Summer Reading

The recent summer solstice means it is officially SUMMER – even though pretty much every day since we moved to “The Peninsula” seems like a summer day in IL or MA or MI…except possibly not as humid. That means it is also the time to sit in the sun and read a good book or two or more to relax with on one of our repurposed pallet Adirondack chairs.

This California spring I just devoured The Tempest that was written a long time ago by some British chap with the singular name of Shakespeare. I obviously, loved this book as it and I were dubbed with the same Title – me being her highness The Tempest, and the book being simply The Tempest.

But as I mentioned, it is now Summer so today I was looking around the house for something else to read. What I found in a cupboard in our living room caught my attention based on the title…given my interest in the climate and what you all have done to put it – and the planet Earth at risk. So, I carefully brought it outside and started to glance through the pages thinking it must be a recent publication. Then my sister snatched it away and brought it inside to her double decker Big Barker bed and commenced chewing on the bindings. Or maybe the chewing came before she got involved. Not sure, and immaterial.

However, prior to this egregious defamation of a work of art on the part of my sister, I did get a good enough glimpse of the Table of Contents page to realize that this was actually a book (S.O.S. SAVE OUR EARTH) from my father’s youth (e.g. – an antique) written in 1972! I wonder if any other milestone ideas from that era are being equally ignored by certain so called powers that be?

The Tempest

Alfresco Dining

Back in the day, we often ate out by our fire pit in Illinois. Sammy and I used to love these au natural dining experiences even if the meal consisted of only kibble and water.

Although we have had many meals prepared by restaurants (or scraps from such including Puppy Shots at Starbucks, one thing we have never done until this weekend was go to, and eat at, a restaurant!

As it turns out, this was also a first time our parents ever ordered food from this particular establishment even though it is right next to the grocery store we’ve walked to many times on weekends (it is part of our extended ‘Lake Sharon Walk’).

As I am sure you would expect, we were on our best behavior…well except for that moment when the waitress brought my parent’s drinks to the table…but it was hot out and we had walked a LONG time to get there – and we had already had some bits of salty chips that were dropped off at our table along with the menus.

It took our parents some time to select what they were going to pick from the extensive options offered by this establishment, but eventually they made their choices and shortly there after, food was dropped off in front of them by the friendly staff.

For some reason, most of our dining experience was watching our parents stuff their faces – only occasionally would some drift down to our level below the table.

Fortunately for our parents, the kind waitress did bring us a bowl of water so we could re-hydrate before our walk home.

And once we finally got home, we patiently waited for OUR dinner to be served – even if it wasn’t alfresco.

More soon,

The Tempest

Coincidences?

So lately, the Scribe has been largely ignoring me and my story telling needs. Well not entirely ignoring me – we’ve had a lot of walks and many trips to the beach – but he has not been there for me with our laptop. He will claim that it is in part to Mom using our shared computer for work but that only goes so far as she got a new work computer over a week ago…just saying.

I think it has more to do with his “sipping” wine in the evening. Which brings me to this set of facts which I found pretty darn coincidental:

1) He recently brought home this bottle of wine from a local purveyor of potable libations.

2. The address of this particular vineyard is: 2100 Denmark St. Sonoma, CALIFORNIA (the Scribe being 3 quarters Dane).

3. One of the drawing on their web-site looks very similar to the watercolors that his mother (born in Denmark) has painted:

Farmor’s Painting of our Deerfield house

This all seems very coincidental but I have to tell you what I learned by watching NCIS, and listening intently to the rules of Jethro Gibbs.

“Rule 39: There is no such thing as a coincidence.”

Therefore, I am thinking we’ll be taking a road trip up to Sonoma Valley before long to suss out this mystical vineyard…and hopefully go for a long walk in wine country.

And, now that I’ve captured his attention again and he has (mostly) full access to our laptop, I am hopeful I’ll be able to relate more of our (Zoe and my) adventures…and I am not taking his new part time job as an excuse!

The Tempest