Book Report - Aunts Aren't Gentlemen by P.G. Wodehouse

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen by P.G. Wodehouse
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Published in Great Britain under the title The Cat Nappers, this is the last Jeeves and Wooster story written by Wodehouse.
Bertie has spots on his chest and his doctor recommends some time in the country. He winds up in a location near where his Aunt Dahlia is visiting friends. Bertie almost gets married to a girl he proposed to before. He has two different people who want to beat him up; one wants to pull his insides out; the other want to thrash him within an inch of his life.

All in a week's work for Jeeves. By the end, all is set right.

But the story is not the thing; it's Wodehouse's writing. When Dr. E. Jimpson Murgatroyd, the doctor told Bertie to stop his man about town ways and move to the country, he was "like a minor prophet about to rebuke the sins of of the people"". This story also has the equatorial African explorer Planck make a reappearance.

I started the project of reading all the Jeeves and Wooster stories in August 2010. I enjoyed it immensely. The stories span from 1917 to 1974; even though the stories are timeless, a little history of the 57 years shows through here and there. The plots have a certain familiarity but the writing carries one past any hint of boredom.  My roadmap can be found here on my blog.

If you, like me, took on the joyful task of reading all the Jeeves and Wooster stories, then put this on your list; otherwise, go to "The Code of The Woosters." I also read the final short story, The Greasy Bird, written after Much Obliged, Jeeves and before his final novel. In that story a man attempts to extort Bertie due to a misunderstanding of a marriage proposal.

If you plan to read this look for a used copy somewhere; it is a rare book and a new copy goes for over $150.

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Road Trip 2014 - Tucumcari to Santa Fe

June 30, 2014

We had driven long and hard our first two days on the road back in order to dawdle a bit in New Mexico and Arizona on our way to my uncle and aunt's home in Cottonwood, Arizona. 

Our route for June 30 & July 1 from Tucumcari, NM to Cottonwood, AZ

Our Monday June 30 drive was a mere 170 miles from Tucumcari to Santa Fe. Carla and Jeanette were excited to see the artists, shops, and museums. We should have bought gas in Tucumcari but didn't see a gas station on our way to I40. Well, we should have doubled back; we were under 1/4 tank and that makes me nervous out in the west where you may be 60 miles from a gas station. We stopped at the tiny "town" of Newkirk, NM. It is really a small gas station with very old style pumps. It would have been an enjoyable throwback moment but the gas was very expensive and there was no TP in the women's rest room and the owner was indignant and said "NO toilet paper!" So I just put in a few gallons; enough to get us a little further down the line. But it was a nice morning and a railroad line was just a stone's throw away. We could see miles in each direction and no trains were coming so I grabbed a couple of shots.

Tracks are straight for miles in Newkirk, NM

Clouds reflected in the rail near Newkirk, NM

The clouds floated above us as we drove westward.

Clouds above and behind in New Mexico

We got to Santa Fe and checked our bags in at the El Rey motel then immediately headed into downtown Santa Fe, the oldest (and maybe highest) capital city in the United States. We took a tram tour of the city and saw old pueblo buildings, the art center, and other sites. Living so close to the end of the Oregon Trail as we do, I was intrigued by the Santa Fe trail. Those pioneers were tough.

Memorial for the end of the Santa Fe trail

We also enjoyed a nice lunch with some exquisite mango soup at the La Fonda hotel.

Jeanette, Carla, and Howard enjoying lunch at El Tovar in Santa Fe, NM

After the tour and lunch we split up for a couple of hours to pursue interests - museums for  Carla, window shopping for Jeanette, and people watching for me. I hung out in the beautiful downtown plaza and watched the world go by. I soon thought I was in Mexico or Spain rather than New Mexico.

After nice night's sleep we stopped for a moment and got Jeanette to pose

Jeanette at the El Rey motel in Santa Fe, NM

One could easily spend three or more days in Santa Fe and not see everything; but we didn't have three days - and we need a reason to go back. For now we headed to some of our favorite places in northern Arizona.

Book Report - All the Light We Cannot See - by Anthony Doerr

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an excellent telling of a compelling story of two young people in World War II. Marie-Laure LeBlanc is a blind girl living in Paris with her father who is a locksmith for the national museum. Werner Pfennig is a young German orphan living with his sister Jutta in a coal mining town. He loves building radios and wants desperately to free himself of the mining life which killed his father.

Their lives move from disparate places in 1940 until they intersect in Saint Malao in August 1944. Werner is enrolled in the National Political Institute of Education #6 at Schulpforta. The novel creates a excruciatinlgy sense of dread as we see the cruelty and evil the young Nazis are taught. Werner "laces his boots and sings the songs and marches the marches, acting less out of duty than out of a timeworn desire to be dutiful." (p 277). But he is dutiful.

Of Marie-Laure Doerr writes "To shut your eyes is to guess nothing of blindness. Beneath your world of skies and faces and building exists a rawer and oldr world, a place where surface planes disintegrate and sounds ribbon in shoals through the air." (p390) Marie-Laure follows her father from Paris to Saint Malao to escape the war as the invasion of France begins. But of course the war follows them.

The novel provides a sweeping view of both sides of the war while providing a gripping story of two young people caught up in the whirlwind. The tension continues to increase until I thought I couldn't take it anymore. I could barely stand to read the early Schulpforta scenes. By the middle I could barely stand to put it down.

It's difficult to say too much about this without giving spoilers. Suffice it to say it is on the New York Times best seller list for a reason. Get a copy of this book and read it.

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Road Trip 2014 - Tucumcari, NM

June 29, 2014

Our second long day of driving (585 miles in just under 10 hours) brought us to Tucumcari, New Mexico. It is the first town you reach when driving west out of Texas. It's a classic old Route 66 town that has suffered somewhat when I40 bypassed it. We made reservations for the Safari Motel on the east end of town. It was very cheap but a great deal as our rooms were large and the beds very comfortable. The temperature was pushing 100 when we rolled into town a little after five o'clock.

We were hungry but the last thing we wanted was to climb back in the car after all those miles. No problem, the owner of the motel told us about a Pow Wow, Mexican restaurant in town that has a shuttle service. We were in! The van driver was a nice young man who has lived around the country. After the drive to the restaurant we were shown to our booths but came up short. Each of the booths had a mural painted featuring people eating at the tables. It took us by surprise more than once. T

Enjoying dinner next to a painted stranger

The paintings were done by a local man who has painted on many buildings in town. he food was okay, but the service was slow; maybe were were just in a hurry to get back and rest. On the way back to the hotel, our chauffeur drove us through the aging downtown to show us some of the other murals. 

On the drive I noticed the corner of a depot and a stopped train; so much for resting at the motel. We piled back in the Subaru and headed downtown to capture some shots of the murals.

One of the many murals in Tucumcari, NM

Then we headed over to the depot to catch a glimpse of the train. While there, Jeanette struck up a conversation with a young mother who recently moved to town. She likes Tucumcari quite a bit but is worried about its future. Her husband works for a company that services the big wind mills we saw on our drive. It's headquarters were soon to be moved out of town.

The train was still parked waiting for a meet. It didn't take long before a  higher priority westbound came by.

Train meet in Tucumcari, NM

Passing trains in El Paso, NM

After the train passed the conductor, Dave, came by to say hello. He is based out of El Paso, Texas but too an assignment here because his pay was doubled because of the lack of personnel. I was surprised that it was Union Pacific; I thought this was strictly BNSF territory; Dave said the BNSF was a little to the south of us. 

After the westbound passed, Dave's train proceeded on its route east and I got a shot of the sunset through the passing cars.

Sunset through passing container cars in Tucumcari, NM

 The sunset was gorgeous.

Sunset from the depot in Tucumcari, NM

The neon signs on old Route 66 were starting to light up after sunset so I pulled out my tripod to try my hand at capturing the old Mother Road glory. The Blue Swallo hotel was just a bit east of us.

Blue Swallow motel in Tucumcari, NM

After capturing a shot of our hotel's sign, I headed off to bed. I have now stayed in all four cities mentioned in Little Feat's "Willin'

I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari

Tehachapi to Tonopah

Motel Safari in  Tucumcari, NM

We had breakfast the next morning at Kix on 66. It is a classic old coffee shop that we enjoyed very much. They even had a nice smoothy for Jeanette. We packed up and headed for a short drive to Santa Fe.

Road Trip 2014 - North Riverside IL to Tucumcari New Mexico

June 28/29, 2014

We would take two days to travel the 1,161 miles from Andrew and Henriët's home to the Safari Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. Within a mile or two of their house we crossed Ogden Ave which is the home stretch of Route 66 into Chicago. We paralleled Route 66 for most of the way and stopped in a few Route 66 landmarks.

The first two days of our journey west.

We had motel reservations for the first night in Joplin, MO; 575 miles from Andrew and Henriet's. Andrew and I stayed here when we moved  him from Tucson to Chicago where he attended DePaul university and earned his Master's degree in music.

We've found Yelp to be very helpful in finding tasty restaurants on our trip so far so fired it up. Litchfield, IL was a logical stopping place for lunch and Yelp promised us the Ariston Cafe which was built in 1924; 90 years ago!

Ariston Cafe - a Route 66 classic, but closed on Sundays

Unfortunately they have limited hours (we were there on a Sunday); but we found Jubelt's right across the parking lot. The original bakery was built in Mt Olive, IL in 1922; the operation went through many changes through the years and they opened at their current location in 1982, taking over the old Burger Chef building.

Jubelt's Bakery and Restaurant in Litchfield, IL

 As I mentioned before, Jeanette is a vegan so we had some trepidation whenever we walked into a restaurant in the Midwest or small towns. Luckily they had some items on the menu for her.

Jeanette enjoying lunch at Jubelt's in Litchfield, IL

The place was hoppin with locals and travellers. Our waitresses were helpful and the food was very nice.

Across the parking lot from Ariston's and Jubelt's was a Route 66 museum. We couldn't help take a few minutes to walk through.

The docent was very helpful and Jeanette picked up a map so she could track our journey. Unfortunately we needed to hurry on to Arizona to visit relatives and see the Grand Canyon; instead of winding down the Mother Road, we  But our appetites were whetted to drive the entirety of Route 66 in the not too distant future.

We bit off a big chunk of highway for our first night; it took almost 12 hours to reach our hotel. Nevertheless, we were up and on the road on Monday June 29 headed for Tucumcari, New Mexico. Joplin is just a few minutes north east of Oklahoma; we hit many states that day: Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, before fetching up in the north east corner of New Mexico.

We found lunch the next day in at Lucille's Roadhouse in Weatherford Texas. They bill themselves as "Mother of the Mother Road".

Lucille's Roadhouse in Weatherford, OK

Wind power is a big business out in the west. The propellers of the large ones are 184 feet and the towers are a little over 200 feet.

Old and new windmills sharing the scenery in the Texas panhandle

We rolled into Tucumcari at 5:00 with the temps over 95˚. Nevertheless we enjoyed the town; but that will be covered in the next post.

Road Trip 2014 - Leaving Riverside, IL

One last post on our stay in North Riverside. On our walks from Andrew and Henriët's home to downtown Riverside we passed a house with a few mushrooms growing. As we spent the week, the mushrooms transformed into different shapes. Here are a few shots of their transformation.

Mushrooms in Riverside, IL

 These last two pictures were taken within a few hours of each other, they are change from little balls to little plates.

Mushrooms in Riverside, IL

Maturing mushrooms in Riverside, IL

We drove 2,212 miles from Portland to Chicago and had a longer drive home as we headed south to Arizona to visit my Uncle Jake and Aunt Sally and to see the Grand Canyon. Henriëtt,s brave mother Jeanette joined us for our trip home. Knowing we had a long day of travel before us, we were up fairly early. Andrew, Henriët, and Jurgen came out to wish us farewell.

Last look at Andrew, Henriët, andJurgen's home.

 Jurgen was a little sleepy after eating, but came out to say goodbye to us.

Henriët, Jurgen, and Andrew bid us farewell

Every journey starts with a single step; this is what the accumulation of our steps would amount to.

The road before us

Jurgen's Family

June 26, 2014

Jurgen is 15 days old today and we finally got everyone's schedules synchronized in order to grab a group photo.

Jurgen, Jeanette, Henriët, Howard, Andrew, Carla

Jurgen, Henriët, Andrew

Jurgen, Henriët, Andrew

Carla and I have been married 38 years today; we can't think of a better way to spend our anniversary.

Road Trip 2014 - Walking around Riverside

June 22 & 26, 2014

Andrew and Henriët live in a beautiful area. Many of he houses are 60 or more years old and are nothing like the cookie cutter subdivisions we are used to in Portland. In between our times googling over Jurgen, Carla and I have gone out on some walks.

Mushrooms cropping up among the meticulously manicured lawns

Whimsical details in a lawn.

About 20 minutes away from Andrew and Henriët's house is a pedestrian suspension bridge; we walked across it to get into another cute little neighborhood. We saw a group of kids on bikes roll across the bridge and head down to the bank where they were building a fort and generally doing kid things.

Entrance to the suspension bridge

Shadows from the bridge.

The Des Plaines river is a quick moving, wide body of water; not as wide as the Williamette back home in Portland, but plenty wide.

On another walk we headed into Riverside which is a very well-to-section of town with plenty of parks and wild spaces along the river. Carla and Jeanette saw a beaver swimming by earlier in the week

Flower/weed near the Des Plaines river.

You can't see the depth of the lot here; there is statuary in the back. Carla and Jeanette saw 11 gardeners on the grounds the day before

Cottages are also in the mix.

I like the flat stone steps entrance to this house

We enjoyed some of the details of the houses.

Entrance to a Frank Lloyd Wright home

 Nancy and Tom Lea have some shallow planters full of succulents which we liked back in Boise. We saw some more on our walk in Riverside. I think this will be one of the first things Carla will do when we get home.

Planters frame an entrance.

It's beautiful here in the summer; and it hasn't been crazy hot every day. Today was in the mid 70s. But when it rains, it pours like I've never seen before. I imagine we'll be coming back this winter so we can get another view - though we may not be able to get outside much because of the crazy cold.

Road Trip 2014 - Jurgen's Room

Henriët's mother, Jeanette, is an artist; we have some of her work on our walls at home. She arrived in Chicago from Johannesburg a few weeks before Jurgen was due. Her first mission on arriving was to paint and decorate Jurgen's room to remind him of his heritage. Henriët and Andrew are also taking a bilingual approach with Jurgen. Henriët speaks to him in Afrikaans, while Andrew uses English.

At any rate, Jeanette did a fantastic job of painting the nursery. She did some special work on the ceiling and drew many South African animals on the walls.

Jurgen's room from the door.

Jurgen's crib. He's not sleeping here yet; he is in a basinet in his parents' room.

You can see the crocodile ("krokodil" in Afrikaans) above the crib; each wall has one or more animals sketched. My photography skills are not adequate to capture the beautiful work Jeannette did.

The ceiling is made up of various angles and planes. Jeanette did a great job of bringing it to life by painting a beautiful set of lines that makes it look like a colorful tent.

Looking up at the ceiling

Jurgen has a beautiful room that he will enjoy and that will remind him of his South African heritage.