A reading addiction 01-24-23

What do I do all day?  Beside keeping KoKo walked, fed, excercised, and petted, I read.  It is a life long addiction, but much worse since Covid slowed the world down.  I have so many projects in progress or in my mind, but instead I read.  Other than Sci-Fi and fantasy I read just about anything.  There are some series that I especially enjoy, this is the latest in one of those.  . 

This is the sixteenth volume following Maisie Dobbs, an English investigator, from before WWI to 1942 in the midst of WWII.  I have missed the last two volumes, so I will have to read those.  I don't think Ms. Winspear is a terrific writer, sometimes she is wordy and sometimes simplistic, but she has a good story line and her research is valid as far as I can tell.   This book focuses on the ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) in which women piloted war planes from factories and air bases to the forward bases for the guys to fly into battle.  In the USA we had the WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots) doing the same job.  [For Surfside QGuild readers this is the service that our late friend Bette Bradley participated in during WWII]

Not a series, but I recently re-read "The World According to Garp" by John Irving.  I had enjoyed reading it in 1979 and always remember that my husband asked me not to read it in bed at night because my laughing woke him up, so I always have that it was humorous.  WRONG!  It is rather a downer with only a very few funny bits.  One of them being the son who hear "undertow" at the beach as "under Toad" and thus look for the toad whenever they were at the shore.  But Irving is a very good writer and I think I have read all of his books sometime in the past. 

This month the Book Group is reading "REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES". By Shelby Van Pelt.  I understand it is about octopi and how smart they are.  I will wait to read it closer to the meeting the third Wednesday of February, so I can remember enough to participate in the discussion!  

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A Rental Car 12-14-17

Several weeks ago when I was returning from San Diego in stop and go traffic, the lady behind me forgot to stop.  She didn't hit me very hard, but we did the right thing and moseyed over to the right and got off at the next exit.  It looked to me like just paint scrapes, but she had lost her front license plate and the screws were embedded in my bumper.  So, we exchanged info and she called her mother while we were doing that.  The mother wanted to talk to me and told me they would pay to repair the damage without going through the insurance company.  So, okay.  But it took me a few days to get estimates.  I called her and told her they would have to replace the bumper, so the cost would be $1,083.00!  Seems like a lot, but the estimates were all about the same and I wanted to take it to some place convenient for me.  I did that yesterday and called Enterprise Rentals because I am uncomfortable being without a car.  The body shop thinks it will be ready on Friday and I am really hoping that will happen. 

 

The rental is a Hyundai which I have thought are good looking cars, but I wouldn't want to own one.  And now I KNOW I don't want to own one.  First of all, I am used to tall car (my Lexus 330RX) and with my bad hips I have a hard time getting in and out of a low car.  Open the door, turn around and lower my butt to the seat, then struggle to lift both my legs over the door sill and swivel to face forward.  Same getting out.  It is a struggle.  Secondly, I am used to a tall car (Lexus, etc.) and in this Hyundai I am so low that the lights coming at me and those in my mirrors are right in my face so I felt like I was about half blind.  Guess I will be home before the sun goes down about 4:30pm tomorrow night!  Thirdly, it is soooo noisy, more road noise than I am used to and a sort of tinny feeling to go along with it.  I read a list of the cars with the most fatal accidents and this car was on the list.  Whoa!  

 

On the good side it is a festive Christmas red which matches my habit of wearing red during December.  It has a display panel that shows the time, date, day of the week - handy for a forgetful old broad like me.  My first car was red, the only red one I have owned.  It was a 1956 Mercury convertible which I drove everywhere with the top down.  That was before I wore a hat all the time and I had to stop at a convenience store to buy a straw hat when I went out in the desert.  I tied in down with a scarf - I wasn't lovely, but my brains didn't fry. 

 

One should have these adventures once in a while, just to find out how others live, I guess!

 

I went down to sit with Bette today and met her very nice doctor.  Bette is in hospice, but she still has a grip like a wrestler.  Ouch!  I'll try to go down tomorrow again.  She told me today that she is going to get better.  From her lips to God's ear! 

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Those sad times come more frequently. 12-12-17

I went to sit with my friend Bette Bradley for an hour today.  I probably shouldn't refer to her as "my" friend as she is actually everyone's friend.  Such a great lady, always with a good word and a smile.  She is 93 and has been in a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) for the past few weeks.  She fell in her bathroom and damaged her tailbone.  And I have been told that her body is just shutting down.  She is on a lot of pain medication, because she has a lot of pain.  But she knows who I am and grips my hand with strength, so much so that I winch! 

I have sat with people in declining health before and I have been in a coma myself, though many decades ago.  At that time they used oxygen tents, a plastic structure that enclosed the entire patient, coming down on all sides of the bed.  When I would rouse a little I would think I was inside of a huge ice cube and it was very cold.  But sometimes there would be a  hand reaching under the tent to hold my hand in her warm one.   I don't know if I would have died, but I know that her hand was a life line.  And I have always felt that without that hand I might have just drifted away.  Bette is not in the same situation, but I just know that having someone there when you wake up, even just a little bit, is a good and welcome thing.  So, I will go and sit with her as much as I can.  Her daughter is there to tend to all the business and arrangements and spends as much time as she can with her mother.  But she can't be there all the time and I hope to fill in the gaps as much as I can. 

I don't want her to go, but if it is her time, then I would like to make her as comfortable as I can.  It is the last gift I can give her. 

 

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