Christmas Ornaments #20: Comedy and Tragedy Masks

 

In 2023, we became theatre goers. It's not like we'd never seen anything theatrical before, but we turned that knob up to 11 in 2023. Ella was in Newsies, and Mike got tickets to four Hale Center Theatre productions (and since someone had to drive him, the rest of us got to see some of them with him). We also made a trip to Cedar City to see A Mid Summer's Night Dream and The Play That Goes Wrong. Ella got to see a production of Clue, and Shannon and Mike went to the high school production of A Mid Summer's Night Dream. Maybe there's more that I can't remember, but that's a lot of plays for us, so we picked a theatrical ornament to remind us of a new-found interest.

Christmas Ornaments #19: Yellowstone

 

In 2022 we went to Yellowstone and spent a couple of nights at the old lodge at Old Faithful, which has been a fanciful experience every time I've done it. (Twice) The lodge doesn't have TVs, or WiFi, so you're forced to just sit and enjoy the building, listen to the live music, and watch the geysers. I think we saw Old Faithful go off 7 times, from a number of different vantage points. Anyway, about the ornament. We found this beautiful ceramic ornament with an elk on one side, and a John Muir quote on the other.

Despite the perfection that is this ornament, Ella was not impressed. So we had to buy this bird ornament from Target or something so make her happy.

Christmas Ornament #18: Sloth

 Unlike all those years when we left our Christmas ornament shopping until the last minute, in 2021 we set a record for the earliest ornament. In June we went to St. Louis to visit family, and while we were there we went to the zoo and found this guy:

For reasons I've never fully understood, Shannon has a deep, deep love for sloths. This guy was handmade by someone in central Asia and has slowly crawled his way all the way to our tree.

Christmas Ornament #17: Angel

 Perhaps you've heard: 2020 was rough. It was rough for just about everybody, so while it wasn't uncommonly rough for us, it was still rough. We figured we needed a little angelic help to make it through the quarantine-y holiday.

Christmas Ornament #16: Sheepy

The only problem with waiting multiple years to write down what ornament you got is that you forget if there was a reason that you got it. I don't know about Mr Sheep here, but since we've already got a fox, a reindeer, doves, cows and who knows what other animals on the tree, me might as well keep turning it into a full on zoo.

Christmas Ornament #15: Angels

 When last we visited the annual Blockburger Christmas tree ornament tradition, I said, "We picked [Mary, Joseph and Jesus] over the set of three angels, so maybe Target will still have this line going next year and we can continue to augment our nativity set." Well . . . . 

There they are. Target did keep them around for another year. These three are on the tree this year hovering just above baby Jesus. The wise men are on the other side of the tree making their way.

Paris, The Not-Vacation Part

What's the opposite of vacation? The best the internet is giving me is "occupation," "work," or "continuation." I see what they're going for, but none of those really have the right feel to them. I'm voting for nightmare.

Our Paris vacation party consisted of me and Shannon as well as Shannon's sister and mother. About half way through the trip, while visiting the lovely Chateau Chenonceaux (such a perfect French word), Shannon's mom didn't see a step that was lurking in the middle of a little hallway. The resultant fall ended with a fractured elbow and two hairline fractures in her pelvis. And there, in the hallway at Chenonceaux, is where our vacation ended. The helpful and kind staff at the Chateau kept us company while we waited for the ambulance to come take her to the hospital in the bustling metropolis of Amboise (note: not a metropolis) to see the extent of the damage. After the x-rays confirmed the damage, and that she needed surgery to put her elbow back together, we got to start facing the first of many questions that we had not previous considered when planning our trip.

1. Where is the best place for 3 people to get a room on short notice in Amboise, France?
2. How do you say "elbow," "surgery," "screws," and a whole host of other similar words in French?
2a. If you're me, how do you say anything in French?
3. What do you do when your best French speaker is now hospitalized?
4. How do you get insurance forms printed while in Amboise, France? Is there a Kinkos?
5. Is the surgery going to be tomorrow? (Answer: no.) How about the next day? (Answer: yes. No, wait, never mind, no.) How about the next day? (Answer: Yes. We think. Probably. Call in the morning to find out. Ok, it turns out, yes, it did happen on day 3.)
6. How is the French medical system? (Pretty good.)
7. How much English does the hospital staff speak? (Very little.)
8. How do you make a phone call from an American cell phone in France to a phone in France?
9. Should Kim go home as planned on Wednesday, even though the surgery hasn't happened yet? (Yes.) If so, how does she get back to Paris? (Lots of different trains.)
10. Can we return the rental car 3 days late and do a different location? (Yes, they were very nice, though those extra three days apparently cost more than the first 4.)
11. Is it possible to have surgery in the morning, get released from the hospital in Amboise at 5:30pm and drive to the airport in Paris all in one day? (Yes) Will this be fun? (Not by the end.) Will it rain? (Indeed.) Will the freeway be closed? (Of course!) Will the gas station be closed? (Clearly.) Will your phone battery die? (Nearly.) Can you stop at the temple along the way? (Yes!) Will you get to drive through the longest urban motorway tunnel in the world? (Yes. It's over 6.5 miles long.) Will you take the wrong exit when the tunnel forks halfway through requiring you to go back through the tunnel a second time (and pay the toll a second time)? (Undoubtedly. It was just that sort of day.)
12. How do you navigate Charles de Gaulle International Airport with someone who can barely walk and needs a wheelchair? How do you say wheelchair in French? (It doesn't matter, once you get to the airport they all speak English and Francois will take care of everything.)

Getting from the hospital in Amboise to airport gate 16 hours later was perhaps the most exhausting thing I have ever done. I suppose once the trip is sufficiently in the rear-view mirror (not yet) this will all seem a wonderful character building experience. Check back in a year and we'll see how I feel. But I guess we proved that we can survive unexpected challenges in a foreign land.

It wouldn't be a trip to the hospital in France if the ER isn't on strike. (But they were still there working. I'm not sure how this all fits together.

Is the fact that this cemetery is right across the street from the hospital a good sign?

This macaron was very tasty. The decor in our emergency hotel room was .... less tasty.

Continuing the theme of "pastries you do want to eat in places you don't want to eat them": A religieuse in a hospital room. It's like a big, round, double-decker eclair. (And for the record, I was only two vowels short of spelling it right on the first try.)

Paris, the Vacation Part

If going to Paris (PARIS!) isn't enough of a reason to re-resurrect the blog, I don't know what is.

Shannon and I went to France for 10-ish days last month, and I here I am to report on it. (The number of days is a little fuzzy. Is it how long I was away from home? How long I was in France? Do I have to adjust for time zones?) You don't want a long list of everywhere you went along with the number of steps I took each day. You just want some pictures. So here are my ten favorite pictures, in rough chronological order, from the trip with a brief blurb.

The walls of Sainte Chapelle are, essentially made of entirely of glass. Hypothetically there are a whole bunch of bible stories in there, but you'd have to be 50 feet tall and much better at remembering all the stories in Chronicles. This is your first, and last, reminder that I'm not a photographer and took all of these with my phone, and the sun is where ever it is in all the photos.

A baguette in the park, and a couple of French kids. From the start, I insisted that I wasn't going to make many demands on the trip, but that I wanted to eat baguettes in the park.

The obligatory Notre Dame selfie, for proof that I was actually there, or at least that my photoshop skills have improved. (They haven't.) Since the fire, this is as close as you can get to the Notre Dame, which looks pretty good from this angle.

Not quite so good from this angle.

The Memorial of the Martyrs of the Deportation is across the street from Notre Dame and is for those who were shipped off to Nazi death camps. The memorial is all underground, which makes for poor photography. I thought it was a very well done memorial. Above the exit it says, "Forgive, do not forget ...."

I ate lunch on the street in Paris. It turns out that when you actually do this, the tables are (I am not kidding) about 2 inches from each other, the tables are tiny, your neighbors are possibly smoking, and the foot traffic is about six inches away. It's not really charming or relaxing. But it was tasty.

Omaha beach. We had a great tour from Thomas who did an excellent job of making the tour about people, and not about nations.

When Blockburgers go on vacation, they always go to cemeteries. This one also at Omaha beach.

In France, everything must use spiral staircases. It's a law or something. These ones happen to be inside the Arc de Triomphe.

Sometimes when you're at the Palais de Chaillot checking out the Eiffel Tower a parade of baton twirlers comes by with their little 5 piece band in tow. You know, because those things just happen.

Who made this stupid 10 picture rule? The first place we stayed was just down the steps from Sacré-Cœur, and this was on the sidewalk just outside our door. (It's Sacré-Cœur, if you couldn't put that together.)

We went to Musee D'Orsay and saw art. Some Manet, some Monet, some Van Gogh, but I'm including this Renoir here because it's Shannon's favorite and is the one hanging in our bedroom.

Sometimes when all of your vacation plans have completely fallen apart, you find yourself at the train station in Amboise, France at 10pm buying baguettes from the baguette vending machine. You put in your Euro and the baguette comes "banging down the chute". (Shannon's words.)

We went to several castles. This is Chambord, the biggest (of the ones we went to). It's so large that by the time you're close enough to feel like you can see it properly, you're too close to take a picture of it. If you were to zoom in enough on the photo you could see people on the balcony on the third level. The main rooms must have at least 30 foot ceilings. Wikipedia puts the total height at 184 feet with 440 rooms and 282 fireplaces. In the center of the chateau there is a helical staircase.

Paris temple, night. We made it here 5 minutes before the visitors center was supposed to close, and stayed much longer that I thought we would on a day that turned out to be probably be the longest, most tiring day any of us have had in a long time. But I'm glad we got to see the temple.

I do really have to come up with another title for a post about books?

The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Any by Indian, we mean native american. This book is a YA novel of the story of a teenage boy growing up on a reservation in Washington. He sees a life with no opportunities on the reservation. His parents drink too much, his adult sister lives in the basement, everyone is poor, and no one ever leaves the reservation. So he decides to leave the reservation. Sort of. He enrolls in the nearest white high school where they have better teachers and the students have better prospects, and in so doing, he becomes a “Part-Time” Indian. The kids at his new school don’t like him, and his friends and relatives on the reservation really don’t like him, because they believe that he feels that he’s too good for them. Some of these situations improve, some don’t. It’s a YA coming of age novel. (With some language and sexual content, so don’t give this to your 11 year-olds.)

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Sometimes when I don’t have anything to read, and I don’t have any suggestions for what I want to read, Shannon starts grabbing random books for me at the library. I don’t really understand her methods, but if I don’t have any suggestions, I can’t hardly complain, can I? And so, Olive Kitteridge arrived in my reading pile. This is a collection of short stories that take place in a small town in Maine, which are tied together by the character of Olive, a retired middle school math teacher who speaks her mind. In some stories, she’s the main character, in others she only passes through briefly. The stories focus around the daily lives of the characters; marriages, depression, arguments, grandkids, death, affairs, devotion and patience – the things that make up regular lives. It’s a bit like getting the gossip of the entire town.

Earth Afire by Aaron Johnston and Orson Scott Card

Earth Awakens by Aaron Johnston and Orson Scott Card

Last year I read the first of the Ender prequel novels, Earth Unaware, and I finally got around to finishing out the trilogy. In the first book a family of minors at the edge of the solar system get the first glimpse of the Formics and one of them, Victor rushes back to Earth to warn humanity. In books 2 and 3 the Formics arrive and invade earth. The action bounces back and forth between Victor and friends trying to attack the mothership, and Mazer and friends dealing with the invasion on the ground, and for some reason we continue to follow Victor’s family. I read these books out of devotion to Ender, I guess. (I suppose I’ll have to read the next trilogy about the second invasion, too.) They’re alright, though they fall into the classic sci-fi trap of conveniently having the same three characters showing up at every major event.

Summer Reading

It's been a while since I went through the books I've been reading. Let's see if I can remember what they were about ...

The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
This is the story of a bunch of humans and aliens running around Earth and other planets trying to get their hands on a genetically modified sheep, because it plays an important role in a interplanetary political crisis. As I recall, the book had a little too much going on, particularly at the beginning, and keeping the various characters straight was challenging. The whole premise is a little bit silly, and the book was ok.

American War by Omar El Akkad
Sometime in the second half of the 21st century, there was another American civil war, again between the North and South. The North won once again, but Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia are left as a separate nation. The book is not about the war, but is the life story of a young southern girl who first becomes a refugee, and then becomes essentially a terrorist fighting for the southern cause. The book is dark, grim and unhappy. While the story of her life resolves, it is not a happy ending, and there is no peace and prosperity at the end. War is a terrible, ugly thing.

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow
I'd heard of Doctorow from xkcd comics, but never read anything by him, and, as it turns out, I'd never even heard of any of his books. But Shannon brought it home from the library. Near-future America (and everywhere else) has turned into a capitalist nightmare, where the uber-wealthy control virtually everything. The backlash to this is the development of "walkaway" culture where people simply walkaway from the rat race and go live semi-nomadic, commune lifestyles. The book follows three young friends who walkaway, but when a group of walkaway researchers make a technological breakthrough the big bad rich people come to take it all away (and kill them, too, because they're the bad guys). Don't read this book if you're going to be triggered by anti-capitalist, pro-socialism-pretty-much-anarchist-communism ideology.

Walking to Listen by Andrew Foreshoefel
Finally, some non-fiction. Andrew was a recent college graduate who decided that he didn't feel ready to enter the real world, so he hatched a plan to go ask other people what life is all about – by walking across the country and asking people. He started at home in the Philadelphia area and made it to the Pacific Ocean, by way of Atlanta, New Orleans, Death Valley and all those places in between. The book is a record of the places he went and the people he met. Crazy people on the sides of forgotten back roads, yes, but also so many people that invited a stranger into their homes so he could shower and get a decent meal. Strangers that emptied their wallets of the 3 bucks they had, so he could get himself a cold drink at the next town. At one point while walking across Texas, he was on a route that a trucker drove back and forth every single day, and after passing him a couple of times, the trucker stopped to ask him what on earth he was doing. After that, the trucker would stop every time he passed him to give him a cold drink or food. The book was good (not great), but at least no one is killing anyone, unlike all the other books on the list today.

Linesman by S. K. Dunstall
This sci-fi novel suffered from not ever getting around to explaining the core technology that shaped their world. I guess even the characters in the book don't really understand it, but usually books get around to revealing something about how it all works at some point. This book felt like it was trying to save all of that for the subsequent books in the series. Basically, interstellar travel is made possible by magical "lines" in a ship that make it all work. This lines can be maintained and repaired by linesman, who have a psychic ability to affect the lines. The story follows one top-rated linesman, who is universally disrespected because of his unusual techniques, but of course, he'll turn out to be more gifted than anyone knows. A strange line-related physical phenomenon, and an alien spaceship start a intergalactic crisis that he ends up in the middle of. I don't plan on reading the next book in the series.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This book is 154 pages of Mr. Coates explaining his life as a black man to his teenage son. It is not neatly organized, or full of fun and humorous stories, but is entirely about his experiences as a black man in america. This book was hard to digest more than a dozen pages at a time, which is made all the more difficult by the book not really having chapters or obvious divisions. When it comes to appreciating what life is like for people who have lived a very different experience than you, I think most people do a far worse job than they think. I hope this book helped a little with that, though the writing style wasn't my favorite. He's a very impassioned writer, but I would prefer a more concise and neutral style.