“Construction Zoo”
It’s been quite a zoo at our home this week. I made the mistake of contracting with a couple of guys to pressure wash and stain the fence and patio pergola at the same time as the bathroom guys were working away on fixing all the issues from the first contractor. Why didn’t I just wait a week? I suppose part of me thought we could get finished up with having constant traffic at the house all at once. And that has been the case – it’s been such a nice Sunday with nobody but the two of us at the house.
We’ve been using the guest bedroom upstairs while the remodel downstairs has continued and continued. And wouldn’t you know it – the air conditioning decided to croak this week. On Friday we had eleven different guys at the house – plus all their trucks and equipment. Diana made her largest ever order at Taco Bell to feed everyone lunch. The neighbours must have been wondering what on earth was going on at our house.
The great news is that the bathroom guys plan to finish up tomorrow. The new bathroom does look very sleek and modern – a huge change. All that remains is a new glass door (that was measured incorrectly – to add to the list of 
everything else that was wrong with the first contractor) before we can try out the steam shower. I’ll post some pictures of the finished product next week. That and my new TV/stereo wall cabinet. I did chuckle when I found the new bathtub sitting in front of the fireplace in the music room. I was picturing McD with a fire going, glass of champagne in hand, and maybe some soothing piano music.
Other than the construction zoo factor, it’s 
been a typical week. Work, exercise, some music and reading. I did get a clean bill of health from the orthopedic doctor this week. He reports that my leg has completely healed and I’m ready for action again. I was able to “close all my rings” every day this week on the Apple watch. I may have to increase my active calories daily goal a bit to stretch things.
We did try to get in the Labor (American spelling since it’s an American holiday) Day spirit with some outdoor cooking. Griller D made some delicious bacon cheeseburgers and stuffed jalapenos. What a nice treat.
It’s Marco’s birthday today and I enjoyed sending him this special meme greeting:
Football’s back! I enjoyed watching Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints beat up on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs are going to be a good team once Brady gets them whipped into shape. Hoping for a similar positive result when the Cowboys play the Rams in the new $5 billion SoFi stadium later this evening.
I learned a bit of “The Great Gig in the Sky” from Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” on the piano this week. Here’s the original:
And my attempt. What great chord progressions – like something Gil Evans would chart for the Miles Davis band:
I finished Stewart O’Nan’s thirteenth novel, “The Odds”, on the Monday holiday. This is another very original, bittersweet story like the last book of his I read, “Last Night at the Lobster”. It’s Valentine’s weekend, Art and Marion Fowler flee their Cleveland suburb for Niagara Falls, desperate to recoup their losses. Jobless, with their home approaching foreclosure and their marriage on the brink of collapse, Art and Marion liquidate their savings account and book a bridal suite at the Falls’ ritziest casino for a second honeymoon. While they sight see like tourists during the day, at night they risk it all at the roulette wheel to fix their finances-and save their marriage. I won’t spoil the ending for you.
I really enjoyed this book – not quite as much as my previous O’Nan reads but still more than just about anything that I’ve read recently.
This paragraph made me chuckle as I was reminded me of my ever increasing piles of books to be moved around and sorted.
“She addressed her mystery again, tilting it to the beam of light from the overhead console. She read two or three a week, the pile of cracked and yellowing paperbacks on her nightstand dwindling as the one on the marble-topped table by the front door grew until it was time to trade them in at the Book Exchange.”
Here’s a classic O’Nan recounting of the little things that make up a marriage:
“The one on the left was dressy, crushed velvet with a high heel, elaborate straps and a needle-nosed toe. She loved them but they killed her feet. The one on the right was plain, but much more comfortable.
“The right,” he said.
“You really like that one better?”
“I do.”
“You’re so boring.”
“You’ve got a blister, and the restaurant’s at the end of the mall.”
“You’re right,” she admitted, but when she returned from the bedroom she was in her stocking feet, the fancier pair dangling from one hand. “When else am I going to wear them? I’m just going to have to suffer.”
“You said it, not me.”
“How long do we have? I’m not putting them on until I absolutely have to.”
“Five minutes. Before we get going, I’d like to get a picture of us.”
“You haven’t taken enough pictures today.” She thought it was typical of him, wanting to commemorate their adventure. He’d already chosen where he wanted her to stand. She could see it being used against her in the future, but couldn’t refuse him.
“You don’t have to put your shoes on.”
“I do if I don’t want to look like a dwarf next to you.”
They were too narrow, and crushed her toes, her bunions flaring with every step.”
Well, there’s several pieces in that passage that I can relate to.
I continue to work my way through the Churchill book and learned a few new things this week.
While asking my Dad about the Anderson bomb shelter in his back garden, I learned a couple of interesting facts about his wartime experiences in Glasgow. He told me about the house across the street being bombed and all that remained was the staircase from the ground to the first floor. I also learned about the “smoke screen cylinder machines” that went around the streets producing smoke to hide the prime Glaswegian targets from the Luftwaffe. One of those was the nearby Singer sewing machine factory which at the time was manufacturing war equipment. That and the nearby Clyde shipyards, building battleships. I don’t think I had ever equated the term “smoke screen” with the original wartime purpose.
Back to the book. Violet Bohnam Carter is referenced a few times, and I wondered if she was any relation to Helena Bonham Carter (actress and wife of the director Tim Burton). Turns out Violet was Helena’s grandmother.
“Soon after the bombing, Clementine, in a letter to Violet Bonham Carter, wrote, “We have no gas or hot water and are cooking on an oil stove. But as a man called to Winston out of the darkness the other night, ‘It’s a great life if we don’t weaken!'””
An interesting and somewhat prescient quote from Roosevelt, “Of course we’ll fight if we’re attacked. If somebody attacks us, then it isn’t a foreign war, is it? Or do they want me to guarantee that our troops will only be sent into battle in the event of another Civil War.”
I didn’t know that Joseph Kennedy, father of John and Bobby, was the American ambassador to the UK in 1940. Not a particularly helpful ambassador from what I read.
And lastly, an interesting note about Churchill practicing his speech to the French. “He had difficulty with certain French linguistic maneuvers, in particular rolling his r’s, but Saint-Denis found him to be a willing student, later recalling, “He relished the flavour of some words as though he were tasting fruit.””
“American Dirt”, my swimming audio book, continues to expose me to the many issues associated with Latin American migrants trying to make their way to the United States. Lydia and Luca made it on top of “La Bestia”, the freight train that runs from Mexico to the US, as far as San Miguel de Allende before having to take a break for food and sleep. This is the town where we celebrated Denny’s 50th birthday, and the juxtaposition of the way we saw this beautiful town with the way migrants experience it was quite jarring.
I did a bit of research on “La Bestia” to understand how realistic the depiction in the book really is. It’s a very scary reality and well described in the book as documented in this NPR story from 2014:
https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/06/05/318905712/riding-the-beast-across-mexico-to-the-u-s-border
Let’s switch over to music and some happier topics. The Hayes Carll livestream on Tuesday was one of his best yet. Joined by his wife, Allison Moorer, at about 49 minutes in, he plays one of my favourite songs and then continues with a few more excellent duets:
Something told me it would be a good week to tune into the Anders Osborne livestream on Friday. What a treat – one of the best drummers in the world, Stanton Moore, and an amazing keyboard player, David Torkanowsky, joined Anders in his living room. Excellent from start to finish:
https://m.facebook.com/AndersOsborne/videos/311878796765073/
Some new music that I enjoyed this week:
I stumbled on this version of Randy Newman’s “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” by Jools Holland (Squeeze and “The Tube” fame) with David Gray (“Babylon” fame) on vocals. Not quite up there with Curtis Stigers live, but a close second:
A timely Stevie Wonder song from the classic “Songs in the Key of Life”:
And lastly, something that I had never heard from The Bodeans. It was playing on D’s playlist by the pool today and the opening guitar riff sucked me in. Wouldn’t have picked it out as a Bodeans song: