BUSY SEASON

Just realized I haven't posted for quite a while.  It seems to be my busy season, and I'm reading two books at once which is something I just never do.  

I'm reading a long but wonderful biography of Harry Truman.  Learning so much about a man I thought I knew very well.  My grandfather, a staunch Republican, looked like Truman's twin, which of course he did not want to hear.  I remember Gramps taking me to the Illinois State Fair one day when I was a kid; he had apparently forgotten that Truman would be there that day.  We stood aside as the president's parade passed by, and I swear Truman took a second look at Gramps and smiled.  Unfortunately, my grandfather gave him a stone cold glare.  

The biography is by David McCulloch, whose writing style is so easy reading it's like listening to a born storyteller.  Turns out I knew almost nothing about Truman before he became president and not a whole lot about his presidency.  I'm really enjoying this one.

The other book I'm reading is Louise Penny's The Beautiful Mystery.  Set in an isolated monastery in Canada where one of the monks has been murdered, this is also an education.  The monks are renowned for their Gregorian chants about which I'm learning.  The monastery itself is intriguing and the story nearly impossible to set aside for necessary interruptions.  Penny is a favorite author of mine.

The reason I keep getting interrupted is that you can practically hear the grass growing around here.  Whenever it stops raining and the yard dries up enough, I have to mow and trim, etc.  This time of year that yard demands too much attention.  Every year I swear our next home will be a condo where someone else does the yard work.  After all, I've been doing it since I was 12 years old - enough is enough!

Then there are appointments, annual picnics, and graduation parties, and of course going out for ice cream on a hot day.  Busy, busy!

See you when I finish The Beautiful Mystery.