“One benefit of summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”
Already it is 86°. I ventured out to get the papers then hustled back into the coolness of my house. Yesterday afternoon I turned on the AC, and by last night the temperature was so low my nose and feet were cold. I couldn’t help the nose but my feet got slippers.
I noticed my neighbors have their screen door in while I still have the storm door. The paper predicted it will be our usual June weather by Monday, 59° at night, so I’ll wait on that screen just a bit longer.
Cue the Jaws’ shark theme! Two great whites have returned to Chatham lured by the bounty of food, by all those seals lolling on the rocks. The sharks had been tagged last year, and it appears they enjoyed their vacation enough to return.
I just finished a Clive Cussler, easy, breezy summer reading. I knew from page one that our hero, Kurt Austin, would be in harrowing situations and forced to face death at least a few times; however, I knew he would save the girl, as there always is a girl, and triumph over the bad guy, a meglomaniac controlling weather and rainfall in his bid to take over the world. You’ve got to love a bad guy with a vision!
I am of the opinion that summer reading should never be taxing, never really need a whole lot of thought. Clive is the perfect example. You already know the outline of the plot and his heroes are interchangeable, but it doesn’t matter. The books are fun to read. I heard the summer reading program on NPR a year or so ago and laughed at the comment that every summer at least one book should be about Nazis. I have a whole bookcase filled on my iPad with books like a John Sandford and his hero, Lucas Davenport, a Victorian mystery where ladies swoon, two books about baseball, a James Patterson and a couple of spy/espionage thrillers by authors I’ve never read before-it was the genre that caught my eye.
With the Red Sox on the TV in the background, I spend the evening mostly reading but watching when the Sox come to bat. I’m nice and cool dressed in my t-shirt, my gaudy Hawaiian looking Capri pants, worn only in the house or the deck, and my flip-flops. A cold drink is on the table. The dog is asleep on the couch. It’s a perfect summer evening!
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: AC, Chatham, Clive Cussler, Great white shark, hot day, Jaws, Kurt Austin, reading, summer novels
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June 21, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Kat, books have been cascading from amazon.uk to my sister’s home in Surrey ready for our arrival for the Olympics. I am still catching up on the Phillip Kerr series which perfectly meet your summer parameters
And the Quarter Final fun begins this afternoon as the Portuguese Peacock Ronaldo and his chums take on the Czechs. Tomorrow is the “Debt Derby” as Greece and Germany clash. I won’t drop the George Orwell quote on sports, you can find a truncated version in todays WSJ
Enjoy the games, here we go
June 21, 2012 at 1:41 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I love that quote and think he’s spot on, especially with football, both European and American!
Last night I watched the really high platform diving competion here in Washington state. It was the semi-finals with the finals on Saturday and then the selection of the Olympic team.
It’s getting closer!!
June 21, 2012 at 1:49 pm
I have category A diving tickets for the second saturday….I have a master plan to be conspicous to my friends at KTCC 🙂
June 21, 2012 at 1:40 pm
We reached some above 71 today and it is a nice summer day, but it will turn already tomorrow and clouds and rain will return. Not good since I broke my lawn mower today. I still have the engine free but that one only really works when grass is fairly short and dry, so no more rain here please 🙂
I want murder mysteries or scary books by Stephen King during summer. I have nothing of the kind at the moment so I must go to the book store when vacation comes.
Nothing to see on tv until tomorrow when England plays but I have the news on and listens with one ear. Nothing new so far.
Have a great day!
Christer.
June 21, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Christer – Tomorrow is Germany, England go on Sunday
June 21, 2012 at 2:05 pm
Thank You! I’ve messed it up 🙂
Christer.
June 21, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Christer, I think that you are looking forward to the England game almost as much as me 🙂
June 21, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Christer,
I’m back to having cold feet from the air conditioning but it is 92° so I’ll be just fine with the cold feet!
I loved Stephen King then came a few books I didn’t like at all; however, I have read his last two and liked both of them.
I have to scour the sports pages for the scores.
June 21, 2012 at 4:00 pm
Hi Kat,
Coincidentally enough, today I started re-reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It’s about Nazis. It was summer the first time I read it, too. 🙂
I just finished A Conspiracy of Friends by Alexander McCall Smith. Good summer book. It’s about nothing much except people and relationships and lots of introspective internal dialogue and the dog Freddy de la Hay a most remarkable Pimlico terrier. I skimmed a lot of the introspective internal dialogue.
Too hot to do anything today so of course my car had to go into the shop because the fan motor for the AC/Heat broke. Fortunately the shop people offered me a ride home and came to pick me up when the work was done. I could have walked but it would have been brutal.
The advice on the news this morning was that to avoid sharks you should never go swimming with seals. I shall endeavor to remember that pearl of wisdom.
Enjoy the heat.
June 21, 2012 at 4:57 pm
Hi Caryn,
When I heard that on the radio, I happened to be reading a Nazi book though I can’t even remember which one.
I’m reading one now about codes, fiction, of course. Summer is no time for non-fiction!
I had to go our earlier and I thought I’d die just walking to the car. The steering wheel was so hot it hurt my hands. Finally the car’s AC kicked in. I have to go out later and water the flowers on the deck. I figure I’ll wait until the sun is just about gone. It is too damn hot right now!
June 21, 2012 at 7:11 pm
It’s muggy down here, not the type of weather that encourages me to even get out of the car’s A/C. I ran all my errands all at one time . . . Done! Your book list is so casual. No politics? I love books that detail how our government screws up things, like tanks that don’t work, drones that crash on their first test flight, another $25 million down the drain. Someone has to reign in our defense spending before it takes us down that road to poverty.
June 22, 2012 at 9:49 am
Z&Me,
It is 89° right now here, but today is the last day of this oppressive temperatures. It will be in the 70’s with the nights down to the 60’s, more the June we usually have.
I always feel the summer is for casual books, to fit the days of leisure and the deck time. I leave all the rest for winter. Political books right now would make me pull out my hair, and our defense spending doesn’t ever seem to decrease which drives me totally crazy and has for decades!
June 21, 2012 at 9:40 pm
One summer, when I was in high school, I read “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”. The only part I remember was how Hitler ripped off the German people by selling them Volks Wagen Beetles on the pay before you get it plan both before and during the war. He used their money to build VW military Jeeps. I am always amazed how easy it is for tyrants to gain legitimate power during bad economic times. Hitler proved if you tell a lie often enough people begin to take it as the truth.
My summer reading in Texas was always inside in the comfort of the AC. When I lived in New York I read during the summer on the subway going to and from my summer job. I never could read beside a swimming pool or at the beach because either the water or girls in bikinis distracted me. I am always behind in my redwing regardless of the season. My bookshelf, both my physical one and my electronic one on my iPad, contain books that I either haven’t finished or haven’t begun. I just finished “Monyball”. After all it’s baseball season.
June 22, 2012 at 9:51 am
Bob,
I have also read that. The German people were devoted to Hitler, the man who brought back the honor lost at the end of the first world war. He had a fanatical devotion.
I love to read just sitting outside enjoying the breeze, but the last few days it’s been here in the AC. I also have Moneyball ready for reading on my iPad!
June 22, 2012 at 10:06 pm
Yes, Hitler brought back their honor and also led them into WWII which was a terrible price for humanity to pay for their honor. Where were all the ‘good’ Germans when the SS and Gestapo were hauling their neighbors off to death camps? A Protestant Minister, who was imprisoned by the Nazis, wrote after the war. “When they came for the Jews because I was not Jewish I did nothing. When they came for the communists because I was not a communist I did nothing. When they came for the homosexuals because I was not a homosexual I did nothing. When they came for me there was no one left to do anything”.
June 22, 2012 at 2:09 pm
Bob, a friend and I read it when we were about 16. We were taking turns reading aloud. I don’t remember much about it except that we got very distracted giggling over our first attempt to pronounce Geli Roebel’s name. The parents present at the time were not amused but they had the burden of knowing how the story went. We only knew that our parents went off to war and saved the world. The details were very sketchy. 🙂
June 22, 2012 at 12:31 pm
For Birgit
June 22, 2012 at 1:13 pm
Great !!!!!!! Thanks, I have to forward this link.
I hope we’ll see a good game this evening
and not a dept-derby-war 😉
June 22, 2012 at 1:15 pm
oops, typo … debt-derby
June 22, 2012 at 2:24 pm
Almost time, I will be looking for your Chancellor to be getting very excited in the stands
June 22, 2012 at 4:48 pm
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 4-2
Now it’s your turn. Good luck England !
June 22, 2012 at 3:07 pm
MDH,
I loved that!!