Fourth full day at Kona
Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 22:47 on 27 April 2015Was sick. Spent it mostly reading Dark of the Moon.
Mom had invited a friend / acquaintance over for social hour or something (wine and bread and cheese), so there was some socializing. Was a good day to lounge around and do not much.
You know: vacation.
Dark of the Moon
Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 22:06 on 27 April 2015
A couple days ago, Mom had commented to me that I should start the John Sandford Virgil Flowers series. She had read them and enjoyed them, the lead character's wit and humour entertaining her. I had looked (casually, not intently) in the condo association's lending library for the first one, Dark of the Moon, without success and didn't think much of it. So, when Mom and I were at the giant bookstore in Kona yesterday, she found the book, and handed it to me to buy. Bookstore. Recommended book. Place to donate the book when I was done so that I didn't have to lug it home at the end of my vacation. All of this was leading nicely to a "Yes, please."
Boy, was I glad I bought it. I started it last night, and finished it today. As is with most vacations that aren't ultimate frisbee or safari or Antarctica bound, I had a day of sick. That would be today, so having a book to read was fantastic. In this case, also very entertaining.
John Sandford has a Prey series about some Davenport guy. Virgil Flowers, the lead character in this new Dark of the Moon series, works for said Davenport (so, clearly, in the same world, which is nominally modern day Minnesota). He's a several times divorced officer of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (I had no idea such a thing existed, and looked it up. Yep.). Flowers (that would be fucking Flowers, as we learn in the book, to Mom's immense entertainment) solves murders, as far as I can tell, 8-10 a year. This first one is located near his home town, involves women (like the Reacher books, I suspect, which is to say, a new one every book), what I would expect to be realistic male thinking ("look at the ass on that woman!"), a murder mystery (well, durrrr), and resolution. I suspect later books will have winter themes, given, well, Minnesota.
I enjoyed the book. I'll recommend it to action-adventure-modern-day-cop-murder-mystery-loving readers. It's not gritty like the Bosch books, less witty than the Longmire books, and still entertaining.
How delightful Mom found books 2 - 4 in the condo association's lending library, where book 1 is about to be added.
View on this morning's walk
Daily Photo Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 21:58 on 26 April 2015
End of the third day in Kona
Blog Posted by kitt at 20:31 on 26 April 2015Living the high life here! We found a deck of old style Skipbo cards in the condo during our cleaning, so I asked Mom if she'd like to play. She agreed, and despite not having played in years (maybe a decade), she kicked my butt. Which I will admit is a bit frustrating, since I KEEP HAVING MY BUTT KICKED AT HOME, TOO.
I swear, my Skipbo mojo is weak.
Errands on Kona Day 3
Blog kitt decided around 15:39 on 26 April 2015 to publish this:Man, today was a day of errands. After Java on the Rocks, we lounged for only a short bit, then started in on all the tasks we had to do for the condo. We left the condo around 10:30 and shopped until nearly 3, including lunch, and really, that is so way not my thing, random shopping. This, however, was focused shopping, and I didn't have the correct shoes on, and my back was killing me. As you can tell by that run-on sentence.
One of the highlights of the day, however, was going into the new/used bookstore that is near the natural foods store, where Mom and I have taken to purchasing lunch at the deli. Mom said it was a good bookstore. I mean, just LOOK at this door and inside:
Isn't this just HEAVEN?
The thing about bookstores, though, is that they can be enormous, have lots of books, and you can still not find anything you'd like to read. Those bookstores aren't so great.
I was struggling to find any books I wanted to read, the ones in the SF/Fantasy section seemed to be about 5-6 years out of date. Mom found me a book, so I wasn't leaving empty-handed.
On a whim, I wanted over to the martial arts section and found not one but TWO copies of a book I had been seeking for about two decades.
So, yeah, win!