Anyone who reads this blog knows I’m a somewhat voracious
reader of books. One of my chief
enabling tools is my trusty Kindle which effortlessly downloads another book as
soon as I finish one. You can imagine the
panic that set in yesterday when just as I finished another Travis McGee novel (see
below) and ordered the next one to have the heretofore faithful device
crash. There’s not a lot you can do with
the vestigial controls on the device so I was in a bit of a quandary, not to
mention experiencing a full blown cursing fit.
I tried recharging it overnight and nothing. I was forced to devote my reading during this
morning’s bicycle session to the latest US Army War College Quarterly – not exactly
as much fun as the adventures from the Busted Flush.
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| The Amazon Help Page - Idiot Proof - I'm the Evidence |
I knew I couldn’t expect a lot of help from Amazon on what
must be their busiest day of the year so I just plugged in my question to a google
search and was brought to an Amazon help page.
There was a series of steps laid out – basically pushing and holding the
“on” switch for forty seconds, there was even a timer on the page. I followed the directions and the kindle came
back to life! My brother in law states
today’s instant access to information is a monumental sea change in human
history – he may be on to something.
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| Indignant Buddy |
Buddy the Wonder Pooch suffered his annual indignity when my
wife decorated him for Christmas.
Usually he’s forced to wear a festive scarf which is bad enough for his male
ego but last night the humiliation was magnified when, while wrapping presents,
she attached some ribbons to his collar.
He appealed to me but we can both guess how far that went. An extended and energetic attempt to remove the
offending ribbons met with little success.
He then jumped on the couch between my wife and I and tried to look as
sad and pathetic as possible. What is it
about women and their need to decorate dogs at Christmas? I am going to find a way to surreptitiously cut
that badge of dishonor tonight.
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| Pee Wee The Fearful Settling in on a New L.A. Victory Rug |
My daughter cemented her victory in the fantasy football
super bowl last night although her brother gave her a run for her money. Luckily for her, Peyton Manning is rounding
into playoff form and totally dissolved when the cold rain started to fall in Cincinnati
last night. She took her victory with the
calm equanimity that was to be expected.
A portion of her electronic victory dance message to her brother went as
follows:
As mentioned above I finished my latest foray into John D. MacDonald’s
world of Travis McGee with Cinnamon Skin. This book certainly starts out with a bang as
McGee’s buddy Meyer’s boat, the John Maynard Keynes, is blown out of the water
under mysterious circumstances. Meyer is
devastated since his only living relative, a niece, was on the boat at the
time. As he and McGee look further into
the mystery man who married the niece and was supposedly on the boat as well
they find a very convoluted trail of dead women. This was a straight forward detective story
with Meyer and McGee travelling all over Texas, New York, and ultimately Mexico
to track down an elusive sociopath. This
is the next to last McGee novel so I’m getting incredibly nostalgic about this
visit with one of my oldest friends/idol.
Kind of a perfect time of year for that sentiment, anyways.
I leave you with some of MacDonald’s words from Cinnamon
Skin with Meyer reflecting on his lost niece: “I never really got to know her. I should have made the effort. But she had a very busy life. We all think of the inconvenience of making
an effort. We’re all going to do the
right things a little later on.
Soon. But soon slides by so
easily. Then we’ll vow we’ll try to do
better. We all carry that little
oppressive weight around in the back of our mind-that we should be living
better, trying harder, but we’re not.
We’re all living just about as well as we can at any given moment. But that doesn’t stop the wishing.”
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