Book Review: Emma

Emma, by Jane Austen

By all accounts, Jane Austen led a sheltered life.  So perhaps it is somewhat surprising that she had an uncanny ability to see deeply into the emotional lives of people.  Her six novels describe the nuances of people, and she had a gift for writing about the complex personalities of her characters and their daily lives, in a way that brought them to life.  All this despite the fact that Austen lived her entire life in only a few places, without much money or prospects. She never married, and died after a long illness at the age of 41.

Emma is no exception to Austen’s talent for character development.  She is a bright, vivacious young woman who lives with her sickly father in the small village of Highbury, sixteen miles outside of London.  She has decided that she will never marry. 

Emma spends her days socializing, taking care of her father, matchmaking for her friends, and forming opinions about all her neighbors and acquaintances.  Sometimes her meddling goes awry, as when she convinces her friend Harriet that a Mr. Elton is interested in courting her, and encourages to discard another suitor whom Emma deems not good enough.  When Mr. Elton returns from Bath with a wife, well, OOPS…  Emma continues along this way, a wealthy society girl with nothing better to occupy her time than judging everybody she comes into contact with. 

The most action in the novel are a foray to a nearby home to pick strawberries, a minor run-in with a band of gypsies, and planning a ball that almost ended up not happening.  Many describe Emma as Austen’s worst novel due to this lack of action, but it still contains the rich character development.  You still see Emma’s strengths and flaws, and find yourself relating to her cringe-worthy moments.  I mean, we’ve all been there.  You become invested in the characters.  I found myself truly wanting them to succeed or fail. 

That said, it is probably still my least favorite of the Austen novels, but I’m still glad I finally read it. 

3 stars. 

COVID Diaries: Day 467

Today is the third day in a row that it has felt hotter than the surface of the sun here in the Pacific Northwest.  The predictions for a record breaking heatwave were not exaggerated.  Both yesterday and today, we have broken an the all-time high temperature for my city.  96 degrees yesterday, and 99 today.  Out in the county, and further south the temps are about 10 degrees hotter.  Where my mom lives, it topped out at 108 today. 
 
I know many of you probably read this and wonder why we Northwesterners can’t handle the heat.  But hear me out.  We rarely (or never?) get temps this high here.  Only about a third of the homes here even have air-conditioning.  Our temperatures are moderate year round, so our homes aren’t insulated in a way that keeps out the heat.
 
My non-air-conditioned home reached a high of 93 degrees yesterday and 95 today.  Yes, that’s INSIDE.  And that’s on the first floor, where the thermostat is.  I would guess that upstairs is about 10 degrees hotter.  And before you say, just go somewhere cool, there really isn’t someplace cool.  Many of our restaurants and public buildings don’t have air-conditioning either.  In fact, many of our restaurants have shut down because of the heat.  Even if they were open, we are still dealing with COVID capacity limits…  UGH.
 
The pavement on some of our roads is literally buckling.  They have closed roads and highways to assess the safety of the roads and the damage.
 
I’ve been chilling wet food for the kitties, and giving them cold, cold water.  They are basically just lying around in a puddle. That’s pretty much how I feel.  I’ve been drinking so much water and iced tea and moving a fan around wherever I go.  I’m still hot!
 
Last night I went out for a cocktail with a friend in the glorious air conditioning!  It was hard to leave.  Seriously.

The good news is that today is supposed to be the last day of the crippling heat.  Tomorrow’s high forecast temperature here is 83 degrees.  I imagine I’ll have to put on a sweater – HA!  I have been sleeping on the couch because my bedroom is upstairs, and I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tomorrow night.  Right now 5 minutes upstairs has me sweating like I’ve been pouring water over the rocks in a sauna!  I just have to make it through tonight!

I hope you are all staying cool!

Circus Trip 2018: Adams NHP

Day 58, Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Adams National Historical Park, Quincy, Massachusetts

Our second President John Adams lived almost his whole life in Quincy, Massachusetts.  Which makes it easy for a person who wants to see most of the homes a President has lived in, in one tour!  In actuality, Adams was born in 1735 in Braintree, Massachusetts, but the part of Braintree where he was born eventually became Quincy.

The Adams National Historical Park contains an incredible amount of Adams family history, and in a small area around Quincy.  The visitor’s center is downtown, and from there you can book a trolley tour that takes you to the John Adams birthplace home, the John Quincy Adams birthplace home where John and Abigail raised their family, and finally, Peace field, the home that John and Abigail purchased as their retirement home.  The tours are on hiatus due to COVID, so you can come along on mine!

The John Adams Birthplace home is a saltbox style home, originally built in 1681.  It was purchased in 1720 by John Adams’ father, Deacon John Adams, and John was born there in 1735.  It is the first stop on the tour, and you get to go inside and check out the first floor rooms.  There is such history here!

The John Quincy Adams Birthplace home is also a traditional saltbox style home, originally built in 1663, and purchased by John Adams’ father in 1744.  John Adams inherited it when his father passed in 1661, and moved Abigail to this home, right next door to his own birthplace home.  Their son, John Quincy Adams, was born in this home in 1767.  John Adams also drafted the Massachusetts State Constitution from this home in 1779.

In 1787, John and Abigail Adams purchased Peace field, a home that was to be their retirement home, and moved there in 1788.  It was built originally in 1731, and at that time consisted of two first floor rooms, two bedrooms and an attic.  John and Abigail had purchased it sight unseen while they were living in London, after the loyalist owners left Massachusetts during the Revolutionary War.  Abigail was dissatisfied by the home, and set about enlarging it.  Now, Peace field is much larger than the other homes, and more modern.  Four generations of the Adams family lived here, from from 1788 to 1927.  The home was donated to the Park Service in 1946. 

The homes are all incredible, but one building on this tour really takes the cake.  The Stone Library was built in 1870; it was stipulated in John Quincy Adams’ will in 1847.  It took his son Charles another 23 years to finish it, but now about 10% of the books it contains belonged to John Adams, and the majority were from John Quincy Adams’ collection.  The Adams family children between 1870 and 1927 were able to use the library to read and write, and at least four books were written here.  Charles Francis Adams wrote portions of the ten volume, Diary of John Adams, the twelve volume, The Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, and The Letters of Abigail Adams in this library, and his son, Henry Adams worked on his History of the United States here too.

What a wonderful tour to see these historic sites!

 

 

COVID Diaries: Day 464

It’s the weekend! Unfortunately, it is going to be a scorcher! The Pacific Northwest is going to have record breaking heat through Monday, and in an area where most of us don’t have air conditioning! It is supposed to be 96 degrees here on Monday!

Still, I made it through my workweek and I’m glad to get a few days of a break, so that’s cause for celebration.

I’m hoping to get some home purging done, going through closets and drawers, and getting rid of things I don’t need. Let’s see how I do!  I’m sure I’ll have to carry the fan around throughout the house as I go, and point it directly at me.  I also want to give this blog some attention, and go through the photos from my trip!

Next week, our state is going to fully reopen.  It’s been a long time coming, as we are one of only four states yet to reopen.

On my flight home on Sunday, I watched Nomadland, with Frances McDormand.  First of all, she is an incredible actress.  Second of all, even though the movie was hyped as super-depressing, I was inspired!  I have been thinking an awful lot over the last year about my road trip and getting back on the road.  I’ll admit that I plan to do it with quite a bit more of a safety net in terms of money but traveling around and seeing the country (and the world), has such an appeal for me!  I’ve been focusing on saving money for my early retirement throughout COVID, and this just makes me want to buckle down and get there faster!

Life is short, and nothing is guaranteed, so we should do what we can to achieve our dreams.  I always feel so grateful that my parents had 20 years of retirement to enjoy before my father died, but that was only because he retired at 53.  What if he had waited until he was 65?  If there is anything that I have learned, it is that I’m not working a day longer than I have to.

Happy Friday everybody!

COVID Words of Wisdom: “We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.” ― Confucius

Book Review: The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield

The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield: A Tragedy of the Gilded Age, by H.W. Brands

This book was on sale at my local bookstore a few years back and it piqued my interest…  Murder?  Romance?  The Gilded Age?  Bring it on!

I had never heard of Jim Fisk, and you probably haven’t either.  He was a stockbroker and corporate executive, and one of the robber barons of the gilded age.  Have you heard about the 1869 Black Friday Gold Panic?  Yep, that was Jim Fisk and his business associate Jay Gould, trying to artificially manipulate gold prices, during the Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant.  Thanks to their connections to Boss Tweed, and their buying off of New York judges, they managed to avoid prosecution.

Jim Fisk was married, but that didn’t stop him from having a high profile affair with Josie Mansfield, and setting her up in an apartment as a kept woman.  All was going swimmingly, until Josie decided to leave him for another business associate of his, Edward Stokes.  The scandal escalated and eventually culminated in Jim Fisk’s murder.  But who was responsible?

Brands’ book explores the lives of the elite robber barons of the Victorian Era, as well as the corruption that was rampant across New York during the period.  It was interesting to see how the various players were tied together, and how money ruled above all else.

3 stars.

Refreshed…

Did you miss me?  Did you notice I’ve been away?  Well I’m back!

I’ve been on vacation!  My first real vacation since before the pandemic, and my longest vacation since my road trip in 2018.  I ran away for a full 10 days, and I made the most of my time away!  It was glorious!  I barely checked my work email, and nobody from work called.  I had so much fun exploring the Midwest, roaming around finding little nooks and crannies.  I cannot even tell you how much I have missed vacation!

Today was my first day back at work, after arriving home late last night.  Don’t worry, both Cora and Yellow have forgiven me.  Cora wanted pets as soon as I walked in the door last night.  Yellow took until mid-morning today to decide to give me a chance, but once he got a taste of those pets, he was all in…

I’ll be back to posting soon.  I’ve got adulting to do, since I have no groceries and the place needs a vacuuming.  How does the house get dirty when I’m not even here!?  Meanwhile, meet Big Ole!

 

Book Review: Keep Moving

Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity and Change, by Maggie Smith

“Accept that you do not get to choose who loves you, who keeps their promises, who forgives.  But you can choose to love, to keep your promises, to forgive.  Choose well.  Have — and live — your own say.  Keep Moving.” 

Maggie Smith experienced the crushing loss of divorce, after 20 years of marriage.  To begin healing and moving on, she told herself that everyday, she must write.  It might be nothing but a few sentences, but she wrote.  This book is a collection of the things she wrote, the things she told herself to keep moving.

Each quotation expresses the profound sorrow of loss, but also the idea of hope.  In reading them, her readers can choose which resonate the most; which quotations help them to keep moving.

“Tell yourself kinder truths.  You are not failing at life; you are reeling, sure, but you are succeeding at surviving.  Keep Moving.”

5 stars.

 

COVID Diaries: Day 443

Meet Yellow.  Yellow came to live with me a week ago, after I managed to capture him on May 27 and made him endure the agonizing trip to the V.E.T…

Yellow has been around outside for a few years now; my previous neighbor fed him along with a host of other feral and neighborhood cats, raccoons, deer and squirrels.  He has come over to my deck for years, where Cora got all worked up and meowed at him from her various window perches.

Sadly, my neighbor died last August and her family sold the house.  The new owners told me that the real estate agreement included a clause stating that they would continue to feed Yellow.  Instead they built a fence and got a big, energetic dog.

Yellow did what any intelligent, self-respecting cat would do; he found a new sucker.  He moved over to my house and started giving me the big, sad, ‘won’t you feed me?’ eyes.  Once I started feeding him he began to trust me and let me pet him.  So I made plans to capture him and get him checked out.  Meanwhile, Cora seemed to get used to him; she would watch him out the window, but she no longer seemed to get upset at his presence.

He has no chip, but he was neutered, so he obviously had a home at some point.  He has an abscess under his armpit, so he got an antibiotic shot to hopefully set that on the mend.  It doesn’t seem to be bothering him.  He’s doing just fine being an indoor only cat, and does not seem in the least interested in the outdoor life.  He and Cora are adjusting and there haven’t been any big squabbles, no growling, and just one hiss.  He is still wary of her, and she seems mostly interested in trying to steal his food and making sure he doesn’t steal too much of my attentions.

Yellow’s hobbies so far include:

• Snoozing in the guest room
• Wrapping himself around my legs when I sit at the computer
• Singing the song of his people between 1 and 3 am
• Producing copious amounts of eye boogers

He is very friendly and very mellow; he didn’t have any objection to me trimming his claws even!  I do suspect he’s been low energy due to the fact that he got several vaccinations and his infection, so we’ll see!  Even though it has only been a week, I’m confident that he will settle in just fine…

Book Review: The Sanatorium

The Sanatorium, by Sarah Pearse

Le Sommet is a luxury hotel located deep in the mountains of the Swiss Alps.  It is also a converted tuberculosis sanatorium.  Elin Warner is a British police detective who is on a leave of absence from her job after an attempt to apprehend a murderer goes horribly wrong.

The hotel has recently opened after an extensive revisioning, fraught with conflict, protests, and the disappearance of the principal architect. 

Elin’s brother is getting married, and she would like to repair their estranged relationship, as he is the only family she has left.  Elin and her boyfriend head up for a week at Le Sommet, where her brother’s fiance works.  While they are there, the road up is wiped out due to an avalanche, and the funicular is stopped due to high winds.  And then, the murders begin. 

The police can’t get there, because all access is blocked.  But Elin can help, by beginning the investigation.  Does she have the nerve?

Sarah Pearse thriller takes the reader on a fast paced murder mystery with a series of twists and turns.  Don’t assume you know who did it!  She weaves the story of the hotel’s prior life as a sanatorium into her novel, making its history an integral part of the story.  Even though this isn’t a genre I typically go for, I was intrigued the whole way through!

3 stars.