Sunday Snapshots

So, what did I do this week – apart from editing PowerPoints, creating projects, and working on next school year in general? Well, I . . .

Attended the North Carolina Symphony:

 

Sadly, they skipped Sibelius’ Valse Triste, Op. 44.

Which made me sad.

My wife says angry.

I say sad.

Enjoyed reading in the hammock by the water at my in-laws:

 

Treated myself to a few inexpensive indulgences:

 

I got my donut on National Donut Day; did you?

Assuming, of course, that you live in a country where it’s observed.

I know the United States and Australia do,

does anyone else?

 

That calzone cost less than $5

The ingredients are bought fresh and the dough is made in-house.

Add a sweet tea, and there’s lunch for under $6

So much better than fast food!

Practiced my night photography:

 

Right after I photographed the spider, a small insect flew into the net. I tried taking a picture of the spider as it attacked its prey, but it didn’t turn out at all. If I hadn’t seen it happening, I wouldn’t know what I was looking at.

I actually took one more night shot, but I’m holding off on sharing it; it may show up for the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Vivid.

What did you do this week?

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

 

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The Worst Day of My Life

Meredith Broadside

via www.hmscavalier.org.uk
via http://www.hmscavalier.org.uk

My adopted grandfather, Mr. Tom (USN 1938-1957), remembers D-Day:

Mr Tom Enters the Navy 1938I was assigned to the Meredith*, an American destroyer out of Plymouth England. She was new – so new parts were still wet with paint. As at Pearl, my duty was the engine room. The Meredith wasn’t transport, she was a destroyer; we shelled the shore to soften it up for the landing. We stayed there in the [English] Channel for the entire day and the next, that’d make it June 7 when we were ordered to change position. I don’t recall where we were going; regardless, we struck a mine. That brand-new ship struck a mine and threatened to break in half. We ended up abandoning ship and I spent the night in the English Channel tied to my buddies so we wouldn’t drift. There was fuel all over, some of it ignited. One of my buddies [name redacted] was burned so badly he knew he was dying. He gave me some effects to pass on to his girl and some of the others started accusing me of robbing the dead. What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to say? Well, we were picked up in the morning and I was shipped on to Scotland for recovery before being sent back to the States for a spell. I really can’t describe it. D-day was the worst day of my life. Worse than Pearl. Worse than the day my wife died. It was the absolute worst day of my life.

USS Meredith – navalwarfare.blogspot.com
USS Meredith – navsource.org
USS Meredith – wikimapia.org

*You can read the official Commander’s Narrative here.

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

 

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

 

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

 

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Thoughts Brought On by Reading Old Books

First, a shout out to Erik Kwakkel for opening my mind to the possibilities of marginalia.

Working through my summer reading list, I’ve encountered a few old books, namely

Old Books Summer Reading 2015

From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, printed 1966

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré, printed 1975

A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie, printed 1953

                   Thoughts on Old Books
                          by Jay E. 

Books are like wines and cheeses: 
  they’re better aged.
    
    Like certain furniture styles, 
      not just aged, but distressed.

Well-worn covers, falling apart at the seams, 
  held together by hope and scraps 
    of binding tape or hardened bits 
      of glue.

Not-quite-blank first pages, left empty by the publisher,
  filled in by a succession of owners, 
    give glimpses - small hints and clues – 
      to the history of those pages.

With luck, exquisite ex libris plates 
  bearing the name of one long passed 
    whose legacy yet lives on; what better legacy 
      than the power of the written word?

Title pages with weight and meaning, 
  some fantastic works of art, 
    others equally fantastic for their simplicity – 
      the end result of dedicated typographers 
        and skilled typesetters.

The quirks of printing: 
  typefaces not seen in decades,
    pages printed at a slant,
      chapter headings and divisions 
        once the norm now oddities.

Above all, the smell: 
  that heady mix of dust and must 
    and decaying paper and 
      ageing ink. 
  
  It almost hurts to breathe it in, 
    yet like an addict we return 
      again and again, 
        imbibing in our drug of choice.

Consider these pages from my copy of A Pocket Full of Rye:

Pocket Full of Rye First Page

Pocket Full of Rye Page 54 Robert Willis
 
At one point, the book belonged to New Bern High.

I theorize this was its first home.

How long did it stay there?

Was it bought or stolen or did someone simply forget to return it?

 
How long did each owner keep it?

How many owners did it have?

 
Who, exactly, is . . .

B.B.

“me”

Sheila, and

is that her phone number, or someone else’s?

Did she own the book and give the number in case it was lost?

Did she write her number for an admirer on the only paper available?

Robert Willis, and

how does he fit in to all this?

To me, his name seems like a young lady’s doodling.

Especially since his name appears on multiple pages.

 

Sometimes the best questions are those to which there are no answers.

 

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

 

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

 

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

 

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Photo Challenge: On The Way

This week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is “On The Way“.

With six hours (local time) left until Thursday turns to Friday, I thought I’d share some pictures with you.

The first two were taken at Fort Macon, North Carolina.

Brick Walkway
Brick Walkway
Brick Arches
Brick Arches

These next two were taken in downtown New Bern, North Carolina.

The photographs on the right are desaturated versions of the photographs on the left.

 

Finally, a floating bridge from the nature trail at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores:

Floating Bridge and Algae
Floating Bridge and Algae

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

 

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

 

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

 

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Teaser Tuesday: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

School’s out for summer: long days complemented by sweet southern iced tea.

Dunkin Donuts Sweet Iced TeaAlthough next school year is just around the corner, the wheel of time has turned on its axis to

Teaser TuesdayJust in case you don’t know, Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! All you have to do is grab the book you’re currently reading, open to a random page and share two sentences from that page. But make sure you don’t share any spoilers!*

*I wish I could take credit for this introduction, but I shamelessly stole it from Heather over at bitsnbooks. To help me make amends, you should go check out her blog.

This week I’m reading Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré.

I picked a line from page 26, the page I’m currently on as I type this:

At a certain moment, after all, every man chooses: 
will he go forward, will he go back? There was 
nothing dishonorable in not being blown about by
every little modern wind. Better to have worth,
to entrench, to be an oak of one's own generation.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Cover

In Retrospect

I actually finished several books since the last Teaser Tuesday.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman scored 5/5 stars. It seems as if people either love it or hate it. I’m one of those who love it. Based on the Goodreads reviews, those who hated it “didn’t understand” it; I guess I can understand that – a working knowledge of mythology is supremely beneficial in understanding the allusions Gaiman makes throughout.

From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne scored 3/5 stars. I understand I’m reading an English translation of a French novel written over 100 years ago, but I found the language a bit stuffy for science fiction. I also felt the novel concluded unsatisfactorily.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote scored 4/5 stars for no other reason than I didn’t feel it deserved 5 stars. Having seen the movie (which I don’t particularly enjoy) I understand Capote’s disdain for the film adaptation. The book is always better.

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

 

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

 

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

 

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Summer Break 2015: Week One

I thought the summer break would give me more time to write.

I was wrong.

And yet, I was right.

I’ve written – or, more accurately, typed – quite a bit over the last ten days:

Four class supply lists

Three class outlines

Eleven class projects

Lesson plans for half of American History 1

Today I’m working on re-writing World History so the class is approximately 60% book/lecture and 40% project.

Sometime next week, the new Chemistry curriculum will arrive, meaning I’ll have to go through and check my current lesson plans against any changes in the new edition. Joy. I might just start over from scratch on that one.

I’ve also been cleaning the house.

Spring Cleaning didn’t happen this year; so now’s the perfect time to do it. Well, maybe not perfect, but there certainly won’t be a better time.

But writing for the blog? Not so much.

The only things I’ve published were mostly finished posts waiting in the drafts folder.

Yesterday, I even missed Sunday Snapshots.

However, that’s due mainly to the fact I didn’t take many photos this last week; I’ve been in my office working on the list you just read.

And The Book? Even less.

We’ll see how this week goes.

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