A Walk in the Rain

I am slowly trying to get back some level of fitness, so I have been walking on Monte Sano, our over-sized hill that we lovingly call The Mountain.  Today at 8am, the temperature was already 80° and the heat index was 85°, so it pays to go early.  The Weather Channel said we had a slight possibility of widely scattered thunderstorms in the evening.  No problem, I thought!

I hadn't even gone a quarter of a mile when it started to rain.  At first, it was just hitting the leaves of the trees and not making it to the ground, but of course, that didn't last.  Before I had gone 2 miles, I was completely soaked!  There must be a word for people like that — deranged comes to mind — but I kept on walking until I had my full 4 miles and then some.  Surprisingly, I saw relatively few people out there on the trails today . . . maybe they knew something I didn't?

I am one of those people who hates to step in mud.  I will step off the trail into the weeds (this is a Southern forest we're talking about; every inch of ground is covered with some kind of plant, many of them poisonous!) just to avoid the mud.  But today, after valiantly trying to stay out of the mud for about half the walk, I finally gave up and walked right through the next puddle.  I just got the biggest grin on my face and I felt just like a kid splashing in the puddles.  Everyone should try it at least once!

The sun tried to come out for a few minutes while it was still raining and the greens were absolutely luminous.

Photo courtesy of mountain.bike198.com

A Pillow for my Dad

I made this pillow for my Dad for Father's Day.  He used to love hunting ring-necked pheasants, so I hope he likes the pillow!  This is really the first needlepoint I have ever done, other than two tiny little things.  I know my pillow is nowhere near the quality that my sister makes at C'est Chouette, but I did my best!  I even put a zipper in the back so he can take out the insert to wash if it needs it, and as my husband says, I'm lousy at zippers!

My Newest Favorite Etsy Site

Love handmade jewelry?  Have a look at this site, gals!

Lady of Leisure

You may have noticed that most of my posts lately are book reviews!  There are two reasons for that.  First, I had surgery again at the end of April, and I wasn't allowed to do much; hence the copious reading.

And secondly, I got laid off from my job of 20 years, right in the middle of my medical leave.  I'm not as upset about that as many might be, because I have been wanting to retire for quite awhile now, but my husband doesn't think we can afford it.  I am looking for something else, but my severance package was very generous, and I sure would like to have a break!  I've been working since I was 11 years old, sometimes two jobs at once, and I am so ready for the next phase of my life.

I'm not sure what the future holds at this point, but I do know one thing — I'm going to spend some time with my Dad this summer!

She Wakes by Jack Ketchum

Book Description:
Greece.  Ancient land of mystery, legend and myth.  It is here that businessman Jordan Chase visits an historic tomb, only to experience a dark vision of the future.  And it is here, amidst the beauty of the landscape, that Lelia, a gorgeous but dangerous woman, befriends a group of tourists . . . to lure them into a nightmare of pain and terror.  She lives to seduce and destroy, to feed off her human prey.  Lelia is more than myth, more than superstition.  Lelia is deadly.

My Review:
E-e-e-e-u-u-u-w-w-w!  A very strange story indeed.  This is another one of those books that was recommended on the Books-A-Million booklover's calendar.  I would never have chosen this book on my own, but I was having a slump on books coming up on my wishlist on BookMooch, so I added some from the booklover's calendar that looked even remotely promising.  I should know better!

Fortunately, this book was quick to read, and in its own way, gripping.  But I can't say I liked it.  Too much sex and bad language for me.  And then there was the flesh-eating part, and the rape part, and the cruelty, and the snakes and the mean cats.  I did enjoy the descriptions of Greece, though, and I would love to visit someday.  I would hope it is not as tourist-y as described in the book, but I suppose it probably is.  I never did figure out what Jordan Chase's role really was, and the ending didn't make much sense to me at all.

This is definitely a horror story with not nearly as much tie-in to Greek mythology as it would like you to believe.

Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen

Book Description:
Beware!  Honey Santana is off her meds, reacting rapidly to the bad behavior of others.  This time, the annoyer is a telemarketer from Texas.  Honey's revenge?  She invites Boyd Shreave on a paid ecotour of the Everglades, where a blue-eyed Seminole named Sammy Tigertail strums an electric guitar on a woe-begotten clump of shells, mangroves, and beer cans called Dismal Key.  Soon Boyd and vengeance-crazed Honey are joined by a private eye with a red-hot video camera and a college girl who just wants to have fun.  And with a brawling cast of lunatic men, desperate women, a skateboarding teen, and even a restless ghost all going native, who will protect the Everglades from the wild humans?

My Review:
This is a crazy, fast-paced romp through the Florida Everglades with a wacky cast of characters.  This is nothing like Orlando or Miami, but real Florida, with alligators, snakes, mosquitos and fire ants.

Honey Santana likes to teach people lessons, especially when soulless telemarketers interrupt the precious time she spends with her son.

Sammy Tigertail's first day on the job as a boat guide for the tribe goes terribly wrong when a drunken tourist dies of a heart attack, and he is afraid he will be blamed.

Boyd Shreave is a loser from Texas whose current job is calling people at dinner-time to offer them lots in Florida.  He is having an affair with his co-worker, Eugenie, and is being spied on by his wife's PI.

Somehow, all these people, plus a few more, end up on tiny Dismal Key in the middle of the Everglades.  What follows is like a Shakespearean comedy of errors—highly entertaining.  This book would make a great movie!

Ricky has Graduated!

Ricky has graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Civil Engineering, just like Mom.  We are so proud of both of our boys!  It hardly seems like it has been 23 years since he was born...I guess your baby will always be your baby!

Just last year, it was Bobby who graduated.  Now, they are both men, ready to take on the world.  {Sniff, snuffle, sniff...}