Sunday Snippets 12.8.24

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Yesterday Kendra, Kasi, Marley, and I went out to eat lunch. It was the first time in a long time that all four of us were together at the same time. It’s so nice when our three generations of females can go out to lunch.

Marley will be 16 in about a week, so she’ll be getting her driver’s license. Exciting stuff!

When we got back, the girls helped me put a bedskirt on the guest bed. It’s always easier when more than one person goes about that task. And Kendra hung a few more paintings on the walls.

I’ve been decorating a little here and a little there. I’m not in any hurry. I don’t plan to go anywhere!

The neighbor’s orange cat likes to sleep on the porch settee since a cushion for it arrived. I kept trying to get Ivy to get up on the upholstered bench so she could see the cat on her territory.

But she ignored me. Cats are slow-moving, typically unphased creatures who set their own hours and excitement level.

Every morning Ivy sits and stares at me, wanting me to get out of bed. Why, I don’t know. I try to get her to jump up on the bed with me so I can pet her. Nope. Not happening.

She’ll move around within my line of sight, but ensures that I can see that she’s still sitting and staring. I suppose she’s telling me that it’s time for me to get up.

However, when I do get up, she goes about her business. She naps or goes off somewhere where I don’t see her for a while. That’s just one of the bewildering things cats do, I suppose.

So Nice To Feel Calm:

I don’t think I’ve ever felt as calm as I do here. At times I just sit and soak in the peacefulness and silence and comfort this house I call Mamie provides me.

Where once I would flit about, straightening a lampshade and then sitting down only to see that books are crooked, now I don’t do that. I will tell myself to get up and get something accomplished. But often I remain where I am, just being still. That compulsive somewhat OCD streak seems to have gone into hibernation.

I listen to music, pet Ivy, and feel like I’ve finally found a home that I can settle in. This dwelling crooked a finger at me, and I went happily right toward it. The old house has lovingly embraced me.

Just think of all the stories these walls have had living within them in the past 103 years! Sometimes I just like to think about that, the different decades. The things that were going on in the world at those times.

What I’m Watching:

I’m watching “Trauma” on BritBox. It’s only a few episodes. John Simms is a tremendous actor and I will watch anything he’s in. Trauma is about a man (John Simms), Dan, whose teenage son dies from a stab wound. And the trauma surgeon, Jon, who tried to save him.

The death of this boy binds these two men in a perilous relationship.

The life Dan and his wife leads is a simple one. He’s never been to college and holds mediocre jobs. On the other hand, Jon and his wife, a psychiatrist, lead a privileged life.

Dan can’t help thinking that, if only he’d been born to different parents, his son might have led a much different life. He’d probably have gone to private schools like Jon’s daughter does. Alex might not have been in that spot where that other boy stabbed him.

In the life he imagines the doctor has, he feels that, if this had been his life, everything would have been easier for he and his family. He would have been seen as someone important in society, and people would treat him accordingly.

Dan can’t shake the idea that his son died because of this surgeon; that he made a mistake. He remembers that they’d been talking at one point, before the surgery, and the surgeon had casually admitted having a few drinks earlier because of his birthday.

But when Dan presses the doctor on it later, Jon lies and says that that’s not true. He never said that. So it’s one man’s word against the other.

What I’m Reading:

Just Another Missing Person is a novel by Gillian McAllister. I’ve been enjoying reading some of her books lately.

What Amazon says about it:

Not everyone who is lost should be found…

Twenty-two-year-old Olivia has been missing for one day…and counting. She was last seen on CCTV, entering a dead-end alley. And not coming back out again.

Julia, the detective heading up the search for Olivia, thinks she knows what to expect. A desperate family, a ticking clock, and long hours away from her husband and daughter. But she has no idea just how close to home this case is going to get.

Because the criminal at the heart of the disappearance has something she never expected. His weapon isn’t a gun, or a knife: it’s a secret. Her worst one. And her family’s safety depends on one thing: Julia must NOT find out what happened to Olivia – and must frame somebody else for her murder.

If you find her, you will lose everything. What would you do?

I just love a twisty thriller that keeps me guessing!