Last week dw took a mini working vacation. She took all the tax stuff, financial files and a shredder to Hood River -- got a motel room and organized and shredded. I stayed behind, puttered around, took phone messages: Lora T. (a long-time friend with an acerbic sense of humor -- after I told her that dw was away for a few days): "Well, she finally got sick of you, did she?" I protested that such a thing was utterly impossible. Lora said: "I just tell it like it is."
And another message from someone who was a fast talker. Now I do have a bit of a western drawl and my speech is a medium tempo but it was way too slow for this caller. She said something about an email and hung up. "Easy, there gal" I thought "Time to rein in yur hoss there." -- I had been reading The Virginian --
After dw had been in Hood River for a couple of days I joined her for one night. She had a view room at The Vagabond, a nice locally-owned motel. There were only a few sail/kite boarders out (probably too cold) and only one barge passed but we did have two golden eagles and two bald eagles coming and going between us and the river. It was very nice with clear sunny weather. At one point we drove to the upper part of town where there was a splendid view of both Mt Hood and Mt Adams (sorry, I didn't have my camera). Saturday, before coming home, we crossed the river to White Salmon and wandered in and out of a couple of galleries and a junque store. A pleasant little outing.
After our trip to Wisconsin I took another step towards joining the 21st century and bought an ereader (a Nook). I took four books to Wisconsin and after stopping at a couple of book stores, came back with seven. The Nook should really lighten my load when we travel, but it will only ever be a supplement to my library. I really like books. Today dw and I went to the library for a tutorial on using the thing and afterwards scheduled another tutorial for next week. Much to her surprise, dw has decided she likes the reader (like me, as a traveling tool) and will probably get one of her own.
Books: The Virginian (Owen Wister) it's really sort of boring, but it is the source of the famous western line: "When you call me that, SMILE." -- Talking About Detective Fiction (P.D. James) No revelations, but she discusses some of her favorite authors and writes about the craft of crime novels. Interesting reading from one of the few crime writers that I really enjoy. -- An Architectural Guidebook To Portland (Bart King) I don't know enough about the subject to critique his critiques, but I like the book and plan on buying a copy (The one I read is from the library) -- Blood River (Tim Butcher) The author re-traced H. M. Stanley's trek across Africa and down the Congo River. The country is in a state of violent anarchy. It seems to be in a worse state than it was under the vile rule of Belgium. -- and Decided On The Battlefield: Grant, Sherman, Lincoln and the election of 1864 (David Alan Johnson) Briefly: if Grant and Sherman hadn't won the 1864 battles that they did, Lincoln might not have been re-elected. It's well written if not revelatory. (Johnson does hint at the perception of Grant as a mediocre general -- Grant's record actually shows that he was, by far, the best general in the war -- Much better than Lee, for example) If anyone reads the book, I would suggest skipping the fatuous epilogue where Johnson prattles on about what could have happened had Lincoln not been re-elected)
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