Remembering and Missing My Grandmother

Doris Andrea Visitation June 2011
Doris Andrea Visitation June 2010

The first anniversary of my Grandmother’s passing is tomorrow, which also would have been her eighty-ninth birthday.  I preserved an electronic copy of her obituary and my memories (compiled a couple of days before she died).  I still have not had the courage to view the video I recorded of her memorial service held last June at Foxwood Springs chapel.  I at least backed the raw video files up to a DVD though (something I should have done months and months ago).

All of Doris’ children are gathering in Ohio to attend her youngest granddaughter’s wedding this weekend.  I shall miss them, as I miss her, and wish Katy and her groom abundant joy and prosperity in their new life together.

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Family Funk

Dreary Early Sun Over KCMO Skyline Wed 08 Jun 2011
Dreary Early Sun Over KCMO Skyline Wed 08 Jun 2011

I can’t seem to shake this funk I’m in.  All motivation for any activity has evaporated from me.  I could blame it on the heat, but that would be a lie, since I’ve felt wonky from back in May when the lows at night were still in the 40s.  I have many hobby and home projects I could be planning and prepping, but the minute I get home, I just wilt.

Terry tries to make me smile in many gracious and loving ways, and it helps me get through the evening.  He makes fresh sun tea for me and greets me at the door with a tall glass of it.  He grills and smokes the most amazing cuts of meat.  He creates delectable appetizers, salads and side dishes, all ready and waiting for me the minute I get home.  And even though he’s chronically ill, he manages to keep the house in tip-top shape, despite Apollo’s ability to shed three or four times his weight in fur.

I complained about cloudy skies, yet when the clouds disappear and the sun bakes the Midwest to a toasty 100 degrees in early June, I can’t be bothered to drag up the telescope and attempt to see the supernova in M51 (near Ursa Major).  I can’t justify staying up late (and by late I mean past 9:30 p.m.), waiting for the sky to darken, since I must be up by 5:00 a.m.

Rachelle (mid-May 2011)
Rachelle (mid-May 2011)

I forgot to buy a birthday card for my daughter, who turns twenty-two this Sunday.  Not that she’d be home to receive said card.  She’s traveling, again, to Boston next week.  In fact, she’s on a plane Sunday (her birthday).  It’s been five or six years since Rachelle has actually been home (or even in the same state as me) to celebrate her birthday.  She tends to travel routinely on her birthday.  Last year, she turned twenty-one while studying abroad in Germany.

I opted to stay home this weekend and not travel like the rest of my father’s family to Ohio for my youngest cousin’s wedding.  My dad is on the road now, heading east, while his brother is on the road, heading west from Virginia.  The impromptu Andrea family reunion will converge upon Ohio this evening and continue throughout the weekend.

Next week, my mom is scheduled for surgery, for which I’m taking a day off to transport her to and from the hospital.  At least she has finally found a blood pressure medicine that has few side effects.  The following day is my aunt’s birthday, another one I routinely forget but this year I will get a birthday card and I will send it to her.  I even put it on my calendar with double reminders to text me on my cell phone.

Dad and I (circa 1980s)
Dad and I (circa 1980s)

And a week from this Sunday, is Father’s Day.  I’ve reminded the ‘adult’ children to get their cards and gifts in the mail soon.  I just hope my dad makes it back from Ohio in time to celebrate, not that we need an excuse to take him out to dinner.

My son and his wife are prepping for their interviews.  More on that after the fact, as I don’t want to jinx anything.

I used the word (or contraction of two words to be precise) ‘can’t’ many times in this post, something I usually avoid vehemently.  I strongly believe that ‘can’t’ never did anything.  Perhaps if I purge ‘can’t’ from my system, I’ll also free myself from this funkiness.

One can hope.

Book Review: The Winds of Khalakovo by Beaulieu

The Winds of KhalakovoThe Winds of Khalakovo by Bradley P. Beaulieu

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Prince Nikandr Iaroslov, of the Duchy of Khalakovo, one of the mountainous islands of the Grand Duchy of Anuskaya, harbors many secrets. He contracted a fatal wasting disease, as has his sister Victania, for which he desperately seeks a cure. His lover, Rehada, is a native Aramahn, scorned as the ‘Landless’ by the ‘Landed’ citizens of the duchy. Rehada, in turn, harbors secrets of hate and revenge for the murder of her infant daughter by the Landed. Scorning her peaceful Aramahn heritage, she joins the splinter terrorist sect called the Maharraht, seeking to secretly strike back at the invaders The Aramahn work with the Landed, setting an example of peaceful coexistence, unconditional love and all-encompassing forgiveness, while the Maharraht strive for action, sabotage, subterfuge and lethal violence to rid the islands of the hated Landed.

Princess Atiana Radieva, of the Duchy of Vostroma, arrives with the rest of her family to seal the arranged marriage with Prince Nikandr, becoming the third and final side of this love/hate triangle. She and her two sisters grew up with Nikandr, teasing him and their brother, Borund, relentlessly and sometimes cruelly. Nikandr dreads leaving Rehada, has little hope of forging any emotional connection to Atiana, and fears what will happen should the Vostromans discover his disease. As with most arranged marriages among aristocracy, all is not romance and roses, political influence shifts hands, trade concessions secure Khalakovon natural resources for the Vostromans, all to strengthen these two Duchies as the islands are wracked by years of famine and blight. The starving peasants care little for the political posturing, seething with unrest and starting to riot over scant rations.

I could appreciate the new twist on a fantasy world, using Czarist Russia (and possibly the Cossacks in particular) as a basis for the ruling regime. I didn’t quite grasp the connection from land-locked unforgiving Ukraine or Siberia with a naval-like empire of wind ships, which appeared to be (from the limited descriptions provided by the author) some sort of strange sailing monstrosity with masts on four sides (top, bottom, port and starboard). Landing, even on an eyrie perch, must have been a nightmare, and what happens in an emergency when you need to ‘crash’ land on the sea or land? Masts break and sails rip dramatically, but completely impractical and short-sighted.

The magic system as revealed through the actions of various bit players also did not lend itself to easy understanding. The Aramahn bond with elemental spirits through various semi-precious stones and the Matri (the Duchy matriarchs) manipulate the aether from the cold dark, forcing order upon the world’s winds over the entropy of the natural and spiritual worlds. This, together with a thin skin of worldbuilding left me with nothing but the forward fast pace of the events unfolding to keep my attention. Not even the tragic ending could bring any emotion to the surface for Nikandr, Atiana or Rehada. The growth experienced by these characters failed to convince me to believe the actions they took. Even Rehada’s confession to Atiana lacked conviction. Nikandr’s professed love for the pivotal Nasim, even though Nikandr seemed willing to sacrifice himself for the boy, just didn’t ring true. Much too much ‘telling’ and sparse ‘showing’ prevailed throughout the novel.

Kudos to Brad Beaulieu for providing me with a crash course in Slavic vocabulary, including words he crafted for this world that look and sound like their consonant-heavy guttural Eastern European counterparts.

I doubt I’ll be following the further permutations of Nikandr, Atiana, Nasim or the Flying Cossacks. The pacing kept me wanting to read what happened next, but when I finished, I found I didn’t care what had happened.

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Book Review: A Darkness at Sethanon by Feist

A Darkness at Sethanon (The Riftwar Saga, #4)A Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond E. Feist

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The final installment to the Riftwar Saga series contained page-turning action and most of the answers to mysteries and questions posed from earlier in the series, including a surprise twist that posed … more questions. While I enjoyed reading A Darkness at Sethanon, I felt the characters gained less growth this time around, being more reactive to the harsh circumstances thrown at them on their quest to stop Murandamus. The Pug, Tomas and Macros cameo chapters intrigued me the most, providing more background about themselves and the other elves, and more worldbuilding with glimpses of rift space and the end or beginning of the universe.

I enjoyed reading this series and feel it provides a good solid fantasy adventure story.

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First Third of My Summer Reads – June 2011

Just a few of my favorite things . . . thanks to participating in GoodReads groups and as a guest reviewer for FantasyLiterature.com:

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Welcome to the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club!

Interim SciFi Czar: Ala
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Books we’re currently reading

Start date: June 1, 2011
Start date: June 1, 2011


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Beyond Reality 747 members

Welcome to the Beyond Reality SF&F discussion group on GoodReads. In Beyond Reality, each of our me…

Books we plan to read

Start date: June 1, 2011 *
Start date: June 1, 2011

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For lovers of Fantasy, monthly book discussions
May read: The Name of the Wind by…

Books we’re currently reading

LeviathanLeviathan
by Scott WesterfeldStart date: June 1, 2011

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Can’t resist the lure of an epic saga full of fantastic creatures, scintillating sorcery, heroic…

Books we’re currently reading

Start date: May 15, 2011 *
Start date: June 1, 2011

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* I am not reading these selections. 

Anything else I tackle this month can be found on my current-month book shelf at GoodReads.

Dark of the Moon, Light of the City

After weeks of overcast, I couldn’t believe my eyes on the commute home yesterday.  A clear blue sky with little to no haze and not a single cloud to be found.  Waiting for the sun to set never seemed to take so long as it did last evening.  I wasted some time with a quick grocery shopping run on my way home from the Hallmark parking lot.  Terry made an awesome salad, which I ate as soon as I got home.  He also planned to grill a couple of t-bones we’d purchased last month at the local farmers market in Leavenworth.  Even though the charcoal fired up perfectly, the steaks disappointed.  It’s been decades since either of us had such a grisly tough steak.  We will NOT be purchasing any more meat from that particular local farmer.

I got caught up on Jeopardy and still had an hour to go before sunset.  I fed the dogs, did some laundry and watched a rocket reality show hosted by Kari Byron on the Science channel.  I ignored most of it (as I do most reality television) and Terry drifted off into his after-supper food coma.  I started transferring telescope equipment from the basement to the backyard as soon as the sun set.  I left the patio door open so Roxy and Apollo could come visit me if they wanted to.  For the most part, they ran along the privacy fence, occasionally barking at evening strollers and/or their dogs.

Just as I attempted to do an easy alignment in the alt/az mounted mode for the ETX-90 and the Autostar, I realized I needed my cell phone for the time (because the Autostar asks for the date and time first when you turn it on).  I ran back in the house and got my phone and saw my father had called while I was outside.  I admit I was a bit distracted while talking (mostly listening) to him as I attempted to align the telescope.  He asked me where Saturn was and I thought it was almost directly overhead.  After I hung up, I realized that what I thought was Saturn was actually Arcturus (once I used the Big Dipper’s handle arc to find it among the constellations that I could barely see through the ambient Lansing light pollution).  Once I confirmed via the telescope that bright fleck was indeed a star and not Saturn, I drove a ‘spike’ towards Spica and found Saturn in close proximity to another bright star in the constellation Virgo.  Here’s what I saw last night facing south from my backyard (well, I saw some of this – except for the view blocked by my tall house, several very tall trees and an electric utility pole in the southwest corner of my yard).

South Horizon to Zenith on 31 May 2011 at 2215
South Horizon to Zenith on 31 May 2011 at 2215
South Horizon to Zenith on 31 May 2011 at 2215

I attempted several times to align the telescope but failed repeatedly (even the Autostar kept telling me I failed).  I could not use Arcturus as one of the two alignment stars because it was so high in the sky I could not use the finder scope.  I know, I know, I should have installed my new red-dot finder scope before the first clear night in weeks arrived.  Coulda, woulda, shoulda.  😛

I found Saturn and rejoiced in the clear view of it’s rings, using the 26mm and 16mm eyepieces.  However, because I couldn’t get the telescope aligned properly, the slewing couldn’t keep up and Saturn drifted out of the field of view rapidly.  Then, Saturn drifted behind the electric utility pole and I needed to wait five or ten minutes for the Earth to rotate enough for it to pop out on the other side.  My night vision had begun to settle in (since I’d been outside for thirty minutes or so) when my neighbor to the north decided to turn on very bright lights in her second story south facing bedroom, leaving the blinds open.  So much light emanated from that room that I could read my star atlas without using my night vision preserving red flashlight.  I could have screamed in frustration.  What I should have done was grab my camera and take photographs of her through her window and post them in this blog.  For crying out loud!  Don’t people realize that when you leave your blinds open and turn on every light in the room, it’s like a stage to those outside?!?!?  She’s lucky I exercised restraint and left the camera inside.

Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas
Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas

With my night vision ruined, Saturn still behind the utility pole and the dew rapidly drenching all the sensitive optics, I elected to teach myself a couple of constellations and their primary bright stars, hoping my neighbor would turn off her bedroom lights.  Using my new Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas, I found the charts for May and June evenings and studied the constellations Virgo and Leo.  I also refreshed my memory of Bootes and Gemini (which I could barely see sinking into the western horizon, basically just the two dominant stars representing the twins’ heads – Pollux and Castor).  Saturn was close enough to Porrima (also known as gamma Virginis) to see it through my telescope eyepiece’s field of view at the same time I watched the ringed planet.

The constellation I spent the most time studying lies just to the west of Virgo and contains several bright stars easily visible in from my light polluted back yard.

Constallation Leo
Constallation Leo

Denebola and Regulus are both visible soon after the sun sets.  I studied Leo for several minutes, fixing the alignment of its stars into the pattern shown above.  I returned to Virgo, since Saturn is traversing through that constellation at the moment.  The configuration represented in my star atlas differs from those I have found represented on the internet this morning:

Constellation Virgo
Constellation Virgo

After waiting more than fifteen minutes for my neighbor to turn off her bedroom lights, I gave up, packed up the telescope and transferred it and all it’s accessories back down into my basement.  Rain and clouds are predicted for the next few days (of course) during the darkest phase of the moon.  I could just cry.