A Book I Could Not Put Down

It has been awhile that I have read a book that completely takes over my interest but this story recommended by my family was such a book. The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne has 582 pages and I read it in three days. It is a story that has so many subjects beginning with incest, Catholicism, cruelty, adoption, unwed mother, homosexuality, murder, pimping, famous writers, parenthood, love, masturbation, friendships, drugs, Aids, muggings, families, marriage, lies, travels beginning in Ireland and moving to Amsterdam and then New York before returning to Ireland, 9-11 attack, politics, sadness, humorous, death, and somehow the ending ties up all the loose ends and ends in a fairly happy manner! I laughed or smiled by some of the characters' actions and cried in other parts. The author does a wonderful way of describing scenes that makes one feel as if one can see, smell, taste or hear what is going on.

Politics in Ireland made me angry at how cruel people and how backwards the country seemed to function. I wanted to shake some sense into some of the characters. It was interesting to see how women were treated, almost as if they did not have a brain in their head! Females were sex objects and men could do as they pleased!

Yet, there was good and kindness shown by some of the people, yet confusion on how some of the characters acted, especially the main character, Cyril Avery, who is telling the story. I liked some characters while others made me angry at their stupidity! The story takes the reader through Cyril's life from birth until almost death and it is a fascinating life!

My family did not read the book but listened to it as they drove to Colorado from California. They mentioned that the person reading was a man with an Irish accent and he had a pleasant voice. I looked the audio up on the Internet and learned that the reader's name is Stephen Hogan. I am not sure if I prefer reading or if I would enjoy someone reading the story to me but I think reading is my preference.

"Long before we discovered that he had

fathered two children by two different 

women, one in Drimoleague and one in

Clonakilty, Father James Monroe stood

on the altar of the Church of Our Lady of

The Sea in the parish of Golun, West Cork

and denounced my Mother as a whore."

John Boyne

Blame Covid 19

The saga of getting a new bathroom floor began around the end of May. First I had to go to Home Depot to pick the floor I wanted by looking at all the floor samples. Then I ordered the one I wanted.
The sales person ordered my selections. A few weeks later I was called to return to pay for the work and I had to return to the store. I was called to come in and pick up the material needed minus the side border because it was not in.  My son-in-law picked up the three boxes and was told they would call me when the remainder of the order came in and if I wanted it delivered it would be $75 extra.

Three days ago I received a call that remaining order was in and I could come pick it up. Today I went to pick up the order and wondered if it would fit in my car. This is when a truck is needed! The sales clerk brought up my order and said she would be right back. She was gone about fifteen or twenty minutes and said she could not find he material. She then wrote down some numbers and left again but returned fifteen minutes later with a male worker. They could not find the order. I asked if they could deliver it without charging me since I had already waited over half an hour. A lady supervisor was asked and she said, "Due to the Coronavirus we can not use our small trucks to deliver." The thought that entered by head was that Covid 19 worked as an excuse! I replied, "I am a high risk person and I have been standing here for 45 minutes with many persons walking by me!"

Just then another man, who also acted like a supervisor, came by and said, "I will go find the order." He returned and said, "The order is not where it is supposed to be and we will deliver it as soon as it is found. We may have to reorder the material if we cannot find it."

After thanking them, I left the store thinking I had lucked out because the order would be delivered
without a charge when ever the goods were found. Later today I received a call that Home Depot had found the material and it would be delivered on Sunday morning.

I do not know when the bathroom floor will be installed but, at least, the project is moving forward!

"All problems have solutions."

Steven Magee

Help Arrives From California

My family arrived on July 6, 2020, for a visit and to see if I needed any help with chores around the house. I gave them my list of what I would like to have done and early on July 7th, they began on the west side of my house where there were sucker trees growing behind the large bush and next to the house. My son-in-law sawed the trees and my daughter  cut the large branches into smaller pieces and put them into the large trash container. When they finished the narrow area behind the bush looked nice and clean without the suckers!


Moving right he began working on stabilizing  my mailbox. When the wind would blow the metal box would become detached from the post and hang sideways. He added a wooden slat to the post and screwed the mailbox to the wood. Let the wind blow because the mailbox is now secure!

He swept my garage and front porch, dislodged a wasp nest from the porch and tossed it into a bag that ended up in the garbage container, repaired a single curtain rod bracket that had pulled away from the wall, picked up three large boxes from Home Depot that will be needed when the floor in the bathroom is done, hung a heavy framed picture on my bedroom wall, replaced the porch light cover and trimmed low hanging branches in the back yard. Together they cut the large branches into trash bag size and swept and cleaned the patio. Three large bags were filled with the branches and since they did not fit in the trash bin, the bags were placed along side the container. I wondered if the trash men would pick up all the trash. Made me happy when I looked out and everything had been picked up!

The one outing that we did was to go to Old Town Arvada, yet it felt odd because everyone had a mask, a homeless young man coughed and we backed away in a hurry, and some of the restaurants had people sitting outside. I have a feeling that people are trying to act normal but it seemed 

 subdued compared to before Covid 19!

When the work was finished for the day we sat in the patio where there was a cool breeze. I enjoyed hearing about my granddaughters and I told them about Spirit of Christ gatherings and trips.  Dinner time we ate outside and I really enjoyed their company! On their last evening with me, my daughter had us get behind the trimmed trees for a photo op!

"Family is like branches on a tree, 

we all grow in different directions,

yet, our roots remain as one."

Internet Quote

Scary Nest on Porch

I never would have noticed a cute nest on the porch ceiling. Perfectly built cone stuck to the wood and was I surprised when my daughter said it was a wasp nest. It was grey and about two and one-half inches round and about two inches long. In a way, the way the smooth gray cocoon tapered down reminded me of a toy top.

With a putty knife, my son-in-law slid the knife along the top of the hive, let the hive drop into a plastic bag and sealed the bag with a couple of wasps inside. I felt fortunate that there weren't a slew of wasps flying around ready to attack!

I am sure that other nests have been around my porch because I would see, what I thought were bees, flying around my front door. I wondered why they picked that area because I do not have flowers to attract them. Since they were not a bother, I never paid much attention.  Maybe I should have looked up and maybe I would have seen a nest!

My curious nature made me look up information regarding nests. I found out it could have been a nest for a hornet, wasp or yellow jacket; all three like to sting! A surprise came as I read the article that fake nests are made with paper, crochet, or cloth and sold to hang on or around porches or eaves.
The artificial nest keeps other insects away.

The Difference Between Bees And Wasps

Bee: 

Pollinates flowers, 

produces honey,

helps the environment, 

and will only sting if provoked.

Wasp: 

Basically is a mean asshole!

Aunty Acid

Do Numbers Lie?

Readers to my blog just hit 64,000 and I wonder how many actually read my blog. I have eleven followers that seem to read my stories but I wonder about the other thousands that must click on my blog.  The countries with readers are the United States, Portugal, Germany, Romania, United Kingdom, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Poland, Canada, Spain, Turkmenistan, France and Ukraine. I hope that who ever reads my articles and short stories enjoy them as much as I enjoy writing them!

"A blog is only as interesting

as the interest shown in others,"

Lee Odden

Exciting Genealogy

Driving up to the large grey building in Salt Lake City, Utah, it was a beginning for me to find records of my ancestors. I had always been curious about where my parents had originated and this was the place, I had been told, where I could research and find out about them.  On that visit around the mid-eighties I did not learn much because I did not know what I was doing. I found names I recognized but that was about all.

My position at Centro San Juan Diego of the Archdiocese of Denver had  been abolished and now that I had time on my hands I decided to work on my history. When I found out that a cousin of mine was also working on our ancestors, she and I became partners in trying to see how far back we could go. In the 90's we visited relatives in Greeley and LaSalle and drove to New Mexico to gather more information.  For about 4 or 5 years I worked on genealogy, drove twice to New Mexico to meet other cousins, attended a genealogy workshop in New Mexico and slowly I learned about where my Mother had originated.  Recently I was contacted by a 2nd cousin who is working on our family's genealogy and it has got me interested in genealogy again.

New information she sent me and was new to me were articles in El Independiente Newspaper from  New Mexico. The articles are written in Spanish but the following is a gist of what is written.

The Independiente Newspaper of 1895 has an article regarding fifty men

 who left the Union group and going to the Republicans because of the

 Union trying to stop voters from voting by physically striking,

 throwing rocks and hitting with wooden sticks.

Listed in the article are my great-great grandfather and my great-grandfather plus a great uncle with possibly his son. She also sent me information of my great-grandfather's military records, a wedding announcement of an uncle and an obituary of my great-grandmother. I am impressed with the work my second cousin is doing and the new information she has sent me.

In an other article my great grandfather is offering a reward for the return of a black horse, a mare and a colt. Sounds like thing were not too peaceful if horses were being stolen in that era!

Yesterday my son-in-law hung up a picture of the altar screen that my great-great grandfather donated to the San Jose Parish in Laguna, N.M. Two years ago when I visited the church the priest gave me a poster of the altar hanging. I had it framed and it is now in my bedroom.  I feel so proud to be able to look at it and know that it was given to the church by my relative.

"The sacrifice our ancestors

gave  yesterday gave us

today and our tomorrow."

Stephen Robert Kuta

A Documentary On How People Disappear

There is so little that we know about anything! I watched a documentary on a disease that has been labeled Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Watching the video made me realize that it is an illness that can come and go but most of the time leaves patients in bed unable to move. The pain described sounded awful; "burning inside my head and feeling like my eyes are going to pop out."

For years people have suffered yet doctors would say it was a mental condition or a hypochondriac was complaining because nothing could be found in the testing. It was sometimes called a Yuppie Flu. No one seemed to know why the patient had the symptoms so nothing was done to figure out what was wrong. The documentary, Unrest, is about a young woman, Jennifer Brea, who was living a normal life, married, traveling, working and enjoying life. Then the disease hit her and she could not get out of bed. Being a photographer, she decided to make a film to show others what she was going through. Along the way, and all over the world, she found many other persons suffering from the same thing.

Some of the people in the video said they felt as if they were disappearing little by little and soon  would be no more. One statistic was that many suffering from the debilitating illness commit suicide. Care givers suffer right along with the ill person as they try to help. It is a horrible disease and no cure has been found though it is now being recognized as an illness, but still, with no answers. And it now has a name!

"Now, at last, medicine has decided to recognize our problem. 

This is a tremendous beginning, but defining Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

to the public with such a benign name, a name that gets confused with 

simple (often stress related) fatigue, you have placed yet another burden on us."

Jane Cuozzo