2025 book 3.
This one is a re-read. I can’t remember how long ago I originally read it, but enough time had elapsed for me to have forgotten most everything about it except for the basic premise. It only took three before bedtime reading sessions to get through, so I appreciated that. The book provided an interesting insight into the extreme upper classes of English culture during the first half of the twentieth century. The narrator was a mostly sympathetic if rather alien character.
2025 book 2.
I was in the mood for something interesting, and I love Paris, so I chose this one. The only Hemingway I had read previously was The Old Man and the Sea, in high school. I enjoyed this one. It returned me to a lot of familiar places and provided an interesting insight into Hemingway’s life and thoughts.
The Final Boss of puzzles.
For Christmas my sister gave me a 3000 piece jigsaw puzzle. Luke and I have been working on it a bit. We had to divide up all the pieces, starting with the edge pieces. We missed about three, but will fins them later. Now that the outline is done we are working on the interior. This puzzle doesn’t have the oddly shaped pieces that some of ours do, which makes it a bit more challenging. We are currently working on the building’s roof, which involves a lot of trial and error. We are enjoying ourselves though.
Having another go at this – 2025 book 1.
Last year my reading list sort of fizzled out. Part of that was due to the tornado, but even more to blame was my seeming addiction to reading inconsequential adventure/spy/war books on my phone towards the end of last year. Those took the place of good books and also had me looking at my phone way too much. So this year I have decided to be serious about reading paper books, and mostly good ones. So without further ado here is a report on the first one I read.
The Rescue of Jerusalem was recommended/loaned to me by my father-in-law, a serious reader of history books. I had rather high hopes for it based on the subject matter and his endorsement. Unfortunately it disappointed, perhaps due in part to my own expectations.
The book focuses on a Biblical battle featuring Hezekiah the King of Judah, the Assyrian invaders, and an army from Kush, part of the Egyptian empire. While I was anticipating a thrilling narrative along the lines of Steven Pressfield’s work, this reads much more academically, like a thesis perhaps, as it makes an argument in favor of the author’s point of view.
So in summary while I found it interesting, it was a bit of a chore to read, and I would only recommend it to those with a keen interest in very ancient history presented in a dry and uninspiring manner.
Snow much less than expected.
There was about an inch on the ground when we woke up this morning. We got maybe another two over the course of the day. Luke was happy that we had a fire in the stove. He went sledding with Liz after lunch, then sledded and built a snowman with a couple of his schoolmates that live two doors down. In between he had hot chocolate and peanut butter cookies. Yesterday Luke and I went to Chapel Hill to get new sleds at Ace Hardware. Ours had become warped in storage. I am hoping that this snow melts quickly as there is a lot of work I want to get done outside.
Winter is here.
It has been pretty cold recently. Later this week is supposed to be even worse though, topping (bottoming?) out at fifteen degrees tomorrow night. Friday will supposedly be snowy, with Luke already making plans to be off school and go sledding. His school was two hours delayed this morning, his first day back, due to alleged ice on the roads. I think a big snow would be pretty fun. I went to the grocery store this morning, so we are pretty well stocked up. Tomorrow I will bring firewood and kindling into the garage. We have only burned once this year, mostly because I don’t like our stove, but I think we may this week.
Burning.
Last Thursday there was pretty much no wind, so we were able to set our burn pile ablaze. We also brought down more trees from the back field. We didn’t burn as much as I would have liked, due to a late start, but it was still progress. It’s looking like later this week might be a good time to burn again.
December.
It was a pretty good month, other than the week that we were sick with the flu, Christmas week. Luke finished up his first semester of kindergarten and we got a new roof on the house. Luke had a big Christmas and is enjoying his presents. Unfortunately we are on the front end of a pretty cold spell that is due to last a couple of weeks, at least.
A few hours on the tree house.
Luke and I drove up to Monteagle this morning. We saw my parents and Lauren and then got to work. Unfortunately it was freezing cold, but we prevailed. We were able to get a bit done, even though the picture wouldn’t indicate it. We installed corner trim and the last two roof purlins. We also cut all of the roof boards. Hopefully we will return in about three weeks to finish.
