Right now

Right now...* 

*(an occasional (mostly monthly) meme, alternating from time to time with "The Current"). (Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first "The Current" post, here.)

Pandemic diary/update: August was month #41 (3+ years plus) since the COVID-19 pandemic began. This month, we started hearing about a couple of new Omicron sub-variants on the rise -- first, EG.5, and then BA.2.86. (The first case was diagnosed in Canada just as the month ended.)  There's also been an uptick in reported cases and wastewater readings lately, and warnings of an oncoming fall wave, as students head back to school. Nevertheless, at the moment we (still, after 3+ years!) remain covid-free (knocking wood, loudly...). 

Dh has been going maskless when he's out without me (for groceries, gas, etc.) --  which I will admit I'm not happy about. I am still masking in most public places, and while we've loosened up a bit lately and have been out and about a lot more lately, I would say we're still a lot more cautious overall than most people we know. I get it -- it's hard to be the only one (or one of the very few), even if you know it's the right/smart thing to do. Next to no one is masking any more, free rapid tests are no longer being distributed by the provincial government (even though they're still stockpiled -- and expiring... what a waste!), the virus has (mostly) disappeared from the headlines, and there is very little data readily available to help individuals monitor the situation and make good decisions for themselves. 

August was another very busy month!  We continued to support our family as my brother-in-law & Older Nephew recovered from their transplant surgeries on July 10th, and as Little Great-Nephew spent his last few weeks with his grandparents (including two mornings a week this month at playschool/daycamp!) before embarking on his SCHOOL career!!  BIL is not allowed to drive right now, likely not until late October at the earliest -- which means dh is often needed to take him to appointments, etc. (especially while SIL is still taking care of Little Great-Nephew).  

Among other things, we: 

• Spent a lot of time with Little Great-Nephew -- at BIL & SIL's house on Aug. 3rd, 15th, 21st & 23rd (as well as other times under other circumstances, noted below). 
• On Aug. 8th, we picked him up from playschool/daycamp at the community centre (a first for us!! -- had to borrow a car seat from BIL, lol), picked up some lunch at Tim Hortons and took him back to BIL & SIL's until they got home!  
• On his own, dh braved the horrendous downtown Toronto traffic to take BIL to the hospital for follow-up appointments on Aug. 1st and 16th (as well as Older Nephew on Aug. 15th). 
• He also took BIL to the lab for early-morning bloodwork on Aug. 3rd, 8th, 10th, 14th and 21st.  
• And he took him AND LGN to Home Depot, and then to Dairy Queen, on Aug. 3rd.  
• He also made multiple solo trips to the supermarket for groceries. (Maskless. :p  ) 
• Dropped by BIL & SIL's on Aug. 5th, on Aug. 10th for coffee when relatives were visiting (LGN was there then too), and on Aug. 12th for lunch (along with Older Nephew & LGN).  
• Drove BIL & SIL to one of dh & BIL's aunts' houses for lunch on Aug. 9th.  One of their cousins was there too. We were later joined by several other aunts & uncles, as well as another cousin (our hostess's daughter), her husband and three teenaged boys. We were all stuffed, and BIL was in his glory.  
• Dropped by BIL & SIL's house briefly on Aug. 28th. (We actually came to see LGN, but he was at home with his mom that day -- she wasn't feeling well and called in sick to work.)  They were just heading out to lunch at a friend's house, so we didn't stay very long. We went to Dairy Queen afterward instead (through the drive-through).  :)  
• Celebrated Younger Nephew's birthday with Chinese food & cake at BIL & SIL's house on Aug. 6th. Everyone was there except Older Nephew's Wife, who was feeling a little under the weather. We all had a good time, and many photos of Little Great-Nephew & Little Great-Niece (together and separately) were snapped.  :)  
• Visited Katie at the cemetery on "her" day (Aug. 7th), stopped at Dairy Queen en route home for ice cream (tradition) and then ordered Chinese takeout food for dinner (also tradition, even though we'd just had it the day before at BIL's...!). 
• Went for haircuts back in our old community on Aug. 12th -- without masks, for the first time in more than 3 years!  It was initially just us and our stylist, although two other stylists and their clients eventually arrived too. Fortunately, it's a pretty big space and fairly well ventilated. Our stylist's daughter has severe asthma and she's been ultra-cautious to date, so we figured if SHE wasn't wearing a mask....!  
• Returned to our old community on Aug. 21st to get our prescriptions renewed by our family doctor;  full checkups to come next month. 
• Went to a nail salon on Aug. 24th for my first pedicure since September 2019 -- almost four years!!  (I wore a mask, as did most of the nail techs as they worked on their customers -- although none of the other customers did.)  
• Attended Little Great-Niece's baptism at a nearby church (albeit not the party afterwards) on Aug. 27th (unmasked! -- eek!). 
• Went to dh's cousin's house for lunch on Aug. 30th, together with BIL, SIL & LGN.  There were 12 of us there in all -- cousins from dh & BIL's generation and the next (their kids) -- most of us either retired or on holidays We absolutely stuffed ourselves and had a wonderful time, talking and laughing.  
• Shopping trips to the drugstore (Aug. 5th & 22nd), and Chapters bookstore, Carters/Oshkosh children's clothing store and supermarket (Aug. 22nd & 31st). 

August is always a sad month for us, and this year especially:  25 years ago in August (1998), our hopes that my roller coaster pregnancy would have a happy ending were dashed when I went for my 6-month (26 weeks) checkup with Dr. Ob-gyn on Aug. 5th, and no heartbeat was found.  Two days later, on Aug. 7th, I delivered our daughter, with only dh & my mother with me at the hospital. My dad came from Manitoba several days later. We had a small funeral for her and interred her ashes in a niche in a nearby cemetery on Aug. 19th.  My parents stayed for another week or so after that, and dh returned to work at the end of the month. 

• August 1-4, 1998: The last few days
• August 4, 1998: Another family mourns
• Wednesday, August 5, 1998: Gone
• Thursday, August 6, 1998: In limbo
• Friday, August 7/Saturday, August 8, 1998: The end... and the beginning...
• The rest of August 1998: Aftermath

As described here, we made the trip out to the cemetery on Aug. 7th (a long weekend holiday Monday here in Ontario), then made a trip to Dairy Queen (tradition!), and had takeout Chinese food for dinner (also tradition). 

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Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 5 books in August (reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads & StoryGraph, & tagged "2023 books").  

• "The Secret Book of Flora Lea" by Patti Callahan Henry. (My review.) 
• "Sarah's Cottage" by D.E. Stevenson, a re-read with my DES group. (My review;  original review here.) 
• "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim. (My review.) 
• "The House on the Cliff" by D.E. Stevenson. (My review.)  
• "The Brutal Telling" by Louise Penny (Three Pines/Inspector Gamache mystery #5). (My review.) 

This brings me to 32 books read to date in 2023,  71% of my 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. :)  I am currently (for the moment, anyway...!) 3 books ahead of schedule to meet my goal. (I also started the month at 3 books ahead of schedule.)  

Current read(s): 

• "Tom Lake" by Ann Patchett. 
• "The House on the Cliff" by D.E. Stevenson (with my DES group -- technically, our discussion doesn't start until Sept. 11th, but I'm listing it here now! I'll count this one as a re-read once the group finishes its chapter-by-chapter discussion, in late December/early January.)(My original review.)   
• "The Blue Castle" by L.M. Montgomery. My LMM Readathon Facebook group read this book together back in fall 2020, and our group admin -- who is taking a well-deserved summer break -- is re-running posts related to this book over the summer.  It's one of my favourites, not just of LMM's novels, but of any book I've read ever. (Reviews here, here and, from an earlier book-related post, here.) I am following along, chapter by chapter, and count this as a re-read when we we're finished in the fall.   
• "Living the Life Unexpected" by Jody Day.  Re-reading (for the 5th time, I think!) and discussing one chapter per month (for the second time) with a group of other childless women within the private online Gateway/Lighthouse Women community. If & when I/we complete the full 12 chapters (likely early in 2024), I'll count it as a(nother) re-read. We recently covered Chapter 6. I missed that discussion, but hope to take part when we cover Chapter 7 in mid-August! (My most recent review -- with links to previous reviews -- here.) 

Coming up: Most of my book groups have their next reads plotted out for a few months in advance -- and listing them here helps me keep track of what I should be reading next. ;)  

• For my Gateway/Lighthouse Women Nomo book club: 
• For October: "Over the Top" by Jonathan Van Ness
• For November: "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" by Alan Bradley (my suggestion! -- a book I love, albeit one I read before I started this blog, so I don't have a review to point you to!)  
• For my D.E. Stevenson group:  This list of upcoming books should keep us busy through 2024, and into 2025!  (A couple of the books are ones we covered when I first joined the group back in 2014 -- you know you've been around for a while when....!)  
• Bel Lamington 
• Fletcher’s End
• Miss Buncle’s Book
• Peter West 
• Miss Buncle Married
• The Two Mrs Abbotts
• Crooked Adam 
• The Four Graces

• For the Notes from Three Pines (Louise Penny mysteries) Readalong: The last discussion was for book #3, "The Cruellest Month," posted June 7th.  So far, no word on when we can expect a discussion of book #4, "A Rule Against Murder" (reviewed here). Meanwhile, I recently finished #5 ("The Brutal Telling," -- see above), and book #6, "Bury Your Dead," is on the horizon as one of my next reads...! 

I've given up on the idea of joining in yet another online book club/readalong/discussion this summer -- on Substack, for "Middlemarch" by George Eliot. I simply don't have "the bandwidth" at the moment, especially for such a long, dense novel -- although I would like to re-read this book (which I studied in university)... someday... 

Having written the above..., I opened my email yesterday afternoon to find that Lyz Lenz of Men Yell At Me (her wonderfully sassy Substack newsletter, where I'm a paid subscriber) is starting a MYAM book club!  (Uh oh...!)  The first selection will be "The Farm" by Joanne Ramos, which has been in my TBR pile forever. She'll be posting discussion questions every Thursday through October 5th.  Most MYAM newsletter discussions are for paying subscribers only, but the book club comments will be open for anyone who wants to participate. (Hint, hint.)  :)  Details here. 

(Nora McInerny of the podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking, has also started a book club via podcast & Substack chats. She's been featuring some really interesting-sounding books too -- but I figure I can go back & listen to the relevant episodes when I actually have time/get around to read the books...!)  

A few recently purchased titles (mostly in digital format, mostly discounted ($5-10 or less) or purchased with points):  

• "Confidence Man" by Maggie Haberman 
• "We Were Once a Family" by Roxanna Asgarian
• "Birnam Wood" by Eleanor Catton 
• "Fire Weather" by John Vaillant
• "Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers" by Jesse Q. Sutanto 
• "I Have Some Questions for You" by Rebecca Makkai 
• "Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You" by Lucinda Williams 
• "Trespasses" by Louise Kennedy 
• "Nine Black Robes" by Joan Biskupic
• "Starter Dog" by Rona Maynard
• "You Probably Think This Song is About You" by Kate Camp 
• "Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club" by J. Ryan Stradal

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Watching:

• "Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland," a riveting five-part documentary series that aired over three nights on PBS this week, telling the story of "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland from the 1960s through the 1998 Good Friday peace accord and its aftermath, as told by the people who lived through it, both Catholic Republicans and Protestant Loyalists. Very well done (probably the best I've seen on the subject), and well worth watching. (A couple of reviews, here and here.) 
• I still find myself raving to anyone who will listen about Patrick Radden Keefe's book about the Troubles, "Say Nothing," which I read in 2019 and reviewed here. If you are interested in this subject, it's an absolute must-read;  even if you're not (or don't think you are), it's still a  spellbinding book.  One of the people Keefe wrote about in his book was Jean McConville;  her son was one of the people interviewed for the documentary.  
• If you've read this blog for a while, you will know that I'm a fan of the very talented Maynard sisters -- Joyce, a well-known American author of both novels and memoirs (including "Looking Back," which I read when I was 12 -- 50 years ago now! -- and which solidified my own writing ambitions), and her older sister Rona, who was the longtime editor of Chatelaine magazine, Canada's premier women's magazine -- as well as their late mother Fredelle, who wrote a lovely memoir about growing up Jewish on the Canadian Prairies during the Depression called "Raisins and Almonds." (Their father, Max, was a talented artist and protege of Emily Carr.)  
• Joyce & Rona made a joint appearance this month at a bookstore in Keene, New Hampshire, near where they grew up -- oh, to have been a fly on the wall!!  -- and I was tickled when they both posted a video from the event on their social media accounts.  Even if you've never read any of their work, it's worth a watch -- I think you'll enjoy their back-and-forth on their unique childhoods, sibling rivalry and reconciliation, and the power and value of writing and storytelling -- especially telling your own story! 

Listening:  No podcasts lately (despite a huge queue...!).  

Heardle Decades: Stats as of Aug. 31st: 

• Heardle 60s:  77.6% (246/340, 115 on first guess), down slightly from last month. Max. streak: 14. 
• Heardle 70s:  77.1% (64/83, 41 on the first guess), down from last month. Max. streak: 7. (Current streak: 5.) 
• Heardle 80s:  34.6% (65/188,  31 on the first guess), unchanged from last month. Max. streak: 4. 
• Heardle 90s: 41.5% (34/82, 10 on the first guess), way down from last month. Max. streak: 4.  

Eating/Drinking:  Still enjoying the seasonal produce! SIL's aunt gave her a big bag of green beans straight from her garden, and she shared some with us. Soooooo good!  I miss visiting my parents at this time of year -- my 84-year-old dad still has a backyard garden (albeit he's downsized from what he used to keep) and eating fresh veggies from there and the local farmers market is always a treat!   

Takeout dinners included our favourite chicken fingers & fries (from Jack Astor's), Chinese food (from Mandarin), rice bowls (from the supermarket takeout counter), California Sandwiches (veal cutlet for dh, chicken for me), chicken souvlaki (from a local Greek restaurant).  

Buying (besides books, lol):  Not much!  Clothes & a board book as a gift for dh's cousin's new(ish -- he's almost 7 months old!) baby, whom we're planning to visit soon. Halloween stuff was already on display (! -- wtf, it's 2+ months away and the kids aren't even back in school yet...!!) and I snapped up a couple of cute themed gift bags & board books for Little Great-Nephew & Little Great-Niece's goodie bags. 

   

Wearing:  Capri leggings and T-shirts around the house, and fewer shorts and tank tops than I would have expected. We've (very thankfully) escaped most of the heat wave other places in North America have experienced this summer, but it's been much cooler and cloudier/greyer than usual.   

Enjoying: The (relative) lack of heat & humidity (compared to other summers, and other places in Canada/North America this summer) -- albeit a little more sunshine would be nice...! 

Noticing:  Just how much cooler it's been lately -- a reminder that fall is officially just around the corner!  (Apparently we did not have one day this past month that reached or exceeded 30C/86F. which is not the norm -- although the next few days are supposed to be much warmer.) 

Trying:  To see as much of Little Great-Nephew as we can over the next week, before he heads off to school!  (junior kindergarten/nursey school/pre-school)  Appreciating: That we've been able to spend so much time with him these past few years (and these past few months especially).  

Wanting: Better sleep, which I haven't had again lately.  :p  

Wondering:  What the frack happened to the summer??  How can it be September already??  And how is Little Great-Nephew old enough to be heading off to school in less than two weeks' time??  

Prioritizing: Shopping for and making some dishes to bring to two family gatherings we've been invited to this (long) weekend.  

Hoping:  That I will get to see my two aunties (my dad's older and younger sisters)  when we head west in October. I haven't seen either of them in a couple of years now.  My older aunt (who is also one of my godmothers) will be celebrating her 90th birthday shortly after we're there, and I really want to see her and wish her a happy birthday in person! My mom wanted us to stretch our stay to be there, but I didn't want to stay that long this time around. 

Loving:  Spending time with LGN while we can -- but also looking forward to a little more quiet and control over our schedule soon...!  

Feeling: Grateful to have been able to spend so much time with Little Great-Nephew before he heads off to school soon.  Disbelieving that summer is (essentially) over. Looking forward to a cottage weekend, and to visiting my family soon.