DROUGHT TOLERANT

unselko — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 07:09:10 GMT

unselko

House is Officially Sold!

unselko — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:55:55 GMT

So--today the subject clauses are removed on the contract for sale of our house. Hooray! It is truly sold! The terribly efficient home inspection man the buyers had hired, and who was all over the house yesterday inspecting and then meeting with the buyers and their agent, did not put them off from buying. I don't know what he told them, and I don't want to. We had disclosed every single thing we knew about, and they still offered more than the asking price, so I guess they really like the place. What an incredible relief! Now we can get on with the next phase--moving.

Today we got possession of our new place, the 2-bedroom condo, and I got the painters in to begin stripping the wallpaper and then (naturally) painting. Then all the carpeting needs to be cleaned, drapes ordered, and maybe some kitchen and bathroom renovation. We'll be moving in a couple of weeks.

Experiencing Humility

unselko — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:59:02 GMT

It is humbling to have to ask for help from one's child. Not that that is a bad thing--I'm not saying it's humiliating, just humbling, and I think that being humbled is probably good for everybody once in a while. When you are old, you also have to consider that to some extent the tables have been slowly turning, and the parent you were, the one who was the giver, the helper, is now going to be more and more the one who needs help, who has to learn to receive, and to receive gratefully and graciously.

In every parent / child relationship, there are going to be tensions. (And I'm referring to adult children here.) You and your child will not see everything the same way, or choose to do everything the same way. Each of you knows what buttons to push that will cause a knee-jerk reaction in the other, whether for hurt or anger or other emotion. And each of you has things going on, perhaps behind the scenes, in his or her life that will complicate your response to your relationship, parent to child or child to parent. So both the past and the present, to say nothing of future considerations, will be part of it too.

Sarah and I worked through a lot of these sorts of things today. Last Friday, I had to ask for her help. I was dealing with some complicated situations relating to our pending sale of the house which were keeping me from paying sufficient attention to Ricardo and his needs. I was shocked to find that this had been happening, and concerned enough about him to ask her to step in and make sure he got what he needed. She arranged to leave work in the morning and quickly came to help, and has been helping out for the last couple of days.

She and I have managed, over the years, to become more and more honest in our communication with each other, and so today we were able to talk from the heart about our feelings in our changing situation, not without tears on my part and some wrenching admissions from both of us, and a fair bit of laughter. I'm left a bit drained emotionally, but feeling glad for the chance to be open to one another. And humbled by the very great love between us.

Struggling

unselko — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:40:13 GMT

Today the painters started work on the house interior. They're doing a fine job, neutralizing everything, but I feel like one of those homeowners on a This House is Hard to Sell type of program, wailing "but it doesn't look like my house any more!" I'm telling myself that I just want the house to sell, get over it, but it's a little disorienting.

Ricardo is finding the whole process particularly confusing and upsetting. His poor brain is not responding well, forgetting something we just talked about, not noticing parcels that are piled to be carried downstairs, getting thoroughly confused about what we will be doing next. I tried making a list for him, but he said that seeing all the items ( I think there were only 5) made him terribly upset. I'm sympathetic but don't know how to make things easier or less stressful for him. Maybe there is no way, and we'lll just have to wait until we get settled in before he can return to ordinary functioning.

I give him credit for admitting what is going on for him and how he feels about it. I can imagine that men hate to admit not being able to cope, and it certainly must be hard for him that I have to do most of the work, because he has always been one to do his full share and more. It's even worse for him because under this stress, he needs even more help with things like just getting dressed. And when I'm stressed, my ability to be patient suffers, but he never complains if I'm impatient with him. He's really a hero through all this.

Today we took shopping bags of clothes as well as many framed prints and paintings to the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, then took bags of magazines to the recycling center (Ricardo collected model railroad magazines, I collected quilting and sewing ones). And there's still more stuff to go through and get rid of. What haunts me now is the realization that no matter how much stuff we discard, when we start to open boxes and put things away in the new place, it will seem like an endless task.

There will come a time, though, when we are happily settled in, enjoying our new digs. I'll hang on to that image--it will happen!

It's all the Fault of the Olympics

unselko — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:39:11 GMT

So I started out very well in February with posting every day, but the beginning of the Olympics just shut me right down! There was so much to watch and to enjoy, and I happily threw over LiveJournal and just gave all my free time to Olympics viewing. And in case you've been living on another planet (or in another hemisphere), our Vancouver Olympics were a huge success, both for Vancouver and for Canada. Everyone loved the party atmosphere of the city, public transportation stepped up and delivered, a great time was had by all. Canada is still in recovery mode--we're not used to such massive success.

While all that was going on, I kept looking at condos and found a great place for us. It's on the 18th floor of an older concrete building (the new places have significantly less square footage), has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, one of which has a walk-in shower for Ricardo, three balconies because it's a corner unit, and really great views, of both the mountains to the northeast and the Strait of Georgia to the south. It's also next to a large, well-used forested park and five minutes' walk from our daughter Sarah's place.

We put in a bid, over the asking price as there were three other bids at the same time, and were successful! Then there was financing to arrange, since until we get this place sold we own two properties, and a great many stressful meetings to be had and arrangements to be made, all of which fell to me since Ricardo cannot do very much. Of course he has been kept fully in the picture and gives me his advice and opinions, which is good, and I'm able to represent him as I know his mind. But still, I'm the front ma...person, and I've had to be careful to rest and relax so I can do a good job.

Our son-in-law is re-caulking the tub tomorrow, and our daughter will be helping Ricardo to sort through and get rid of things, while I finalize the tidying of the sewing room. The painters come next week, and then the week after that we should be putting the house on the market. Real estate seems to be hot around here again, so I have hopes that it won't take long to find a buyer.

So you see, while the Olympics were going on I just didn't have a minute to tell you all that! It's really the fault of the Olympics!

Edgar the Terrible Has to Move On

unselko — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:01:21 GMT

The short of it is that we have bought a condo, perfect for us and our needs, which does not allow pets. In reading the minutes of its meetings I can see that people (a very few, but still...) have been reported for having pets, fined, and been forced to get rid of the pet.

We found a place that would accept Edgar, and today we took him there. It was wrenching to say goodbye, and I shed many tears. Ricardo was very affected too, but is not a crying type of guy.

I don't have any guilt regarding Edgar, because eleven years ago we saved him from an unfortunate situation and have given him a happy home in which he flourished. Ricardo's needs must prevail now. I'll give you the story of what's been going on with regard to housing in tomorrow's post, but I won't say anything more about Edgar. That would be just too painful.

Some Gardening Goes Unrealized

unselko — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:50:25 GMT

Getting rid of more stuff, I realized that part of my angst is about gardens that now, with moving to a condo, will never happen.

I will never plant that small but select rose garden, using only fragrant roses.

I will never try growing clematis through the evergreens that line the edge of my tiny backyard.

I will not have a garden filled with differing varieties of rudbeckia.

There are many years that I paid little attention to my small garden, letting it hobble along on its own, but I loved the naturalized foxgloves, the herb patch, and especially the daphne odora bushes, with their fragrant flowers that reminded me of Sacred Heart Elementary School in Portland, where we girls would break off the little flowers and tuck them into the buttonholes of the Pendleton jackets we wore over our uniforms.
I always had bigger plans, plans to make it independent of watering ( I got a long way on that), plans to fill it with flowers at spring, summer and fall (less successful, but I did have a few plants for each season).

I would not have thought that the garden was something I would shed tears over.

Presents for Sarah

unselko — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 01:15:14 GMT

Today is Sarah's birthday, and I forgot until now about making a post because I was so focused on completing her gifts and getting them over to her house.

I had talked to her a few days before, and she didn't want a fuss made, no dinner out, nothing special, and I knew she would not like a birthday cake. I had it in mind to make her favourite cookies, ones which are very low in fat and reduced in sugar but still delicious: Double Chocolate Cookies from an Ann Lindsay cookbook. These are not easy to make, given the above constraints, but I got them baked, cooled, and wrapped, and I think I did a pretty good job.

I also wanted to make her some bookmarks. When she was little, she made me bookmarks for my birthdays, and I still have several of them, use them regularly, and enjoy the scenes she drew on them. Coming full circle, now I don't have much money for gifts, so I thought she might enjoy something homemade. I cut pictures of beautiful garden scenes, glued them to cardboard, and inked some poetry on the backs; then I found a small photo of a group of baby llamas looking with great curiousity at the camera, so I used that too. My quilting rulers and cutting wheel were helpful in trimming everything to look professional, and the result satisfied me.

I have keys to her place, so I was able to arrange a nice surprise for her to find after work. I hope she likes her presents!

Our Catholic Book Club

unselko — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:29:50 GMT

At last night's meeting of our parish's Catholic Book Club, we discussed the fact that next month will mark our first anniversary. A year in operation and still going strong! That's better than other book clubs I've belonged to, and I'm proud of us.

We've ranged from a high of 12 to a low of 3 at meetings, and we have a solid core of 5, including our pastor, Father Cicero, who is a committed and enthusiastic member. We've read books that we otherwise would never have picked up, fiction and non-fiction, all with a Catholic connection. Last night we went round the table saying which of the books we've read we liked best and which we liked least, and that was fun. My favourite so far was Merton's Seven Storey Mountain, and when I said that, Pierre reminded me that I hadn't been that enthusiastic when we first discussed it. I thought about that on the way home and realized that Merton's writing is so clear, his style so engaging, that I remember his story very well and can picture the various scenes in my mind, and that's probably why I now consider it a favourite. Others mentioned Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop as a big favourite.

We're considering Dante's Inferno for the future, along with Augustine's Confessions. There are also a couple of plays we may take on, notably T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, but we have a good list to choose from, and it seems as though every month someone suggests at least one addition to it.

Having people who enjoy reading and who are not reluctant to express opinions has been important to our success, and as we have come to know one another better, our discussion has been increasingly interesting. Some prefer fiction or biography, some have a taste for philosophy, but we've been able to accomodate everyone's choices with no hurt feelings. The fellowship has been most enjoyable, and Father Cicero's hospitality in hosting many meetings in the rectory has made us very comfortable.

I am looking forward to seeing what Year Two will bring.

Packing Update

unselko — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:04:22 GMT

Well, the upstairs hall closet is now totally clean and pretty. Whereas before there were four shelves crowded with old and unused stuff, now there are three shelves with attractive towels and sheets, and one shelf with essential pharmaceuticals. Mind you, I have also have boxes packed with sheets and towels, and a box with OTC pharma stuff, because that little closet doesn't hold enough of these essentials, but what I want to do is suggest to possible buyers that, oh yes, see, there is a closet for all these things, yes indeed. It's the impression that's important, I think, just so that questions are not raised in the buyer's mind.

The packing grind goes on, happily broken up yesterday by Sarah's excellent Super Bowl dinner. Everything was delicious, but special mention goes to her lemon and chocolate tart. That may be the best dessert ever! And then the Saints won! I was rooting for them, while everyone else cheered on the Colts, so you can imagine lots of shrieks and groans as the game went one way and then another. Lots of fun for all of us, and now Sarah is murmuring about having us over again during the soccer World Cup in June. Yes please!

The Nachos Beckon

unselko — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:04:35 GMT

This entry is just to keep my string of postings going, since I have very little free time today. We're going over to Sarah's for dinner, conviviality, and some Super Bowl watching, and that will include her famous nachos, not to be missed by any nacho-lover! The Super Bowl I could give a miss, but I don't mind hanging around while others watch. I'll also deliver their two loaves of bread for this week, one a buttermilk rye with caraway, the other honey and flaxseed. I think Sean will love them!

Picking Over the Home Pharmacy

unselko — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:18:33 GMT

Nothing much to tell today--I'm cleaning off shelves with outdated containers of cold and sinus OTC meds, handfuls of toothbrushes from dentist visits, three bottles of papya enzme tablets (?!), more containers of baby powder than any family needs, and whatever else your imagination can supply. Of course there are also numerous half-filled tubes with sunscreen, various types of hair products, and icky old individual packets of NeoCitran which must be from before either of us was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I must say it's quite a feeling of relief and accomplishment to have the shelves cleaned off and set in order.

That's one of the biggest advantages of de-cluttering, so I hear--the relief of just getting rid of stuff. Hard as it is to do it, to make those decisions about what may still be needed and what should just be chucked, the lean and tidy result can make you feel rather proud.

Of course, now the bags and bags of throwaways have to be gotten rid of. I have to admit that I am allowing my commitment to recycling slip completely here. Unused prescription medications do get returned to a pharmacy for responsible disposal, but if I try to be responsible about every item, I will get so bogged down that it will take me years instead of weeks to get this house on the market. Sometimes you just have to move on.

Dipping a Toe Into the Market

unselko — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:55:06 GMT

I went to view a mid-priced condo today, mid-priced as far as the market is concerned, but at the top end of what we're willing to consider. Is it a bad sign if, when I came home, our place looked particularly good to me?

What I want to avoid, in moving to a smaller situation, is housing that will leave me feeling dreary. I so do not want to end up in a place that feels drab and cheap. Not that I am looking for luxury or expensiveness in any way! I always laugh at the people on HGTV who insist on marble counters and stainless-steel appliances, who find ordinary bathroom fixtures unacceptable, who insist that a perfectly good kitchen would have to be totally remodelled before they could be satisfied. That's not me! Our 3-bedroom townhouse is about as ordinary as can be, but it's bright and well-laid-out. The kitchen and bathrooms need remodelling, but they are quite serviceable and in no way dreary.

I think this house-hunting may be more difficult than I expected.

Prying My Fingers Loose From All My Stuff

unselko — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:38:15 GMT

I'm working on early preparations to put our house up for sale. We would like to move to a condo, as upkeep on this property is beyond Ricardo's ability, and this works on his mind and causes him anxiety. (For anyone new to this journal, my husband has Parkinson's Disease.)

We plan to have the interior repainted, as the current paint scheme is very much to our taste and not neutral enough to appeal to a wide variety of possible buyers: the living room / dining room and the master bedroom are painted terracotta, and the bathrooms are all a limey shade of lemon yellow that I like very much, but made one of my friends say that she couldn't imagine facing herself in the mirror with that colour in the morning.

To facilitate that repainting, I'm working on emptying the bookshelves here in the computer room, packing up what I want to retain of my embroidery, quilting, and knitting books and magazines, plus all the other things that have accumulated over the years. It's hard for me to get rid of stuff. I'm not a hoarder, but I can always imagine a future use for a large variety of things, and jettisoning that future is difficult.

I Confess to NaBloPoMo

unselko — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:48:17 GMT

You may have noticed a certain flurry of posting from me lately. Yes, it is true, I have decided to post all of February for NaBloPoMo. No particular reason, except maybe that February has always seemed to me to deserve extra effort. In most of the spots I've lived in (Edmonton being the exception), March is really the beginning of Spring, so February drags its tail as the end of Winter. Poor Feb, it needs whatever we can do to brighten things up.

Winter Knitting

unselko — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:41:56 GMT

It had been a long time, but early this winter I got back to knitting. What propelled me back was an article in the Winter edition of Vogue Knitting on hats. It made me aware that I would enjoy having a new hat, since in my elder years I have come to hate pulling on a hood to protect my hair from the rain, limiting me to jackets that have a hood. Why not just wear a nice warm hat, said I to myself as I looked at the attractive hats in the article.

Well, you know how these things go. So I knitting matching gloves and a scarf as well. And they turned out quite well, and were very useful in the cold weather we had in December. Since January has been our warmest on record EVER, I haven't used them for a while, but who knows what February might bring?

The scarf is a bit boring, so I think I'll not include a picture.

Meals Quick and Delicious

unselko — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:38:55 GMT

Funny, isn't it, how our cooking and eating habits can change over time? For months and months, I was making mostly soups and stews, double batches, and freezing all the extra portions. This probably was partly because I had surgery coming up last March and I wanted easily available meals during the recovery period, and partly because Ricardo has trouble cutting up food, and in these kinds of meals there's no cutting-up needed. And what could be better than knowing that you have several hearty soups and stews ready to be pulled out of the freezer when you have a busy day coming up?

Lately, though, I've been all about the quick and delicious, with no leftovers. I think the catalyst was the purchase of Jamie Oliver's Family Dinners cookbook, which has quite a few quick meals which are also sinfully good. Last night we had fish fillets cooked in a Parmesan crust, with roasted yams and sauteed zucchini. Jamie's (he and I are on first-name terms) shrimp sandwich with basil mayonnaise is incredible, and is on our menu again this week, as is a smoked salmon sandwich on rye with homemade creme fraiche. He has some really delicious vegetable recipes in there as well.

So for now, we're feeling like we have a chef in the kitchen, and we're eating fresh and fresh-tasting. I can't wait for our farmers' market to reopen so I can add at least some local eating as well, but for now we're enjoying this change.

A Mild Winter--So Far

unselko — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:21:09 GMT

With the Olympics getting so close, things are starting to hot up around here, literally. The weather continues to be mild and showery, so the local mountain where some events will be held is having to go to backup plans to make sure the runs will have sufficient snow. Public transportation is getting crowded already, and lots of driving restrictions are coming into effect.

For the most part, though, Vancouverites seem to be enjoying the springlike weather, which is a real contrast to the repeated snowfalls and low temps we had last year. Cherry blossoms are out on some trees, my snowdrops are opening, and tulip spears are sticking through the earth.

I had laid in a large supply of millet for the juncos. They flocked to my back deck in early January when the temperatures were lower, and I really enjoyed seeing them work out their issues of hierarchy as they jumped and flapped around the stems of millet on the deck. Now, though, the mild weather means they've gone back up into the mountains, and I have a bare deck and lots of millet. The local squirrel may have some treats coming up.

Edgar is pleased with the milder weather too. He has had a few days in his sun spa (otherwise known as my sewing room), and generally spends his time overseeing food service in the kitchen, snoozing on a cushion here in the computer room, or curled determinedly in my lap in the evenings, as I watch TV and attempt to knit without letting needles poke him or ends of yarn tickle his fur. Sometimes we agree to disagree over the knitting.

Breaking news: After I posted this, I went to have lunch, and there were all the juncos back, having a party on the deck! There was even a chickadee taking a prolonged and splashy soak in the bird bath. Hmm, the temperature is supposed to be dropping a bit this week--maybe this is an early sign.

Christmas

unselko — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:53:37 GMT

A blessed and happy Christmas to all of you, and may you have a cornucopia of good things happening in the New Year!

Breakfasting Birds

unselko — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:16:36 GMT

Nowadays, breakfast time for the local birds seems to start at around 9:15, and today my breakfast time coincided with that, so that over my porridge I was able to watch a pair of chickadees swooping between the feeder and our trees. I love to see the birds--a life form so different from ours, so full of grace and beauty that I am startled by it every time.

The breakfasters today consisted of three chickadees and a streaky sparrow. Two of the chickadees, I happily speculated, might be a mated pair, since they get along very well and can use the feeder at the same time, rather than waiting for a turn or dominating the others. The third, since its colours seemed more intense, more fresh, might be their offspring. The streaky sparrow settled down in between the outer bars of the feeder and munched, unlike the chickadees, who zip in, find a seed, swoop and dip off to the trees, then repeat as soon as they have cracked and enjoyed the sunflower seed.

Their beauty and vivacity made breakfast a great deal more interesting. I enjoy slow-cooked oatmeal porridge (with banana), but having it day after day does make the experience less than riveting.

The flashing of the birds just outside also diverted my attention from my aching back, something I've had for a couple of weeks now. While taking in the deck's summer furnishings and decorations, I somehow gave my back quite a sprain (or something, I don't know the correct term) and, for the first time as far as I can remember, I now have a back problem. I've been dragging my feet about taking action on it, as I had some other priorities, and anyhow I have the impression that there isn't much that can be done in this kind of situation. Anyway, I'm now going around exclaiming "aagh" and 'ooouch" very frequently. I guess a little Google research might be in order.

A. S. Byatt - The Children's Book

unselko — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:13:44 GMT

I loved Byatt's Possession, just ate it up, and so when I saw the reviews for this book I immediately requested it from the local library and waited impatiently. I'm sorry to say that The Children's Book is not as brilliant as I had hoped. Perhaps it was a case of my expectations being too high, but on the whole I think not.

Byatt has set herself the task of dealing with at least four decades of British social history, from around the 1880's to 1920. She puts us into the middle of social movements, such as the Fabian Society, the struggle for votes for women, and anarchism, and has her large cast of characters interact within them. She also includes considerations of class, movements in the arts, and many other ideas.

I was disappointed because it seems to me that her characters are here presented to us at arms' length. We see them act and come to know them gradually, as is proper in a good novel, but we do not get the opportunity to live within any of the characters, to inhabit them, to see the world through their eyes. Therefore they move as figures in a play (interesting, since plays and puppet shows figure largely in the story), but we don't get the electric connection that makes us say, "I know that life!"

Her descriptions of the golden summers of the era, of the English countryside, of the figures moving across the landscape, are beautiful and evocative, but they are not enough. We hunger, I hunger, for more--to be part of it for a little while by living intensely through a character.

I should not pass over the subject of sex, since Byatt saw this as a crucial marker of the era she dealt with. Within the families and groups of acquaintances in the novel, we find a great variety of sexual behaviours and misbehaviours, resulting in some very tangled relationships. She seems to wish to leave nothing out, although to her credit she does not indulge in explicit descriptions.

I found myself wishing that Byatt, as she introduced and developed her depiction of British society, would give some sense of how she saw all these influences and movments affecting society for better or worse, but she is resolutely neutral. She includes them, she shows them acting, but then they are left behind as her story moved on. If I want more, she seems to imply, I shall have to do my own research. Well, fair enough, she gets to decide what she wants her book to encompass, but as reader I can say, I wish she would extend her discussions a little further.

Overall, I find myself telling friends not to bother reading this book. Byatt has written better than this, and I'll choose to remember her at her best.

15 Movies, and I don't obey the rules

unselko — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:01:59 GMT

Here's something I copied from my Facebook notes. I've always regarded films as something that could legitimately be an art form, and these would be among my top choices. As I look these over, I see that they tell a lot about me as a person. Whether that's good or not, well, you tell me! But I'd love to know your choices too.

I"ve included these rules, but I didn't follow them. I took quite a long time to make my choices, and commenting on them took a long time too.

- Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen movies you've seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag at least 15 friends, including me.

But - to make it more interesting - tell, in one sentence, why that movie will always stick with you.

1. The Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa. Greatest movie ever made, it draws you in, horrifies you, amazes you, shows you great bravery and heroism as well as cowardice, makes you laugh, makes you cry, and does not fudge the ending, all in a tale of who we humans really are.

2. The Seventh Seal - Ingmar Bergman. A disillusioned knight returning from the Crusades plays chess with Death as he returns to his home, and along the way forms a travelling group with an innocent young couple and their infant. Deep, mysterious, goes for your gut.

3. Black Orpheus. Set in Rio during Carnival, Death pursues a young woman from the country as she experiences falling in love amid the music and dancing of Carnival; brought bossa nova to Europe and North America. Beautiful, exotic, scary.

4. The Blues Brothers. Great music, great dialogue, great casting, a thousand clever throwaway lines that are now part of our family's lingo, much fun every which way.

5. Lawrence of Arabia. To begin with, a great script by Robert Bolt; add to that an incredible score and the sweeping cinematography, the performance of his career by Peter O'Toole, and you are thrust into the curious true story of "El Aurans". The film just overpowers you and makes your heart leap over and over--but don't watch this at home. It needs the giant screen of the theatre to work its magic.

6. Apocalypse Now. This captures the insanity of the Vietnam war like nothing else. The trip up the river is truly into the heart of darkness. Martin Sheen has never been better (incidentally, the stress of making the movie caused his heart attack and pushed him back into the Catholic Church).

7. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - Pedro Almodovar. Stylish, sophisticated, very, very funny. The gazpacho spiked with sleeping pills, the taxi driver who runs a mini pharmacy in his cab, the insane rejected wife who is channeling Jackie Kennedy's fashion sense with her wigs and hats--take your pick for the craziest scene.

8. Tampopo. I love this crazy film about the truck drivers who help an inexperienced woman discover how to make the perfect soup with the perfect noodles (Japanese-style). The tracking down and ferreting out of the perfect recipe takes many strange turns, and always leaves me desperately wanting my own bowl of soup. Very funny in a droll way.

9. Carmen - Carlos Saura. A flamenco troupe in Madrid rehearse a flamenco version of the Carmen story, while, in a play-within-the-play, the choreographer/lead dancer falls for the girl he has cast as Carmen, and the old story plays itself out. Antonio Gades was never better, Laura del Sol is bewitching, and as an extra fillip, Paco de Lucia plays himself as part of the musical accompaniment.

10. A Man for All Seasons. Taken from the Robert Bolt play, this story of St. Thomas More's struggle to stay true to his friend King Henry VIII, who has made him chancellor of the realm and now expects him to acquiesce to his divorce, and to his faith which forbids such an action, is so well-made that you feel you could welcome More to your own dinner table. Paul Scofield as More is magnificent, and his beautifully nuanced delivery of Bolt's dialogue convinces you of More's deep love of the law and of truth.

11. Make Mine Mink. Crazy British comedy starring Terry Thomas and several famous British comediennes; a bored group of boarders in London decide to form a gang, steal mink coats, and give the money to charities. As they say, hilarity ensues. Wonderfully funny.

12. Blow-Up - Antonioni. The time and feel of Swinging London of the 60's pervade this film, but it's best and most haunting sequences are in the hilly park where David Hemmings shoots off photos just to see what he can capture. The trees moving in the wind are mesmerizing. Back in his studio, it turns out that whatever it is that he has shot is what Vanessa Redgrave is desperate to conceal. What is the mysterious happening?

13. Dersu Uzala - Akira Kurosawa. This story of the friendship between Arseniev, mapper and explorer, and Dersu, a nomadic hunter, takes place in and was filmed in Siberia, a major departure for the Japanese filmmaker. Visually stunning, the film explores both characters in an extremely challenging environment and their ultimate inability to really understand each other. A heartbreaker of a film.

14.Nashville - Robert Altman. Another film of the disintegration of America at the time of the Vietnam war, Altman explores his penchant for overlapping dialogue and the layering of stories in the context of a political convention and music festival in Nashville, Tennesee. A rich grouping of Altman's stable of actors and some new (and old) faces. Fascinating.

15. The Mission. Screenplay by Robert Bolt ( see a theme here?) of a story of the Jesuit Indian missions in South America as a result of them being divided between Spain and Portugal. A portrait is formed which concentrates on colonial injustice and its sociopolitical dimension. Sequence near the beginning of a crucified Jesuit missionary afloat in a raging river that then tumbles down an immense waterfall is stupefying, but of particular interest to me since I have been to that same waterfall, Iguazu. The movie is uneven, though, with almost no character development; it does have a beautiful soundtrack.

Book Share - 15 Books

unselko — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:36:05 GMT

I've copied this from my Facebook page because I found it interesting to do and thought that some friends might be interested as well. I should tell you (and you will not be surprised) that I disobeyed the rule. I spent a longer time on the list--maybe 45 minutes instead of 15, and I made a rule of my own: each book is one that took me into its own world in a surehanded and unforgettable way. I decided not to repeat an author (although I could have) and kept the list to fifteen.

I'd love to hear from you, whether it's about these books, books you love, or your own list of fifteen.

"Here are the rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. They don't have to be the greatest books you've ever read, just the ones that stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes."

1. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
2. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
3 The Raj Quartet - Paul Scott
4. Dombey and Son - Charles Dickens
5. Middlemarch - George Eliot
6. The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
7. The Diaries of Jane Somers - Doris Lessing
8. The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest - John Gerard
9. The Radiant Way - Margaret Drabble
10. With God in Russia - Walter Ciszek
11. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
12. The Falls - Ian Rankin
13. Pool of Bethesda - Allan Cubitt (play)
14. Venus Observed - Christopher Fry (play)
15. Watership Down - Richard Adams

Weirdness on the Calendar

unselko — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:23:01 GMT

I just got back from having the doctor flush out my ear. Never had your ears flushed? Pity.

My ears, busy little factories that they are, just love to produce wax, and for some time I have followed my doctor's advice to put oil in them monthly, to keep them from plugging up. Probably due to concern over the surgery and then recuperation from the surgery, I've neglected to do that for some months now, and when I realized last week that my ears seemed very dry, I bustled right over to the medicine cabinet and got out the little bottle with the dropper.

The next day, my right ear gave up its burden when I carefully twirled the Q-tip in. The left ear, however, did not, and I realized I might have a problem. That left ear is usually a baddie, collecting more wax and reluctant to yield it up. So I went through the oil routine again, and immediately my hearing in that ear was blocked. Rats!

Anyway, I kept up with the oiling, knowing what the doctor would recommend, and then went in today. He took a look, confirmed my diagnosis, and returned with the syringe and plastic tray. In went the water, lots of it, and out came the detritus. Hearing restored, patient satisfied.

But it still seems a little weird, having to put "oil ears" on my monthly calendar, like "change furnace filter". Does anyone else have to go through this routine? It didn't start until I hit my sixties, so probably none of you are old enough to have to bother about it. Do let me know, please. Am I the only one out here with waxy and oily ears?

A Few New Details

unselko — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:04:43 GMT

Doing some forcing here to return to semi-regular writing after such a long absence. To allay any concerns, I should say right away that my recovery from the surgery was without incident, and now I'm feeling back to my old self. Kudos to the surgeon! (I have given him lots of thank-yous, in fact.)

How has life changed chez unselko since March or April? Well, Ricardo has had appointments with his Parkinson's specialist and the Parkinson's physiotherapist, and has a second set of exercises to do, with my help. They are mostly for stretching and balance, to try to mitigate some of the ongoing effects of the disease. That's going pretty well. What's not going as well is the toothbrushing. Our dentist advised me to brush Ricardo's teeth, since his hand motions are quite limited and even with the electric toothbrush he gets quite a buildup of plaque. Have you ever tried brushing an adult's teeth? Dealing with the inside of someone's mouth is a very intimate process, very trying for both of us. So far, I am not doing a good job.

I'd better quit for now and continue with this update later. It's time now for Evening Prayer and then I'll fix our dinner. Hello to old friends, and thank you for reading.