Review: An Excellent Thing in a Woman

By Allison Montclair

Addicted!!!! In the best way.  But this is #7 and I only have one more.  (I sob)

Can’t go into details without revealing too much, like the reviewer on GoodReads that I just checked did. But let me just say that I HATED the discontinuity between the last book and this one. In the last book we were left hanging on a couple of issues, and in this one, she just resolves them in a sentence or two and gets on with things. 

So after a brief moment of rage, I got into the plot and loved this one as much as usual. But I don’t feel like the whole “Sally” thing is getting fair play, nor do I fee
l like I understood fully what it took for Gwen to move on with her life. I just wish the transition had the deserved air time—she built up this whole complex emotional thing...and just dropped it.

 And I still like it. Darn.

 

Review: Stupid Stupid Stupid

Stupid Stupid Stupid: Even more tales of adventure, travel and life

By George Mahood

When you do as many wild and crazy things as George Mahood does, you can simply publish your daily diary and make a story of everyday life. Not that I don’t expect he needed to do a lot of editing, rearranging, and cleanup to turn it into a readable tale. But he did, and I enjoyed it.

Like pretty much everything of his that I’ve read, it’s not earth-shattering or deep or even hilarious. But it’s fun.

Review: The Real Doc Martin

 he Real Doc Martin: The Humour, Sadness and Absurdity of a Life in General Practice

By Martin Stagg

 
The title is explained in the preface (foreword?), but other than that it’s nothing to do with the TV series. This is just a memoir of a British physician. Fun to read but not all that memorable, either. I’d recommend it—if you’re into that sort of thing—but not otherwise.

Review: The Feather Detective:

Mystery, Mayhem and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne

By Chris Sweeney

Wonderfully written biography of an amazing woman. She pretty much wrote the book on the use of feathers in forensic science and also in understanding airplane/bird collisions and their effects. Great stuff—every bit of it.  Read it!

 

Mammoth Workhorse, Day 23

Sunday June 7

Ed and I left at an amazingly early time of 8:45. We had a 10-minute slowdown at the border patrol checkpoint, and then a time zone change and a short (15-minute) rest stop. So we arrived a little before 4pm at the halfway point, a Love’s RV Stop in Big Spring.

This was the first time we’d stayed at one. It wasn’t so bad. A woman had occupied my spot by accident, but they gave me the spot next to her. I don’t think anyone else used any of the other six sites. 

It wasn’t as noisy as I expected, and it was very clean and there was a lot of grassy space to walk around in. We went to the dog park too, of course, but it was tiny.  An okay place for morning coffee but not much for dog leg stretching.  And with a convenience store right there, not that we needed anything. I’d do it again—it’s a little expensive but you can’t beat the convenience. 

All day the Grateful Dead song Trucking kept running through my head. Especially the line What a long, long trip it's been. Three weeks in one spot! Inconceivable! It felt good to be moving, even if it was just to be going home.

 

 

Mammoth Workhorse, Day 22

Saturday June 6

Last day. We had a lot to do in the morning, and we did it, yet somehow still felt like we had a lot left to do in the evening. It was really just the jeep we had to hookup and load up with all of the extra junk that we'd used for the family. Pillows and sheets and stuff.

It was a hot day so there was no playing soccer in the park. Instead I watched as Ed and son finished assembling the unbelievably complicated pink bed (stupidest thing ever to waste money on) and some chairs. Nice bar stools they got. Hopefully they will save enough on their moving expenses to pay for all the sh*t ordered online. What’s wrong with Goodwill stuff, I don’t know.

And that's about it. We tried to eat in Roadhouse and found that the wait was 2 to 2-1/2 hours at 5:15 in the evening. But after a bit of consternation we thought to ask what the wait for carryout was. Only 25 minutes--quite acceptable.

 Back to Magnus the Mighty.

Mammoth Workhorse, Day 21

Friday June 5

We had a lot to do in the morning but I’m not sure why. I went jogging and then we went to Albertson's to get supplies for a taco supper. When we returned, I went ahead and cooked the meat before we left for the house, which was a good thing because we were very late coming back.

Ed had elected to put together a bed for Elyanna. It was supremely complicated. After two hours he was still only half done. But it was way past time to leave so I convinced them to put off finishing it until the next day.

I did get a nice play in the park with Ethan and Anna. She's too young still to play with as a threesome. She's at the stage where a single person with infinite patience can play with her. But in a group, no.  The rest of us spend hours waiting on her to decide what to do.

But that's over. Molly got a long walk but there were infinities of stickers on the ground and in the vacant lot. No fun.