Book Challenge Update–69

I have finished the 69th book for the book challenge. It was High Five: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich.

Stephanie Plum is desperate for a FTA (Failure To Appear). She is a bond enforcement agent–a bounty hunter–and she needs to pay her rent. She takes a FTA for a concealed weapon jumper, a knife carrier, named Randy Briggs. He is a Little Person. She is having some trouble bringing him in.

In the meantime, Stephanie’s Uncle Fred has gone missing. Her Aunt Mabel has asked her to help find him. He went to do some errands and never came back. They found his car in the Grand Union parking lot with the dry cleaning in it but no Fred. So Stephanie begins the look out for Uncle Fred. Fred was supposed to go to RGC, the garbage company, to dispute his garbage bill. The company had not picked up his garbage even though he had paid his bill. He had his canceled check that he was going to take to show them. It was on his desk. But also in his desk are a roll of photos of a cut-up body in a plastic bag. Stephanie is alarmed. She takes the photos and the check. She goes to RGC and talks to the woman at RGC about the check. The woman and a man at RGC get into a squabble about the check. Stephanie says she’ll come back, but Fred had not come in.

Then a man called Bunchy shows up tailing Stephanie. He says he too is looking for Fred. He says that he is a bookie. But Stephanie asks around and no one seems to know anything about a bookie named Bunchy. He keeps tailing Stephanie wherever she goes. She keeps looking for Fred. She finds out that Fred had a girlfriend. He went to see her before he went missing. But she hasn’t seen him. A cashier at the Grand Union saw Fred talking to a man in the parking lot and get into a car. But she can’t describe the man. Stephanie also talks to the people at the bank where Uncle Fred’s check was cashed. Alan Shempsky is the branch manager. He doesn’t want to talk much.

Then the woman from RGC is found dead. Stephanie and Grandma Mazur go to the wake at Spiva’s Funeral Home. Bunchy shows up.

Stephanie is still in need of money. She manages to bring in Randy Briggs with Lula helping, only after dragging him down a flight of stairs. He is threatening to sue, so he is staying at Stephanie’s apartment while his apartment is being repaired after Stephanie and Lula wrecked his apartment. Stephanie takes a job helping Ranger with security on his apartment to make extra money. It’s a little scary. They throw out some drug dealers. A little later they go back to work security on the apartment again. Stephanie is caught in an ambush and the drug dealer blows himself up. Stephanie winds up in the hospital but all is well. Next she works as a chauffeur for a young Arab sheik. The young man is obnoxious. He steals her car. Then Ranger gives her a Porsche. Stephanie can’t believe it. She takes the car to RGC to talk to Larry Limpinski about the check. He was the man the dead woman was fighting with about Uncle Fred’s check. When she is in RGC, she finds him dead. It is an apparent suicide. And her car, the Porsche,  blows up when sideswiped by a garbage truck. A bomb had been planted under it.

Also, Benito Ramirez, the pimp who had hurt Lula, is after Stephanie. He is stalking her and says he is going to get her. Stephanie is very afraid of him and has been careful to carry her gun, her stun gun, and her mace.

Morelli asks Stephanie to go with him to a cousin’s wedding. She buys a slinky black dress and killer heels. But she then decides to wear a less sexy dress to the wedding. At the wedding, she gets a call from a friend whom she asked to watch a particular house of a FTA. The guy is home and Stephanie leaves the wedding to go get the guy, a wife-beater. She manages to get him, with Morelli’s assistance. She doesn’t end up with Morelli that night.

Ranger gives Stephanie a BMW. She and Lula use the BMW to go to pick up another FTA, another wife-beater. They make the apprehension, but the BMW has been stolen. All that has been left are the hubcaps and the vehicle number. They have to call Vinnie for a ride.

Stephanie is convinced that Uncle Fred’s disappearance is linked to the cashing of checks at the branch bank. Another RGC employee has been murdered, who also dealt with checked, and a cable TV employee has been killed as well. All these people had checks that were cashed at the branch bank. Stephanie thinks that there has been skimming going on.

Morelli tells her that he is working with the Feds and that Bunchy isn’t a bookie. He is working with Bunchy.

Stephanie returns home one night and finds Alan Shempsky in her bedroom. He says he is going to kill her. He has been involved in the skimming at the bank. He has killed all the people at RGC who were involved in skimming. Suddenly Ramirez appears in Stephanie’s window. Shempsky shoots him dead. Stephanie runs downstairs and calls the police and Shempsky gets away. Briggs was tied up in Stephanie’s closet. She lets him out and he goes home.

Stephanie has another job driving the young Arab sheik. She picks him up in the blue Buick with Grandma Mazur. The young man is not too pleased, but then Stephanie gets a call that Shempsky has been spotted near the Newark Airport. She finds him and goes after him. Stephanie, Grandma Mazur, and the young sheik take down Shempsky.

Uncle Fred has been dead for two weeks. He was killed by Shempsky. Aunt Mabel has already come to terms with Uncle Fred’s absence. She has bought a new car and new furniture. She is going to take a cruise. They do, however, have to have a closed casket. Grandma Mazur isn’t happy about this, but what are you going to do?

Back home, Stephanie puts on her slinky black dress and killer heels. She puts Morelli’s name and Ranger’s name in a bowl and draws out one name (with peeking). Then she makes a call. The man whose name she draws out comes over. The dress comes off. The book ends.

This is another good fun Stephanie Plum novel. Stephanie gets in an incredible amount of trouble without even trying. But she always manages to have a lot of fun and this book is filled with humor. Lula does not figure as prominently in book as in previous books, and I sort of miss her antics. I liked the tension between Stephanie and Ranger, however. That was an interesting twist.

Daily Prompt–The Interview

Interview your favorite fictional character.

I am of two minds about which fictional character I would like to interview. I have two favorite characters. Perhaps I’ll interview them both. That would solve the problem.

Interview I: Interview with Chief Inspector Armand Gamache the Head of Homicide of the Surȇté du Québec. (Author Louise Penny)

Me: Good Morning, Chief Inspector. Thank you for agreeing to do this interview. Which case so far has been the most difficult for you, personally, aside from the raid on the factory, which we know was a terrible thing for you both personally and professionally?

Chief Inspector: The last case, The Beautiful Mystery, was very trying for me, as you know. We, Inspector Beauvoir and myself, were isolated in a remote Québec woods monastery and had to determine who committed the murder of the choir master of the community. But it was difficult for me personally because of the addiction to painkillers of Inspector Beauvoir and our struggle at the end of the case and the interference of Chief Superintendent Francoeur in Inspector Beauvoir’s medication. The Inspector needed treatment, not more medication and The Chief Superintendent enabled him instead. It was a sad situation.

Me: What has been the outcome of this situation? Have you and the Inspector reconciled?

Chief Inspector: Non. He has transfer from my section. We haven’t spoken since.

Me: That’s too bad. He was an excellent member of your team. We are looking forward to your next adventure. What can you tell us about that?

Chief Inspector: All I can tell you is that I return to Three Pines when Myra asks for my help. There are other changes to my team. Life is in turmoil for me.

Me: Oh No! Well, we look forward to your next adventure in August, Chief Inspector. Thank you for talking to us.

Chief Inspector: Merci.

Interview II: Interview with Flavia de Luce, the young British sleuth of Buckshaw Hall near Bishop’s Lacy. (Author Alan Bradley)

Me: Good morning, Miss de Luce. Thank you for agreeing to speak with me this morning. I enjoy reading about your adventures in chemistry and your encounters with dead bodies.

Flavia de Luce: Oh, please call me Flavia. Yes, I prefer to be known as a chemist. That is what I truly adore. My laboratory is my sancta sanctorum, you know. And thus far, i have had the opportunity to observe a total of five dead bodies. All for the sake of science, of course.

Me: Of course, for the sake of science. You are always very thorough in your observations of dead bodies. Much more thorough, I’d have to say, than Inspector Hewitt is usually. You seem to catch those clues that he overlooks, don’t you?

Flavia de Luce: Yes, I have been known to pick up the odd clue here and there and help out the local constabulary in their efforts. It’s my keen powers of observation, you see. And my innate curiosity.

Me: However, you also seem to get yourself into horrible predicaments with the killer of all these dead bodies. I’m referring to being held in the pit shed by Horace Bonepenny’s killer, of course. And then there was the episode on the roof of Buckshaw on Christmas Eve when you were attempting to ensnare Father Christmas and instead were trapped by Marion Trodd and Val Lampmann.

Flavia de Luce: Well, I do have a problem with confronting killers, I suppose. In the first instance you mention, I was fortunate to have Feeley and Dogger use Harriet’s car to rescue me. That was spectacular! And I couldn’t believe that Feeley actually helped to rescue me! It was almost as if we had made a truce! As you know, Daffy and Feeley and I rarely make truces. We are almost always at war with each other, though Daffy and I did make a truce at Christmas Eve that year. And yes, I was trapped on the roof with Marion Trodd and Val Lampmann, but as you will recall, my birdlime that I had used to stick Father Christmas caught Marion instead and then Val Lampmann slid off the roof. Somehow I manage to come through these encounters unscathed.

Me: You are amazing, Flavia! You figured out the murders in five cases with your skills of observation and the scientific method. And with your chemical skills you also manage to keep us entertained.

Flavia de Luce: I’m ever so glad. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to my fans.

Me: We anxiously await your next adventure, Flavia. Thank you.

Flavia de Luce: No, thank you.

Book Challenge Update–68

I have read the 68th book for the book challenge. It was Prey On Patmos, An Aegean Prophecy: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Novel by Jeffrey Siger.

Andreas Kaldis, the Chief of Special Crimes Division for the GADA  or Central Police in Greece, is called to the island of Patmos during Holy Week, the week before Easter, the holiest week in the Church calendar. There has been the murder of a prominent monk, Kaligeros Vassilis who lived at the monastery on Patmos. He was found early on Monday in the town with his throat cut. Andreas and Kouras fly to Patmos to investigate.

They meet with the abbot of the monastery. He shows them Vassilis’s room which has also been ransacked. His laptop computer has been stolen, along with his disks. Andreas buys a cheap cross like the one Vassilis died clutching and substitutes the one he bought for the one Vassilis had in the police station, in hopes of a clue. He takes it back to Athens and finds a USB drive hidden in the cross. His computer geek downloads two photographs from the USB drive and a list of names. The photos are the same except that one has some of the faces replaced with other faces.

Andreas and his girlfriend Lila are also preparing for the birth of their first child. Andreas is hesitant to marry Lila. He doesn’t want her to think he would be marrying her for her money, and he is worried that she would grow tired of him, that they would have little in common. Lila wants to marry Andreas.

Andreas, through intermediaries, is introduced to an important person on Mount Athos, a collection of twenty monasteries in a remote part of Greece. This person, the Protos, is worried about the rule of the Ecumenical Patriarch, who must now be educated in Turkish. He is worried that this post will be dissolved and the Russians will take over Mount Athos. Vassilis was also concerned. Andreas meets the Protos, and shows him the photos that Vassilis had with him. Vassilis was on his way to meet with the Protos. One of the photos, the original, shows the heads of the twenty monasteries at the installation of the Protos. The other shows the changes in the heads of the monasteries over time. There is fear that a man named Zacharias at one of the monasteries is orchestrating the take-over of the monasteries.

Andreas still must find the man or men who killed Vassilis. He hears rumors of three monks who have disappeared. He locates them on a farm on Patmos. He conducts a raid on the farm and captures the three “monks,” who are really agents of the monk Zacharias. Now to get Zacharias. He needs the help of the Russians.

There is a wealthy Russian named Vladimir on the island of Mykanos on Holy Saturday. He likes to party and likes beautiful women. Since Andreas has been officially taken off the case since Vassilis’s murder has been solved, Andreas and his wife’s friend Barbara plan a scheme to get him interested in Barbara but also to get him interested in the incidents on Mount Athos and in Zacharias. The plan works and Vladimir goes after Zacharias. He also goes after Barbara. But Barbara lets it slip that Vladimir was set up and Vladimir wants to kill Andreas.

Zacharias leaves Mount Athos. He is really a war crimes criminal, the butcher of the Balkans who was presumed dead in a car crash in Switzerland years ago. He has been living at Mount Athos waiting for his opportunity to cause chaos. He leaves to buy poison on a Greek island but the Russians are waiting for him. Vladimir is told that Zacharias has been captured and taken out of the picture. He is convinced that he shouldn’t have Andreas killed because he helped catch Zacharias. Andreas is a hero.

The Protos comes to Athens to see Andreas and Lila. He thanks Andreas for his help in protecting Mount Athos from Zacharias and from the Russians. He blesses Andreas and Lila. The Proto becomes Ecumenical Patriarch.

Lila gives birth to a baby boy. Andrea and Lila name him after Andreas’s father. Andreas asks Lila to marry him.

I really enjoy Jeffrey Siger’s series about Andreas Kaldis. I love the word pictures he paints of the Greek islands. I would love to go and see them for myself. They sound lovely. Andreas ceratinly has complicated puzzles to solve. This was one of them. The death of Vassilis was rather straight-forward, but the plot of Zacharias and the manipulation of the Russians and the need of the Greeks to control the Mount Athos monasteries was quite intricate. It was a bit confusing at times. I didn’t quite understand what Zacharias was going to do with the poison, but I guess it didn’t really matter as the Russians were after him for his war crimes and took him off to Russia anyway. He left the monastery after years there and went back out into society to wreak havoc again and the Russians captured him. That was exactly what Andreas hoped would happen, since he had officially been taken off the case. He often has to resort to “unofficial” avenues when his boss takes him off a case. I admire his resourcefulness.

Daily Prompt–Unconventional Love

Over the weekend, we explored different ways to love. Today, tell us about the most unconventional love in your life.

Photographers, share a photo that says unconventional. 

Well, my example of unconventional love is not that all unconventional. It’s just not human.  It’s my love for my puppies, the lovely Ernie and Ralphy, my ubiquitous Japanese Chins. (Y’all are going to get very tired of seeing Ralphy and Ernie’s pictures in these posts.)

Conventional love is love for human beings, in my book. I love my daughter and my granddaughters, my brother and sister, my nieces and nephews and their families, my aunts, my cousins, my friends. But my unconventional love has to be for my dogs. I love my two dogs, Ernie and Ralphy, with a passion. They are with me all day, every day. They are with me more than any human person. They are my constant companions.

My puppies know my moods. They can tell whether I’m happy or depressed and if I’m down, they always make an effort to cheer me up, in their own fashion. Ralphy is a master of getting into things. He can find so many ways to get into trouble; it’s absolutely amazing. I cannot keep up with his antics. Ernie is a gem. he rarely gets into any trouble. He is as good as gold. Except yesterday he managed to find a package of nuts that were meant for topping a sundae. I thought I had thrown them away, but he somehow managed to get to them and almost got them opened. That was the first naughty thing he’s done in a LONG time. Ralphy is another story. Ralphy does several naughty things a day. I’m used to it by now.

My guys are also an early warning system. They warn about many things. Barking and low-level growling (from Ernie) is their forte. They live to alert me to danger: from dogs who are outside, from people who are walking by my town home, from someone who is knocking at the door, from a car or truck that has stopped outside the town home, from a dog that is barking on the television. I am safe from all these dangers because I have wonderful dogs who let me know that there is danger on the horizon. How can I NOT give them greenies as a treat or bone treats? Do them not deserve some form of praise for the good work that they do for me, protecting me and saving me?

Ernie and Ralphy are also comfort dogs. In the evenings, when I lie on the couch watching television, Ralphy cuddles up at my feet and keeps my feet nice and warm. He’s my snuggle-bunny in the evenings. Then he goes to sleep in his crate for the night (so he doesn’t destroy the house at night) and Ernie and I go upstairs to bed. Ernie sleeps on my bed. He often sleeps at the end of the bed or sometimes on the extra pillow. He is the sweetest thing. Ralphy snores; Ernie doesn’t. I feel safe with Ernie sleeping next to me. When it’s time to get up in the morning, after I’ve finishing getting ready and doing my reading, I tell him, “Okay, Ernie. Time to go!” and he wakes up and bounces down the three stairs that lead down from my bed. He waits at the top of the stairs while I say my prayers in my prayer room, and then we go downstairs and go out. Then I release Ralphy and take Ralphy out. And we’re all ready to face the day.

So you can see that I really care very deeply for my two little guys. Ernie and Ralphy are so special to me. They are a large part of my life. They are with me all the time. I don’t know what I’d do without them. They are my unconventional love affair.

Book Challenge Update–67

I have finished the 67th book for the book challenge. It was The Full Cupboard Of Life: A No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith.

Once again, Mma Ramotswe is busy in both her personal life and her professional life. In her personal life, she is concerned that she is still an engaged lady and not yet a married lady. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni has not stated when he proposes to get married. Mma Ramotswe doesn’t want to push him or cause him any stress. She is afraid that he may become depressed again, but she would really like to stop being an engaged lady and become a married lady.

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni is having his own problems. Mma Potokwame from the orphan farm has volunteered him to perform a parachute jump from an airplane to raise funds for the orphan farm. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni does not want to do this parachute jump. He is not feeling very brave. He has never been in an airplane and doesn’t want to start now. But Mma Makutsi has an idea. She convinces the apprentice Charlie that the girls will be impressed if he does something brave like the parachute jump and gets his picture in the newspaper. So Charlie volunteers to perform the parachute jump in place of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. Charlie’s jump goes well, except that he lands in a thorn tree and has to have a thorn removed from a delicate area.

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni also sees the butcher’s car and finds that the mechanics who have been servicing the butcher’s car have been cheating him. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni takes care of the butcher’s car but also confronts the mechanic who serviced his car and tells him to stop cheating people. This mechanic is very rude. But Mma Potokwame comes to the recuse. She shames this mechanic by saying she will tell his mother and he says he will stop cheating people.

Mma Ramotswe takes a case from Mma Holongo. She has four suitors and doesn’t know if they truly love her or if they are just after her money. One is a teacher and also runs a home for bad girls. Mma Ramotswe investigates him, and while he is a good man, he definitely wants Mma Holongo’s money to build an annex onto the building for bad girls. Another man, a radio personality, only wants Mma Holongo’s money, Mma Ramotswe is sure of this. Mma Ramotswe tells Mma Holongo about both these men, but Mma Holongo tells Mma Ramotswe that she has decided to marry the teacher because she believes in his work with the bad girls and knows that he wants her money for the annex, but she wants to help the bad girls too.

Mma Makutsi is moving, after the death of her brother. She has been able to save quite a bit of money from the success she has had with the Kalahari Typing School for Men and is now able to afford two rooms in a house. This apartment comes with running water in her apartment. She does not have to share a tap with others. She is very happy.

As for being an engaged lady, Mma Potokwame wants to help Mma Ramotswe in that department. She wants to help her plan her wedding and then help her get Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni to show up so they will be married before he even knows it. Mma Ramotswe is not so sure this is the way to go. Should she listen to Mma Potokame? What should Mma Ramotswe do to become a married lady?

I love this series. McCall Smith has a wonderful love of Botswana and of Africa and it certainly comes through in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Novels. You become old friends with the characters and caught up with their day-to-day problems and their lives. These are truly “comfortable” books.

Daily Prompt–Fill In The Blank

Three people walk into a bar . . .

A Viking, a Vampire, and a Voodoo priest walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Is this the beginning of a joke?” The Viking says, “No, we just want a beer.”

End of story.

(I am not too good at telling jokes nor am I good at making them up. This is the best I can do. My sincerest apologies to all my readers.)

 

Book Challenge Update–66

I have read the 66th book for the book challenge. It was The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout.

Jim Burgess is a high-power lawyer in Brooklyn. His brother Bob is an appeals lawyer, who has always been in Jim’s shadow, ever since they were children in Shirley Falls, Maine. Their sister Susan, Bob’s twin, still lives with her son Zach in Shirley Falls. Jim’s big claim to fame, while he now handles white-collar crime, was the defense trial of Wally Packer, accused of murder some years ago. He was able to get an acquittal for Packer and songs were written about the trial.

Bob receives a frantic call from Susan. Zach is in trouble. Zach threw a pig’s head into a Somali mosque in Shirley Falls. He has not been arrested; no one knows he did it, but there is a huge uproar in the community. It is being looked at as a hate crime, a crime of intolerance toward the Somali community. Zach doesn’t know why he did it. He says it was a joke. He didn’t know that pigs where so awful to Muslims. A little boy in the mosque fainted. The mosque had to be cleaned and purified. Bob says he will contact Jim and that Zach has to turn himself in. Bob will go to Shirley Falls to help with the arraignment.

Zach turns himself in. He is vilified. Bob takes Jim’s car to Shirley Falls and stays on Susan’s couch. She barely has food in the house. Zach is very upset and won’t talk about the incident. Bob tells him to go to work and just to behave. But a photo of him appears coming out of the police station smiling and there is another uproar. Bob goes to buy food at a convenience store and nearly hits a Somali woman. He is freaked by this, and flies home, leaving Jim’s car in Maine.

Jim and Bob make arrangements to go to Maine for a rally to promote tolerance after Jim goes on vacation to the islands with his partner and his wife. He is in contact with Bob and Susan during the vacation and has little tolerance for them. Zach loses his job. Jim and Bob fly to Maine. They take Zach to a hotel for the rally. Jim makes a speech at the rally but does not stay to listen to the governor’s speech.

Zach’s hearing will be held in June (it is now January) but the state’s attorney decides to file a civil right’s violation against Zach. Jim is livid with the state’s attorney. He knows she is doing it just to spite him. At the hearing, Zach is told that he must stay away from the Somali community and behave for one year. He is scared. Then the federal people indicate that they may file federal hate crime charges. Zach disappears.

Susan is distraught. Jim and Bob try to calm her down. Bob and Jim have their own issues. Bob is still in Jim’s shadow. Helen, Jim’s wife, tries to get Bob to come around more to see Bob and get Jim to relax. Their children are now all off at school and she is feeling the empty nest. Bob is feeling the loss of his wife Pam, who has since remarried, but has been thinking a lot of Shirley Falls.

Zach is finally located with his father in Sweden. He couldn’t face going to trial for a hate crime. The charges of a hate crime are dropped and finally the charges of the misdemeanor are also dropped. Zach has no charges hanging over him. He can come home if he wants to, but he is volunteering at a hospital in Sweden and is doing quite well there. In a twist, a leader in the Somali community becomes an advocate for Zach.

Susan is also getting on with life in Shirley Falls. She has taken in a boarder and is taking classes and has taken up knitting. She is getting out more. She has kept in touch with Bob. Zach comes home for a visit and Jim and Bob go to visit him.

Jim tells Bob a secret. Bob believes that he had released the hand brake of the car that rolled over their father and killed him when Bob was a child of four. But Jim tells Bob that it was really he, Jim, who released the brake and blamed it on Bob. Jim was eight at the time. He pushed Bob into the front seat after he did it and blamed Bob. Bob doesn’t believe him.

Bob moves to a new apartment, from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Jim has a crisis. He is being sued for sexual harassment by a paralegal in his office with whom he had an affair and his office has let him go. He doesn’t tell Helen that he has been fired but spends his days in the library and Helen thinks he is looking for office space to start his own firm. He finally tells her the truth and she throws him out. He moves to upstate New York to begin teaching at a small college.

Bob finds Jim at the small college. He is a mess. Bob takes Jim back to Shirley Falls to be with Susan for a reunion, a sort of homecoming for the three of them. He tells Jim he must beg Helen to take him back. Will it work?

This is a great book. It is a book about relationships, about family. The Burgess family is small, only Jim, Bob, and Susan. But the relations between and among these three people are very complex and are deeply rooted. The relationship between Jim and Helen is a troubled one, appearing to be smooth on the surface but Jim has made it troubled by his cheating and his inattention to Helen. Bob still cares for Pam, and Pam for Bob in some ways. Everyone is concerned for Zach and his well-being and they all rally around him with his problems in Shirley Falls. This story shows how the family dynamics from long ago can continue even into the present day.

Daily Prompt–Hi, Mom!

Today is Mother’s Day in the United States. Wherever in the world you are, write your mother a letter.

Photographers, share a photo that says mothering.

Dear Mom,

I know you aren’t here to celebrate Mother’s Day. I wish you were. I miss you very much. I still think about you nearly every day. I wish you could see Sabrina and what a remarkable young woman and mother she has become. I wish you could meet your great-granddaughters Jackie and Cassie. I wish you could meet your other great-grandchildren, too. Your grandchildren have married well and produced beautiful children. I know you would be so proud. But I also know that you are finally free from the horrible pain that you lived with in your final years and I’m glad of that. I would never want you to have to relive that. I hope that wherever you are, you can see us and watch us and know that we are doing well and know that I miss you more than words can say.

I know that we did not always get along. We had our difficulties. But in your later years we got along better. And that is what i focus on. It’s easy to dwell on the bad things, but it’s more important to remember that we went beyond the bad things and developed a good relationship when we both were older. I know things were difficult for you when we were growing up. The isolation must have been terrible. I can’t even imagine how hard it was for you to be stuck alone with three small children for weeks on end and no adult company. I would have become unhinged too. I know Dad was of little help. I don’t blame you for lashing out. I know we took the brunt of you anger, but I also know you couldn’t help it. I understand. You did the best you could under the circumstances.

You also did the best you could when I was a teenager. You followed your conscience. I didn’t agree with you, but I guess I respect your decisions. We just didn’t see eye-to-eye. Even when I was grown, we just had a different outlook on life. That’s okay. I can respect that. I love you. I know you loved me, despite our differences. You didn’t understand me, but you still cared about me. And I’m glad.

So, this letter is to you to tell you that I miss you and that I love you, even after all these years that you’ve been gone from my life. I wish you were still here. I look forward to seeing you again someday. I hope you are happy with Dad and your parents and sisters and brothers and are free from pain. And I hope you are waiting for me. I love you.

Your loving daughter.

Chocolate-Covered Strawberries. Bonsai Tree Seeds

Six Word Saturday

Chocolate-Covered Strawberries. Bonsai Tree Seeds

This is another Six Word Saturday that is really a Mother’s Day version. Except these two entries arrived a bit before Mother’s Day. My daughter sent these two gifts to me this week as Mother’s Day gifts. They were very welcome surprises.

The Bonsai Tree Seeds were a complete surprise. A package arrived from Red Envelope, a company I like very much. There was no card and I thought perhaps she had sent it. I plan to plant the seeds today and see if I can have a go at getting them to grow and then finding the strongest one and teasing it into a strong tree.

Then on Thursday, the UPS truck pulled up and the dogs barked (my first alert system). I raced out to get my package and found a small package from Shari’s Berries. “Oh, goodie!” I thought. And sure enough. There were six luscious chocolate-covered strawberries in a box with a note from my daughter and her husband and my granddaughters.

Mind you, my daughter is in Mexico on Isla de Mujeres while these lovely gifts are being delivered so she had to have arranged all this before she went on vacation. I know she was busy at her office before vacation because they were moving the office while she was on vacation and she is always busy at home before she goes on vacation, so I don’t know when she had time to think about gifts for me. But she did, and I’m thrilled that she did. Thank you, Sabrina!

But Mother’s Day isn’t even here yet and it isn’t over. Sabrina is taking me to lunch tomorrow at noon. That will be really nice. After the two gifts, I wasn’t expecting it. But she texted last night when she returned from her vacation and asked if I’d like to go to lunch on Sunday. Of course I said yes. So we’re going to the Texas Land and Cattle Company early tomorrow for lunch because I like steak and don’t get it often. It will be nice to go with the family, all the ones I love. It will make Mother’s Day very special.

So I have had a lovely Mother’s Day so far. And it isn’t quite Mother’s Day yet. And I’ve only eaten two of the strawberries so far. I’m rationing them. I’ll plant the seeds today. And have a lovely lunch tomorrow. I’m one lucky mom.

Daily Prompt–I Want To Know What Love Is

We each have many types of love relationships — parents, children, spouses, friends. And they’re not always with people; you may love an animal, or a place. Is there a single idea or definition that runs through all the varieties of “love”?

Yes, I have many different types of love relationships. I have loved my parents; I love my child. I have loved my spouses. I have loved my lovers. I love my grandchildren; I love my brother and sister. I love my nieces and nephews and their families. I love my cousins and my aunts. I love my friends. And I adore my two animal companions, my beloved Ernie and Ralphy, my two Japanese Chins whom I wrote about just a few days ago. Yes, I love them all.

How do I define all these love relationships? Is there something that ties all these love relationships together? Something that links them all in a common bond? I think there is. I think the thing that defines love is “a deep affection for a person, place, or thing.” The deep affection is the key. When I think of love, I think of a deep affection, a deep longing. When you are away from the object of your affection, you experience a deep longing for the object of your affection. That is part of love. That is part of the deep affection.

You can also love a place. For example, I love my hometown of Utica, New York. It is a small city in central upstate New York State. It is nothing special. But it is my hometown. It is where my brother and sister live. My cousins live near there. My nieces live there. My parents are buried there. I went to school there. I still miss the old place. I still have roots there. I still have love for the place even though there is not much there for me. I can’t explain why I love it. It’s a very green place. It’s rather quaint. It’s a little backward. But I do love it. I also love New York City, but for very different reasons. These are two places that I love.

So I love people, places, and animals. Do I love things? I guess so. I love things not as deeply as I love people, animals, and places but I do love some things. Things can be replaced and things are not as important as people and animals, obviously. I love my Grandmother’s engagement ring, for example. I love my collection of Irish Angels. I love my Painted Ponies collection. I love my collection of Southwest and Mexican pottery. I love my Great-great-grandfather’s passport from Luxembourg and his citizenship papers. Family photographs are important to me and I love them. These are some of the things that I love. They are  important to me and I think of them with deep affection. They are not as important as people and animals, however.

But all these “loves” are bound together, the past loves and the present loves, by the feeling of deep affection and deep longing. That, to me, is what true love is. Deep affection for the object of love. That’s what love is.