Thursday, June 26, 2014

Robert Parker's successor writes his first Spencer novel

Don't  know if you ever read  crime-solving books by Robert Parker. He died in  2010, appropriately collapsing over his word processor as any writer might choose to do. Apparently the book in progress had notes complete enough that the book was completed and published.

In an unusual move, Parker's wife and children sold the rights to his series (there are three) to another writer, Ace Atkins.  They felt he knew Parker's moods and characters for these books well enough to continue them.

The writing style, of course, can't be duplicated. Parker wrote with a sparse use of words in short sentences that somehow conveyed a great deal of emotion and meaning. His characters were complicated.  He communicated this with the short sentences and paragraphs wonderfully well.
Parker's books were not thick. They were a fast read, and oddly rich in satisfaction.

Atkins'  "Cheap Shot" is his first book since he bought the series from Parker's estate.

The plot is definitely vintage Parker. All the cast members pretty much show up in their traditional roles. Sometimes I think he takes traits from earlier books rather than the later, and that's okay.  It is a Spencer book, Parker's longest-running series that got the television gig years back.

It was okay, maybe better than that for me.I  probably read every single book the man ever wrote, including the single novels before he started the Spencer series.

I read pretty omnivorously and definitely voraciously. I'm always looking for something to read. So I''ll  probably read another one or two or three.

This Spencer is just ....not-as.  Milk chocolate when I wanted dark.

It's a tricky business, taking on a character someone else developed and carrying them forward.  So much is really close to Parker. Maybe spot on.

Read it and see what you think. I'd like to hear some feedback.

Come to think of it, I haven't read anything else by Atkins. I ought to correct that.

Monday, June 16, 2014

A Few Events in an Uneventful Life

The man who has overseen my roofing project is quite pleasant. I appreciate that he isn't aggressively charming, as some of his ilk tend to be, but he has a major flaw that I suspect is connected to "the way things are done" in his business.

Two or more weeks ago, he told me he was going to pick up the gutters he would be replacing at my home. This morning about 9, here they were. He saw my car, so parked the loaded trailer on the street. Good. I came out to  move my car, however, to find a workman on a ladder right in front of the garage door, preparing to pull off the old gutter.

"Hi!" he said with a cheery smile. "We're here to do your gutters!"

I growled, "You couldn't be bothered to call me Friday afternoon to tell me this?  Move the ladder and I'll get my car out of the garage and park it next door."

He responded quickly. (He's the son of the roofer.)  I pulled out, told him much more calmly to carry on, and parked next door, walked back. Unfortunately, the noise has Brody ALL excited, and he seems to think it is His Duty to pant heavily, run around the house, bark and growl.

As you see, I have recovered nicely. I am simply sitting in a civilized fashion in front of my computer complaining about what is a good thing, even if I wasn't given advance notice. This will finish their part of the work and get the other half of their money, now in escrow, to them. I said the roofer is pleasant, and he is. We live in the same community and will probably meet again. And he is an honest man, which means a lot.....

Pause for the telephone call from the roofer, whose son called him to say, "Dad, the lady is really mad we didn't tell her we were coming." He apologized, said this was last minute reassign when someone else's job was postponed by the homeowners. I told him all is well and my feathers are smoothed out. Which they are. So actually, I was surprised, but it's a bit of good luck.

I wonder how many times I react with grumpiness just because I am inconveniently surprised by good fortune. Something to think about.

                                                                        ***
Good luck surprised me again this morning when I let the dogs into the back yard to find it, as well as the front yard, had been mowed. My next door neighbor sometimes does the front when he's on his riding mower, but the back is unusual. My poor granddaughter is going out of town and kind of planned on that $10 I give her to mow a good-sized yard.

But she's going to Schlitterbaun,  a wonderful water park in Central Texas with loving extended family, so I suspect she will be just fine.

                                                                     ***
I am trying to remember the second thing reporters quoted someone as saying would be gone in the next four years, but can't remember the second one. The first was personal computers. We'll all have IPads hooked up to our smart phones, they said. Well, that leaves a lot of room for a lot of folk like me to carry on. I don't have a smart phone and am not planning to get one. In fact, I'm ahead of a lot of the 70+ grandparents I know because I text as well as phone. I may upgrade to a phone to text more quickly, but smart phone? Not yet. I don't know how to handle the security on them properly, and am not willing to partake until this has been addressed.

As a matter of fact, I have a lot of problem typing on almost any computer but mine. When keyboards first came out, they had these little foldup legs you could extend to give your keyboard a slant. For someone who has been typing countless hours since I was 15, that is necessary for me. My speed is cut at least in half when the keyboard lies flat. Eldest son gets frustrated when he comes to help me with some computer problem because my desktop (yes, desktop) is on a regular desk and I pull out the middle drawer so I can prop the keyboard against the edge of the desk's top to give me that slant. Works just fine, as you see.

The arthritis in my hands and wrists also is a factor. A flat keyboard requires an arch in my wrists that is not comfortable, and while I could learn to use a laptop, this works better.
(Like many of us who have a glitch or two in how our bodies work, I don't particularly consider myself handicapped so much as having my own way of getting some things done.)

Oh! and that reminds me. Saturday, I went next door three times to get something opened. I have an electric jar opener, but it is too clumsy to open the small jar of minced garlic. The mouthwash requires firm pressing with thumb and forefinger on either side of the lid while turning. I can't squeeze hard enough.  And the last--well, Dr. Pepper puts the caps on their two liter bottles uncommonly hard. I can usually get it, but sometimes, even strong men must strain to do it. I had one of those. I've learned if I open, then close the bottle before storing it into the fridge, it is much easier to open the next morning, and cold caffeine is my morning beverage. But this one almost defeated my family next door. And my daughter-in-law gave me a spare bottle opener similar to one her grandmother gave her years ago. It is an ancient hand tool, about one inch wide, six inches long, with lip on one end of the metal stick and a metal tongue that slides underneath. Eh. I need to be able to photo and attach this. I'd never seen one, and  I bet you haven't, either. Anyway, a handle
 holds the bottle firmly between the tongue and lip and allows you to turn the long metal piece to leverage the lid to open.

Nifty!

                                                                       ***
Finally.

Every so often, I get a hankering for ginger ale. I have almost always used Canada Dry brand, and yes, I get diet. Diet ginger ale really isn't as good as regular, but I get enough calories as it is. I've noticed tv ads for Canada Dry publicizing Real Ginger in the product, and it's getting warmer, and I bought me some.

I do not know why they changed the recipe, or when. I don't know what the regular tastes like, but I am not willing to try.

This has a powdery, taste like really cheap powdered fruit drink(I won't denigrate Koolaid brand) with carbonated water added and a dash of ginger. The lack of sweetness reminds me of the first diet drinks in the 1960s.

If one were to add an alcoholic beverage, it would ruin the taste of that, too. Since I bought it as an alternative to booze,  I simply will switch brands.

I bought two bottles. I think I may just throw the other unopened one in the trash. It really is that bad.


Monday, June 9, 2014

I'm Feeling the Power (no wiring needed)

Many thanks for the shopping guides to my solar powered spoon/sun tea jar.

Amazon is moderately pleased, as well.  Price is actually a little lower than I thought it would be nowadays.

Which led, kinda, to something else. It made me think about buying something  else.

A friend told me on Friday about an estate sale with lots of chairs nearby. Ever since Brodie's raptor claws slashed my naugahide recliner well over a year ago, I've been promising myself a spruced up living room. That quilt over the chair is a bit tatty.

I got to the sale early Saturday afternoon, and this family was serious about clearing the house. Everything was 1/2 price from Friday's sale prices.

I went inside, and only two chairs were left there, waiting for just me to come and take them home: two tall wingbacks with a cream on cream brocade material  and light brown legs, slightly higher, very firm, seat cushions, looking brandnew.  Spotted as fast as I could park my car and walk in the house. (I know folks who would be disappointed not to browse over the other chairs, but not me.)
Well!  Did I take them? Yes. $54 apiece, y'all. They had been in my mind for a year, and here they were. We stuffed one in the trunk and I drove home, found my lovely but very strong granddaughters available to carry the first into the house, go with me to pick up the second, and carry it in as well.

 I know how I'm going to do the room.  And I need a couple lamps.

The room has only two outlets, neither anywhere near where I want lamps, so I haven't had them.

But wait a minute....solar power jumped in my mins to wireless, which jumped to a Uverse tv commercial. So they have cordless tvs,  why not lamps? and I went back to Amazon, and sure enough, the rest of you have been buying these, too. Aha! Lithium battery-powered lamps with daylight LED lights will look really, really good. Amazon has some I like. I will check actual physical stores as well.

By summer's end  the living room is going to look pretty darn good. Since I have no crafts or sewing ability, the fact I can refurbish for $200 or $300 is only a testament to my cunning and imagination. Not to mention my luck. 

I will sit in one of my new chairs, sipping my stirred, not shaken, sun tea,  and life  will be good.

They are absolutely wonderful chairs.

I wonder what else Amazon has I don't know anyone sells?

Don't think I'm going to go there.   Um. At least not yet.

But thanks for the shopping guide.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Pawing through Archives for Lost Discovies I want again

+Sometimes, I get a little impatient with the information we have lost before 1990 or so because it isn't on a computer. I'm always reading about some new study that proves something I first read about in the 1960s or 1970s, and everyone has forgotten because it's not on a computer somewhere.

But this is a short blog with one intent.

My elder son once gave me a sun tea jar with a difference:  it had a solar cell in the lid which stirred a spoon, speeding the sun tea infusion process. It was particularly nice if I were mixing in some blackberry tea and mint, because the stirring evened out the flavors in the jar.

I've spent  only about 15 minutes looking, and  I searched under solar cell sun tea jars. It does make me giggle that most of the sites don't sell sun tea jars. Now we are making Solar Powered Tea. ooo! ahhhh! So new. So energy saving! I suspect sun tea may pre0date  the influx of Americans into Tejas, although the ice wasn't available then. Store the jug in a well or river, however, and it might get tolerably cooler.  (That's the way they stored buttermilk, too. Yes, they drank that stuff.)

We did a lot before computers you may never hear about.

I benefit from older parents and grandparents. People in my family tended to marry and have children mostly in their thirties, so I learned a lot about childhood fun in the 1880s and 1890s.

Back in the 1940s, little girls under six or seven often ran around in shorts like their brothers with no shirts.  Not all, but quite a few.  Really. My grandmother born in 1882 was more comfortable with me in a dress, but she put me in an old, thin one on a summer afternoon and stood on the porch and laughed while I ran and danced in the rain.  One of my favorite memories.

I don't know when I quit making sun-tea, or iced tea, for that matter, but I did.  I'm reverting this summer.  I like sweet iced tea only when you add lemon and mint. A friend used to make giant glasses with a wedge of lime,  a wedge of lemon and a wedge of orange on the lip of the glass. That was a treat. Otherwise, I prefer just strong, bracing tea that goes with everything.

Some entrepreneur ought to make those jars with the turning spoon again.  Solar cells for solar tea.
I bet they would sell. A cell sell.

Works for me.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Farmer's Market is one of my ways to savor the summer

Most of the posts I wrote when I couldn't really post are no longer relevant.  

Unfortunately, I am not particularly creative when in "business mode." Not even urgent mode. There are naps.

Today the deck is getting refinished (a misnomer; it never has been treated before) and it's going to be beautiful when finished. The young man doing it is not the fastest I have ever seen. But I was astonished at the difference the power washing made. All the wood is the same color, all the white dimples from the hail are just gone.

The new roof looks great. I compliment my choice of shingle. New gutters and a panel of siding still to come. And honestly?

The roof is what took the beating. The rest simply keeps the value of my home in place. Maybe better. I have two panels of wood siding on the fence to replace this summer due to aging, not weather (I  have about half the fence replaced now. Eventually all will be.)  The spiffiness just makes the spotty paint on the shutters look worse.  Weeds need pulling. Front porch needs sweeping.  Need to wash the glass in the storm doors and...I would like to powerwash the dust off the siding, too.

I guess housekeeping, inside or out, means seeing more to do as you go along.

Inside is going slower, but it is going.  June temps already will hit upper 90s this week, so I have limited time before early mornings will be my times to work outdoors.  We had such a lot of really cold weather this year, and it lasted so long, that we have had little temperate in between. 

The farmer's market got started early this year , with lettuces and spinach selling briskly in May. Neither can stand Texas summers, but we will be getting into the summer vegetables and some fruits--a late, hard freeze messed with our peach crop again.

This summer,  I will be eating a lot of local, which means  zucchini and summer squash, cabbage, tomatoes, beans (when did we quit growing Kentucky Wonders and why?  In the canned foods, they are called Italian Beans and are twice the cost.  I like Kentucky Wonders.)  Tomatoes, cucumbers And , radishes, carrots. Beets.Blackberries, strawberries, some peaches, and  much loved nectarines. Cantalopes, and at the farmer's market, Jerusalem melons, much like cantaloupe but with more flavor.
From south Texas or Mexico, we get a round tennis-ball sized squash called calabesa squash, which is saying squash squash. It is firm and flavorful and great in Mexican dishes and casseroles.

As I do every summer, I am rediscovering  the wonderful combination of  a nectarine with a length  of string cheese,  and how good cottage cheese is with chopped green onions and quartered  garden-ripe tomatoes. And don't forget ice-chilled  sliced cucumbers with thin slices of vedalia or 1040 onions in icecold salt water with  apple cider vinegar and a tablespoon of sugar.  And perfectly sweet, firm cantaloupe eaten slice by slice till it's all gone.

I've got a pot of spearmint growing and have my eye out for a good jar to make sun tea.  Forty years ago, maybe 30, my eldest gave me a wonderful jar with a solar cell in the lid that would turn a spoon in the tea. I't lasted for years and then broke. I've never seen another one like it, and I want one.

Daughter-in-law cut up a watermelon and sent over a big bowlful of chunks which I almost have finished in two days. I can't eat even one of the small ones and I'm darned if I'll spend $4 to have the store cut it up for me. This was a real treat,

I've bought locally in season as much as possible all of my life. It's kind of fun being on the trendy edge of something for a change.

I love new potatoes when they really are new, apples the same in the fall, with more broccoli, spinach and cabbage coming in fall gardens.

Time goes so quickly now that  these are delightful reminders of the best parts of each season.

I plan to savor the season.  And eat a lot of the savory.