An Almost-Roseledge-Books-Regular (a potential RBRegular who has only been once) called from the airport to say she is delayed and reading Sarah Orne Jewett’s story maybe set in Tenans Harbor, Country of the Pointed Firs, and it is perfect. Sounds good to me and suggests RB needs a new category of books to make more pleasant the dreaded airport down time. I would add Rebecca Goldstein’s The Mind Body Problem to this list. It saw me, with cat, Worthy, semi-snoozing in cat-carrier inside duffel bag at my side, through a four-hour fog delay at O’Hare. Roseledge Books should have these and others you suggest as “take with” reads for the always possible iffy weather of return flights. These take-with reads are different from, though maybe overlapping with, “withdrawal reads” which are intended to provoke memories of a time well spent no matter when or where you read them. Suggestions for either group are always welcome.
I want to be there, but I am here -- until summer. And where are you? (Caption is an homage to Henri, see below.)
A chipmunk ate the pcv pipe carrying water to the shower upstairs in Roseledge. Curses. Clearly, plumbing has a down side, especially when you live away some of the time, but I do not intend to give up running water. Charlie is aggrieved that chipmunk-attracting pcv pipe was installed ten years ago, but who knew? Until this summer, we had a fierce chipmunk-handler cat, but an unleashed rottweiler did him in, and though both bad dog and owner are gone, the only remaining neighborhood cat prefers batting at butterflies and the mostly unleashed cute and friendly new dog probably plays with the cat. the butterflies, AND the chipmunks. Drat. The chipmunks will not rule for long I know, but Wow, Tim dies and the living isn‘t easy.
The new books stayed dry. Whew! Fortunately the sometimes-spewing water couldn’t reach across the room from behind the refrigerator and the collected water never rose above the bottom bookshelf-lip. The uninsulated, single layer architecture of Roseledge helped, too, as the water drained out through the bare floor boards. I just hope no more chipmunks get in or, even worse, decide to occupy my spa recliner, the only cushioned thing in the house. Only the boxes under the stairs got wet and then moldy, but who even remembers what’s in them? Charlie has promised to call Joe who always manages to make things right.
Boxes under the stairs got wet, moldy and tossed, but I am sanguine. (Caption is another homage to Henri.)
I just read and LOVED Leanne Shapton’s Swimming Stories, a memoir of her competitive swimming years with her artist’s eye and work as complement. RB will definitely have it as soon as it out in paperback. I don’t think you have to be a swimmer to enjoy the read, but maybe it helps. Agreeing with one of the book’s blurbers, I have a “talent crush“. I will never again look at the world in just the same way and I love a book that does that. Rory Stewart’s memoir of his walk across Afghanistan, Places In Between, changed my worldview, too. Memoirs seem to be an ever-growing part of my must-read pile which, means they will probably become an ever-larger part of RB’s offerings. Hurry up, summer.
As an antidote to winter blahs, or as a Scandinavian friend put it, to his annual morose Swedish cold, may I introduce you to Henri, the black cat, who won the Walker Art Center’s first ever Internet Cat Video Contest last summer?Surely your days will be merrier for meeting him, as are mine when I think of you all.