qebo’s 2016 books (3)

This thread's tree is the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).



What appear to be white petals are actually bracts, specialized leaves. The flowers are the green cluster at the center. The dogwood is host to spring azure butterflies, and apparently others too. I have two in my yard, white in the back and pink in the front.

(Note: all images are from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, labeled as unrestricted for non-commercial use.)

January
#01: A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George -- (Jan 1) - new (e-book)
#02: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson -- (Jan 10) - ROOT
#03: Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy -- (Jan 15) - new (e-book)
#04: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates -- (Jan17) - ROOT
#05: H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald -- (Jan 23) - ROOT
#06: January magazines -- (Jan 30)

February
#07: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver -- (Feb 3) - LFL
#08: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote -- (Feb 9) - new
#09: The Big Short by Michael Lewis -- (Feb 15) - new
#10: ISIS: The State of Terror by Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger -- (Feb 16) - new
#11: In the Darkness by Karin Fossum -- (Feb 19) - new (e-book)
#12: The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White -- (Feb 29) - new (e-book)
#13: February magazines -- (Feb 29)

March
#14: The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch -- (Mar 10) - new
#15: A Year with the Eagles by Karen Lippy -- (Mar 12) - new
#16: The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff -- (Mar 14) - new
#17: 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup -- (Mar 19) - new (e-book)
#18: The Empire of Necessity by Greg Grandin -- (Mar 31) - ROOT
#19: March magazines -- (Mar 31)

April
#20: Still Alice by Lisa Genova -- (Apr 2) - new (e-book)
#21: Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson -- (Apr 5) - new
#22: Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova -- (Apr 7) - new (e-book)
#23: Left Neglected by Lisa Genova -- (Apr 10) - new (e-book)
#24: Does Altruism Exist? by David Sloan Wilson -- (Apr 10) - new
#25: Love Anthony by Lisa Genova -- (Apr 12) - new (e-book)
#26: In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan -- (Apr 22) - new (e-book)
#27: The Queen of Air and Darkness by T. H. White -- (Apr 29) - new (e-book)
#28: Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum -- (Apr 30) - new (e-book)
#29: April magazines -- (Apr 30)

May
#30: Believer by David Axelrod -- (May 10) - new
#31: Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher by Timothy Egan -- (May 17) - ROOT
#32: Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi -- (May 20) - new (e-book)
#33: Alter Egos by Mark Landler -- (May 27) - new
#34: A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren -- (May 31) - new

June
#35: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown -- (Jun 16) - ROOT

July
#36: She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan -- (Jul 2) - new
#37: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins -- (Jul 9) - new (e-book)
#38: Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham -- (Jul 18) - new
#39: Before the Fall by Noah Hawley -- (Jul 23) - new (e-book)
#40: Lab Girl by Hope Jahren -- (Jul 24) - new
#41: Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West -- (Jul 25) - new
#42: The Good Father by Noah Hawley -- (Jul 31) - new (e-book)

August
#43: Evicted by Matthew Desmond -- (Aug 9) - new
#44: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi -- (Aug 19) - new
#45: Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart -- (Aug 27) - new (e-book)
#46: Living History by Hillary Clinton -- (Aug 28) - new
#47: May magazines -- (Aug 30)

September
#48: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi -- (Sep 10) - new (e-book)
#49: What Angels Fear by C. S. Harris -- (Sep 24) - new (e-book)

Well past due to start a new thread...

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Katherine! I like your tree! :)

What a lovely tree. I hope you continue to enjoy your new home and that each day, week, month it feels more and more like a precious haven.

I hope your weekend is restful and filled with good books.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread!!

Ah, a nice new thread. I am stopping by sociably and admitting I can't catch up with anybody. Hope all is well and that your settling in process continues apace.

Lovely new thread, Katherine!

Ah, a new thread for Katherine! Great!

We had shrubs in the back yard when I was growing up, which we also referred to as dogwood. Were we ignorant, or are there several related species?

>14 ffortsa: There are dogwood shrubs in the same genus (Cornus).

Someday the new thread may contain new reviews, but at least I'm not falling further behind on reading this month.

I love dogwood since moving to the South in 1991. We have several on our property. We had a pink one at our previous house, good memory!

My dogwood tree is finally completely dead. I like its shape so I'm saving it for woodpeckers. :)

Happy New Thread, Katherine. I'm having a hard time getting my head around the dogwood's blooming only now where you are. No. That's not right. You're just dedicating this thread to the dogwood, right?
At any rate, hope you are getting to settle some and enjoy the new place!

>18 LizzieD: Yes. They bloomed in April / May.

>1 qebo: Some wag told me that dogwood was famous for its bark.

A little late to the party to wish you happy new thread Katherine but I will also add that your fitbit proclivities are impressive and hopefully a spur to me to pad the streets.

>19 qebo: There is a legend that the dogwood was used as the cross Jesus was crucified on; also, here in the South I have heard that the dogwood blooms at Easter, but since Easter varies as a movable feast, this isn't true, at least for my dogwoods.

Stopping by, finally able to begin to catch up, but I think you've been busy too. Can't have dogwoods in Vermont. Boo hoo.

>22 sibylline: Yeah, to the extent that I'm on LT it's mostly in the garden group. Active 75er threads are a lost cause. I hope the RL backlog of tasks will subside soon.

>21 karenmarie: Not a legend I'd ever heard, which is unsurprising, but Google yields results, so this sure seems to be a thing. The salient fact is that there are no dogwoods native to Israel, and the imagery fits with the North American species.

http://www.godupdates.com/dogwood-tree-legend-jesus-crucifixion-cross-easter/
https://lnger.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/was-jesus-crucified-on-a-dogwoog-legend-o...

You'd think, in the modern world, it would not be impossible to get the car I want with a manual shift in any of its standard colors, but I've been informed that I will have to concede defeat on one thing or the other.

A friend of mine is having the same problem.

>25 qebo: you need to move to Europe to do that!

Linda/@laytonwoman3rd recently did that. I think she ended up buying from a different manufacturer than she set out to, for that very reason.

I love dogwood.

Yeah, it's gotten hard to get a manual. Mrs. Banjo is big on shifting, so we have looked. Me, I like an automatic. Life is hard enough without figuring out when to downshift.

2nd choice color silver instead of 1st choice darker gray "steel metallic", and I can get a 2017 Honda Fit with a manual shift hot off the press in September. Which is almost certainly what I'll do; I've locked in the order w/ a small refundable deposit, don't have to commit real $ until I see it in the flesh. I'm used to shifting; it's not a conscious thought process, feels weird if I can't.

I'm with you, Katherine! I feel as though I'm more in charge. I don't know. I just prefer to shift. I was lucky to find a used CRV made in Japan (a '98, a good year), and I'll drive it till it dies.

Hah. I've been trying to kill a 1996 Civic for years unsuccessfully.

>29 qebo: I'm used to shifting; it's not a conscious thought process, feels weird if I can't.

Yep. Until I bought my latest vehicle this year (2015 BMW X3), all of the previous cars I owned had manual transmission (1973 Honda Civic, 1978 Plymouth Horizon, 1991 Honda CRX, 1999 BMW Z3). It took me a few weeks to stop reflexively pressing my left foot to disengage the clutch.

I've never driven a stick shift and don't intend on ever doing it. More power to ya if you do! :)

I hadn't heard of a Honda Fit so I had to go check it out - very cute! It looks like something I would be interested in when my Civic gets traded in.

>34 streamsong: My Honda Civic has been indestructible, and it holds more than one might expect; I used it to move nearly everything between houses. However, items w/ bulk or odd shape become a maneuvering game that doesn't always succeed, and with all the equipment, tools, plants and such that I've been hauling in recent years I've been wanting more cargo space.

I loved driving stick shift with my first 4 cars, then as I started driving more and more in the Los Angeles traffic, switched to an automatic Volvo 740, the first of 6 automatics up to and including the one I have now, a Ford Escape. The strangest result was that my right hip stopped 'clicking' after years and years. It was just a small clicking adjustment, but once it went away I realized that my back felt better.

To each their own!

>29 qebo: Congratulations on finding the car you like. I agree regarding shifting. Though I no longer drive a manual car, somehow I felt safer when I was shifting, as though I had more control, especially in the snow.

I had a 1972 super beatle. I loved it and drove it until it just would not go anymore. My father lectured me that it was not safe because it was so small.

I've only driven an automatic car twice in my life: once when we hired a car in the US and then in Canada. i hated it both times as I'm just not used to it. I don't know why but in the UK the situation is exactly reversed - the norm is a manual (what you would call stick-shift). Don't know why there should be such a big difference.

>38 SandDune: I would guess it's the price of gasoline (petrol) over the years. Originally, the automatics burned more fuel than the stick - although that of course depended on driving skill. Most people probably still carry the idea of economy and control, so stay with stick.

I learned on an automatic and never added stick to my repertoire. so I'd better not rob any banks and expect to get away in a stolen vehicle! I do like the advanced features like cruise control on long highway trips, and I suspect that saves a bit on gasoline as well, if you're not programming the car to ride too fast.

>39 ffortsa: I learned on an automatic and never added stick to my repertoire. That is one of the differences actually. If you take your driving test on an automatic here you can only get a licence to drive an automatic, so virtually everyone learns to drive a manual to start with.

>39 ffortsa: Yeah, the price of gas (much lower in the US than elsewhere) is apparently a primary reason.
>40 SandDune: That's quite sensible. My niece is learning to drive a manual shift now because it's one of the family cars, but there's no distinction in the license. US sales of manual shift are less than 10% in recent years. Which now makes it a theft deterrent.

I'm not sure how true this is, but manual transmission is widely considered to be one of the best anti-theft devices a vehicle in the US can have, as very few millennials know how to use a stick shift.

>42 kidzdoc: Hah, which is exactly what I'd said in my now-edited post >41 qebo:, except it got lopped off because I used the "less than" sign. :-)

>43 qebo: Ha! I wondered why your message stopped so abruptly.

ETA: Knowing how to drive a manual transmission vehicle has been helpful on a couple of occasions. When I traveled to Houston for residency interviews in 1997 I rented a car in advance, but when I arrived at the office I was told that there were no vehicles available...except for a car with a stick shift. And, when Bianca and I traveled to Spain in June, we rented a car with manual transmission, which is the norm in Europe, as Rhian mentioned. She was uncomfortable driving on the steep hills in several of the cities we drove through on our journey from Sevilla to Ronda to Granada, but after driving my Honda CRX in hilly Pittsburgh for the four years I lived there it was no big deal for me.

IMO everyone should learn how to drive manual transmission vehicles, so long as they don't plan to steal them.

Years and years ago, why, all the way back in the last century, I dated this girl who bought her first car, a new Fiat 850 Sport Coupe that the dealer had gussied up with alloy wheels, a Stiebro muffler, a/c. And it was stick, of course. But said girlie had never driven a stick-shift, so I drove it from the dealer to her home. (The dealer enjoyed the idea that he'd sold it to a woman who couldn't actually drive it off the lot.)

A couple sessions in a vast shopping-center parking lot got her shifting on her own. We drove that car to Montreal on our honeymoon.

Enjoying the manual vs auto discussion. I learned to drive a tractor first. :)

My dad tried to teach me to drive his manual dump truck once, but I'm so short, I really couldn't reach the pedals. What an experience!

Growing up we did a lot of horse stuff and my stepfather decided we should convert a cattle truck for hauling them around. So the horses would go up this pretty steep ramp into this truck bed and be tied up nose to tail down the length of it, I think we got about six at a time in there. Anyway, I drove this behemoth back when I was just in my twenties, quite a lot, and you had to double-clutch and truly I cannot now believe I ever did this. You had to think about the fact that the horses were all swaying back there when you took any kind of curve (or had to brake) and that they hated being bumped and sometimes would get annoyed with each other and there would be some rumpussing. I couldn't possibly handle that now. The confidence of youth!

>48 sibylline: I'd be afraid to move.

This morning I watched a cardinal bopping around on my nasturtiums, and then it stood still with a green caterpillar dangling from its beak. Guess it was one of the cabbage white caterpillars that I didn't find when I checked over the weekend.

I drive a manual - I've only owned one automatic, and to my great relief had to move and sold it after - I think just over a year. My parents' cars are both automatic, so I get some practice, but yeah, my poor left foot gets all cramped up on a drive of any length, because it doesn't have anything to do.

In 2003, in September, I walked into my local car dealer and told them I wanted a blue Scion xB with stick shift, could they get it for me. The salesman was quite flabbergasted that I knew what I wanted and he didn't need to (and couldn't) sell me anything else (I'd done weeks and months of research, after I went to a (different) dealership and drove what I thought I wanted, an xA, and just for fun that weird-looking one, the xB...). It took them a couple weeks, but yes, I got my car, took it on a brief test drive and bought it. I don't remember that I had to put down a deposit, but I may have had to.

And then, in 2013, that car was T-boned by an idiot who didn't stop at a stop sign. No serious damage to me or my passenger, but the car was declared totaled by my insurance company (wahhh!). I spent the next three months searching for another one - in 2008 Scion redesigned the xB and made it completely uninteresting to me, so I needed an old one. That was hard! Searching for a stickshift made it fractionally harder, I suspect, but... Lots of cars with salvage titles (which is probably what happened to mine - someone bought it and patched it up), but those are risky if you don't do your own work (and I don't). Lots of very expensive ones. I finally bought one, and it's good, but not nearly as good as mine. A year younger, 4-5 previous owners, and at least one of them was one of the racing addicts - s/he (probably he, but I don't know) put in a lot of aftermarket stuff, some of which was just annoying (a muffler designed not to muffle...sheesh. Had the dealer remove that before I bought it) and some of which, it eventually turned out, made the car not street-legal. Which I discovered after owning it for two years, when I had to do a smog check for registration and it didn't pass. Ghahh. Got the dealer to pay, though I did most of the work (research, ordering, etc), for getting the proper part and getting it installed. So it's legal now...just a few other odd bits (a carbon-fiber gas cap cover. Really?).

My next car will have to be new, I can't handle dealing with the leftovers of idiots any more (though all my cars before my first xB were used). And thus it won't be an xB (wahh!). No idea what it will be, there's nothing that much appeals to me on the road right now (Fit's nice, so are several Toyotas, but after my xBs' visibility everything else feels like squinting). Hope they're still making manuals when this car dies!

>51 jjmcgaffey: The original Scion was adorable. A quick search sez that sales plummeted with the redesign, and now it's been killed off completely.

Yeah. I don't know what they were thinking...

"We have a weird, quirky car that's selling like hotcakes! Let's make it just like every other small SUV on the road!"
"Gee, sales dropped, and we can't figure out why. I guess we'll just have to kill it off..."

Bah.

Hi Katherine, I'm a newby in the Fitbit group. I am starring everyone there so I can keep up with reading (and car buying) as well as fitness levels. Congratulations on the pending purchase of your new vehicle. I learned to drive on a stick shift and still miss it.

Still keeping a reasonable pace with reading, but abysmal with reviewing. Perhaps over the holiday weekend...

Meanwhile, here is a cat to add to the 75er orange cat club. This one has recently been diagnosed with the feline equivalent of irritable bowel syndrome, via an ultrasound, thus the shaved patch. He is now on an experimental regimen of food and pills and topical prednisone, with a followup vet visit scheduled for next week. I have spent more $ on this cat in the past month than in the previous 14 years. Fortunately he likes the food and he likes pill pockets enough not to notice what’s inside them.

What a cutie!

He looks adorable, even with his shaved patch. Hope he's doing better soon.

Aww, he reminds me of my Sig. Here's hoping the treatment pays off and he's purrfectly healthy soon.

Bless his big, orange, sweet heart! Our vet was commenting on orange cats this week when we had the 2 little ones out for a check-up, that orange tabbies are often bad-tempered and cranky. Not ours! Not our sweet, departed Pinky either! Hope that guy feels some real improvement!
We just spent a small fortune on the gray-white mama cat, but she is feeling so much better that it's worth every penny to me!

I was imprinted as a child on The Contented Little Pussy Cat, Abner, who was an orange tabby, and the few of that coloration I have had have been total lovers.

>59 LizzieD: I have two orange boys, both mellow and cooperative. I once shared an apartment for a few months with an orange attack cat though.

My Magic was the sweetest cat I've ever had. He was pale orange, but definitely orange.

My Honda Fit has been born, and should arrive here in about two weeks.

The annual LT meetup at the National Book Festival has kinda fizzled this year (hopefully not forever) with several schedule conflicts and a general lack of enthusiasm about the indoor venue. So I decided to devote limited travel resources to a long weekend in Cape May NJ, where I hope to see the monarch monitoring project in action.

I hope you enjoy Cape May! It's a lovely place . . . or it was, at least; I haven't been back there for ages so can't attest to its present state.

Enjoy Cape May! Besides the beach it is a very fun place to walk around goggle-eyed at the "summer house" architecture.

>55 qebo: Pill pockets are the best. Don't know what we'd do without them (for our dog.)

MY dog eats the pill pockets fine plain, but as soon as the pill is in one, she can't be bothered.

Too bad about the meetup fizzling, but hopefully you'll enjoy your travels!

Congratulations on the birth! I'll be interested to see how you like it.

ETA on the car is this week.
Reading has slowed... I started a Master Gardener course in mid August, about 50 pages per week of reading plus a 3 hour class. Also the evolution discussion group, which this year is reading The Gene: An Intimate History (sigh, touchstones, The Gene alone brings up Pride and Prejudice???) by Siddhartha Mukherjee at a slow but careful pace so it occupies disproportionate time.

LT mini-meetup yesterday in Philadelphia. Lucy (sibyx) was there to visit her daughter, so Laura (lauralkeet) and I met them at Kawaii Kitty Cafe for a scheduled hour with the cats. We had to leave when a line formed for the next time slot. Lucy's daughter arranged us in chairs for optimal cat viewing through the window, and instructed us to look serious for the second photo. We walked up the street to Book Trader where books were acquired by all, then dispersed.

That's a good looking crew!

>71 qebo: we had a great time!

Why were there lovely smiles in the first photo, and looks of distaste in the second one?

>74 kidzdoc: Instructions from the photographer. Perhaps Lucy can explain.

OMG, I am totally out of it. I thought that was one picture with six people. Just shoot me.

Took me a minute, too, to realize that it was two photos. Duh.

>74 kidzdoc: I assumed they were smiling because they saw kitties, and sad because they had to leave them.

I'm not sure I can explain it either, but the second photo was simply meant to be "serious," not a sign of distaste or sadness. But yes, I was sad to say goodbye to those kitties!

Yay! What a great meet-up! I have to agree that picture 2 speaks of regret. I guess you three are not accustomed to projecting "serious" as opposed to "happy"!?!
Thanks for letting us look, Katherine!
(What did you get in the way of books????)

That's a really great meet-up! Kitties and coffee, followed by books!

My daughter took the photos and she told us to look serious, you know, the people-who-read-books kind of serious, maybe? Who knows? The art thing.... And I was sad to leave the kitty cafe. It was utterly charming. The cats, of course, were so much themselves, unimpressed with us!

We went to the Book Trader too and I went a little wild. I'll list my purchases over on my thread when I get the chance . . . I am still on the road on my trip to see the LD plus harp weekend (which is about to start!).

Next time I get to Philly I am DETERMINED to go to the new Barnes which I haven't seen yet. Maybe next spring?????

>82 sibylline: oh yes, that would be a fun outing!

Great meet-up photos, even the "serious" one.

Great pictures of the meet up - thanks for sharing.

>80 LizzieD: not accustomed to projecting "serious"
Normally I look serious even when I think I'm smiling.

From Book Trader:
Sidereus Nuncius by Galileo Galilei (because I'm reading Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel)
The Birth of the Cell by Henry Harris (because of the cool pictures)
Cadillac Desert by Mark Reisner (because it was mentioned frequently in The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi)

From Faber Books at the train station:
The Wild Truth by Carine McCandless
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

>86 qebo: From Faber Books at the train station
Additional book shopping expedition noted. But how did you fit them in your backpack? :)

>87 lauralkeet: I removed the jacket.

Today was vet visit #5 for the cat in >55 qebo:. The diagnosis remains undetermined. With a rather substantial chunk of $, they might be able to determine cancer but wouldn't be able to fix it. With a not negligible chunk of $, they established the deterioration of several symptoms. And yet, the cat rallied with a show of personality and curiosity, and I didn't have the heart to euthanize. So the vet recommended one last round of pills to rule out one possible though unlikely cause. Results should be evident within a few days. This emergency / specialist vet is a 24-hour operation, so I can zip over there in a pinch. I'm going to feel guilty either way.

>89 qebo: I'm sorry your kitty is having troubles. It hurts when furry friends don't feel well and we can't help them.

Sorry to hear the latest news about your kitty, Katherine.

Mine.


During the looong wait for a manual shift in my 2nd choice color of silver, the dealer was emailing weekly with status. The car arrived in Maryland two weeks ago, which turned out to be deceptively encouraging, because the transport company apparently is notoriously slow in disentangling individual cars from mass shipments. When I expressed concern because I want the car for a trip next week, the dealer called around and found a manual shift in my 1st choice color of charcoal gray, and scheduled a driver to bring it here. Now I need to figure out how all the newfangled gizmos work.

Glad to see another devotee of the manual transmission. They are getting harder and harder to get.

Sorry your kitty isn't well. That's always such a hard place to be.

>93 laytonwoman3rd: The sales guy said today that Honda stops manufacturing manual shift cars partway through the year, so anyone who wants one has to wait until the next year. So I was actually lucky to hit the cycle at an optimal time when the 2017 cars are starting to roll out of the factory.

The cat is not eating. So I can't give him the pills from the vet yesterday, unless I try to shove them down his throat, which is less likely to fix anything than to create further trouble. He's resting in his favorite chair, and purrs when I stop by, and I don't think he's quite ready to go but no good is going to come of dragging out the inevitable. I probably should have let him go yesterday.

When I was car shopping this summer (I bought a Mazda 6 with a manual) I found out that Subaru has stopped selling the Outback with a manual tranny in this country because of the expense of making it comply with emissions standards. It is still available in Canada. I loved my Subaru Outback and would have had another if that had not been the case.

I was another thrown by the two photos side by side and blinked several times as I thought Erni had put something a little naughty in my coffee!

I don't do a good serious face myself in truth, although it is marginally better than my jovial one.

Looks like a splendid meet-up nonetheless.

Have a wonderful Sunday - whether your face is serious or jovial. xx

>94 qebo: sorry to read the latest update about your cat. It's so difficult to know "when" is the right time.

Pretty car. I'm so sorry to hear about your cat. It is hard to know when it's time.

Congratulations on the new car, Katherine. I'm very sorry to hear about your cat, though.

Love the car--how fortuitous! But very sorry to hear about the end times for your kitty--always so hard to live through. And the timing is such a dilemma--I don't know about you but I ALWAYS feel guilty regardless of when I decide it's time.

Yeah, I'll call the vet tomorrow and describe my dilemma. I'm planning to be away for several days. The cat hides from visitors, and has to be monitored while taking pills, so I can't rely on my neighbor or hire a caretaker. I can't really put him in a kennel because the current pill regime is of dubious merit and he could well die while I'm gone, in confusing circumstances among strangers. I could cancel the trip but I suspect at best I'd be prompting the cat along for a couple more weeks until his level of discomfort or pain or whatever it is that he's feeling becomes alarming.

I'm so jealous of everyone reading The Gene: An Intimate History, I wish I had the time right now. I loved Emperor of all Maladies.

>71 qebo: I love the meetup pics, Katherine. When I do "serious", it looks like a mug shot! What a neat concept to spend time with the kitties. I'm sorry that yours is not feeling so good.

I think it's great that you will be a Master Gardener. I enjoy my flowers and digging in the dirt until the heat and humidity of a Missouri summer drives me indoors to the A/C. I did manage to keep everything well watered through the dry spells and am enjoying the last hurrah of my blooms. You must get in a lot of steps working in the garden! I hope to increase mine during leaf raking season which is almost here.

I'm so sorry about your cat. :( He looks so much like my Sig!

>103 Donna828: You must get in a lot of steps working in the garden!
Gardening is the worst for steps! I can spend a strenuous couple of hours bending and pulling, and the FitBit is oblivious.

So this evening the cat enthusiastically slurfed down canned cat food from the grocery store, horrible stuff, then flopped on the floor in exhaustion. According to blood tests and x-rays his innards are all messed up, but I sure wish I could figure out how he feels.

I talked to the vet today, and she offers no hopeful scenario. So it's either now or a week or a month from now.

>106 qebo: oh dear, so sorry Katherine.

The end of an era. This is my favorite cat photo, from about a decade ago, exploring the apartment I had just moved into. Quirk is the tortoiseshell outside the bookcase, surveying her foolish minions. Bernoulli is the gray tabby with white feet on the left, whose brain wasn't quite up to the standard of his name. Epsilon is the schizzy torbie on the right. Omega is the galumphy orange tabby in the middle. Q and B, a year apart in age, both died in 2010. E and O, siblings from a semi-feral litter, have now both died in 2016.

{{{{Katherine}}}} RIP, Omega.

Does this mean you are now catless? Or have other felines infiltrated your home over the last few years?

>109 ronincats: One feline remains, adopted four years ago from my niece, whose husband is severely allergic.

I'm so sorry, Katherine. I know how hard this was for you. Hugs.

I'm so sorry. It's difficult losing a furry friend. It's such a loss. *hugs*

That's too bad, Katherine. Hard to lose such intimate friends.

(((hugs))) I am sorry to hear about Omega - I know how hard that is.

I hope you don't feel guilty. We went through a similar scenario some years ago, and I came to realize that any addition medical intervention; even just time and fluids, was more for our benefit than for the kitty's. It sounds like you have a good vet and made good choices.

Condolences on saying goodbye to Omega. You must not wonder if you've done the right thing. A few days one way or the other are insignificant in light of the fact that you gave him a safe home, a good life and a gentle exit.

Thanks everyone. I'm in logistical mode now, preparing for a trip, not exactly to the ends of the earth but a bunch of bits and pieces to organize, so I won't be on LT much until next week. Stay tuned... maybe I'll finish a book before I return!

I know you are off on a trip and missing your fur baby, but I wanted to remember you on your birthday and celebrate that you are part of our group, Katherine!

Sorry to see that Omega has passed on. Of our three cats, two of them despise me whilst the Elder Stateswoman, Cinders, respects me enough that I am the only member of the family not to have been violently assaulted by her. We had one of the number fall from our fifth floor condo (Bambi) and who we refused to allow the vet to put to sleep. Although he cannot walk very well he is generally a happy cat who despite looking at me askance I am sure deep down probably knows that my wallet saved him from an early exit.

A trip is probably a great idea just now. xx

>71 qebo: Not a wide audience for this bit of news, but it connects to conversation at the recent Philadelphia mini-meetup:
http://www.phillyvoice.com/token-of-the-past-septas-antiquated-fare-system-on-it...

I've returned from Cape May. The new car managed nicely. I took four partially completed books and a Nook, and read maybe 100 pages while I was there. 75 is decreasingly within reach this year.

>119 qebo: It's about freakin' time!!! Thanks for sharing this.

>119 qebo: Oh noooo I loved using the tokens when I was in Philly in August!

I seem to have cursed all forms of Philly transit, because the train station also announced they are replacing their AWESOME flip-board sign just a few days after I was admiring it.

A road trip in your new car sounds like fun. I'm glad you were able to get the color and manual transmission you wanted.

Hugs for your loss of Omega. It sounds like the right decision made in a tough spot.

>121 norabelle414: AWESOME flip-board sign
I too am sad about the sign. It's been there forever and it's still fun to watch and it makes such a lovely clicky sound.

Remaining cat SNiP (single nucleotide polymorphism, named by my microbiologist niece, whose husband unfortunately is severely allergic thus the transfer of ownership) has been quite clingy since my return. Whether he misses Omega or missed me, or it's a pragmatic response to cooler weather, I don't know.

Hi, Katherine. I'm very sorry about Omega.

I'm glad you had a nice road trip.

I'm so sorry to hear about Omega. What a wonderful photo of all of them exploring the book case!

Things are settling a bit here. We'll be able to go home after Nov 1 but I think we will be coming down once a month for the forseeable future. So perhaps we will all get to see one another again!

Well I've now gone 7 months without reviewing a book, but have hopes for the remaining 2 months. I am undeserving of lurkers much less commenters, but I'd sure be appreciative of brief posts to reach the magic number for continuation on a fresh thread.

Hey, the less content there is, the more easily we can keep up!

You have had a few other things on your plate during that time...

What, you need 20 more messages?

:)

La la la la la!

Happy to hear that the new car works well!

Hi, Katherine!

Hi Katherine - I'm so sorry about Omega. We lost one kitty in 2012, and two last year, so I know how you feel.

Yay car, yay trip.

Lots of lurkers out here.

Just dropping in with a picture of little me and an enormous ginger cat. It belonged to my Aunt Ada.

So, what's the weather like there today?

45 degrees and drizzling. Which means the furnace guy postponed until tomorrow. Why does the furnace guy care about the weather? Well, I knew when I bought this house that the oil furnace was nearing the end of its lifespan, and I’ve been expecting to replace it within a few years but not immediately because so much money has been pouring into other things. A week ago the temperature was in the 80s for a few days, then it suddenly dropped 30 degrees, so I went down to the basement over the weekend to check the oil level before turning on the heat. I hadn’t set foot in the furnace room since about May, and I discovered… a small puddle of oil on the floor. Fortunately a guy that several neighbors had recommended returned my call and discussed the situation and dropped by the next day to assess. The gist is the tank is rusty and should be replaced pronto, but it’s too large to remove so it’ll have to be cut up, and there’s no feasible way to get another tank in. So as a temporary measure the furnace guy will set up a tank outside and pump the remaining oil into it. The furnace guy has clients in the neighborhood so he knew there’s a gas line, and he called the gas company to confirm and get me on the schedule. This is not exactly the scenario I’d envisioned, but the furnace guy is quite calm about it all, I guess been there done that, and he has assured me that my house won’t explode so I’m not sitting here freezing; the furnace is running. I was pretty freaked out about this over the weekend, but now I’m impressed with the furnace guy and resigned to the nuisance and expense.

Wow, that was unexpected! But a good furnace guy is worth his weight in gold, as we discovered last year when our old floor furnace went out.

So, you'll be switching over to gas then? Should be a bit cheaper than oil in the long run, shouldn't it? (Says she who has electric heat and doesn't worry about furnaces and keeping fuel in---just about the power going out in deep winter.)

>137 laytonwoman3rd: That does seem quite a substantial cat.
>140 ronincats: This guy was recommended on NextDoor.com, which is quite active in this neighborhood. I'd described the problem on the phone and he assured me it was solvable, and immediately upon arrival he said "I've been thinking about how deal with this..." and sorted through the logistics.
>141 laytonwoman3rd: Yeah, switching to gas, which is what I'd figured would happen eventually. Though the evening after the furnace plans were settled, I went to this lecture http://lancasteronline.com/features/home_garden/he-renovated-the-oldest-net-zero... and the people I went with had a fun time imagining alternatives.

The furnace guy has a female assistant, which increases my regard. They set up the temporary oil tank. The gas company has already been here to mark the location of the gas meter, though the work probably won't be done until December.

Crosstalk, which as of yesterday was in transit and due to arrive by November 10, actually arrived today. A pleasant surprise and just what I need to end this frazzled week.

Unexpected infrastructure issues/expenses are sooooo stressful. It sounds as though you have the right people to solve the problem, which is more than half the solution IMO.

Enjoy Crosstalk!

Hi there, Katherine. Helping you reach your quota to begin a new thread. Also adding my condolences about your loss of Omega. So sorry.

Popping in to catch up and add to your total posts.

Great that you have a good furnace guy to deal with your heating issues!

Sorry about your cat Katherine!

Hmm, I wonder whether the continuation threshold should be lowered.

>149 _Zoe_: The continuation threshold will be perfect for my purposes (to start a new thread tomorrow). IIRC it was changed at some random moment months or perhaps years after repeated requests, and never announced. Maybe if you request a lower threshold on your list, and Tim accepts Collectorator's suggestion...

What IS the threshold now? It used to be 200, then was lowered to...?

>151 ronincats: 151 :-)

Yay! I thought it was 150 and when the continuation message didn't appear at the bottom for that message, I was confused. Go to it, Katharine!

Yikes. But yes, a good furnace guy is a treasure! Glad you don't have to be cold in the meantime.

So I'd expected to start a new thread over the weekend but got roped into making GOTV phone calls for Hillary Clinton both days and the remaining time was too scattered. Well now we know how that turned out. It may be a bit before I can muster any motivation.

>155 qebo: This has knocked the pins out from under an awful lot of us, but I have confidence we will pick ourselves up, dust off and carry on as we must.

>155 qebo: Thanks for making those calls. I am pretty devastated by the election results, but it's good to know that more than half of the electorate voted for HRC.

I have been disappointed and pissed off after previous elections, but with this one I fear for my country and its people, not to mention the rest of the world. I am encouraged by a groundswell of small efforts: a downtown vigil, posts to a neighborhood forum, a lawn sign across the street in English and Spanish and Arabic to the effect that everyone is welcome here. A charter bus has been arranged from Lancaster to the Million Women March in DC on January 21, and I will be on it.

>158 qebo: I'm with you. To say I'm disturbed by the results of the election is a gross understatement. I've heard about the MWM, can you share any details about the charter bus? Thanks!

>159 LibraryLover23:: I'll PM you.

Hi Katherine! I'm with you and every time I take a breath and think it just might be okay, I hear something or read something and fall into the pit of despair again.

>161 karenmarie: I'm spending too much time on the internet reading the insistent READ THIS!!! posts of the circular firing squad. Really I should clean my house and rake leaves, because I'm not going to fix the world by reading, certainly not this weekend.

>161 karenmarie: I know exactly wht you mean! There are some signs it might not be as bad as we fear, and other signs that are, well, AAAAAGH!

>162 qebo: Our country has been through a lot, and survived. Knowing that is one of the benefits of studying history. I keep telling myself that. But if I don't get some cleaning done, my house may collapse under the weight of accumulated dust . . .

Sometimes when Trump is backing off on some of he campaign rhetoric, I have hope. But with every appointment Trump makes, and every decision for his transitional team, I go oh no..........

Cleaning house and raking leaves. I hear you.

>163 tymfos: It's actually looking worse than I feared with this week's appointments and nominees. The country may ultimately be OK, but individual people may not be, and the damage to civil rights and environment will be difficult to repair. I don't yet know what to do. I'm going about my normal life with its mundane obligations, and stepping up $ donations to local and national organizations that seem best suited to tackle the many vulnerabilities. Several local gatherings are in the works for discussing how to take action. My job feels increasingly meaningless, but as a practical matter it offers financial and schedule flexibility that I'm not likely to find elsewhere, and since I took on a mortgage last year I can't casually dispense with the income and go do something more useful. The holiday stretch may be the ideal time to reconsider. Fortunately I don't have the problem of political conflict at family gatherings; we're not in complete agreement about every nuance, but we're all in sync about this one.

I don't yet know whether I'm going to bother with a new thread, or try to catch up with reviews, or start a new thread in 2017.

I can understand your upset, I'm feeling it too.

I told my husband today that we need to "park the politics" as a friend of mine said the other day. I think that a set of cousins coming over voted Republican.....

Well I seem to have driven everyone away. Starting a spiffy new thread to see what I can salvage of the year...