flight paths discussion

Sometimes literally.

thanks Ice for getting June up and running...and thank goodness the 2 fires in the region seem to be out. I was planning a juicy one but the the main thing is its done.
its funny, its only been a couple of days that i was distracted by a visitor and i feel longing to know how everyone in our little group is faring.
Petra and MaryAnne I am still unsure of my schedule. The biggest distraction is my landlord is coming back from Mexico and hes sent his black cloud ahead. Hes super pissed at me for the big mess as he considers it: his agent sent a photo to him when she was here for the tenant she was evicting who finally left....but she was horrified by a bag of dirt and my lovely planting station.
Ellie counting days now
June is the fastest month
Megan hope your feeling good back at work
Shannon and Natasha it would be good to hear from you too!
Hardly got to read at all with all the commotion around here and now the birds are singing time to wake up

Happy June! I can't believe it's June already.

No rush, Magdelanye. Let us know when you're coming down. Hopefully things will work out well. I'm trying to stay open.

Ellie, how are you feeling? Only a few weeks left. It can start to feel real & uncertain now. Keep your eyes on the ball. Let everything else roll off your back. It's all going to work out well. The change is uncertain but the reality of retirement will be blissful.

Magdelanye, what?!!! The agent doesn't like a few pots, plants and bags of dirt? I'm sorry to hear that your landlord is upset. Perhaps he misunderstood what the agent told him?

I finished reading Malone Dies. I am finding this trilogy intriguing and difficult and don't think I'm getting it very much. I can't say whether I'm enjoying it or not so I'm gave both books 3-star so far. I'm hoping the final book of the trilogy will help me make sense of it all.

I'm now continuing with the Hithhiker's Guide series by reading Life, the Universe and Everything.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is Tai-Chi day and some carving. I started my first wood carving project: a tiny Snowman. Carving is a lot of fun.

Magdelanye, I hope your landlord is more understanding once he actually comes and understands your "dirt".

Petra, I was starting to feel how slowly these last days go when my daughter gave me an early retirement gift: a MacBook! I've wanted one for years but she always talked me out of it because they're really out of our budget. I am so touched by the gift. I feel, however, like the greatest gift has always been just her and her brother.

I got my rating for the year: highly effective so I feel like I was able to end my career well.

I'm reading The Topeka School by an author I like a lot (forgive me if I've already written about this; I can hardly keep track of anything I do these days): Ben Lerner. He's a fine poet and I've liked his other novels. I won this one through GR. I'm about halfway through and I feel like it's just gotten really interesting.

Otherwise, I'm finally watching Game of Thrones with my children who have loved it all these years. It's really too violent for me; I spend half the episodes with my eyes closed but it's nice to share something they love and when it's not violent, it's good storytelling. Makes me want to finally read The Lord of the Rings which I'm sure is much better world building. Maybe when I finally retire although my TBR list is, to say the least, already daunting!

Petra, I hope to read the rest of the Hitchhiker series when I retire. I enjoyed the one I read (the first I think)

Ellie, a MacBook is a wonderful gift! You're really going to enjoy that.

I still have my original copy of Lord of The Rings, which I bought when I was 14 or 15. I've read it multiple times. It's a wonderful story.


I have this version:

I am an ardent Lord of the Rings fan, not for me the likes of Harry Potter, and having read (not seen) Game of Thrones it's ok, but wanders a little. On a similar theme I felt that Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series went on 5 books too long.
Looking forward either this or next summer holiday to read The Hobbit to the grandsons (Let's hope I can remember the accents I used when I read this to my daughter some 20 years ago).

Hi everyone!
I am insanely jealous of all the retirement plans going on in this thread. Only 30ish more years for me!

It's finally raining here, so I'm hoping that will help with the wildfires, what a mess already.

@Magdelanye I hope things get smoothed out with your landlord, sounds like it was a misunderstanding.

I finally finished reading There There and honestly it just wasn't the book for me. I totally get what the author was trying to do, but with 12 different points of view I found that by the time the story rolled around to someone again I wasn't emotionally invested in them anymore. Two of the best multiple points of view books I've read is Scarborough and The Break

Now I'm reading My Sister, the Serial Killer and I'm really enjoying it. I also finished reading American Gods and that book blew me away, it was unlike anything I had ever read before.

Sorry Megan that the book didnt engage you more. I found the number of characters a bit challenging until I was in the swing of it and I thought it gave depth to what we read in a banner news blip.
Im about to read My Sister etc. God i hope its funny. Im a bit stalled on Split Tooth but i had 2 other very good books to read that were coming due.
I missed out on seeing GoT because of no tv but i can't wait to catch up. Curiously, i dont feel the need to read the books. Ice I read the Hobbit to my son when he was 4.
It took ages each bedtime for months and i believe by the time we finished he could read.
I think id trade being 30 years younger for being retired ...altho maybe not. The world has gotten so much more difficult to navigate.
The next few weeks will speed by Ellie I know it.
May it be a breeze.

Petra ans MaryAnne I definately will be coming in to Van soon but things are pretty unstable here so im still not sure when i can get away .

Magdelanye, thank you for recommending Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God: Poems. I had to put this down many times to let me feeling move through me. These poems resonated. Many of these poems stabbed me in the heart, they were so perfectly worded.

thats great Petra
you wrote such a moving reveiw I cant wait to get my hands on it
im trying to organize my trip to Van on Mon or tues. June just slips away

It's Indigenous Peoples day, so I found a list of books for us to read:

https://www.cbc.ca/books/14-books-to-...

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!!

I'm 2/3 done A Moveable Feast and really enjoying it. I am on the hunt for other Hemingway books to read after this one.

Megan, I'm a wary reader of Hemingway. I am still making up my mind whether I like his writing after having to dissect (literally) The Old Man and the Sea in high school. That had me avoiding Hemingway for over 20 years.

Two of his books that I quite liked were:
Islands in the Stream
The Garden of Eden (this was a very strange story)

That's a good list.

I've read and enjoyed River Woman. Some of the others are on my radar and many I haven't heard of. Thanks, Megan.

@Petra, I read Old Man & The Sea last year and LOVED it. I feel like I need to reread The Sun Also Rises, as I read it about 20 years ago.

Thanks for the review of River Woman, I will try and find it at the library. :)

I think I heard of River Woman from Magdelanye. She deserves all the credit for finding this gem.

Thanks for the recommendations. I will especially try to find River Woman.

Moveable Feast may be my favorite Hemingway (I'm not a huge Hemingway fan but I loved this one, by and large).

re Hemingway
Im with Petra on this one, still on the fence about this guy.
My first serious boyfriend revered the man and movable feast was his favorite book. I loved it too so for quite a while I thought I loved him. Over the years however I read some of his more awful work and now Im back on the fence.

june certainly has flamed out and Im glad! Having a wildfire across the street was beyond scary. At some point I was trying to decide what to take if we had to evacuate. My library books! So thankful one of the most challenging months of my entire life is done

I'm glad that the fire was contained and that you & your neighbours are safe.
June has certainly flown by. Onwards to July.