Books galore

It is either I can not read because I am too busy, or don't feel like reading a book-which happens unfortunately at times, or I am reading a few books at a time. I never could do that before-read more than a book at a time. I wanted to give all my attention to one set of characters, let them float around in my head, enjoy meeting them, and then sorry to leave them by the wayside as I jumped into another author's efforts.

But now, I am reading a whole bunch of different books. "The Shack" by Wm. Paul Young. I am about to give up on this one. It was given to me as a must read. I tried, could not get into the story. Gave it back, and the same SFriend gave it back to me and insisted that I needed to finish it-"I was about to get into the great par"t-she knew this because I left my bookmark in my give-up point. That bookmark is actually one that we had made as a favor for our wedding, nice little quote, purple tassel to match the invitations, and heres the best part-it was free from the engravers! I can not get past this one part in the story-but don't let me discourage any of you from reading this book-we all have our own style that we enjoy.

Next on the list, "Luncheon of the Boating Party" by Susan Vreeland. It is based around the time of the painting by the same name by Renoir, and he is one of the characters. Very nice period piece reading. Next, "eat, pray, love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, not a novel, her reflections on her journey through her soul and back by way of Italy, India and Bali. I told Shusband that I am sorry that I have almost finished this book, I am enjoying it more than I thought I would, and that I am not skimming parts that are not dialogue is real growth on my part! She has another book out called "Committed" which is the sequel, I am sure I will read that also.

Another book that is a reflection book is by Jan Karon-do you know him? He writes a series of books with Fr. Tim of the Mitford series, and this book represents as a copy of the journal which Fr. Tim keeps-not just for his thoughts, reminders, but also where he collects favorite quotes. It is so beautifully bound-to look just like a cherished journal-and, the pages are done just as a journal would be ink with cursive writing.

It is not read from front to back as his other novels are, but small doses at a time, with poignant little personal notes mixed with the quotes and thoughts. SAunt gave this to me, and I am very grateful, and happy that she knew how much I would enjoy this. Hopefully this will not sound too disrespectful, but as a child/young adult, I thought I matched her more than my SMother. I did not understand the fact that being in the same gene pool as my SA we had some of all in us, so we did not have to be "all or nothing" of our parents. Those who know SM know that a harder worker could not be found, and she was a woman who raised 5 children on her own.

Now of course I have learned in my own family that environment is also a key factor for who we become, and who we choose to be. Hey wait, this was about books I am reading, not the "BOOK OF SARAH" (did you know that is my real name?).

I just purchased three books at Dollar General, all for $3. each, such a bargain! I will let you know how they are. I have found some real gems there.

Are you a reader? Not talking about your ability, but your desire. Reading can sometimes save the day or take away the day-fine line must be drawn, just like the Internet, TV or whatever keeps you from being part of your world.

New Drapes are up.

You might remember that I reluctantly took down my pretend window covering-the printed scarf and needed to put up some WINTER IS HERE SILLY GOOSE drapes. Here is a picture of the old look, and now the new look.

This close-up shows what color they are: Rustic Red, which looks like a dark brick red.

So listen, I really did not think I would like them at all, and guess what? I do already. It feels cozy when they are closed, and for those nights that I am not sleeping, I can go in this now warmer, quiet room and read away, like the latest book I just finished, "The Shanghai Girls", by Lisa See.

This, that and the other thing

Just a few things I have been involved in lately:

Battery jumping-sounds like an Olympic sport, but all of us who drive know it is much more important. I used to help many years ago when cars needed their batteries restarted-but honestly, I was always scared that I would touch something wrong and do a little cardiac defrib on me or others. I avoided ever being the one responsible for red to red, black to black. Then, my cars were more dependable, AAA was my friend, so I didn't even need to think about battery jumping again....until two days ago. We were dropping off the Rav-4 for garage maintenance, etc, so SHusband was going to take his seldom driven little car and drive me home from the local garage. But, little car did not start, just played that little song we all hate "click, click, click". You know the one, it translates into "I ain't doing nottin'. So, I said, let's call AAA, SH said, no, that's OK, let's just do it ourselves. I do try to listen to other's opinions lately, so I agreed to give it a try. It was difficult for SH to move from car to car, leaning on them, but I helped, and YES, BABY! The little car started! What a sense of accomplishment. No need to wait for AAA, it took us just about 15 minutes. Off we went to finish our car delivery. I do know that when a car battery is jumped, that you do not turn the car off for 30 minutes, so that it can recharge, and we did that. Covered all bases.

The next day, yesterday, we needed to use the little car again to go pick up the newly refreshed, inspected and full of yummy new oil Rav-4. The garage called 15 minutes before closing, and off we went to trade a check for a car. But, the little car played that same song, "click, click, click". ARE YOU KIDDING ME? What the heck. We of course could not do our now perfected battery jumping-we had no "jumpee". It was too late to ask SDaughter to come drive, all neighbors were probably at work or with other obligations. In we went, called and our mechanic, who is also an almost neighbor, offered to pick me up on his way to work the next morning, and drive me to the shop. Only in the country could this be an offered service I think.

I knew that he had a big-as in high off the ground truck, so instead of sleeping last night, I was trying to figure out how I was going to haul everything up there onto the seat. So listen, I have a Rubbermaid step under our bed, we have fairly new mattress and box spring and they are really deep, and hard to crawl up onto. Sometimes we do the "flop" technique, but the better way is to pull out this cute little stool and like a queen, gracefully step up onto the bed. Can you picture that? Who would have thought that a grownup would need to do that? That little stool was put onto my porch this morning and when he arrived at 7:40am, I smiled, opened the passenger door, and said "WOW", he pointed out the hand grip-that was just out of my reach, unless I did a little bit of a hop. I asked him to wait, just a minute please, just like a switchboard operator with many years of experience, retrieved the stool, asked SSon(who was waiting for his van to pick him up for work-nicely late this morning) to move it after I was all aboard, and another problem solved.

After finishing my day's activities, (including a lovely new haircut) we jumped the battery again on the little car and drove it to be fixed.

But, here is another reason I was not sleeping last night-I realized that we were without a working car. When is the last time you were without wheels? We are do dependent on the freedom of turning the key and off you go to serve, save, and all the other tasks of life. I am in the position of being the driver for various family situations, and that is hard to do without a car, or at least one that starts. I know, I know, I worry too much, I plan too much, but that is my thing, a gift and a curse.

Another thing I did recently was get a new very much more hi-tech cell phone. I was a happy camper with my basic trac phone, but I wanted a cameraphone. I love to take pictures, I often think while I am driving, oh, I wish I could show that to SH. So I checked with the trac phone company before purchasing the upgrade, and I was assured that it would be "no problem". I will never trust that phrase again!

Here is the bottom line: after three weeks, at least 10 phone calls, to the misnamed "help line", some lasting over an hour for goodness sake, a total of three phones sent to me, an additional SIM card (brain of the phone), and, nothing worked, but then, a very dedicated tech support person found out that the reason nothing would work is because some uncaring representative gave away my phone number!!! The number that I shared with all, was now in the great abyss. I threw in the towel, and after speaking to friends living in the same town, found out that Verizon has great coverage in our little community. I checked out their programs and products online and off I went, and came home with my new best friend. Even my hi-tech SDaughter said it was sweet. I am still learning how all the keys work, but have taken pictures, and am loving this step up. I think I can surf the web and check e-mail, but have not had time to tame that monster yet.

Also, today, SD and I had lunch, and saw the movie "Lovely Bones". It is not usually the type of movie I enjoy since I choose not to read or see stories about a young girl who gets brutally murdered, but the book caught my sleeve as I was walking by at Barnes and Noble, it passed the skim-read a few pages here and there as my preview technique, and home it went. I thought it was really well written and centered on the main character watching those on earth from her heaven. It is not a movie for all, but we were glad we went, and had time together before her intense months ahead of student teaching full-time.

And the other thing I did? Well, talk to you of course!