Hiking 2023

Last hike of 2023 yesterday. Here’s to more in 2024! 

 

High Castle

This is a weird book. I've never seen the Amazon series. I've heard it's quite different. The book surprised me. Much more metaphysical than I expected. A lot of Daoism and I Ching and oracles. I just expected an alternative history of post WW2 America. Not only do you get that you also get questions on the very nature of reality itself and the possibility of multiple realities. Not a bad read. Started slow and then became engrossing.

Stocking Stuffer

 This was pretty good root beer. 

War and Peace Done

Finally. Took me 10 months, reading a few pages each morning at breakfast, but War and Peace is finally done. I freely admit near the end I began to breeze through Tolstoy's philosophical ramblings pretty quickly. This was another of my long term read projects and it was okay.

Too many characters. Too many digressions. Of course this is all subjective. I really liked Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, a masterpiece. But I found War and Peace kinda boring. Not horrible, just blah.

The Quarterly

A great Christmas present I just received from my wife...a subscription to the quarterly journal of the @desertoracle, the Voice of the Desert. I love the weekly radio show via podcast since I'm out of radio range of the Mojave. From their website: DESERT ORACLE is a pocket-sized field guide to the fascinating American deserts: strange tales, singing sand dunes, sagebrush trails, artists and aliens, authors and oddballs, ghost towns and modern legends, musicians and mystics, scorpions and saguaros!

 

3

 

Three days left! 

The Voice of the Desert

I’ve recently discovered a podcast called “Desert Oracle.” It’s a great listen, a 28 minute weekly radio show beaming live from the Mojave Desert. Ken Layne, the host and creator of the show also edits the quarterly magazine tied to the show. The show started in 2017 and I’m slowly making my way through it. So good. 

They Not Interested

 

Work Excuses

 Humanity has changed a whole lot in 3500 years...but in some ways, we're still the same.

Freddy’s

The Moms had a faculty party so we went to Freddy’s. Freddy’s is so much better than Whataburger. It’s not even close. 

Our Man in Havana

 

Greatness. Darkly comedic. Another world weary Graham Greene work. The story draws you in and is a real page turner. But the overall message of the absurdity of geopolitics resonates. Despite written in the late 1950's this book, like The Quiet American, feels strangely modern. Anyone who has found themselves drawn inexorably into absurd situations often against their will, will empathize with this story. Humans in the midst of absurdity. Yet it is funny and the opposite of depressing.

Music Replay 2023

This was the summary of my Apple Music listening for 2023. Not too surprising that Marsalis was number one because he was one of my discography projects at the beginning of the year. I listened to virtually every Wynton Marsalis album released to start the year out. The Smashing Pumpkins coming in at number 2 was a bit surprising. My son and I did listen to a lot of their stuff leading up to their August concert and the weeks afterward...but I didn't expect we listened enough to get them to number two! I'm in the middle of a Nina Simone deep dive discography project so her high spot makes sense. 

The rest are the usual suspects although Sting kind of surprised me. It has been several months since I've listened to him. Also, The Raul Malo album, Quarantunes, I didn't discover until around Thanksgiving. I did have that album in heavy rotation for about two weeks. Two big surprises: no Weezer or Beatles in my top 15. Also, Coltrane didn't crack the Top 15? Hmmm.

 

Main

Went to Christmas on Main Street a week or so ago. The kids were busy with other things so we made it a date. The weather was perfect.

 

Christmas at the Ranch

We had fun the other day at Pancakes with Santa at Jake E’s Ranch where Ava does equine therapy. Good food, crafts, horses dressed as reindeer, Santa arriving on a fire truck, choreographed horse show and more. Good weather for it too  

 

All Region

A couple of weeks ago Ava auditioned and made the All Region Choir. The concert was fun and Ava even got a speaking part…the only “solo” for the junior high all region performance! 

 

North Park Trains

We had a nice visit last week to see the Christmas Trains at North Park Mall. North Park is always a festive place during the holidays.

 

Hamster Era

Did I happen to mention Ava got a hamster? She's entered her hamster era. She saved up her money the past few months, bought the habitat and all the supplies. Then, over Thanksgiving Break we went to the local pet store and brought home Asha. Asha was named for the main character in the newest Disney movie "Wish" that we saw the night before. The cats aren't quite sure what to make of Asha and they're not allowed in Ava's room now without supervision.

 

Breits!

 

 

Just heard that Bob Breitenstein, the longtime owner and proprietor of Breit's Stein and Deli is retiring. He has sold the longtime establishment and promises that the place will stay the same. I hope so. Breits (pronounced Brits) is a cornerstone of the Strawberry Hill neighborhood in KCK. I don't generally care for reuben sandwiches but the ones at Breits are amazing. It's a cool old neighborhood. Descendants of Eastern European immigrants the place has a lively old school vibe. I've sat on the back patio and listened to Croatian folk bands practice across the street at the senior center. Then they'd come over to Breits and chat. I hope the place stays the same as it always was. 

 

Good Blonde

I picked up Good Blonde by Jack Kerouac a few weeks ago at Recycled Books in Denton. I've read most of Kerouac's stuff so this was one of the few extraneous works I had not come across before. This collection came out in the early 90's and contains miscellaneous essays, magazine interviews and some random stories that Kerouac wrote over the years. 

I had seen some of these essays here and there online (like Kerouac's Rules for Writing) but most of this was new to me. Much of it was great. Other parts...kinda meh. So an uneven collection of writings overall. If you like Kerouac I recommend checking it out. But for the casual reader...you might stick to On the Road or The Dharma Bums.

Icehenge

 

Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson. One of KSR's earliest works. Bought it for $1.50. Looks like a pulp sci fi novel but contains great truths about time, existence and social constructs. It's also a scientific mystery novel but the mystery never really gets solved and that makes it work even better as a story. KSR never disappoints.