Dear Amazon First Reads reader,
Because you selected a book in a genre, here’s the second book in an unrelated series you haven’t started that you might also like.
Yours AI poweredly (likely),
Amazon
Me: um , no.
You’re totally not just a sign of drought stressing the trees.
I say this is the first leaf of fall 
. Nevermind that we’ve had a month of drought and that it’s going to be in the 90s over the weekend. I’m in a certain state of mind.
Halloween!
Now if it were only cool enough to pick my owl button sweater WIP back up and finish it.
It came up in Book Club that it would be nice to have notes about what people enjoyed or didn’t enjoy on our book club reads. So here’s the nutshell information about what we read and how we felt about it.
Book club: Cedar Rapids SciFi/Fantasy Book Club
Venue: Cedar Rapids B & N
Book:
Overall impression: Liked by people who finished, but it was a small meeting.
Warnings: Second in a series.
My personal take: I did not finish (DNF). I liked book one well enough but I had pacing issues with the book personally.
Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that all the Bobs are lonely. Worse, they will never get the human connection they are missing because they aren’t human anymore. They missed their opportunity, because should have been looking for that connection when they were alive.
That idea just seemed sad to me, and I wasn’t invested enough in the larger plot to continue reading.
It came up in Book Club that it would be nice to have notes about what people enjoyed or didn’t enjoy on our book club reads. So here’s the nutshell information about what we read and how we felt about it.
Book club: Cedar Rapids SciFi/Fantasy Book Club
Venue: Cedar Rapids B & N
Book:
Overall impression: Book Club liked the book, though the ending wasn’t universally liked.
Warnings: LGBTQIA+ themes (non-sexual)
My personal take: I enjoyed the book. It felt like it trailed off, which was a little unsatisfying.
I’m sitting in the dark, writing on my phone as the long still moments of the dusk slip into night. My favorite human is asleep on the couch, finally home from vacation and business travel.
Sophie-dog is laying by the sliding glass door, watching out hopefully for another groundhog to blunder into the yard. She got one on Tuesday, and now her surveillance of the back yard is eternal.
Poppy-cat is likely on the dining room table, based on the sound of the little bell on her collar. I don’t have the heart to shoo her down tonight.
I’m not sure where Mojo-kitty is Mojoing at the moment, but that’s hardly unusual. Mojo is our timid baby and slinks about on his own schedule.
I should probably start the process of putting the house to bed, but there’s something comforting about everything being right in the house after weeks of displacement. I just want to sit in the stillness, in the dark, and appreciate it for a few more minutes.
The day job went late. I loaded the dishwasher. and can't find my specs
I was supposed to
Write tonight, but instead I
Deleted photos.
We were gifted a chimenea in the shape of a fish that had broken at the top of the fish’s tail. It has since been carefully reconstructed but will never be safe for a fire again.
We took it, knowing it wouldn’t be safe for a firepit with the idea that we were going to turn it into a planter. It has sat by the doorway for a couple of years now, but I never made the time to plant anything in it. This year I bought some fancy succulents from several growers on Etsy.
I’ve had them all for about half a week. Yesterday I finally took the time to get everything planted.
I’m looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen. The green ones are supposed to turn yellow as they mature, but I like the colors just the way they are if they don’t.
I might add a taller plant in the back that likes semi-shade, but I haven’t really thought that far ahead yet. I kind of want to see what happens with what’s in there now before I make any additons.
We’re doing some planting for the future. The 2020 Derecho took so many trees, so we’re trying to rebuild the population of native trees.
Of course the bare root trees arrived well before we’re going to be ready to plant them, so I’m giving them a temporary home to help keep them alive and healthy until we can get them in the ground.
Everybody in the pool, friends. Enjoy your little mud treatment spa days.
On Sunday I missed writing a post for Monday. There were many things to accomplish over the weekend and not many hours to do them in.
The point is progress, not perfection.
It’s also honoring the constraints of the day.