It was a good weekend. Saturday we headed out to Turbo’s, Wizard gave him the RC race car…and it broke in the first 10 minutes, LOL! That is RC cars. Wizard brought it home to fix the issue and will probably drop it off this week when he’s out there for other stuff. But Turbo was excited about it! And he didn’t even blink about Wizard needing to take it home and redo something on it. He and his dad have RC trucks they play with, and his dad is always fixing them, so he wasn’t at all surprised or upset. We didn’t stay long, and left to head towards home then stop somewhere for lunch when we were closer to home.

But the freeway was closed due to an accident involving a runaway propane tank. The tank’s house — a food truck — was involved in an accident and the propane tank saw it’s opportunity to escape and rolled out onto the freeway (I didn’t said it was a good plan, LOL). This freaked out the authorities since they didn’t know if it had been punctured and was ready to spectacularly self destruct in a massive fireball and take out everything around it. And this led to the freeway closure.

Fortunately, we were able to get it around it fairly quickly since they had just closed the freeway a few minutes before we got there, and we went on with our day. We went to lunch, came home then headed back out to drop in on Youngest unannounced. Because we wanted to see the finished back yard! And we did! They have an oasis that is just lovely after a year or more of work. It was worth all the sweat and money they put into it. But Youngest had planned to show no one until he was ready for his Big Reveal in what I assume will be a family swim party. Which is why we dropped in We’re the parents, we get away with stuff like that all the time. But he’s making the rest of the family wait and there was a long text chain about this in which Youngest told his siblings and family that we had to pay for an early preview. Then he showed a picture the Mustang in his garage, implying we gave it to him for the privilege of seeing his backyard.

I’m seriously worried my kids are strange. Just saying…

Sunday Wizard went to practice at the track and see his friends. That left me home unsupervised, so I went to Lowes and spent money on more pots, soil, plant stands and one plant. I need to do some repotting and such. Maggie went with me and had a great time with that adventure! She loves going anywhere.

Oh, and back when we were at Turbo’s, oldest son said he’d take paddle board lessons with me (stand up paddle board), and I am going to hold him to it! It’s a bucket list thing that I really want to try. My daughter in law said she and Turbo will Kayak while we paddle board. I’d totally do kayaking too, but I really want to try paddle boarding.

Today I’m working out then gardening in the back.

How was your weekend?

TGIF! I didn’t do much this week, well, I did do stuff but it was all boring chores and errands. But I’ll try to come up with five things to share about my week, then it’s your turn!

1. Wizard’s still dealing with his cold, but definitely feels better than he did the first couple days. So far, no cold for me.
2. I’m loving my plants in the back yard! I want to do more, but I’m kind of waiting to see when Youngest will be able to do the decking. He’s finishing his backyard by putting in sod this week. He and his wife have turned their back yard with a pool into a lovely outdoor space! They did all the work themselves, but worth the effort! The stuff in my backyard can wait, we are really enjoying it as is.
3. In less than exciting news, I bought 15lb dumb bells, slowly and steadily increasing the weight in my weight lifting program. Oldest suggested I pyramid sets, which means I start with a lighter weight with more reps, and work up in weight with each progressive set, lowering my reps with each increase. Doing this has reduced my fatigue and joint pain, which I had no idea would work. I don’t know the exact mechanism of why it works, but I’m happy it does. I know this is boring for the rest of the universe
4. Wizard and I went to a big box home goods store yesterday, where we brought a few things, including a throne (aka a plant stand) for Prince (the orchid). I named him Prince for the song Purple Rain
5. This weekend, we are going to take Turbo a RC racecar Wizard built for him. There’s a slight chance that I won’t go with Wizard if Youngest would like my help putting in the sod in his backyard. We’ll see what he says, but my kids tend to be squeamish about me doing lift and carry work even if I can do it and don’t mind. Plus I’m torn, go see my grandson Turbo or get dirty and sweaty helping youngest? Hm…  I’ve missed seeing CeeGee this week, but I really didn’t want to share Wizard’s cold. My poor daughter in law fought that cold for three weeks, she really doesn’t need a repeat of that.

That’s my boring five. I’m pretty sure you all can show me up sharing your five things! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

I finished THE GIVER last week, and I generally loved it. However, I didn’t love the ending. It was abrupt and ambiguous. Literary Fiction does this a lot, and in certain contexts I have no problem with it. In this one, I felt too invested to have a sudden ending. It could be that I was reading it on Kindle, and the device told me I was only 80% into the book so the quick ending was unexpected. The reason Kindle told me 80% was the author had included other material in the back of the book and I hadn’t realized it. I’m going to say what I really felt: For such an intense, well written book, I thought the ending was lazy writing. Tons and tons of readers will disagree and that’s okay. We all have opinions All that said, I still highly recommend the book! The viewpoint of an 11 or 12 year old boy really gives an interesting perspective on a dystopian (or highly controlled might be a better description) society. Totally worth the read.

I’m listening on and off to a mystery, THE GUILTY ONE by Kiersten Modglin. I like it, and the twists are pretty good so far. I do find some parts hard to listen to due to subject matter. But I’ve been also listening to various podcasts, so that helps me disengage for a bit when I need a break. That may be weird, but that’s me, LOL.

What are you reading or listening to?

It was a decent weekend. I had a nice Mother’s Day, including a lovely breakfast with Youngest and his wife. They then came by the house so Youngest could look at the spot where I want him to build a deck. He’s going to try to do it this year which makes me so happy. Oh and they brought me a stunning purple orchid plant I’m terrified of killing   I shall research spells to keep it alive and thriving!

Also youngest daughter in law talked about a (inexpensive) girls trip. We talk about this often but don’t do it — that needs to change! Life is too short to not do it.

The downside of the weekend, Wizard is sick with a cold that’s been going through our family. Two grandkids really help spread viruses, LOL. Who knows if I’ll get it, right now I’m way more focused on Wizard — three colds in six months tells me his immune system is rundown. I seem to be doing fine, so even if I get the cold, it’ll pass in the normal fashion.

How was your weekend and Mother’s Day?

So I finished the Nikki Haley book. I did learn some things about the way the UN works. Otherwise, the book didn’t excite me much, but it was worth a read since I am interested in geopolitics.

This week, I started a book I’m loving. It’s an older young adult dystopian novel, and I’m hooked. The title is THE GIVER by Lois Lowry. I wouldn’t have found this book if I hadn’t seen it on a display table when I was waiting for my sister at Barnes and Nobles. I meant to pick it up and buy it when I left (after we had coffee there), but for various reasons that include laziness, I didn’t. I did however remember the title, and bought in on my Kindle later that night. Technology has its advantages. And we do buy a fair amount of books from B&N too, so I don’t feel too bad about that.

What are you reading?

Despite dreary, drizzling weather, we had a good weekend!

Friday, we went to play with CeeGee. Can you believe she’ll be 8 months old in four days? Time is flying! She’s at such a cute age, and we had a blast playing with her until she fell asleep on me. Both CeeGee and her parents are getting over colds, but nothing dims CeeGee’s bright happy spirit.  And aside comment here: Middle son, his wife and CeeGee are the ones we’re “camping” with in July — by camping, I’m mean they’re glamping in their amazing trailer, and we’re staying in an Inn connected to the campgrounds. That’s going to be fun to spend a bit more time with middle son doing something he really loves.

Saturday, we did a quick vacuuming of floors and headed off to Turbo’s baseball game. Turbo did great, and wow the teams defense skills are really building now. They might not get the runner out, but they’re making the correct play and that’s the whole point. At bat, Turbo ducked one pitch and his bat actually hit the ball. It was the craziest play I’ve seen, LOL. But he still got to first. I think he got one hit, and another time he walked for getting hit in the shoulder ( he was fine). While we were enjoying the game, Maggie made several friends, including one of her favorite types of people — a little girl about three years old. The new friend that cracked me up with a big tough guy who sat next to us, and pet Maggie for quite a while. She’s normally a bit more cautious with men, but clearly they had a connection.

Sunday, Wizard’s race was rained out, but he stayed home. I met Oldest son at his house. As I predicted, his wife and Turbo were still sleeping We went to breakfast. Also for the record, his wife told me at the game they’d probably stay home so I could have one on one with Oldest. I thought that was really sweet. I would have been just as happy either way, but I love her thoughtfulness. When Oldest and I returned, Turbo was up. First I watched him play a Hot Wheels Racing video game, then he wanted to show me his RC trucks, so we went outside for a while to drive those. That’s always fun! After that, I went inside to chat with Special K — and we are both obsessed with her kitchen remodel plans. Finally I left so Oldest could get a bit of work done.

All told, I must have clocked well over 300 miles of driving or riding in the passenger seat this weekend! But it was fun, and worth it.

Today, I’m meeting Biker Witch for coffee because I haven’t seen her in a while.

How was your weekend?

It really frustrates me that I read so much less than I used to read. I’m pretty sure streaming videos and podcasts are my reason, plus the reduced attention span that comes with cell phones and short videos, and possibly even age. The age part has to do with not having time for things I consider annoying or dumb anymore

What’s so stupid is there’s a lot of books I want to read, and I generally have some discipline. But somehow, reading has just fallen off my priority list. For instance, I got half way through the Nikki Haley book then just stopped for a week. Some of that was life-interruptions and those happen. But seriously, I can focus better than that!

But clearly I’m not.

I think I’m going to have to set some goals for myself. Well first I need to start a list of books I want to read, then arrange them in categories and then set goals to read X number of non-fiction and fiction books a month. Right now, I’m reading one or two books a months.

But will I do it? Maybe…I mean I really like the idea, but my follow through is a little slim when it comes to reading lately! But I do have a notebook I could use so that’s a start! (yeah, I know, a notebook is old school but that’s how I roll.)

So how’s reading going for you all?