A pretty severe storm rolled through on Sunday evening after I published the blog last week. The forecast had said this would miss us completely, so Diana had to scramble to get the sunbathing area all covered up.
My Best Man Denny’s Mum passed away this week after a lengthy battle with cancer. We enjoyed so many laughs, often at Denny’s expense, and meals with Diann over the years, and will really miss her kindness and her smile.
I watched an episode of “Mediterranean Living” on television that showed an American family moving to Almunecar on the Spanish Andalusian coast. The weather was much nicer there and the town looked perfect. I had Diana watch it and she was as shocked as me at how inexpensive the rent was on some gorgeous villas. Should we start learning Spanish? Might be worth a visit when we can travel again.
The calendar for August is completely open. We remember when it was a complicated tracker of me going one direction, Diana going another, and trying to figure out when we would go to Austin rather than staying in McKinney. All that as well as concerts and restaurant reservations. I did have three outings this week – a haircut on Monday, physical therapy on Tuesday, and a trip to Filtered in downtown McKinney for coffee with Penelope and Diana – those and four trips to the gym for swims.
Saturday was a lovely, cooler morning to sit outside and enjoy that coffee. There was only one fly in the ointment – McD beat me at the crossword by a full minute plus. She completed the puzzle in 7:03 with me straggling behind at 8:08.
Prior to the coffee excursion, we enjoyed a fast paced 3 mile walk. The Apple watch refuses to count Diana’s walks unless she gets her heart rate up above 100 eats per minute – a big source of annoyance. No matter how fast she walks, her heart rate doesn’t get there. So…she’s taken to doing regular runs to boost her rate – she runs away from me and then turns around to rejoin me. Speaking of running McD – she did run a 5K distance this week – effectively fully completing the couch to 5K program.
It happened again on Sunday. We went to Duino for coffee and the crossword. I lost again! McD finished in 7 minutes again, besting me by at least 30 seconds. All that running has got her brain firing on all cylinders. I’m going to have to up my speed solving abilities. Losing two days in a row is a non-starter for sure.
The “memories” feature of the iPhone showed me these excellent memories of August 20, 2019. The Marc Cohn and Blind Boys of Alabama concert form the wonderful Saratoga Mountain Winery. What a great memory indeed.
We had Laureano, a new colleague from our Guatemala Technology Center, join our Happy Hour on Thursday evening. We started talking about traveling and he shared a story from his honeymoon a few years ago – he and his new bride had toured the Vatican and asked about a special service for newly weds. It was a couple of days out and would disrupt their travel plans, but his wife convinced Laureano that they should try to attend. Do you think it was worth staying?:
Laureano couldn’t find the picture on his computer and I was quite impressed as he navigated through the Vatican website (all Italian) to find this shot.
Another work friend had a bit of a scary experience this week. His son was crouched down by a river on their deer lease at night and he noticed a coiled up rattlesnake less than 2 feet away from his bottom. Dad took care of the issue as a native Texan would:
I’ve started reading the “Splendid and the Vile” by Erik Larson. It’s about Churchill, his family, and the years 1940 and 1941 when Britain stood strong against a potential invasion by Germany. Reading about Churchill brought to mind an old Supertramp song that I first heard on the “Paris” double live album (remember those?). I believe that “Fool’s Overture” is largely about World War II and the lessons to be learned about ignoring growing threats. Here’s the first verse:
“History recalls how great the fall can be
While everybody’s sleeping, the boats put out to sea
Borne on the wings of time
It seemed the answers were so easy to find
“Too late, ” the prophets cry
The island’s sinking, let’s take to the sky”
Here’s the live version:
The song first appeared on the album “Even in the Quietest Moments”, released in 1977. Supertramp is often referred to as an English group, although their bass player, Dougie Thompson, is Scottish – as evidenced by the Glasgow Herald he’s reading in the diner picture on the back of the “Breakfast in America” album. I like the album cover art with the snow covered grand piano in the mountains. Some research revealed that the group recorded the album in Colorado and put the piano (which doesn’t have any insides) on a ski slope one evening, photographing it the next morning after a snow storm had cleared. The small details really make their album covers. What’s the music on the piano? It’s titled “Fool’s Overture” but is actually “The Star Spangled Banner”.
I decided to try and learn the introduction to “Fool’s Overture” for my piano tune this week. It’s a bit challenging as you can see in this video of my efforts:
More work required. I can play it through just fine without the video recording going. No, really!
I don’t have a guitar song to share this week – the piano one occupied all of my free time. Back to the book now.
Here’s an interesting picture from the inside front cover. Look at the men selecting books from library shelves that are still standing in the rubble:
I’m 125 pages in at this point and here are some interesting passages from what I’ve read:
“Mine is an intimate account that delves into how Churchill and his circle went about surviving on a daily basis: the dark moments and the light, the romantic entanglements and debacles, the sorrows and laughter, and the odd little episodes that reveal how life was really lived under Hitler’s tempest of steel. This was the year in which Churchill became Churchill, the cigar-smoking bulldog we all think we know, when he made his greatest speeches and showed the world what courage and leadership looked like.”
“Coveting power for power’s sake was a “base” pursuit, he wrote, adding, “But power in a national crisis, when a man believes he knows what orders should be given, is a blessing.” He felt great relief. “At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial…”
“With a German victory in France nearly certain, British intelligence now forecast that Germany might invade England immediately, without waiting for a formal French surrender. The British expected that an invasion would begin with a titanic onslaught by the German air force, potentially a “knock out” blow – or, as Churchill called it, and aerial “banquet” – with as many as fourteen thousand aircraft darkening the sky.”
“But fighter production lagged. England’s aircraft plants operated on a prewar schedule that did not take into account the new reality of having a hostile force based just across the channel. Production, though increasing, was suppressed by the fusty practices of a peacetime bureaucracy.”
I love the picture painted by the word fusty, and remember my parents asking me why I had such a “fusty face” going.
“Goring harbored a distorted perception of what by now was unfolding off the coast of Dunkirk, as British soldiers – nicknamed Tommies – prepared to evacuate. “Only a few fishing boats are coming across,” he said on Monday, May 27. “One hopes that the Tommies know how to swim.”
“The Tommies did not, after all, have to swim. In the end, 887 vessels carried out the Dunkirk evacuation, of which only a quarter belonged to the Royal Navy. Another 91 were passenger ships, the rest an armada of fishing boats, yachts, and other small craft. In all, 338, 226 men got away.”
His most famous speech:
“As he neared the conclusion of the speech, he fired his boilers. “We shall go on to the end,” he said, in a crescendo of ferocity and confidence. “We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
“To watch him compose some telegram or minute for dictation is to make one feel that one is present at the birth of a child, so tense is his expression, so restless his turnings from side to side, so curious the noises he emits under his breath.”
I’m reminded of the bomb shelters that were in back gardens of the big cities in Britain during this time – about 2 million were distributed. My Dad was a kid living in Glasgow and so was the potential target of bombing raids. My Mum lived in the country and so was less at risk. I think I remember a bomb shelter out behind where my Grandpa Robertson lived. Not sure if I’m imagining that or not. These days, many of the shelters remain in gardens and are often used as garden sheds. Here’s a link to an interesting article in The Guardian about these:
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/21/how-britains-abandoned-anderson-shelters-are-being-brought-back-to-life
I’ve been listening to “American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummins during my swims this week. It’s a story about Lydia and her son, who try to escape Acapulco and Mexico after her husband and most of her family are killed by a drug cartel. An initial twist is that Lydia is a bookstore owner and one of her best and favourite customers is the head of the cartel that carried out the killings. She is devastated when she discovers this and thus begins an attempted escape to Colorado. It’s still early in the story but I suspect her escape exploits are about to become quite harrowing.
What’s happening in the week ahead? Absolutely nothing exciting that I can think of, other than exercise, physical therapy and a busy week of work. We’re hopeful that the bathroom will be usable next weekend. I’m contemplating trying John Prine’s “Hello in There” on the piano and will search for something good for the guitar.