Tag Archives: The Squire. a good book

Lost in Space

15 Oct

The Squire is  great fan of science fiction, which I do not usually enjoy, but we have stumbled upon a series written by David Weber, about an earth-like planet called Safehold, many light-years away from our galaxy, which pleases us both. A combination of space age technology and a pre-Industrial Revolution society.  It is all too complicated to go into here, but it is essentially an alternative history of the time of the Inquisition, which even  the staunchest Catholic will admit was not the church’s finest hour. I should warn you that Mr Weber is very Protestant in his views.  The books are huge – over 600 pages each – and very, very complicated. You really need to take notes, especially as the characters have rather odd names, and there are a bunch of people involved in this story. Fifteen pages worth in this book, but most of them are also in the other books.

The first book in the series, if you are interested, is Off Armageddon Reef and you really do need to read them in order.

The eighth book in the series was just recently published, and I picked it up at the library Tuesday.  I joked to the woman who brought me home (I’m still not able to drive) that once I gave the book to The Squire, I probably wouldn’t see him for about 48 hours. “I just hang a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign around his neck, hand him a sandwich once in a while, and dust him off, but there’s no point in talking to him. He gets so engrossed that either he won’t hear me at all, or I’ll startle him.”

Now, for the first eight years we had Blazer he was perfectly content to sleep on the floor, but last winter he decided he had enough seniority to claim The Squire’s recliner for his own. I got a chair cover and put it over the seat and sides, but the dog usually claws it down in to a heap on the chair seat, and sleeps there.bookmark

With this new book in hand, The Squire carefully folded the cover and put in on the floor next to the chair and settled in to read. Blazer about had a fit. He tried to get into the chair with The Squire, and when that didn’t work, he tried a plan of attrition, pacing back and forth around the recliner, trying to bother The Squire out of “his” chair.

So – I have no idea what time The Squire came to bed Tuesday night, but by 1:30 yesterday he had read over 300 pages.  He read most of yesterday, and after a short argument with the dog this morning, he read steadily from the time he got home from PT until 7:25. He finished the entire 627 pages in slightly more than 48 hours.

Now, it’s my turn.

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Vampires and Other Animals

20 May

This morning I threw a batch of chili into the crockpot, and was just reaching for the second jar of seasoning when I realized I’d put a teaspoon of dried garlic into a recipe than called for a quarter that amount. I managed to scrape out a good bit of it, and then put in the required teaspoon of dried onion, but I don’t think The Squire and I will have to worry about vampires for a while.

Yesterday I walked up our road about a half a mile, picking up aluminum cans and other trash. There was a plastic cup half buried in a pile of dried leaves, so I moved the leaves aside and disturbed a very annoyed juvenile ground hog. The little fellow could have sat in my cupped hands, but he was pitching a fit large enough for several critters. It was hard to tell which of us was the most startled by the encounter. He reminded me of a kitten – all arched back, fluffed fur, and sparks, but not really much to back it up. Except a set of teeth that looked as if they were ready for business.

Tsula, our mama fox, has obviously been coming down to the house early in the morning. (Cherokee for fox.) We’ve been making sure she has a good sized dinner in the evening, but you can certainly notice that foxy aroma at 8 AM. I did find about two-thirds of a squirrel’s tail on the walk one morning, but haven’t seen any bobtailed animals around the feeder, so I suppose she did get one at least. We are now making sure she gets breakfast in bed, as well as room service as night.

Eddie came to the door Sunday afternoon with a female cardinal in his mouth. I managed to get the bird, and The Squire locked the cat in the kitchen. The bird sat on my finger, panting, while I stroked her head and crooned to her. Once she’d stopped panting, I carried her outside, and she flew off into the trees immediately. I was going to put her in the bushes to catch her breath and get her bearings, but apparently that wasn’t necessary.

If the blasted cat was going to actually catch something, why didn’t he grab one of the vultures that hang around here? A grackle or a starling, for instance?

I am working a switchboard tomorrow, so The Squire and I went over to the library. I don’t like getting paid for reading a book, but you can’t make a switchboard ring, and I can’t stare at the wall for eight hours. While I was writing this, he started to read one of his science fiction books. I just asked him a question, and he popped to the surface as if he’d been sound asleep. “Huh? Huh? Wha..?”

He’s so cute when he does that.

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