End of summer
Next Saturday will be the first day of fall. Hard to believe. Seems like school just started and already there's talk of Homecomings. Weather's cooled off noticeably, only made it to the high 60s a couple of days. But it looks like it will stay in the 70s for the foreseeable future. Might even get to 80s again mid-week.
Took a partial day off work to see my parents renew their wedding vows. That was a lovely morning! There were two other couples as well, including someone I had worked with for a brief while ages ago. Small world. Could not have asked for better weather. Low 70s, not a cloud in the sky, and the park was gorgeous.
My big news is I entered a gallery show! A local gallery is doing an exhibit on fantasy worlds. Figured that's my jam, so I submitted six pieces, including one I did for the show. Official opening is tomorrow. Excited and nervous, never did anything like this before!
Also finished a couple of book.
20. The House at Hurds' Corners, by Lynda Durrant. I picked this up to help with a story I was working on. The titular house is real and still stands not too far from where I live. Durrant tells the story of the house and its first family through the eyes of the only daughter, Mary Frances. I found the story charming. It is historical fiction but Durrant weaves in a lot of history, such as John Brown's work, Johnny Appleseed's travels and Sojourner Truth's famous "Ain't I a Woman" speech at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron. Other local touches and landmarks and also referenced. I think the biggest surprise was how schools operated. I wonder if the school year calendar was only local or more widespread? At any rate, this would be a good read for older grade school and middle school students looking to learn about local history.
21. The CI, by Les Roberts. This one is tough to rate. The core, important factors - the plot and the characters - are solid. The storyline starts fairly simply. Jericho Paich reluctantly tries to help his girlfriend but instead winds up in the clutches of of a malignantly ambitious police officer, Keenan Mayo. Mayo fives Jerry a choice: become a confidential informant or go to jail. Jerry goes to Laird Janiver, his mother's live-in boyfriend. Together, they come in contact with a slew of characters, including an albino crime lord, an inept politician and an enforcer for a powerful family. These stories weave themselves together seamlessly. Most of the characters range from deeply flawed to unredeemable but they were all interesting, and while I may not have liked their actions to a degree I could understand why they were the way they were. The problem was there were several typos and editing mistakes, enough to be distracting. Hope this can get fixed in a second run.
22. A Boy's Will, by Robert Frost. I read these as a part of my poetry readings, getting the poems from Bartleby. They are a series of mostly shorter poems that are loosely tied to a young boy's adventures and life. I found them sweet and fun, for the most part.
Currently reading: Social Media and the Public Interest, by Philip M. Napoli; The Future of the Mind, by Michio Kaku; North of Boston, by Robert Frost; and Love Me More Than Anything in the World, by Mira Furlan.