensitivity yesterday, I guess venting helped me to reach a state of forgiveness of the person who had annoyed me with her comments on that subject. Today, I am feeling less bothered by her or what she had said. I did discuss the subject privately with another friend, who added to my evaluation of why people are hypersensitive that some people are just born that way and it's part of their natural personality. So it was good to have that input from her, especially as she is a person who is qualified due to her education to make such judgments.

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When Lynne sent me the above Ziggy, she included the comment that this kind of thing happens in Australia, too. ;-) It sure does here! LOL!

THOUGHTS ON RELIGION IN

THOUGHTS ON RELIGION IN GENERAL

I hope you all have had a chance to read Gattina's comment on my last post. It is very funny! And also, presents a good point, that Europeans have a hard time understanding the fuss about religion here in the U.S.

Religion is indeed a big deal throughout this country. It has become a very big political football during this presidential campaign, and I'm sure we haven't seen the end of that.

As far as I feel about religion, I have friends and loved ones of many different religions and I accept them as they are, although there are various beliefs -- such as transubstantiation or strict pacifism -- that I could not accept for myself. I am glad we have freedom of religion in this country, so that individuals are able to believe what they wish.

Where I draw the line is when a religion is dishonest about what it believes, especially if there are secret ceremonies that the person coming into that church is not told about, as I believe they should be, from the very beginning. It's like the analogy of cooking a frog -- if you put a frog into a pot of hot water, it will jump right out, but if you put the frog into a pot of lukewarm water and gradually increase the heat, you will succeed in cooking it.

So straightforward religion, I can accept. Truthful religion, I can accept. I may not feel that such churches are exactly right for me, but I can respect those who belong to and attend them. I recognize that strong beliefs are often a buffer against times of trouble.

I think this is pretty much my viewpoint in a nutshell. Perhaps I will think of more to write about religion in general in the future. But I think this describes how I feel for now. To paraphrase a saying that I believe comes from Star Trek's Spock: May you believe long and prosper.

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Today is my oldest son J.D.'s 39th birthday! I know he and his wife Kris were planning to travel to San Francisco this week and I don't know if he will have his laptop with him or even time to check in on blogs, but I want to wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and maybe he will see this wish when he gets back.

J.D. was my only normal delivery, after a pretty reasonable time of labor (13 hours). Steve wasn't allowed in the delivery room so the doctor took J.D. out to see him after he was born. Steve said the doctor "flipped" J.D.'s lower lip and that J.D. gave him a rather resentful look. He seemed to be more alert to what was going on around him than a lot of newborns.

It's hard to believe it was that long ago. Time certainly flies! I'm grateful for J.D. and his thoughtfulness and consideration as a son. May you have a wonderful birthday and many, many more ahead, J.D.

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It is also my tags list owner Connie's birthday today, and my friend from the tags list, Jeneane's, as well. I haven't heard how Connie is doing for a while and I miss hearing from her. I will definitely be posting a birthday wish for her to the list today, in case she might see it. And sending a greeting to Jeneane (also known as JR).

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It is clear and cold today. I will make the trip to Costco for the business and myself in a little while. I'm pretty much glad that it isn't raining today, although there was frost on the ground when I got up. So much for weather forecasts, eh? LOL!