My blog is an adult :)

Where I grew up, you were considered an adult at age 18, able to drink, vote and enlist in the armed forces without parental permission, among other things.  

Today, my blog is an adult.  :)  18 years ago tonight, after the last trick-or-treater departed and we turned out the porch light, I hit "post" on my very first entry here. 18 years and more than 2,600 published posts later (!), I am still here, still writing about pregnancy loss, infertility and childlessness -- which is why I started my blog -- but also about books, getting older, dealing with aging parents (from a distance), being an aunt and great-aunt, living in a condo, living through a pandemic -- in short, life.  

The Internet, and the blogosphere, have changed dramatically over 18 years -- but there are still many of us out here, writing about and connecting over our shared experiences -- if not always in old-style blogs these days, then on Substack, on social media, through podcasts and through private communities such as the Childless Collective. The childless-not-by-choice segments of the infertility and non-parenting communities have grown by leaps and bounds. There's always room for improvement, of course! -- but the progress has been unmistakeable for those of us who have been around a while. (Long may it continue...!) 

How long will I keep writing here?  Who knows?  I never would have imagined, 18 years ago tonight, that I'd still be here. Never say never (either way), right? Granted, my output has slowed a bit in recent years, after hitting an all-time high of 213 posts in 2021 (146 posts last year, 113 to date in 2025, including this one -- last year at this point, I reported 123, versus 146 in 2023, 163 in 2022 and 178 in 2021 -- which turned out to be my most prolific blogging year so far).  But still, not too bad -- and right now, at least, I have no intentions of closing up shop. 

Whether you've been here from the early days or just found this blog recently, thank you all for reading and commenting. :)  

*** *** *** 

Blogging stats, 18 years later:  

 
Number of years blogging: 18

Published posts (including this one): 2,631

Average # of posts per year: 146

Average # of posts per month: 12 

(So far in calendar year 2025, I've published 112 posts -- 113, including this one -- a minimum of 6 posts (in July) and as many as 15 in September (thanks to World Childless Week and its daily themes!).

Published comments: 12,649 

Page views (all time, as of yesterday): 3,608, 027 (!!).  (Last year, I noted  1,959,495 -- i.e., I received as many page views this past year as I have in the previous 17!! -- clearly, something weird is going on, as I noted in this post here -- Infertile Phoenix wrote about the same phenomenon then too.)  

Followers (on Blogger):  155 

Past blogoversary posts here.

First blog post ever here! :) 

Odds & ends

• Annoying thing:  Someone's snide post on Threads, to the effect of "who's the genius without kids who scheduled Game 6 of the World Series on Halloween?" 
• I initially scrolled past it, then went, "Hey, wait a minute...!" -- but then I couldn't find it again. :p  Anyway, it pissed me off...!   
• Both Lyz Lenz at Men Yell at Me and Anne Helen Petersen of Culture Study have made the move from Substack over to Patreon in recent weeks (Lyz is now here and AHP here).   
• It's a major pain in the butt to have to learn the ins & outs of yet ANOITHER new platform/app 🙄 (I mean, seriously...??) -- and Patreon is new to the newsletter business, and still working out some kinks -- but these two were, I think, the first two Substacks I paid for, and I get a lot out their writing and the discussion threads with other subscribers, so...  
• Anne Helen Petersen is childfree by choice -- and one of her first posts in her new space is the first in a planned new series called "BIG NO KIDS ENERGY," about the joys of not having children. 
• The post is from a childfree by choice perspective, and so are some of the comments. Happily, those of us who did not necessarily choose this life are commenting too. (I added a comment myself). It may be difficult, especially if you're new to realizing children are not going to be in your future, to imagine that life can still be good, in a different way -- that there can be anything joyful about not having children. But there are positives, and I think that childfree people and their positive perspective can be helpful to us in realizing that. :)  
• The post itself is public, and I'm not sure about the comments, but I believe you have to be a paid subscriber to comment.  
• She's looking for ideas for future posts in the series too!  
• Rosalyn at The NoMo Book Club had a great Substack post recently about inclusive language, labels, and reproductive identity. 
• The New York Times's Well newsletter on anticipatory grief:  "Is It Healthy to Grieve Before a Loss?"  (Answer:  "Yes. Here’s how to cope.") (Gift link.) 
• Lisa Sibbett at The Auntie Bulletin makes a compelling argument that "The Nuclear Family is a Failed Experiment." 
• "Jennifer Aniston Said No To Adoption. Does That Mean She Is Selfish?"  writes Marcia Garcia at Life Without Children (originally posted on Medium). This is written from a childfree by choice perspective, but happily, it does reference the CNBC experience.
• Non-ALI related, but very personal to me: Canadian Returnee shares "The Ukrainian Story of the Prairies." 

"The Safekeep" by Yael van der Wouden

My most recent book is  "The Safekeep" by Yael van der Wouden, a critically acclaimed debut novel that's been recommended the by co-host of one of my online book clubs, by Jess at Finding A Different Path,  and by Anne Helen Petersen and numerous other readers at Culture Study.

The story is set in the Netherlands in 1961 -- 16 years after the end of the Second World War (and, interestingly for me, the year I was born).   

Isabel is 31, and lives in a house in the country where she moved with her mother and siblings during the war, and where her mother died 10 years ago. Everything in the house is still exactly as it always has been, and Isabel is obsessed with keeping it that way.    

Her carefully calibrated, placid existence is upended by the arrival of her older brother Louis -- the heir to the house, who will take possession (and leave her homeless), if/when he marries. Louis has brought his new girlfriend, Eva, and leaves her to stay with Isabel while he's out of the country for several weeks on business. The two women instantly and intensely dislike each other. Various objects from around the house have been disappearing lately -- catalogued meticulously by Isabel, who initially suspects the maid, but also begins to wonder about Eva...

And then.... 

This was one of those books that I found hard to put down, and it was a fairly fast read. The writing is excellent, with a twist near the end that changes the whole trajectory of the book.  In some ways, it was difficult to read -- Isabel is an incredibly repressed character, and there's an aura of tension (sexual/erotic and otherwise), suspense, paranoia and anxiety that keeps you turning the pages while feeling slightly uneasy about what might happen next. That said, the war and its traumas were not all that many years in the past, and Isabel's quirks and obsessions are understandable when taken in that context.  

A solid 4 stars on both Goodreads & StoryGraph.  

This was Book #33 read to date in 2025 (and Book #6 finished in October), bringing me to 73% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 4 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

#MicroblogMondays: It would have been nice...

We had lunch and spent Saturday afternoon at Younger Nephew's new home, about a 30-minute drive from here, along with BIL & SIL, Older Nephew & his family. It was noisy and chaotic with two excited children under the age of 6 running around together, plus a cranky, teething baby, who cried every time his mother went out of his sight (!) -- but it was a lot of fun too.  :)  

The three great-niblings modelled their Halloween costumes for us:  Little Great-Niece is going as Cinderella, in a pretty blue dress I would have KILLED for at her age;  LGNephew #1 will be Superman (his costume has padding that looks like abs!!  lolol) -- and his baby brother will be wearing a Batman costume!!  He didn't like wearing the cowl/hat/mask, but he still looked hilarious. Many photos were taken.  :)  

As the afternoon began to wind down, SIL suggested to LGNephew #1 that he read to her from the new Halloween book she'd brought him. They sat together on the couch and he read the entire book aloud! I was mesmerized. He is still not yet 6 (birthday coming up soon), just in Grade One, and he reads SO WELL. There were only a few words he struggled with -- he's improved tremendously since the last time I heard him read. I was SO proud of him!! (and told him so!) -- I got a little teary listening to him. He's growing up so fast! 

I'm not sure it was just listening to him read that got me so emotional, though. It could also have been the sight of him sitting like that with his grandma. Then Little Great-Niece joined them after a while -- one on each side, snuggled up to SIL. 

I will admit, I felt a momentary pang of envy. 

It would have been nice... 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

"Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe

For the past five weeks, I've been taking part in another "slow read" led by Simon Haisell at Footnotes & Tangents.  (I've recently tagged all the "slow reads" I've done with that group to date as "F&T slow readlong.") 

"Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe is the third book I've read with F&T this year. First published in 1958, it's the story of a changing Africa in the late 19th century in the face of European colonization, as experienced by Okonkwo, a proud and respected member of the Igbo tribe in the village of Umuofia in what is now Nigeria. (It's the first in a trilogy about Africa's colonial evolution.) 

The first part of the book is all about Okonkwo, his family, and traditional village life in Umuofia. A tragedy forces Okonkwo and his family to leave Umuofia for seven years. He returns to a village and a life that has been profoundly changed by the arrival of the white man, colonial government, and the Christian church.

This is not a long book (and would have been a fast one, if it hadn't been spread out over five weeks...!).Okonkwo is a brute and not a particularly sympathetic character overall (although I did feel for him near the end, struggling to cope with a world he no longer understands). I also felt empathy and understanding for one of Okonkwo's wives, Ekwefi, who lost many babies, clings to her one surviving daughter Ezinma (Okonkwo's secret favourite), and envies the other women and their children. From Chapter 9:  

...Ekwefi had become a very bitter woman. Her husband's first wife had already had three sons, all strong and healthy... Ekwefi had nothing but good wishes for her. But she had grown so bitter about her own chi [personal god] that she could not rejoice with the others over their good fortune... Her husband's wife took this for malevolence, as husbands' wives were wont to. How could she know that Ekwefi's bitterness did not flow outwards to others, but inwards into her own sould;  that she did not blame others for their good fortune but her own evil chi who denied her any? 

Sound familiar?? 

I also found it difficult to read about how twins -- considered an abomination (!) -- were placed in earthenware pots,  taken into the forest and... left there. Yikes!

It's an interesting book (especially if you have any interest in Africa), and well written. I'll admit, however, it's not something I would have picked up on my own, and it's not something I'm likely to read again. 

3 stars on both Goodreads & StoryGraph. 

Our final F&T book of 2025 will be "The Blue Flower" by Penelope Fitzgerald, beginning Nov. 3rd. Details here.   

Simon also recently announced what we'll be reading together in 2026. You can find that list of books here. (Not sure I'll do every one, as I did this year, but I see a couple I'm interested in...!)  

This was Book #32 read to date in 2025 (and Book #5 finished in October), bringing me to 71% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 4 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

#MicroblogMondays: I dreamed a dream...

I had a really weird dream a few nights ago. 

I was by myself, walking along a desolate country road, somewhere between the border town where I was born, close to where my paternal grandparents had a farm, and my maternal grandparents' home, 20 miles away in NW Minnesota. (The border did not seem to be an issue here, lol.)  

I wanted to go to my grandparents' house in Minnesota, and I thought I'd walk there (20 miles -- with my bum knee -- yeah, right...!!). But then I remembered -- the house is gone, and there's no one left there. (Just one of my second cousins, and a childhood friend from the neighbourhood.)  

So I turned and started walking in the direction of my other grandparents' farm, a few miles outside of town... but the road petered out into big snowdrifts, and I realized it hadn't been plowed -- and then I also remembered that there was no one left at the farm anymore either (hasn't been in almost 40 years...!). 

So I turned again and started trudging back into town -- although there's really no one there I could ask for help either. I thought that maybe I could get a room at the motel there, and then a ride into the city the next day -- or start walking there in the morning (60 miles...?!). 

But then I realized that although my sister and a few cousins live in or near the city, I couldn't rely on them to take me in either, certainly not long term. And I'm not sure I really belong in that city anymore either (if I ever did).  

When I woke up, I realized that I've been struggling with these themes & questions my entire life.  Where is home?  Where do I belong?  (DO I belong anywhere??) Do I matter to anyone (besides dh and my parents -- who aren't going to be around forever...)?  Who will be there for me if/when I need help (especially in my later years)?  

I've had similar dreams before, but for some reason, this one really bothered me and has stuck with me since then.

I think a lot of childless-not-by-choice women struggle with these questions. 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

"Deliver Me From Nowhere" by Warren Zanes

I decided my next read would be "Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska" by Warren Zanes, in advance of the new movie of the same name, based on the book, that's being released later this week  (Oct. 24th). (We haven't been to a movie since early 2020, before the pandemic began -- something we always loved to do! -- but Bruce has been a constant presence in our lives and our relationship since we first met -- and I always like to read the book before I see the movie version -- so...!)  

As the subtitle points out, the book focuses on a particular era of Springsteen's life, the making of the 1982 album "Nebraska," which marked a profound shift in Springsteen's life and career. It also delves into the events and circumstances, in Springsteen's personal life and career, and in the American culture of the time, that led up to it and shaped it.

I had been aware of Springsteen when I was a teenager (I loved "Prove It All Night" when it was on the radio, summer 1978), and my pre-dh boyfriend had "The River" album, but I hadn't REALLY listened to his music until I met dh, who was a big fan and had the nickname "BRUUUCE" lettered on the back of his residence floor T-shirt (lol).  I bought a couple of his albums and they were a big comfort to me when dh went to graduate school the next year in a different province. 

"Nebraska" came out in the fall of 1982, when I was 21 and starting my fourth and final year of undergrad, without dh on campus. It was starkly different from the Springsteen albums that had come before, or the ones anyone else was making at that point. But the more I listened, the more it grew on me. (I especially liked "Atlantic City" and "Reason to Believe.") 

What became "Nebraska" -- and parts of the subsequent "Born in the U.S.A." album -- began as a cassette tape of demos recorded by Springsteen in early January 1982, on a simple four-track home recorder, sitting on the bed in the bedroom of the farmhouse he was renting in Colts Neck, New Jersey. He'd just concluded a hugely successful tour to promote "The River" -- but he was struggling with what it all meant and what direction he wanted to take next. Around the same time, he was mulling over several things he'd been watching and reading, including Terrence Malick's 1973 movie "Badlands," based on the Starkweather murders in Nebraska during the late 1950s, starring a very young Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek;  a book about Starkweather's teenaged girlfriend/accomplice, Caril Fugate;  and the short stories of Flannery O'Connor. 

When he brought the demo tape into the studio for the E Street Band to work on, some songs came together very quickly, and would form the nucleus of the "Born in the U.S.A." album, including the title song. These songs formed an almost complete album, with the markings of a huge hit (which it would eventually become).  But the other songs kept calling him -- and he struggled with how they sounded when augmented by the full band.  Eventually, he decided to release those songs as a solo album -- exactly as recorded. No interviews, minimal advertising. He did authorize one promotional video ("Atlantic City") that was shown on the fledgling MTV network -- a series of black and white film clips of Atlantic City in all its gritty glory. No Springsteen or E Street Band in sight. 

"Nebraska" was critically acclaimed when it was first released, and still is today. It was a milestone in Bruce's career and in the music world generally, for many reasons that Zanes delves into here. 

There's probably a whole lot more detail here than most of us probably need or want to know about this album. But personally? I loved it. It was a great reminder of that time in my life, of what Bruce meant and still means to me & dh, and what a brilliant artist he is. Of how sometimes it pays to take risks, even when they seem crazy. (And how it helps to have people who believe in you and what you're doing, as Springsteen's manager, Jon Landau, and the record company did.)  There was a lot here that I already knew about this time in Springsteen's life, but I enjoyed the insights provided here (by Bruce, and by others) that put Bruce's music, and this album, into the context of the times.  If you love Bruce, and enjoy learning more about his creative process, especially if you love the album "Nebraska," you will probably enjoy this book. 

I haven't listened to "Nebraska" in full in years, and reading this book makes me want to pull out my CD and give it a spin. (I did have the vinyl album originally, but it now belongs to Older Nephew.  : ) ) 

4 stars on both Goodreads and StoryGraph.  

This was Book #31 read to date in 2025 (and Book #4 finished in October), bringing me to 69% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 4 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

#MicroblogMondays: Odds & ends

• 
  (Once again, odds & ends for #MM -- but hey, it's what I've got right now...!  In no particular order:) 
• It's our Thanksgiving long weekend here, and we enjoyed a nice dinner at BIL & SIL's on Saturday with the nephews & their families. 
• The Halloween goodie bags I assembled for the great-niblings were a hit!  LGNephew #1 exclaimed over the Robert Munsch book I'd chosen for him ("Boo!")  and gave me a big hug (awww...), and he and LGNiece donned their Halloween deelybobbers -- LGNephew #2 was less enchanted, lol. LGNephew #1 changed into his new glow-in-the-dark Halloween PJs to wear in the car before they left, and LGNephew #2 was sporting one of the new onesies I'd bought for him in photos posted by Older Nephew's wife the next day.  Success!!  (On to shopping for birthdays and Christmas...!  lol)  
• Still not a lot of autumn colours to be seen hereabouts! -- especially when I look at photos taken at this time of year in years past. I think it's because we had such a warm September -- no frosts to date (although we came close a couple of mornings last week!).   
• I was sad to hear the actress Diane Keaton had died at age 79 (what??!).  
• I know Woody Allen is considered completely politically incorrect/taboo these days -- but I came of age watching his movies, many of them co-starring Diane Keaton, and I still love many of them:  "Annie Hall," "Love and Death," "Play it Again Sam," :Manhattan" (yeah, it's creepy seeing him with a very young Mariel Hemingway -- but that Gershwin score! that gorgeous black-and-white cinematography!!). 
• "Annie Hall" came out just as I was heading into my last year of high school -- and the "Annie Hall" look was HUGE that year. With the money I'd earned that summer working part-time at the local drive-in movie theatre and an antique shop, I bought a new Annie-esque outfit (mostly at Fairweathers at the long-gone Unicity Mall) that I wore to my first day of school that fall:  a plaid knife-pleated skirt that fell below the knees; black thigh-high, high-heeled boots;  a white shirt, black men's tie, salmon-pink sweater vest, and grey flannel blazer. (I think I still have the tie!)
• I loved so many more of her movies too: "The Godfather" movies with Al Pacino (one of her (other) famous lovers);  "Reds," with Warren Beatty (ditto)(which I saw on my 21st birthday at a grand old movie palace in downtown Winnipeg -- en route out, I begged the theatre manager for one of the posters, which hung in my dorm room for the rest of my university career);  "Baby Boom" with the incredibly sexy Sam Shepard (although I imagine I would find the plot pretty wince-inducing these days...!);  "Something's Gotta Give" with Jack Nicholson and Keanu Reeves;  "The First Wives Club" with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler....   
• Keaton never married, but she adopted two children, a daughter and a son, when she was in her early 50s. (!) They would be in their 20s now, I think. 
• About 20-25 years ago, she was making a movie that was partly filmed in the small Manitoba town where my parents live. My mother told me that Keaton went in to the local Co-op grocery store with curlers in her hair (!), and the young checkout girl, not knowing who she was, asked her for her Co-op number (lolol).  I hope Keaton was as tickled by that story as we were. Hollywood pretentious she was not.  :)  
• Jennifer Aniston, poster girl/heroine for those of us who tried and didn't succeed at having the children we wanted, talks about that time in her life (among other things) in Harpers Bazaar UK's November issue. 
• Aniston previously spoke out on these matters in Allure's December 2022 issue.  I wrote about it (and the reaction to it in the CNBC community), here and here. So grateful for her honesty! 
• Nicole Chung -- who was adopted -- writes in The Atlantic about "When Adoption Promises are Broken." What happens when open adoption arrangements are not honoured? 
• As someone who knows a major cleanout of her parents' home of 40+ years (after 65+ years of marriage) is coming sooner vs later, I appreciated this Substack post from Catriona Innes of "Crocuses in the snow":  "When possessions hold memories, how do we choose what to throw away?"
• Simon Haisell at Footnotes & Tangents has announced 5 new slow readalongs for 2026, plus the return of both "War and Peace" and "Wolf Crawl "(Hilary Mantel's Cromwell Trilogy). (I took part in both W&P and Wolf Crawl in 2024, and highly recommend the experience!) I'll likely be reading along with at least some if not all of these! 
• Back in late August, drowning in back-to-school/off to college/empty nest social media posts from my mom friends, I read an article from The Atlantic about "How Parents Hijacked the College Dorm" -- and, in response, wrote a lengthy post reminiscing about my own college dorm rooms (vintage 1979 photo included!).   
• This past week, Anne Helen Petersen at "Culture Study" did a deep dive into the subject with Meagan Francis (who wrote The Atlantic article):  "What's Really Going on With Those Elaborate (Parent-Decorated) College Dorm Rooms?" The conversation was fascinating (photos included!), and so are the comments!  I believe it's not (currently?) paywalled. 
• As an avid genealogist, I absolutely loved this story when I first stumbled onto it in the New York Times three years ago (already?!):  "‘Downton Shabby': A Commoner Takes on an English Castle."  (Gift linked article.  And there's a book by the same name!)   Here's the lede: 

People who search genealogy websites often find birth and marriage records, newspaper clippings, faded photographs or maybe a long-lost relative.

Hopwood DePree found a 60-room English manor.

• It's not QUITE a "castle" -- but it's a 50,000 square-foot mansion (!), with some sections dating back to the 1400s (!). Hopwood Hall had been abandoned and derelict for decades -- but when he flew from his home in California to England to see it, Hopwood DePree recognized its value and its potential -- and he's rallied the community to save and restore the property.  
• This past week, I found a series of related video shorts from Ancestry.com on YouTube, featuring Hopwood DePree and Hopwood Hall.  Here's a link to the first episode.  They're also reposted on his Facebook & Instagram accounts, which I'm now following! 
• (I haven't looked at everything yet, but apparently, the estate is currently embroiled in some sort of dispute over the land surrounding the house that's delayed further progress on the restoration. Hopefully it will be resolved soon!) 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

"The Two Mrs. Abbotts" by D.E. Stevenson (re-read)

My D.E. Stevenson fan group just finished our group reading & discussion of  "The Two Mrs. Abbotts," which we started in early August. (I (re)read the book before that myself, and my review then can be found here.)  Published in 1943, it's a sequel to "Miss Buncle's Book" and "Miss Buncle Married" (my most recent reviews of those books here and here, respectively).  

"Miss Buncle Married" ended with King George V's Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1935. It's now seven years later, Britain is at war, and Barbara is the mother of two small children.  For the most part, though, Barbara takes a back seat in this book to the "other" Mrs. Abbott -- Barbara's niece-by-marriage Jeronina "Jerry" Cobbe Abbott, whose husband (the nephew of Barbara's husband Arthur), Sam, is commanding a tank unit in Egypt. 

With the help of her former governess Miss Marks (Markie), Jerry has turned her home, Ganthorne Lodge, into a hangout for locally stationed soldiers. She's also rented a cottage on her property to the commander, Colonel Melton, and his daughter, Melanie -- and is trying to matchmake the girl with her brother, Archie, who inherited the Chevis Place estate from their elderly aunt.  She also takes in a mysterious paid guest, Jane Watt; as well as Elmie, a runaway girl who previously spent time at Ganthorne with her family as an evacuee from the city. 

This was an enjoyable look at the home front in wartime Britain, written while the war was still going on. As usual, the characters, both major and minor, are wonderfully drawn -- especially Markie, who quite possibly steals the show from the title protagonists!  

My previous ratings for this book have ranged from 3.5 to 4 stars. Those ratings still stand -- 3.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded up to 4 stars on Goodreads. 

Previous DES-related posts and reviews  here. 

This was Book #30 read to date in 2025 (and Book #3 finished in October), bringing me to 67% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley

"The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley has been high up in my gigantic "to read" pile since it came out last year (2024).  A novel combining the elements of time travel and romance sounded right up my alley.  Moreover, it involves events from Canadian history that were (at least somewhat) familiar to me. 

The unnamed narrator -- like the author herself, the child of a Cambodian immigrant/refugee -- works as a translator in the British civil service, and applies for -- and gets -- a promotion with a hefty salary increase. There's not much of a job description attached, though, and she soon learns why: her new job is part of a top-secret government time travel project, which has brought a small group of "expats" -- people unwittingly extracted from different eras across history -- into the present.  Her role is to serve as a "bridge" -- a roommate and live-in guide/interpreter to life in modern-day, multiracial London -- for one of the "expats," Commander Graham Gore, who died (or not...!) in 1847 in the Arctic while serving in Sir John Franklin's doomed expedition to find the fabled Northwest Passage. Bridges submit regular reports on their charges, and both bridges and expats are closely monitored by the Ministry

Despite the vast historical and cultural chasm between this odd couple, you can probably guess what happens next ;) -- although romance is just part of the story. Beyond the themes of time travel and romance, there are elements of science fiction, the lingering effects of colonialism/imperialism and racism, ethical dilemmas -- and increasing hints of something sinister going on at the Ministry.  Midway through, the book shifts into thriller territory and grows increasingly tense, with several plot twists near the end. (There is, however, also a lot of humour throughout the novel.)  I kept thinking, as I read, that this would make a fabulous movie (properly done), and apparently the BBC is working on a six-part series, adapted by Alice Birch, who also adapted Sally Rooney's exquisite novel "Normal People" for an equally exquisite TV series (both of which I have raved about, here on this blog and elsewhere).  This bodes well.  :)  

Reviewers seem to either love this one madly or dislike it intensely (I saw a lot of reviews marked "DNF" = "did not finish"). It's an ambitious book that covers a lot of territory, and perhaps it doesn't always quite hit the mark. There's a lot about the whole time travel project, its purpose and its goals, and how time travel actually works, that's rather vague -- we just have to accept what we're told and go with the flow of the story --  especially in the final chapters. The ending was rather ambiguous -- which I don't mind, but I know bugs a lot of people...!

But overall?  I loved this book. I could not put it down -- I blazed through it, gobbled it up -- and by the end, I was a bit in love with the dashing Commander Gore myself.  :)  

4.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded up to 5 on Goodreads.  

The last few chapters, and the author's note at the end, provide more information about the fate of the Franklin Expedition and Commander Graham Gore  -- who was, it turns out, a real-life person! (You can look him up -- there's even a photograph/daguerreotype, taken before the ill-fated Arctic expedition got under way -- although he doesn't look anything like I imagined!) Remains of some of the crew members were unearthed in the 1980s, which I remember from the time (particularly the photograph of a corpse, well-preserved in the Arctic permafrost), and the locations of Franklin's two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, were discovered in 2014 and 2016, respectively, remarkably well-preserved beneath the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean -- much to the delight of our then-Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, a history buff who had long been fascinated by the Franklin Expedition. 

This was Book #29 read to date in 2025 (and Book #2 finished in October), bringing me to 64% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 5 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

"We Solve Murders" by Richard Osman (re-read)

It doesn't seem like that long ago that I read "We Solve Murders" by Richard Osman -- maybe because it wasn't (it was in mid-June, 3+ months ago -- my review here).  It's the November book for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club, and I decided a re-read was in order to refresh my memory -- especially since I'll be leading the discussion! (Osman's latest Thursday Murder Club book, which just came out -- "The Impossible Fortune" -- has had to wait...!)  

"We Solve Murders" is the first volume in a new series from Osman (he promises there will be more). It's a lot faster-paced/action-oriented than the Thursday Murder Club books -- but still a lot of fun.  The main characters are Amy Wheeler, a professional bodyguard for the rich and famous;  Rosie D'Antonio, an eccentric, best-selling author, and Amy's latest client;  and Amy's father-in-law Steve Wheeler, a widowed, retired police detective, a homebody and creature of habit whose idea of excitement is the weekly quiz night at the local pub and who dotes on a cat named Trouble. (I'll admit that, since a cat -- presumably Trouble -- appears on the book's cover, I expected it to be more of a presence in the book than it was. But, a minor quibble.) 

Amy is holed up on an island off the coast of South Carolina with Rosie, who's been receiving death threats from a Russian oligarch she wrote into one of her latest books.  But now someone is trying to kill Amy too, and implicate her in the murders of several small-scale social media influencers. The only person Amy trusts to help her is Steve. Reluctantly, Steve joins Amy and Rosie in America -- and together, they hop around the globe on Rosie's private jet (!), to St. Lucia, Ireland, England and Dubai (where Amy's husband/Steve's son, Adam, is working), with their mysterious enemies in hot pursuit. 

Even on second reading, knowing the outcome of the story and who was behind the murders, this was a fast, fun read with a lot of memorable major and minor characters, and I still laughed out loud, a lot. It's slightly ridiculous/over-the-top, perhaps, but if you enjoy TTMC, you will likely enjoy this one too.   

(One detail I hadn't noticed, on first reading: Rosie reveals she's English, in the first few pages of the chapter where we meet her. I had pictured her as an American, and had to completely reimagine how I envisioned her, especially her voice...!) 

The TTMC books have been consistent 5 star reads for me. I originally gave this one 4.5 stars on StoryGraph. As I said in my original review, "I debated whether that should be rounded up or down, and decided that while TTMC is still my favourite, this wound up being too irresistible not to give it full props. So, 5 stars on Goodreads." Those ratings still stand.   

ALI/CNBC notes:  Amy & Adam are childfree by choice. Grief/loss is also a theme here (widowed Steve holds regular conversations with his dead wife Debbie). 

This was Book #28 read to date in 2025 (and Book #1 finished in October), bringing me to 62% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 6 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

#MicroblogMondays: Odds & ends

• 
  Lana Manikowski at "Infertile and Childless. So Now What?" nails it in "The Grief That Comes Without a Funeral." (Italics & boldface from the original text.) 

Here’s what few people understand: infertility grief isn’t just about a failed IVF cycle or a miscarriage. It’s about the futures we already built in our imagination. The baby names we whispered. The vacations we dreamed of as a family. The family photos we pictured on holiday cards. Every negative test isn’t just a single “no.” It’s another lifetime quietly slipping away, one no one else even knew existed. That’s why it feels so heavy, because you’re mourning futures no one else will ever acknowledge. There are no condolences. No casseroles. Just silence.

• "On the Outside," Y.L. Wolfe tells it like is: "Childless Women Do Not Need Your Unsolicited Advice."  Subheading:  "Yes, we've considered all the options, and no, we don't want to talk about it with strangers."  PREACH!! 

Small excerpt: 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The truth is, childless women make people uncomfortable. We’re living proof that life doesn’t always go the way you want it to. Our very presence inspires people’s worst fears and thus, I suspect, they feel unconsciously desperate to comfort themselves by acting like this is a problem that could easily be fixed.

• Y.L. Wolfe's writing is always great, but (as an amateur genealogist) I especially loved this article she wrote for Medium (which may or may not be paywalled?):  "The Unexpected Branching of a Childless Woman’s Family Tree." (Subhead: "Expanding the meaning of legacy for women who didn’t get the chance to have children.")  Excerpt: 

I don’t believe for a moment that our line ends here. That our existence won’t still reach as far into the future as it does into the past.

Branches will grow out from us, whether we have children or not.

and 

It’s important to remember that legacy isn’t just about biology...  you’re passing on parts of yourself to everyone you come across, whether you are related to them or not... there are countless ways to pass down your family values, your ideals, your wisdom, mostly in a manner that cannot be quantified or measured.

In fact, you’ll likely never know the impact you have made on the people in your life and the ripple effect that will have long after you are gone, on people you’ll never meet.

Legacy is a much bigger concept than we’ve been led to believe.

• Ali Hall at "Life Without Children" ponders "Why We Need To Change the Language Used for People Without Children" (subhead: "And all the ways 'childfree' and 'childless' are used against us"). (Not sure I like her proposed alternative... the quest continues...!)  
• This wasn't the first post I read musing about language choices for those of us living without children, and I'm certain it won't be the last...!  In fact -- the third post I ever wrote for this blog -- back in November 2007! -- explored a similar question:  "Am I childLESS or childFREE?" 

• Well worth a listen:  Jody Day chats with Zoe Noble of  'We Are Childfree" (which is both a Substack and a podcast, available on many podcast platforms, such as Spotify). 

• Not ALI-related, but another thoughtful & interesting piece from Charlie Angus at "The Resistance," about the most famous political assassination in Canadian history (not that there have been a lot of them -- and thank goodness for that!). I thought some of you might find it interesting! 
• As I mentioned in this post from 2017 (about a trip to Ottawa), as a high school senior taking part in the Rotary Club's Adventure in Citizenship program, I was being driven to Parliament Hill on the first morning, and the man driving me pointed to a street corner in passing and said, "Over there is the spot where where they shot D'Arcy McGee."  I had only a hazy idea of who D'Arcy McGee was at that point, but his remark stuck with me, and I looked him up when I got home, (We passed by the plaque marking the spot on that 2017 trip -- the same one pictured in the Substack post -- and I took a photo of it. We also had dinner at D'Arcy McGee's pub, also mentioned and pictured in the post.)  
• I vividly remember the other assassination mentioned, which took place 100+ years later, in October 1970 -- the "October Crisis," in which separatist terrorists kidnapped Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross in Montreal, and murdered Laporte. (Cross was released.) I was 9 years old at the time, and one of my school friends told us Laporte had been beheaded (!). Her father was an RCMP officer, so we figured she would know. (He wasn't; the poor man was strangled.)  

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

Right now

Right now...* 

*(A (mostly) monthly series/meme.  Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first (similar) "The Current" post, here.)

September was a busy month (when are we not busy these days??), with mostly good weather (yay!). Younger Nephew moved into a new house, LGNephew #1 started Grade 1 (!), his little brother (LGNephew #2) was baptized (and we weren't there to see it  :(  ),  we (finally!) got the balcony windows washed (just in time for winter...!), and we spent another lovely weekend with dh's cousins at their cottage. 

This month included: 

• Dinner at BIL's (and some one-on-one time playing with Little Great-Niece), after dh spent the afternoon helping him and Younger Nephew move some stuff over to their new house. (Sept. 2nd) 
• (Dh) Helping with the move and setting things up at the new house the next day (Sept. 3rd). He & BIL came to get me later in the afternoon and took me over (in rush hour traffic...!) to see the new house and have some dinner. Younger Nephew's MIL brought LGNiece over (she'd had her all day) along with some food, which we all enjoyed. (SIL now goes there to take care of LGNiece two days a week, so we haven't seen her since then. :(  )  
• Brunch, gelato and then a browse at the bookstore (Sept. 4th), postponed from the first day of school (on the 2nd, when dh was helping Younger Nephew move). 
• More plumbing work (Sept. 8th, after a previous/expensive round in late August).  :p  (Hopefully the last needed for a LONG time...!) 
• Lunch and grocery shopping with dh at the supermarket (Sept. 8th, after the plumbers left!). 
• More grocery shopping (and takeout soup/pizza slices for lunch)(Sept. 15th & 29th). 
• Shopping/walking at the local mall for the first time since mid-August (avoiding back-to-school shoppers...!), Sept. 9th;  and again on Sept. 16th, 23rd & 30th.  
• Picked up dh's prescription at the drugstore en route home on the 9th. 
• Withdrew cash at the bank on Sept. 11th to put in a card for LGNephew #2's baptism gift (on Sept. 14th). 
• Took it to BIL's house the next day for them to deliver (since we weren't invited. :(  )
• Brunch (again) on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 14th (while LGNephew #2 was being baptized).
• Washing the balcony windows!! (Sept. 17th) (They look SO good!!) 
• Haircuts, lunch and a bit of shopping at the mall in our former community (Sept. 19th). 
• Browsing briefly at the bookstore and buying a board game there to bring as a hostess gift for our cottage weekend. (Sept. 24th) 
• Manicure & pedicure, then grocery shopping at the supermarket for supplies for our cottage weekend (Sept. 25th). 
• Our 5th annual fall weekend at dh's cousin's cottage with BIL & SIL, the couple that own the cottage and another cousin (Sept. 26th, 27th & 28th). 
• Visited Petroglyphs Provincial Park en route there. Very interesting! 

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 

Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 2 books in September (all reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads & StoryGraph, & tagged "2025 books"). 

• "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel, the most recent slow read with Footnotes and Tangents, which began May 5th and ran for 20 weeks through Sept. 15th. (3-3.5 stars;  my review.)  
• "The Secrets of Blythswood Square" by Sara Sheridan, the October selection for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. (3.5-4 stars;  my review.) 

This brings me to 27 books read in 2025 to date, 60% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 6 books behind pace to meet my goal.  :) 

Current reads: 

• "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, the current "slow readalong" with Footnotes and Tangents. Started Sept. 29th, runs for 5 weeks. 4% completed to date. 
• "The Two Mrs. Abbotts" by D.E. Stevenson. Chapter-by-chapter reading & discussion with my D.E. Stevenson group, which started Aug. 4th and runs through mid-October. (My original 2015 review here;  most recent review here).  79% completed to date. 
• "Childless: A Woman and a Girl in a Man's World" by Fabiana Formica.  This one is beautifully written, but slow going, and I was reading it (or trying to...!) at Mom & Dad's, where there were a lot of distractions. I've put it aside for the moment to focus on other reading priorities, but I've completed 33% to date.
• "L.M. Montgomery and Gender," an essay collection edited by E. Holly Pike & Laura Robinson. Slowly working my way through, in between the other books...! 

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 Childless Collective Nomo Book Club:  
• "We Solve Murders" by Richard Osman (November) 
• "I Am Half Sick of Shadows" by Alan Bradley (December) 
• For my D.E. Stevenson group:  This list of upcoming books should keep us busy through 2025 or even into early 2026!  (A couple of the books are ones we covered shortly after I first joined the group back in 2014 -- you know you've been around for a while when....!)  
• Crooked Adam. (I have never read this one, and we've never tackled it during my 11 years with the group! so I'm looking forward to it!)  
• The Four Graces (original 2015 review here). 

• Footnotes and Tangents slow readalongs planned for 2025 include:
• "The Blue Flower" by Penelope Fitzgerald -- starts Nov. 3rd, for 7 weeks. 

(Simon is a big fan of the late great Hilary Mantel, and the books he selected for 2025 were all ones that were either written by her or ones that she loved -- so he figured they would probably be worth reading!  2026 selections to be announced soon...) 

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

• "Endling" by Maria Reva 
• "When the Going Was Good" by Graydon Carter
• "Run for the Hills" by Kevin Wilson 
• "So Far Gone" by Jess Walter
• "Wild Dark Shore" by Charlotte McConaghy 
• "Stone Yard Devotional" by Charlotte Wood 
• "A Different Kind of Power" by Jacinda Ardern 
• "Little Bosses Everywhere" by Bridget Read 
• "The Correspondent" by Virginia Evans 
• "Detective Aunty" by Uzma Jalaluddin 

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 

Watching: 

• "The Marlow Murder Club" on PBS Masterpiece Mystery. The second season began on Aug. 24th and ran for six weeks, through Sept. 28th. I provided some thoughts on the first episode in my recent review of "Death Comes to Marlow" (which forms the basis of the first two episodes), here. 
• Pronatalism alert:  Annoyingly, the TV show injects a lot of content about families and motherhood/mother-child relationships into the scripts that is not present in the books (and generally not at all relevant to the plot). (Judith, the main character, is childless.)  
• Watched the first two episodes of "House of Guinness" on Netflix with SIL & dh's cousin's wife at the cottage last Saturday night. Pure (and often ridiculous/over the top, lol) soap opera, set in 1860s Dublin, based (very loosely, I am sure...!) on the real-life Guinness family of brewers. I enjoyed it enough that I will probably look for the other episodes to watch on my own!  

Playing:  

• Heardle Decades: Stats as of Sept. 30th:  
• Heardle 60s: 74.0% (779/1053, 309 on first guess), down 0.4% from last month. Max. streak: 15.
• Heardle 70s: 76.8% (610/794, 348 on first guess), down 0.3% from last month. Max. streak: 18. 
• Heardle 80s: 40.1% (264/659, 96 on first guess), unchanged from from last month. Max. streak: 5.
• Heardle 90s: 32.1% (244/759, 63 on first guess), unchanged from last month. Max. streak: 5. 
• NYT Connections: 
•  By Aug. 31st, I'd completed 398 games and won 87% of them, including 205 "perfect puzzles" with zero errors, including 9 where I got the most difficult/purple category first.  Maximum winning streak: 45 (unchanged). 
• As of Sept. 30th, I'd played 428 games and won 88% of them, including 220 "perfect puzzles" with zero errors, including 10 where I got the most difficult/purple category first.  Maximum winning streak:  45 (unchanged). Current streak: 30. 

Following:  

• 
  

Eating/Drinking:  

• As I've mentioned before, we achieved our goal of lowering our cholesterol levels in late January, after less-than-stellar bloodwork (in fall 2024) earned us both serious chats with our family doctor. We've been trying to maintain/improve on those numbers (and lose/keep off some extra pounds) since then, by eating healthier and moving at least a little more.    
• This goal took a bit of a hit over the summer -- as weight loss efforts often do.  While you might be out and about more/a little more active, you're also likely socializing and eating out more! (a few examples of that below...!) 
• I ended the month 0.4 pounds lighter than when it began. (I'll take it...!  lol)  Overall, I'm down about 12 pounds since our chat with the doctor last October (dh has lost more than 20), and a little over 24 pounds from my heaviest-ever weight a few years ago. 
• We've slacked off a bit lately (eating out a bit more) -- but we'll be seeing our family dr again for checkups (and, I'm sure, more bloodwork!) in late October -- so we've been trying to get back on track..! 
• We went out for brunch not just once but twice this month (and had omelettes both times -- ham & cheese for me, a Western for dh): 
• We'd planned to go for brunch on Sept. 2nd (first day of school hereabouts) -- because we can!  but those plans were upended when dh had to help Younger Nephew move. So we did it on Sept. 4th instead, followed by gelato ;)  and a browse at the bookstore. 
• We went again on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 14th, while LGNephew #2 was being baptized. 
• We ate very well at dh's cousin's cottage this weekend! The menu included barbecued hamburgers and sweet potato fries for lunch on Friday; chicken and veggie skewers on the grill for Friday supper;  excellent steaks and potatoes for Saturday night dinner, pasta & beans with sausage for Sunday lunch. Indulged in some wine and coolers to drink, and made a stop at the local ice cream shop for some Kawartha Dairy ice cream on Sunday afternoon before we all headed home. (I had the salty caramel truffle -- it was excellent!).  
• We also indulged in some of our usual takeout meals for lunch once or twice a week, plus Saturday night dinners, including soup and pizza slices from the supermarket, and veal & chicken cutlet sandwiches from California Sandwiches.

Wearing: (Still!) Enjoying my capris, sandals and short-sleeved T-shirts, while I still can...! 

Buying (besides books, lol):  This was an expensive month (and not for good reasons...!):   

• Paid for (more) plumbing repairs (Sept. 8th) -- hopefully the last for a LONG time...! (The bill for this round was, at least, substantially less than what we'd paid for "stage one," a week or two earlier in August...!).  
• Around the same time, we were notified of a "special assessment" on our condo unit, to help cover the cost of roof repairs (already done) as well as replacement of the rooftop "chiller" unit that provides air conditioning to all the units (and has broken down at least twice in the past two years during heat waves). 
• We've already had a previous special assessment, not too long after we moved here, to help rebuild the reserve fund (after it was drained by the completely useless now-former property managers who ran the building when it first opened -- robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak...). 
• Many owners in our building are up in arms, saying they won't pay (ummm, sorry, but that's what you signed up for when you bought the condo...!). There was an owners meeting/town hall last week with the board and property manager to discuss the matter. All owners were "strongly encouraged " to attend.
• Dh & I did not. I'm very conflict-averse (or maybe I'm just a coward, lol).  
• (I can't help but think of what happened in December 2022 at a condo building near the mall we frequently shop at -- a building we actually had on our list of potential places to look at (but never did), early in our search.  :(  I don't think I posted about this event at the time -- we were at my parents' house for Christmas then -- but you can read about it here, here and here.)  
• Obviously, we're not HAPPY about coughing up several thousand dollars (in two installments), on top of the monthly fees we already pay (AND the plumbing repairs we just had done...!)  -- but if the work needs doing, the work needs doing -- and as owners, it's our shared responsibility to ensure it gets done and to pay for it. 
• We do question, though, why both the roof and the chiller unit need replacing already, when the building is only about 10 years old??  (Did they use the absolute cheapest materials when they built this place??)  
• We also think the board/property manager could have communicated better with us up front while the repairs were going on, and when a/c was breaking down, just what was going on, and that this might be a possibility... 
• Gave LGNephew #2 cash in a card for his baptism on Sept. 14th (despite the fact we were not invited...!)(!). 
• Couldn't resist a pretty new blouse for myself from Reitmans... 
• ...or some new V-neck T-shirts from both Gap and Old Navy outlet stores.  :)  
• Started gathering stuff for Halloween goodie bags for the LGNiblings. :)  So far, each bag includes both Halloween and Christmas-themed PJs, a T-shirt, a book, a plastic Halloween tumbler (from the dollar store), jack-o'lantern deelybobbers (ditto), and a chocolate lollipop from Purdy's Chocolates (get 'em started on the good stuff young, lol),  
• Continued to purchase Canadian products (or from Canadian companies), as much as possible ;)  (albeit I will admit I'm not as much of a purist as some people seem to be...!).    

Prioritizing: My book club obligations, versus my own reading picks (tempting though some of them may be -- "The Impossible Fortune," I'm looking at you...!)// 

Noticing: Problems with my vision. Both eyes have been incredibly dry and irritated these past few weeks (no matter how many eyedrops I put in them), and recently, they've been itchy and gritty, and the eyelids red and irritated (allergies?). The left eye in particular has been irritated and the vision has frequently been blurry lately (but sometimes it clears and it's better??).  Either my vision is deteriorating (hopefully it's just aging, and the Saltzmann's nodules I had surgically removed three years ago from my right eye have not returned...??), my glasses need replacing (lots of scratches, etc., which certainly don't help matters), or (most probably) a bit of both. My glasses, after all, are 11 years old (!) -- they've served me well!  I liked them, and still do, but I think it's time for new ones. 

At my last visit to the optometrist (more than a year ago), he told me to come back when I turned 65 (i.e., January) -- presumably so he wouldn't have to charge me for the visit. (It's free for seniors 65+ in Ontario.) I may try to get in to see him earlier than that, though.  

Enjoying/Appreciating:  The nice fall weather (even if it's not exactly normal... and even though it's delayed the arrival of the fall colours a bit...!) 

Wondering: When our doctor's office will be running its fall vaccine clinics for covid & flu shots?  

Anticipating:  Getting to see the great-niblings on our upcoming (Canadian) Thanksgiving long weekend (if not before that...).  :)  We last saw LGNiece on Sept. 3rd (at her family's new house! -- almost a full month ago now...!), but haven't seen the two LGNephews since Aug. 16th ( = almost two full months).  :(  

Loving: Shopping for things for them. :)  Cute outfits for little girls still have the power to give me occasional pause, but I am glad that, for the most part, I can visit a children's wear store or department these days without feeling overwhelming sadness for what might have been... 

 

Trying:  To let things slide a little, re: my overflowing inbox & never-ending notifications. Trying to remember that I don't HAVE to look at/read everything...!  

Wanting/Hoping: (Still!!) To book a getaway of some sort, somewhere, before the end of the year...! (The days go by so quickly, and I often don't have the bandwidth to do the necessary research, let alone actually book something...)  

                              

Feeling: Disbelieving that we're into October, and the final few months of 2025, already!  Thankful that the weather has been so nice. But also: apprehensive, because it's not usual for this time of year....!  A little sad about the big changes that I know are coming for my family, as my aging parents (finally!) begin considering new housing options, after 40+ years in their current (split-level!) home.