Monsoons and the like

I've been struggling with what to post.  Nothing brilliant has come to mind, but I thought briefly of posting about the beginning of our monsoon season that starts June 15th and ends October 15th though the "big" part of the season usually is between June and August with a rare one in September and October. Our first one this year happened last Thursday. The day started bright and sunny but then I got an alert on my phone of a severe thunderstorm later in the day. I laughed as the day was so bright and sunny and devoid of clouds.  But then as the day wore on, the clouds came in with the wind and the dust storms (called haboobs and really nasty) and then finally in parts of the valley a deluge of rain.  We got a little shower, other parts got more.  That's how the storms seem to be.  Hit one area hard and another a few miles away remains stone dry. I like a "good" thunder and lightening storm. We got some lightening and a little thunder so that was nice to see.  What I don't like is the destruction that can come from the monsoons with downed power lines, trees, and the like.  Arizona desperately needs a good monsoon season as we are in a drought with talk of water rationing so I can only pray we do have a productive rainy season.

Then I thought of writing a post called "in the news".  It would not have featured anything that happened nationally say last Friday.  Everyone has an opinion about that and I'm pretty sure if you know anything about me, you know what my opinion would be. But no, I was going to write about how many young children already have been pulled out of Phoenix and the valley pools this summer unresponsive and in a few sad cases have died.  These are toddlers and preschoolers for the most part.  The recent case a 3 and 4 year old who one fell into their pool and the other went to help rescue them.  One died (not sure which age fell in and which age died).  There have been at least 9 children pulled from pools so far this season and at least 4 have died.  These are such senseless and tragic deaths and incidents and do not have to happen.  The obvious "solutions" are a fence around a pool (of which I am an advocate and our pool has a fence around it) and/or teaching young ones as early as possible how to swim, at least how to get out of the water safely if they find themselves in it accidentally, but the simple act of watching a young child constantly and continually is just as effective (perhaps even more so).  I literally scream (not out loud but to myself) whenever I see a headline of another child pulled from a pool.  I watched my children like a hawk when they were young (and beyond, perhaps I could be guilty of being a helicopter mom) and watch my grandson like a hawk when I am around him.  They were not out of my sight when they were young unless some other adult was there who I asked to make sure they kept an eye on them.  I just don't get it.  This frustrates me to no end.  People talk about bringing up criminal charges to those parents/caregivers of those pulled out of pools.  Maybe that is what it is going to take for people to watch more carefully.  I don't know.  I just know for the most part this can be avoided.

And then I was going to write about the delightful afternoon and evening I had with my grandson.  His sister, who is 16 years old, is visiting her dad in another state for the summer so his built in babysitter is no longer available.  I made myself available to his mom this summer to help out if she wanted to run errands and the like on Saturdays as she was used to having her daughter around to keep an eye on him.  Yesterday she had a lot of errands to run as she was planning a brunch for today.  She asked me if I could watch him, which of course I willingly said yes.  He at 6 years old is inquisitive and active and loves to play.  Me at almost 60 years older than him loves to play but I'm feeling it with more aches and pains this morning.  We were playing some imaginative game and he kept saying "these are the ka-posters".  I realized he was trying to say "imposters."  It gave me a good chuckle. They had gotten a trampoline (with netting) from another family member so he had fun going out (in the heat) to jump on it a few times while I was watching him. Thankfully he didn't ask me to join him (that would have been a firm no, lol).  His mom brought home Subway sandwiches for dinner and he ate his entire footlong turkey and cheese one.  I was worn out after watching him, lol, and slept really good last night.

And so now I have written what I had thought about writing in blog posts over the past week or so.  We are heading into a 3 day weekend with the 4th of July coming up so very soon.  We bought some calming pills for Winslow as fireworks are not his friends.  We'll see if they help or not. (They don't have CBD in them, but valerian root, lavender, melatonin and the like.  They are made for dogs).  

I'll be back around the first of July for a review of June books.  In the meantime, be safe out there.  It's a jungle!

The cocktail hour

Prior to this week when the beastly hot summer temperatures arrived, we had a routine that my husband and I did daily on the days I worked.  I would get home from work, greet him and Winslow, change out of my work clothes and then make a "cocktail" (water and lemon juice).  My husband would make his "cocktail" (water and lime juice) and we would take our "cocktails" out to the back patio where we would sit and enjoy them while we talked about our days, the weather, the news, world's problems (that we solved each and every one of them) while Winslow either laid by our feet or explored his backyard or would play fetch with me.  We would spend about 45 minutes out there (so I guess technically it wasn't a cocktail hour) and then would come inside and start making dinner.  After dinner we often went outside for another 30 minutes or so in order for Winslow to enjoy more fetch time and more sitting outside guarding his backyard.  Now that it is so hot, the afternoon "cocktail" hours we no longer do but do go out once the sun goes down for maybe 15 minutes so Winslow can play fetch if he so desires.  He will catch the squeaky toy or a ball for a few times and then he usually just sits and pants.  When he has had enough of the outside, he goes to the door and we let him and ourselves in.  I'm going to miss these afternoon "cocktail" hours but in the blink of an eye it will be September and a bit cooler temps and we'll resume them again.  

It is hard to believe but I have been at this present temporary assignment for one year.  I started June 7, 2021.  Time flies when one is having fun.  

This is our neighborhood pool.

Actually, I guess it is really 2 pools.  

The pool is called the David Uribe Memorial Pool.   

We have visited this park many a time and I always wondered who David Uribe was.  Out of curiosity one day I googled David Uribe and found out that he was a Phoenix policeman who had lost his life in a traffic stop back in 2005 just a few blocks away from where the pool is located.  When he approached the car for the traffic stop, he was shot and later succumbed.  Nice way to honor him by naming the pool for his service to our community.  

The City of Phoenix has 29 public swimming pools.  All of them were closed in the summer of 2020 due to the pandemic.  A few swimming pools reopened for the summer of 2021, this pool being one that was not opened.  There were complicated rules and regulations for swimming.  So many allowed in the pool, reservations having to be made, and the like.   This year I was hoping that this pool would be reopened, but alas, a few months ago I read an article that only 14 of the 29 pools would be opened.  And not because of the pandemic.  But because they couldn't find lifeguards to man all of them.  The city was offering incentives and training for those who wanted to be lifeguards and bonuses but not many takers.  So they could only staff 14 pools, and sadly, this pool was not one of them.  I had read, but I have not found any further info about it, that they were going to offer shuttle services from a closed pool to an open pool, but I haven't found anything to substantiate that that is what is  being done.  

At this same park where the pool is, every morning but Sunday, there is a group of men who drill together with exercises.  They always plant the flag there.  This group was only four men; I've seen it as high as eight men.  At the end of their time together, they always end with a prayer time.  (That is what our country needs more of, prayer).  

And finally, one must always include a picture of the corgi if one is sharing pictures.  

Have a great weekend! Stay hydrated and cool as you can if you are in a hot part of the country!

May books

May was a prolific reading month with 8 books read.  That makes 28 so far this year.  I would imagine over the summer I'll probably read a little less due to some other summer plans etc.  So it is good I'm "ahead of the game" so to speak.  And now on to my reviews:

All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover:   

This is a love story that begins when the two main characters catch their partners cheating with each other.  The story is told in the then and the now.  As a couple, they eventually get married and eventually want to start a family which leads to problems with infertility.  Without giving away anything with the plot, no spoilers, it was a very well written book with a lot of emotional upheaval.  Having dealt with infertility, I could relate to a lot of the story.  For me, good reading. I give it 5 stars.  

Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand:

This is story about a high school junior driving a car with 3 other young people in it (one of them being her twin).  She crashes the car and dies as a result.  The story tells of the aftermath of dealing with her death, what lead to her driving the car recklessly like she did, the stories of the families involved in the accident.  It was based in Nantucket.  The author  bases the majority (maybe all?) of her books in Nantucket and I've read a few of them.  All I have read have been interesting reads.  I give this 4.5 stars.

High Stakes by Danelle Steele: 

Okay, I said I wouldn't be reading anymore Danielle Steele books but then I got this from our e-library. This might actually be the last one I read.  It involves women working in an agency representing writers and actors/actresses and what they have to do to keep their jobs, succeed at their jobs and  balance their home lives with the demands of their profession. There was also a story behind the scenes of one of the male executives at the agency who was hitting on women and sexually harassing them.  I give it 2.5 stars.  

The Whispers by Heidi Perks:  

This was based in England.  It is a story of 2 women who were friends since grade school but not as close in recent years since one had moved away from England to Australia for a few years.  She ends up moving back to England and wants to reestablish a relationship with her friend from before.  The book begins with finding a body at a beach at the bottom of the cliffs and the story then is told backwards so you figure out who it is that is dead.  It was very interesting with a few twists.  A story of control and of friendships and keeping things secret from years past.  I give it 4.5 stars.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen:

At first it was really hard to get into this book and I almost gave up on it but one Saturday I said I was going to spend some time reading it and seeing if I could get into it.  This was the hardcover book that I would read before bed.  Sometimes on my hardcover books I might only read a few pages and then be too tired to keep my eyes opened.  This was one of those books so I never got the rhythm of the story, if that makes sense. I needed to read it for longer than 10 minutes at a time. Once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. It is told from the woman whose husband has cheated on her and left her for another woman. It is told in that she is almost jealous of the woman her ex husband will soon be marrying and stalking her but as the story goes on there was a twist in the plot that I didn't see coming.  It was riveting and held my attention to the last page.  I'll give it 5 stars.

Did I Say You Can Go?  by Melanie Gideon

I think Bijoux recommended this book.  It was really good.  Two friends and their friendship over the years . One a bit controlling and manipulative.  Both single (one widowed, one divorced).  One very rich.  Another just getting by.  Both with daughters the same age.  Very interesting plot with again a few twists.  Surprise ending for me! I give it 5 stars.  

The Good Lie by A.R.Torre:  

I got this one off of Amazon Prime reading so it was free in the e-book format.  This was definitely a thriller of a book.  Town has a serial killer who is killing teenage boys.  A psychologist is called in to help the attorney (whose son was a victim of the serial killer) to help come up with a psychological profile for the killer after a 7th teenage boy had managed to escape from the killer.  The teenager who escaped pinned the crime on someone else who the attorney did not believe had committed the crime and said he would represent that person.  There were a lot of twists in this book and gruesome scenes regarding the deaths of the other 6 young men.  I will give it for intrigue 4 stars but for all the "blood and guts" of which I didn't particularly care for, I'll give it a final score of 3 stars.  

Under Her Care by Lucinda Berry:  

This was another book I got from Amazon Prime Reading.  I've been reading these books on my phone during lunch at work.  This was another mystery/thriller.  The mayor's wife is found dead and the prime suspect is a young teenager who has learning disabilities/autism.  The rest of the book involves trying to "pin" it on him or see if there are other suspects.  Lots of twists in this.  Interesting unexpected ending and lots of loose ends.  I give it 3 stars.  

 

And what have you been reading? Anything good to recommend?