Category: everyday musings

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Changing leaves, birthday celebrations, and library sales

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea6 Comments

Tuesday night Little Miss and I were huddled under two blankets, reading Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright, with the small lamp on her bedside table casting a cozy orange glow.

We finished a chapter in the book and Pixel, my all-black, sometimes annoying black cat, climbed up on my chest, laid down and let us pet her for ten minutes. Pixel is a fickle cat. One minute she likes to be petted and the next minute she is biting the person petting her. She likes to walk onto my chest, knead for a few minutes, lay down for a few more minutes, and then walk off again. She doesn’t like the slightest bit of movement when she’s trying to get comfortable and I move too much for her.

Tuesday night, though, she didn’t mind when I shifted or straightened. She simply dug her claws into my skin and held on and resettled with him, then let me pet her nose and started to fall asleep.

I wanted to fall asleep with her like that on my chest since Little Miss was almost in La-la Land at that point, but I couldn’t relax because Scout, our second kitty, had decided earlier in the night to ignore my pleas to come inside and was outside gallivanting around our backyard, killing a mouse or a cricket or something that she enjoyed hopping on and chasing in the backyard.

As much as I kept saying, “Fine. That’s fine. If she wants to stay out all night she can. I’m not going to wait up for her. I’m going to bed.” I knew I couldn’t really relax until all of our creatures were in the house for the night. My cats are outside almost all day. They are savvy cats who know how to fight off the neighborhood strays or other animals but the idea of them being trapped outside all night, locked out of a cozy place to lay their furry heads just makes me anxious (I mean what doesn’t make me anxious these days, but still . . .)

I did fall asleep with her still outside because when I went back to get her right before bed, she had disappeared from where she’d been chasing down whatever creature she’d found to torture and was nowhere to be seen. At 2 a.m., though, I was up to use the bathroom and begrudgingly dragged myself down the cold stairs, through out kitchen, to the backdoor, where Scout was waiting. She darted inside so fast I almost didn’t see her.

She has a habit of darting past me, either into the house or out of it without me ever seeing her. More than one night I have called for her, she hasn’t come, I have been worried about her, shut the door and turned around only to see her sitting in the kitchen floor cleaning herself and wondering why I wasn’t petting her to welcome her back inside.

As I write this, she is yawning at me from our daughter’s warm bed, curled up in a fluffy pile of the comforter, behind Little Miss’s knees, one of her favorite spots to lay.

Curling up with Little Miss and I is a common occurrence for her, especially at night. I often find her curled up on Little Miss’s pillow in the morning. Some mornings she darts out of the room as soon as The Husband is up and getting ready for work so she can dart out the back door and go explore the neighborhood, but on mornings like this she lounges in bed, stretching out her large paws with the extra toes, yawning, and then getting more comfortable so she can sleep another hour or so. Once Little Miss is awake, though, Scout is up as well and more often than not she heads for the back door, ready to be let out into the world.

I would guess that both cats won’t want to go out as quickly in the mornings soon since the temperatures are getting cooler as bright colors spread across our hillsides with the changing leaves on the trees.

Before we know it, snow will be falling and I’ll be grumbling about having to start a fire in the woodstove but then enjoying it once it is lit.

I’ll have to remind myself how to light the fire, how to keep it burning longer, and to bring the wood in at night so I have it in the morning to keep the house warm throughout the day. Still, it will save us money on our heating oil and that will make me, and the rest of the family, happy.

Monday is Little Miss’s birthday and the only thing she asked for her birthday is that we could all go as a family to a restaurant. So yesterday we all headed down to a favorite restaurant of ours about 45 minutes away and we also visited the local library’s annual book sale and met a couple friends of Little Miss’s at a local park. It was the one friend’s 8th birthday so we shared some cupcakes and let the kids play on the playground.

Before her friends came, we visited the creek and were bit up by a bunch of bugs and I was almost hit a couple of times by falling black walnuts.’

The leaves had changed some there but not a ton. I have a feeling the peek will be later than some are saying it will be there year, even though we already have gorgeous red trees spreading across our hills.

Our neighbors’ one maple tree is bright red right now and we were admiring it Thursday as we were jumping on the neighbors’ trampoline.

Back to the library sale from yesterday – I wish I had slowed down and spent a little more time looking at things but we chose to go before we ate and Little Miss was hungry so she didn’t want to spend too much time. In a way, not having a lot of time to look over the books was a good thing because then I would have picked out books I didn’t need. We have so many books right now and I have so many to read. Plus I have books I picked up that I now know I will never read and need to find a way to get rid of them since the local libraries keep saying they have enough and don’t want any more books donated. We were, once again, near a little library yesterday and I, once again, forgot to take those books with me to put in there.

The little library at the park we went to was so sad too. There were hardly any books in there and the books I did move aside to make a video about how every little library I go to has a James Patterson book were sticky. Ew.

The park itself was a bit sad.

First there were the insane amount of bugs, then there were the porta-potties that had not been empty in I don’t know how long. It was sick how full they were. In addition to all of that is their website. The site is connected to the township page but instead of having any information about the park (such as if you can bring pets or not, which is what I was looking for) it has a list of suggested information of what information should be placed there. Like it’s the default starter page for their site.  

Despite the sad state of the park, the kids had a lot of fun and that’s what mattered.

Today I plan to go visit my mom and watch a movie with her and just enjoy the gorgeous fall colors on the drive there. Tomorrow we will have a family celebration for Little Miss at my parents.

What are your plans for this weekend? Anything exciting or just some nice relaxing?

Celebrating 60 years

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings11 Comments

My dad tells the story this way:

One night in 1961 or so my dad’s roommate in the Air Force came into the room and said, “there’s someone I want you to meet…Hey, I’m going on a date but my date has a niece with her so we’re going to go on a double date.”

The niece was a year younger than the aunt, incidentally, so she was about 17.

“Hurry up,” the roommate said. “Iron your pants and let’s go.”

This was in North Carolina. Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

So my dad headed out with them and met my mom (the 17-year-old) in the backseat of a 1948 Ford coup (not meant to be as suggestive as it sounds..)

“Pontiac engine and three deuces,” he told me when I double-checked the make and year of the car.

Mom and Dad were the best man and maid of honor when the roommate (Johnny) and the aunt (Peggy) were married. Two years later, Johnny and Peggy would have been their best man and matron of honor but Peggy was eight months pregnant and living in Mississippi at the time. My parents were married in the home of a minister someone or other knew and had a small celebration at her parents in Kinston, N.C. afterward.

Six years later my brother was born and three years later my sister was born early and passed away only two days later. I came along eight years after my brother.

(As an aside to this story, my son and daughter are also eight years apart and I had a miscarriage in between. Mine was very early.)

Two weeks ago we celebrated my parents and their 60 years of marriage.

We held a small celebration at a renovated drug store (circa early 1900s building) down the street from our house.

Friends and family came out to congratulate them on a long marriage, which is often unheard of these days.

Our local state representative came and honored them with a proclamation from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and then she also recognized my dad for his service in the United States Air Force.

“What’s the key to a long marriage?” Rep. Tina Pickett asked my parents.

My dad said it helps to have a sweet wife. My mom said that having God in their marriage had been incredibly important and necessary and helped them through the tough times.

And there were tough times – maybe not with the marriage itself but in our family with finances and loss and times of emotional hurt that we all worked through like any family.

I never had what I would call trauma in my childhood and for that I’m thankful.

I’ve always looked at my parents’ marriage as a perfect example of what marriage should really be. There was give and take, communication, and a lot of affection – sometimes more affection than I cared to see as a teenager and young adult.

Now, don’t get me wrong, my parents were never crude in front of us but they didn’t shy away from a kiss, a hug, or a mildly suggestive comment about their romantic life.

No marriage is perfect but my parents’ marriage has been close.

There were times they snapped at each other.

Times they both may have held a grudge.

Times they were both stubborn (though Dad is more stubborn than Mom).

My mom cared for the home for most of their marriage while Dad worked 40 years for a local block and cement delivery company.

Mom was always there when I needed her but Dad was there for me and my brother, Bryan, as well when he was home from work.

Through my parents showing each other love, Bryan and I learned how to treat our spouses.  

Several years ago Dad planted a rose bush in the backyard for Mom. He gives her cards and special meaningful gifts on her birthday and their anniversary, and even for no reason at all. Now that they are older and she has a hard time getting around he cares for her by pushing her in the wheelchair or helping to make the meals.

About five years ago he helped her track her calories so she could lose over 100 pounds.

It’s been hard to watch them grow older in some ways. Watching them both struggle to do what they used to be able to do makes my heart ache. There are days I would give anything for them to not have to go through the trials and pains of growing older. I’m sure they would do the same for me and my brother.

Watching them hold hands and exchange sweet looks with each other during their anniversary party and during other times throughout the years though helps dull that ache.

I don’t know what the future holds but in the present, there is love that has grown and blossomed. That love has broken through darkness. It has spread light not only because of my parents love for each other but also because of their love for Christ.

My parents have shown what it is to be a Christian and they are a hundred times better than me at following the example of Jesus.

In the days before it was dangerous to pick up hitchhikers (or as dangerous) Dad would bring home someone he picked up off the streets to give them a warm meal and a place to sleep.

There were many trips somewhere that were delayed because he and Mom saw a car along the road and wanted to stop and make sure the person was okay. Just last week Dad and I were on our way back from his physical therapy when we saw a vehicle pulled off in a very strange and dangerous spot in the road. I felt that urge to check on the person because it was how I was raised. I said, “That’s a weird place to park.”

Dad said, “They didn’t even have their flashers on.”

We both knew I was going to find a place to turn around. When we went back the car was gone and we were late getting home but we did what Jesus would have wanted us to do  – check on another person and make sure they aren’t hurting somehow.

My parents have become friends over the years with several people who struggle with mental illness. While I often feel frustrated with these individuals, my parents see them through the eyes of Jesus. They want to help them, save them, offer them some respite from their emotional struggles.

This has left my parents open to being taken advantage of and maybe even opened them up to dangerous situations. I have asked them to stop reaching out to and befriending so many who struggle with mental illness, but their response is always, “There is that verse in the Bible  ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:40)

Not too long ago someone asked Dad, “Where do you find all these broken people you seem to know?”

Dad responded, “All you have to do is look around. They’re all around you.”

He’s right. Our world is full of broken and lost people. This is not a fact that was lost on Jesus and it also hasn’t been lost on my parents.

They’ve reached out when I turned away.

They’ve comforted when I have condemned.

They’ve given when I would have withheld

They’ve loved like Jesus loves.

They have instilled in me the potential to love as unconditionally as they do.

Through their dedication to each other, to the broken and the lost, they have shown me, my brother, my husband, their grandchildren, and countless other people the heart of Jesus.

No one is perfect and they have not been perfect throughout their lives (though they have been fairly close at times).

Whatever faults they have had, however, have been overshadowed by their love for each other, for their family, friends, the lost, the brokenhearted, the downtrodden, the bruised, the mentally disturbed, the physically frail, the outcasts, the rejected, the people the world pushes asides and shuns, and anyone else who Jesus told us to love.

God knew what he was doing when he brought these two together.

He knew that through their marriage hundreds, if not thousands, would be touched, would be changed and in many cases would be saved.

Their lives, joined together in marriage, have had a ripple effect that we have not seen the end of.

For every couple they encouraged there is a family who is thankful their family is still intact.

For every child they encouraged there is an adult who has found fulfilment in life and has gone on to have families of their own.

For every dollar they spent to support a Christian message, there are souls thirsting after God and ready to be in heaven one day.

More importantly, their marriage has created a legacy for their children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews – something to strive for and a goal to reach.

May we all be able to love our spouses like they have loved each other, but even more importantly may we all endeavor to emulate Christ the way they have for the past 60 years.

Comfy, Cozy Cinema: The African Queen

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Comfy Cozy Cinema, everyday musings6 Comments

For the next three months, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching cozy, mysterious, or comfy movies. Erin made these awesome graphics detailing what we are doing and what movies we will be watching.

This week we watched The African Queen, which I am not sure was really a comfy, cozy movie but I forgot some of the details when I suggested it. I’m not sure why I picked it for this feature, but it’s still a good movie and we did find some cozy(ish) moments in it as a romance began to blossom in the middle of a very stressful situation.

The movie, released in 1951, stars Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. It was directed by John Huston.

It is both an adventure movie and a romance.

Katherine plays Rose Sayer, a missionary in Africa, and Humphrey portrays Charlie Allnut (which Katherine pronounces as Ulna throughout the movie).

Rose had stationed been in African villages with her brother for a decade and meets Charlie when he travels up the river in his small, rickety steamboat to deliver mail and other supplies. The steamboat was dubbed The African Queen by Charlie.

On one visit Charlie tells Rose and her brother Sam that he probably won’t be there for two months because war has broken out. The movie starts in 1914 so this is the beginning of World War I.

He leaves and within a matter of hours or days, or I’m not sure which, the Germans march through with an army made up of Africans and begin to burn down the village. This leaves Rose’s brother in a state of shock and also affects his physical health and he passes away a couple months or so later.

Rose is now alone in the village but luckily not for long as Charlie finds her and she asks him to take her with him up the river.

Rose and Charlie are very different. She is very prim and proper and British and he is very “uncouth” one might say. My husband said that the movie is based on a 1935 novel and that the main characters in the novel are both British. Charlie has a cockney accent.  Humphrey refused to try to pull that accent off so he was made Canadian for the sake of this movie.

The chemistry between the two is great with them bouncing quips off each other throughout the film.

When Rose finds out they are upriver from a German ship that will be used to launch an offensive against the British, and that Charlie has potential weapons on The African Queen, she decides they will travel this very dangerous river with rapids, crocodiles, and a German fort, and blow up the German ship.

Charlie, for his part, thinks she’s nuts but agrees to help her – that is until things get more and more dangerous and he’s certain they are going to die in the rapids.

When he tells her in the beginning that it isn’t possible to take the steamboat down the river she says, “How would you know? You’ve never tried.”
He scoffs. “I’ve never tried shooting myself in the head either.”

In another scene, Charlie gets drunk on the gin that’s on the boat and Rose is not happy about it.

“Oh come on,” Charlie says. “It was just human nature.”

Rose raises her chin and says, “Human nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put on this world to rise above.”

There are several comments or lines like that throughout the film which turns romantic somewhat by accident when Charlie celebrates one of their accomplishments and kisses Rose on impulse.

Kissing and being romantic was most likely a huge challenge for Katherine because she, like most of the cast and staff, caught dysentery and malaria and was very sick for the time in Africa.

Huston wanted the film to be as realistic as possible so he shot on location in Uganda and the Congo for part of the film with the rest being shot in London, outside and on a sound stage. Scenes where the actors were in the water were deemed to be too dangerous in Africa.

It was so realistic that Katherine and others got sick, as I mentioned, and during one scene when she’s playing the piano, she actually had a puke bucket off-scene just in case and I guess there were a few “cases.” Poor woman.

Boggie later joked that he and Huston didn’t get sick because they drank whiskey instead of the local water.

As a bit of trivia, the only Oscar Boggie ever won was for this film. Katherine was nominated for best actress but did not win. Huston was also nominated for best director but didn’t win.

Katherine won four Oscars and was nominated 12 times over the years. She also won an Emmy and two Tony Awards.

This comment came from my husband who always has a cheery note about when or how one of the actors died as we watch a movie: “To think he (Boggie) would only have five more years after this.”

At one point, when Charlie apologizes for getting drunk Rose says that is not upset about that.

“You think it was your nasty drunkenness I minded? You promised me you’d go down the river.”

“Well, I’m taking my promise back,” Charlie says.

Little Miss looked at me and said, “Fun fact. You can’t take back a promise.”

So there you go. Some wisdom for your day.

When this movie came out, both Boggie and Hepburn were older and some critics said moviegoers wouldn’t want to see two old actors fall in love.

According to movie critic Roger Ebert, though, that wasn’t true. Many people wanted to see the movie and loved it despite it being released at the same time as A Streetcar Named Desire with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh.

The novel was much darker but Huston credited Boggie and Hepburn with making the movie have some humor in it.

“They were just naturally funny when they worked together.” Miss Hepburn, on the other hand, gives the credit to Huston. “The humor didn’t just grow, it was planted. The picture wasn’t going well until Huston came up with the inspiration that Rosie, my role, should be played as Eleanor Roosevelt.”

Ebert said of Bogart’s role: “Whatever the case, the many scenes Bogie and Kate play together are superb. Bogart, as the gin-swilling proprietor of a banged-up riverboat, created a strange little laugh for his role. He was shy, amused and intimidated by this Bible-reading missionary lady who washed out her unmentionables each and every night. And the laugh, meant to conceal his unease, also serves to display the thoughts of a taciturn man. He does not often laugh at the things Rosie finds funny.”

There was one scene with leeches and I wanted to know if they were really on Boggie. A quick search online brought me to a site full of trivia which let me know that: “While filming the scene where Charlie finds his body covered with leeches, Humphrey Bogart insisted on using rubber leeches. John Huston refused, and brought a leech-breeder to the London studio with a tank full of them. It made Bogart queasy and nervous, qualities Huston wanted for his close-ups. Ultimately, rubber leeches were placed on Bogart, and a close-up of a real leech was shot on the breeder’s chest.”

It is an interesting site and I was going to leave a link here to it but it says the site is not secure so I won’t do that – just in case.

The bottom line was that I did like this film but it wasn’t necessarily comfy, cozy or creepy. I guess it was a mix of comfy and adventure.

To read about Erin’s take on the movie, hop on over to her blog: https://crackercrumblife.com/

If you would like to join in on our Comfy, Cozy Cinema you can print out our watch/post schedule here:



Arsenic and Old Lace (Sept. 28)

Oct. 5 (break for us or you to catch up!)

The Lady Vanishes (October 13)

Strangers on a Train (Oct. 19)

Rebecca (Oct. 26)

Little Women (November 2)

Tea with The Dames (November 9)

Saturday Evening Chat: Autumn weather arrives, recovery time, and recovering pets

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea6 Comments

As I write this, I am sitting in bed under covers because the temps have hit autumn temps and I am chilly.

I spent most of this past week trying to recover from the week before when our family was sick and then we had my parents’ 60th-anniversary party. That’s something I still hope to blog about on here soon. I was so tired this past week and it didn’t help that I was still dealing with the cough from the previous week’s cold a little.

Yesterday Little Miss made a type of cozy fort at the bottom of our stairs and into our foyer. She made it last week as well but this week it worked out well because of the autumn weather. She filled the set up with pillows and blankets and an electric candle and stacked some of her books on the windowsill. It became a little reading corner for us while I read a book about Johnny Appleseed to her and she read a book called Saving Winslow on her own.

I also finished a book I’ve been reading for a few months (while getting interrupted by other books I agreed to read for authors, etc.). It was a very nice cozy day, made even cozier by Little Miss making us cups of hot cocoa sweetened with maple syrup throughout the day.

At the end of the day all three of our pets made themselves comfortable on a pillow or comforter, curled up, and fell asleep. The cat I call “fat cat” (real name Pixel), stole my seat after I got up to charge my phone and while I was a bit annoyed, it was nice to see her able to rest after she had been suffering with fleas most of the week thanks to an inferior flea medicine we picked up last month.

We applied the better medicine on Monday but it took a few days for all the fleas to get off the animals. I was still finding fleas on Zooma the Wonder Dog who not only had flea treatment, but also a flea bath, yesterday. We picked up a flea spray to spray in the house and hopefully we can kill them off before it gets too bad in the house.

Zooma the Wonder Dog took an emergency trip to the vet 45 minutes away last Sunday because of severe stomach issues. Her breathing was very fast and we found out that she was in severe pain due to a return of the colitis she had in April. She was also (TMI alert) constipated.

We are discovering that there are certain foods that set off her condition and I fed her a tiny bit of one of those foods and I guess, but am not sure, that’s what triggered things. She also gets into our trash from time to time so we now sit heavy things on top of it or will be putting the trash can in a place she can’t reach it.

We have food that is supposed to be for digestive issues and that’s all she will be eating from now on. She’s been on an antibiotic and a steroid all week to help bring the inflammation down and heal her colon. It looks like this will be a reoccurring issue for her and us from now on, unfortunately.

Our previous dog had colitis a lot as well. He was 14 when he passed away in 2017 and I am surprised he lived that long with all the weird things he ate – including aluminum foil and ear plugs. We seem to have the luck of having dogs that have sensitive stomachs and I don’t know if that is bad or good luck but right now it seems like bad luck.

Last week there was a lot of staying at home and doing homeschool work and keeping an eye on the dog.

Yesterday Dad and The Boy cut up wood from trees that Dad had to have cut down behind his house. They loaded it into the back of Dad’s truck and brought it to our house to fill up the woodpile behind the garage. We are hoping that this will be enough wood to get us through the winter and keep our heating oil costs down.

Heating oil is so expensive right now that we are filling our tank with off-road diesel fuel to push us closer to the winter months to reduce how often we have to get a delivery of actual heating oil during the coldest months. We do this because we can never afford to pay off the full delivery because of how high the cost is. We always make payments and we can’t receive another delivery until the first bill is paid off.

A lot of people I know are struggling financially right now. It’s very frustrating for me to watch politicians debate if inflation is bad enough to say we are in a recession or not. It’s even more frustrating when they go on news shows and say that Americans aren’t struggling to pay their bills or put food on their tables and that “the other side” is making it all up.

My family are among those struggling. We’ve asked for help and have been denied or given $19 a month to help. Meanwhile we have people who cross the border illegally and they are receiving the help they need in many (though not all) cases and it’s very aggravating. I am, however, glad that people can come here legally and find a better life so it’s a very conflicting issue for me.

There are days I feel like my husband working and us living in this country our whole lives means we are second class citizens. It feels like you have to have a sob story or an angle of some kind to get ahead of even get help. We’re drowning under bills and grocery prices and every week I feel like we are just fighting to keep our heads above water. Then to turn on a news show or visit a site and see an economist say it isn’t as bad as we think it is and we just need to go back to college and get a better degree then we’d be able to get a higher paying job and be fine. It makes me want to scream and throw things most days.

God has always provided for us even at the hardest moments so I do my best to remember that when things get very tough.

This upcoming week there will be more homeschool lessons, gymnastics, a church kid’s club, and maybe a visit to the library.

The Boy will go to the career center and probably work with his grandfather and I will work on finishing the second book in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series.

I also hope to read a lot more because I am somewhat depressed with my book count for the year so far. I am not a fast reader but I could be reading a little more than I have been.

How about you? How was your week last week? Did you do anything exciting or read anything good? Let me know in the comments.

Comfy, Cozy Cinema: The Secret World of Arrietty

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Comfy Cozy Cinema, everyday musings, Movie Impresssions2 Comments

For the next three months, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching cozy, mysterious, or comfy movies. Erin made these awesome graphics detailing what we are doing and what movies we will be watching.

This week we had a double-feature. Erin chose Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Secret World of Arrietty. I had never watched either of them. I love how Erin pulls me out of my comfort zone and introduces me to knew things.

The Secret World of Arrietty is a Studio Ghibli film.

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio for those of you who are like me and have no idea.

I honestly didn’t understand what Studio Ghibli was until Erin talked about it and then my son wanted me to watch Howel’s Castle with him a couple of months ago. These are animated films made in Japan and later dubbed into English to watch in the United States. Or you can watch the Japanese version and read the subtitles. The movies have become very popular and big-name actors are now being used to voice the American versions.

The movies from Studio Ghibli are often quirky and fantastical, strange but also poignant. They aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and I honestly had no interest in watching one until The Boy suggested it and then Erin said she wanted to watch this one.

I ended up liking Arrietty more than I expected.

As my son said, “I can see why she likes this movie so much. It’s just really creative and cool.”

And it was.

Arrietty and her family members are very tiny people – like two inches high, not like the cast of TLCs Little People, Big World (who are actually called little people and who I am almost as short as).

It is similar to The Borrowers, the book and movie, and is actually the inspiration for the movie.

The movie has a very, cozy feel to it . . . until you realize the stinking ants are bigger than the people and can eat them. Ack!

This isn’t essential to the movie, but I love Arrietty’s outfits…she’s so cute. I want to be cute.

The Boy commented on how he likes how the studio pays such attention to details, including using the wood staples as the ladder.

The movie starts with a human family coming to a new house. We are clued in very quickly that the young boy is sick for some reason – something with his heart.

The young boy sees Arrietty in the bushes when he first arrives but she runs away.

Later that day her father agrees to let her come with him when he goes into the house of the beans (which is what they call humans) to borrow items, such as a sugar cube and a pin, that they can use. This is Arrietty’s first time helping her father borrow and she’s nervous but excited. She’s even more nervous when the boy spots her again and this time, he speaks to her and tells her not to be afraid.

She isn’t afraid but she and her dad quickly leave without speaking to the boy.

The next day the boy leaves the sugar cube Arrietty accidentally dropped in his room to try to get to know her.

Her parents, however, tell her to stay away from the boy, afraid traps will be set for them and that they will be killed.

Of course, Arrietty doesn’t listen to her parents because if she did then there wouldn’t be a movie.

She does go to meet the boy – whose name is Shawn – and is almost killed by a crow. Luckily, Shawn rescues her.

They don’t talk much but later Shawn’s aunt shows him a dollhouse that his mother made with her father for the Borrowers to use. The Borrowers never came, though, and this made the mom sad.  Shawn knows that the little family would love the kitchen so he takes it from the dollhouse, rips up the floor and practically gives them a heart attack by giving them the kitchen.

This traumatizes the family and Arrietty’s father says they have to leave so they won’t be chased out, trapped or killed.

Shawn likes to say uncomfortable and awkward things like the antagonist in any anime film, The Boy says.

He says things like, “There’s less and less of you every year, isn’t there?” and “We can’t all live forever.”

The Boy said, “Bro’s got that unsocial riz, doesn’t he?”

So while Shawn is not a threat to the Borrowers, the housekeeper, voiced by Carol Burnett, totally is. For some reason, she wants to find and destroy The Borrowers. I don’t get what her behavior is about at all but she’s creepy as anything.

This, yet again, isn’t related to the overall plot of the movie but the beds these characters have look so comfortable. There is a lot of cozy feelings to this movie overall.

I won’t give away what happens to the family or the boy but I was so nervous for them throughout the movie.

I will comment on one thing about these movies though – the voice actors don’t emote very well sometimes so the characters end up giving very weird and monotone effects to the line delivery. For example, there are times when they should be alarmed but instead, they respond in a very monotone way and it makes the kids and I giggle. Little Miss does an amazing imitation of those moments when the characters deliver bored sounding responses to otherwise alarming situations.

I am not complaining about the sometimes monotone delivery, but just commenting on how it is just a little odd quirk of the movies when they are dubbed. An odd quirk that makes us giggle.

You can read Erin’s impression here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2023/09/14/comfy-cozy-cinema-the-secret-world-of-arrietty/

Next up for our movie-watching feature is The African Queen.

Our schedule for the rest of the series (the dates are when we are writing about them):

Arsenic and Old Lace (Sept. 28)

Oct. 5 (break for us or you to catch up!)

The Lady Vanishes (October 13)

Strangers on a Train (Oct. 19)

Rebecca (Oct. 26)

Little Women (November 2)

Tea with The Dames (November 9)

The Fishermen’s Friends (November 16)

November 23 off for Thanksgiving

November 30th? Wildcard at this point because we shifted things around and are short a movie! Oops! We will update

Fiction Friday: Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage Chapter 4

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Fiction Friday1 Comment

Welcome to the fourth chapter of Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage.

As always this is a work in progress and there could be (will be) typos, plot holes, and other errors but those will be fixed before the book publishes a couple of months from now.

If you want to read the first book in the series, you can find it on Amazon HERE.

If you don’t want to read this story in chapters on a blog, you can pre-order it HERE.

If you want to learn more about my other books you can find links to them HERE.

Chapter 4

“Grant. Where are you? A resident at Willowbrook just called and said there are cop cars all over the place.”

Once again Gladwynn was impressed how her boss, Managing Editor Liam Finley, seemed to know everything that was going on and also seemed to never leave his office at the newspaper.  She wondered if he handed his personal cellphone out to everyone he met so they could call him 24/7 with any breaking news.

“I’m at Willowbrook now and there are, yes.”

“You’re there?”

“I am, but I’m leaving right now.”

“So, fill me in. What are you seeing?”

“There are indeed police cars here. There’s been a death in one of the condos. Possibly suspicious.”

“Whoa. Who is it? Any ideas? One of the old folks?”

“No. A young folk, actually. Samantha Mors.”

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the phone, followed up by a curse word. “No way. I did not expect that.”

“Did you know her?”

“Not exactly, no. I met her at a bar once. Saw her off and on around town after that. Gorgeous woman. Sweet too. Wanted nothing to do with me no matter how hard I tried.”

Gladwynn shook her head, and stifled a laugh, glad Liam couldn’t see her. The man was well-known countywide for his bar visits and his love of women. Lots of women.

“Were you there?” he asked. “I mean, at Willowbrook when the cops were there?”

She didn’t know how much she should share at this point, but Liam was going to find out eventually anyhow. “A friend of mine found her actually. I was the second person on scene.” She glanced at Doris as she started the car. “It’s been pretty upsetting for her and me. How about I give you a call after I get her home?”

“You saw the body?” Liam whistled. “Oh man, Grant. I’m sorry you had to see that. Yeah. Totally call me back later and let’s hammer out a plan of action for tomorrow’s paper. Sadly, you’re a bit too close to the case to cover it. We’d better have Laurel handle it from here.”

At that moment Gladwynn felt like a real reporter because under no circumstances did she want to give up this story. “Why are you giving it to Laurel? This is my story.”

“Hate to break it to you, kid, but it’s not your story. You’re part of the story. Conflict of interest. Call me later.”

The line disconnected. Gladwynn scowled at the phone briefly then flipped it into her middle console.

Doris let out a breath. “Oh, Gladwynn, honey, I’m glad you don’t have to cover this story. What a hard job reporting is.”

Gladwynn shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah, sometimes, but the hard stories are mixed in with a lot of happy stories. Like little kids at field days and church dinners. It all evens out in the end.”

The drive to Doris’ house was quiet after that with Doris looking out the window contemplatively.

After escorting Doris into her house, brewing her a cup of tea, and sitting with her for half an hour to be sure she was okay, Gladwynn headed back home to call Liam and connect with Lucinda.

Lucinda was in the kitchen brewing a pot of tea and loading chocolate chip cookies onto a plate when Gladwynn walked in with the phone to her ear.

She filled Liam in on the details she felt like she could fill him in on, mainly that Tanner was the lead investigator and that there was no conclusive evidence as of yet that there was any foul play in Samantha’s death. She chose not to offer any specific details about the condition or  position of Samantha’s body and, thankfully, he didn’t ask. A photo she’d taken on her cellphone of the police cars and ambulance parked outside of the condo would work for a photograph for the story, he told her.

Lucinda pulled her into a hug as soon as she slid her finger over the button to end the call. “He’s not going to make you write about this horrible thing, is he?”

“No. He’s giving it to Laurel. He said my covering it would be a conflict of interest.”

Lucinda leaned back and pushed a strand of dark hair back from Gladwynn’s face. “Good. You were involved enough as it was with that mess with Daryl Stabler. This would be even worse since you were right there to find her. I just can’t believe it. How are you holding up?”

Gladwynn sighed and sat at the kitchen table, pouring herself some tea. “Okay, I guess. I’m more worried about Doris. The poor woman. She was really shaken.” She winced as she spooned some honey out of the jar. “Rightly so. It was awful to see Samantha that way. I hadn’t met her officially yet, but I saw her earlier today at the lake. It was so weird to see someone you’d seen alive only a few hours earlier dead in her bedroom floor.” Gladwynn shuddered. “Weird and awful.”

Lucinda sat in the chair on the other side of her. “What does Tanner think? Does he really think she was murdered?”

“He doesn’t know yet. He said there are aspects of the scene that are suspicious but he wouldn’t elaborate on what.”

Lucinda pushed the plate of cookies toward her. “Well, it doesn’t matter. The police will release some information soon enough. I’m just so glad you don’t have to worry about it anymore. Laurel can fill you in later or you can read it in the newspaper like the rest of us.”

Gladwynn nodded absentmindedly. It still bothered her that Liam had given the story to Laurel, but she knew he was right. It wouldn’t look right for her to write about a situation she’d been directly involved with, even if she personally had no idea what had happened to Samantha nor had she known her.

Still, she couldn’t push away the uneasy feeling that Samantha’s death wasn’t an accident and she would love to find out if that feeling was accurate or not.

“What are they going to do about the play?” she asked, trying to forget the image of Samantha in that floor.

Lucinda stirred creamer in her tea. “They aren’t sure yet but I think we should continue it in Samantha’s honor. Incorporating the arts into the activities of the older population was very important to her. We’re all meeting Monday night to make the final decision.”

A tear slipped down Lucinda’s cheek. Gladwynn reached over and squeezed her hand. She wanted to tell her it was okay, but it wasn’t okay. It was horrible and heartbreaking that Samantha had passed away. It would be even more heartbreaking if she had passed away because of something someone else did.

Lucinda cleared her throat. “I just can’t believe that this happened right after Derek passed away. He and Samantha were so close. When I heard about what happened I just kept worrying that maybe  — no. I can’t think that. It’s just, she was so down about his death. What if she – ” Lucinda shook her head and dabbed a tissue to the corner of her eye.

Gladwynn rubbed her grandmother’s shoulder. Der. Those were the letters she’d seen on the piece of paper at Samantha’s. “Who was Derek?”

Lucinda looked up from her tea. “Oh right. I guess I ever told you about him. He moved here a couple of years ago. He was such a kind man. I wish you could have met him. He was the one who made sure the little library was stocked and we had all we needed for badminton and tennis. He purchased all that equipment. I’m guessing he had some money, but I don’t know.” She wiped her nose. “He just had such a kind heart. He died two weeks ago. None of us even knew he was sick, but, well, it is a retirement home so residents do die more often than other places. He and Samantha were very close. It’s like they connected right away when she started. They used to play cards together and he always helped her with her various recreation events. They had lunches together and we’d often see them reading books out in the courtyard.”

She took a sip of her tea. “Anyhow, I think we both need a little break from that topic. Jacob is going to come over for dinner after church tomorrow. I hope that’s okay.”

Gladwynn raised an eyebrow. “Grandma, this is your house.  You can invite whomever you want over. You don’t have to ask me permission to have your boyfriend over. Plus, Jacob still owes me a rematch at Chess.”

Gladwynn had slowly become accustomed to Jacob Evans being a regular site at the old Victorian home she and her grandmother lived in. He was often there for dinners or movie nights or simply to repair something around the home. Gladwynn had only learned about their relationship when she moved in so she wasn’t sure how long the pair had been dating.

Seeing her grandmother going out on dates with someone other than Gladwynn’s late grandfather Sidney Grant had been unsettling at first. Sidney had passed away six years ago, though, and he wouldn’t have wanted Lucinda to live the rest of her life without a companion.

Lucinda rolled her eyes. “Don’t call him my boyfriend. That sounds so  – I don’t know – teenagerish.”

Gladwynn snorted out a laugh. “But he is your boyfriend.”

Lucinda waved her hand briefly as she took a sip of tea. “Let’s be honest, you just want him over because you’re just desperate to figure out how he keeps beating you at chess. Admit it.”

“I completely am. It’s not fair. I was Chess champion three years in a row in my dorm at college. I don’t get how he’s so fast!”

Lucinda laughed and broke a cookie in half, handing one half to Gladwynn. “Years and years of practice, my dear, I’m sure. Remember he told you he used to play it in the barracks during Vietnam.”

Gladwynn finished her cookie and stood. “Liam wants me in the office so it looks like our movie night will have to be delayed. There isn’t much information I can provide him with since I’m being considered a witness, but I’ll head in and fill him on what I can so Laurel has a head start on the story.”

“That’s absolutely fine. We can always do it tomorrow after church.”

Gladwynn kissed Lucinda’s cheek. “You usually fall asleep after lunch so let’s do it in the evening instead.”

Lucinda looked up and quirked an eyebrow. “Let’s be honest, young lady. We both fall asleep after lunch.”

The woman was right, of course. Gladwynn had become accustomed to finishing her grandmother’s delicious meals and then curling up under a blanket in the living room and dozing off for a nap. She knew how spoiled she was and she didn’t feel guilty about it at all.

***

She called Tanner’s number at the barracks on the way to the office. He wasn’t there but she left him a message asking him to call her. Maybe the conversation Samantha had been having was unrelated. Maybe she was arguing with a bill collector. Still, she knew Tanner would want to know about it.

The Brookstone Beacon office was quiet with less staff there on a Saturday night than during the week. The buzz of the fluorescent lights was the loudest sound as Gladwynn made her way to Liam’s office. Liam’s appearance, and his office, was in its usual state — empty takeout containers scattered among loose papers on top of his desk and on the small table in the corner of the office; a black leather coat tossed across the couch against the wall to the right; Liam’s dress shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows; and his jawline unshaven.

He was typing fast when she stepped into the doorway. He didn’t look away from the computer screen, even when she sat in the chair across from his desk.

When he did turn to face her, he swiveled in his chair quickly and spoke in his usual clipped manner. “Grant. Hello. Tell me everything.”

She filled him in on what she hadn’t been able to talk about in front of Doris, without going into too many details. He listened with his hands propped behind his head, eyes narrowed, leaning slightly back in his chair.

When she was done, he kept his hands behind his head and nodded, looking wistfully at a spot on the wall above her head. “Sad thing. Sam was a good woman. I worked at a newspaper in Philly [lh1] for a few years and she said she’d grown up there. That’s about as far in the conversation as we got. She brushed me off pretty fast.” He shrugged and focused his gaze back on Gladwynn. “Anyhow, fill Benton in on this and then get out of here. I’m sure it wasn’t easy seeing all that. Good thinking on getting a shot for the front too.” He dropped his hands on the desk, then pointed at her. “Make sure Kinney knows we get first dibs on this story too. I better not see one of the TV stations up north or down south with this story tonight.”

She knew up north meant the small NBC affiliate over the border in New York state and down south meant a group of televisions stations in the central part of the state. They were more competition than the local shoppers and small publications called “penny savers” in the area. Those publications were more about ads than news and even though all newspapers needed ads, Liam only focused on who could compete with his paper on the news side of things.

Gladwynn was certain the man had been born with actual ink running in his veins.

She stood and smiled. “I can’t control what information the state police release and to whom, but I’ll pass on your desire to have the scoop.”

Liam winced. “Grant. No one says,” he formed quotes with his fingers “scoop anymore. Stop reading those 1940 crime novels. Capeesh?”

“Capeesh.”

The sound of one of the 90s style phones that the newspaper used for its landlines slamming back in place echoed up the hallways from Laurel Benton’s desk when Gladwynn walked back.

She had a feeling Laurel wasn’t having a good day – most likely due to a source who wouldn’t return her calls.

Laurel had a few rough edges but not so rough that she and Gladwynn weren’t able to form a type of friendship. Their personalities were very different, but somehow, they clicked enough that Laurel had gone from gossiping about Gladwynn when she first arrived to now inviting her to lunch from time to time.

Gladwynn peered around the wall of Laurel’s cubicle slowly. Laurel’s head was tipped down, her straight dark brown hair hanging down across her face, a few strands of gray streaked through the dark brown, a reminder to Gladwynn that the woman was 10 years her senior.

For a second Gladwynn thought Laurel might be crying, but she’d never seen her even close to crying so when Laurel looked up at her with cheeks flushed and eyes narrowed, she knew it was anger that had her head hanging down, not sadness.

“Are we sure it’s illegal to kill a man who merely lives to make your life a living hell?”

Gladwynn had a feeling Laurel was talking about her ex-husband Lance Brewster, fire chief of the Birchwood Fire Department. Their divorce had been finalized only a few months ago and Gladwynn hadn’t said it to either of them, but she had a feeling that deep down they were both still in love with each other. Of course, that may have merely been Gladwynn’s romantic side speaking, because at this moment Laurel wanted to murder Lance.

Laurel practically growled as she spoke. “He never signed the papers. Can you believe that?”

Gladwynn leaned her side against the cubicle. “Never signed the divorce papers you mean?”

“Yes. My lawyer called the other day and said part of the papers weren’t signed.” Laurel pushed her hands through her hair and held them there, at the top of her head, for several seconds. “I’ve been trying to reach him for three days and he will not pick up. I thought I’d try from here instead of my cellphone and maybe he’d actually answer, but I should have known he’d ignore a call from the paper.”

She really should have known since Lance had told Gladwynn that Laurel’s job at the newspaper was one of the biggest contentions in the marriage. Gladwynn briefly considered pointing that out, but thought better of it.

Instead, she said, “I don’t get it. I thought you said it was final. That’s why you go by Benton now instead of Brewster.”

Laurel tossed her hands up. “I was told it was final. I can’t even believe this! How did my lawyer not even check the paperwork? Or should I say my ex-lawyer since Lance is apparently not my ex-husband like he is supposed to be.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“Take those stupid papers to Lance and tell him to finish signing where he was supposed to.” She let out a long breath. “Sorry. I know you haven’t had the best of days yourself. Fill me in on what you can and I’ll call the state police for the rest.”

Gladwynn relayed what she had told Liam. When she was done Laurel let out a whistle. “Wow. So do they really think she was murdered? I mean, I wonder why someone would even do that to her.”

“Did you know her?”

“Met her a couple of times, but, no, I didn’t really know her well. She seemed like a super nice person so I really hope she wasn’t killed.”

“Liam says I’m out on this one, but I’d love to know what Tanner says the coroner tells him. Fill me in, will you?”

“Definitely will but it’s better you’re not covering it. You’re too close to it all. Trust me. There was a fatal fire a few years ago and it was someone my family had known for years. Our old editor told me he didn’t want to pay for my therapy so I wasn’t allowed to go and cover it. Who knows. Maybe this will all turn out to be an accident and we won’t have to worry about it anyhow.”

As she headed home later, Gladwynn hoped Laurel was right. She hoped that she’d get a call later that told her Samantha Mors hadn’t died under suspicious circumstances. It would still be hard for Doris, her grandmother, and others from the community to deal with her death, but at least they wouldn’t have the added sadness that she had been murdered.

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Shop Around the Corner

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Comfy Cozy Cinema, everyday musings6 Comments

For the next three months, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching cozy, mysterious, or comfy movies. I think maybe cozy and comfy is the same thing, but you know what I mean. Erin made these awesome graphics detailing what we are doing and what movies we will be watching.

If you want to join in and give us your impressions of the movies we watch you are more than welcome to do so!


This week we watched The Shop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullavan (yes, this spelling threw me off but that was her actual last name), and Frank Morgan.

If you watch this movie and think that Frank Morgan looks very familiar but you just can’t place him, just imagine him saying, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”

Yes. He was The Wizard in The Wizard of Oz.

In this movie, he is Mr. Matuschek, who owns a leather goods store in Budapest, Hungary called Matuschek and Company. They pronounced Matuschek as “Matachek” in the movie. His top salesman and most trusted employee is Alfred Kralik (Jimmy).

The movie opens with all the employees gathering together and letting us all get to know a bit about them.

Besides Kralik there are Kralik’s coworkers include Karlik’s friend, Pirovitch (Felix Bressart), a kindly family man; Ferencz Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut), a two-faced womanizer; saleswoman Ilona Novotny (Inez Courtney); clerk Flora Kaczek (Sara Haden); and Pepi Katona (William Tracy), a sassy errand boy.

We also learn in the beginning that Stewart has been writing letters to a woman he connected with through a newspaper ad she placed.

They’ve been hitting it off, and he’s getting ready to actually meet her.

On this same day, Mr. Matuschek comes into the store with a bunch of musical cigarette boxes that he has to figure out how to sell. Mr. Kralik disagrees that Mr. Matuschek can sell the cigarette boxes and they have a brief spat.

Enter Margaret Sullavan as Klara Novak. She’s looking for a job and proceeds to sell one of the boxes to a customer. Mr. Matuschek hires her on the spot, much to the disappointment of Mr. Kralik, who doesn’t like the threat to his position but also finds her a bit pushy.

Enter a very popular trope in romance movies – enemies to lovers.

This trope has a couple twists, though, and that makes the movie interesting and more than just a romance.

The funny thing about the movie is that it is supposed to take place in Hungary but almost everyone has a New York/American accent.

This was a bit of a goofy movie with a couple of serious themes mixed in. It features wonderful bantering between Stewart and Sullivan and some really great acting from Stewart, especially. I don’t know that I would say Sullivan was a “great” actress in this, but she was very good and held her own against Stewart’s strong personality.

According to TCM: “James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan had known each other a long time before making The Shop Around the Corner. Both were in a summer stock company called the University Players. It was there that Stewart realized his potential as an actor, so he followed Sullavan and fellow player Henry Fonda to New York to begin an acting career in earnest.

Even though Margaret Sullavan was infamous for her quick temper and disdainful attitude towards Hollywood, James Stewart counted working with her as one of the great joys of his professional career. And because he knew her personally, he was more equipped than most of the cast and crew members to deal with her frequent and volatile emotional outbursts.”

I also loved this tidbit that TCM shared: “Stewart said: “We were in this little restaurant and I had the line: ‘I will come out on the street and I will roll my trousers up to my knees.’ For some reason, I couldn’t say it. She was furious. She said, ‘This is absolutely ridiculous.’ There I was standing with my trousers rolled up to my knees, very conscious of my skinny legs, and I said, ‘I don’t want to act today; get a fellow with decent legs and just show them.’ Margaret said, ‘Then I absolutely refuse to do the picture.’ So we did more takes.”

You can read the full article here: https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/413/the-shop-around-the-corner/#articles-reviews?articleId=26807

The movie was based on the 1936 Hungarian play Parfumerie. The 1998 movie You’ve Got Mail, which starred Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, was based on that play as well.

The musical In The Good Ole’ Summertime is an almost scene-for-scene musical remake of The Shop Around the Corner.

I don’t want to give too much of the movie away, but there is a falling out between Mr. Matuschek and Kralik and a firing, but it is all over a misunderstanding involving Mrs. Matuschek. There are actually a lot of misunderstandings in this movie, and some of them are quite funny and interesting.

There are some great lines in this movie including:

Alfred Kralik: There might be a lot we don’t know about each other. You know, people seldom go to the trouble of scratching the surface of things to find the inner truth.

Klara Novak (Miss Novak) : Well I really wouldn’t care to scratch your surface, Mr. Kralik, because I know exactly what I’d find. Instead of a heart, a handbag. Instead of a soul, a suitcase. And instead of an intellect, a cigarette lighter… which doesn’t work.

Klara: [In her letter to Alfred] : Oh, my Dear Friend, my heart was trembling as I walked into the post office, and there you were, lying in Box 237. I took you out of your envelope and read you, read you right there.

Klara : Mr. Kralik, it’s true we’re in the same room, but we’re not on the same planet.

Alfred: Why Miss Novak, although I’m the victim of your remark, I can’t help admiring the exquisite way you have of expressing yourself. You certainly know how to put a man in his planet.

And this one from Klara, I would love to put on a T-shirt for myself: “Psychologically, I’m very confused… But personally, I don’t feel bad at all.”

The movie was directed by Ernst Lubitsch who told a reporter from the New York Times: “It’s not a big picture, just a quiet little story that seemed to have some charm. It didn’t cost very much, for such a cast, under $500,000. It was made in twenty-eight days. I hope it has some charm.”

I would definitely say the movie has a lot of charm.

Next up for our movies is a double feature with Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Secret World of Arrietty (a Studio Ghibli film). Erin and I will share about them next week.

Erin’s impression of the movie is here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2023/09/07/comfy-cozy-cinema-the-shop-on-the-corner/

We plan to watch the following movies through the next three months (the dates are the dates that we will be writing about them on.

The Secret World of Arrietty and Fantastic Mr. Fox (September 14)

The African Queen (Sept. 21)

Arsenic and Old Lace (Sept. 28)

Oct. 5 (break for us or you to catch up!)

The Lady Vanishes (October 13)

Strangers on a Train (Oct. 19)

Rebecca (Oct. 26)

Little Women (November 2)

Tea with The Dames (November 9)

The Fishermen’s Friends (November 16)

November 23 off for Thanksgiving

November 30th? Wildcard at this point because we shifted things around and are short a movie! Oops! We will update

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Slowly getting back into the homeschooling groove and bracing for hot weather in autumn

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea4 Comments

I almost didn’t write one of these today because our week really was that boring.

This past week it was mainly schoolwork, failing at cleaning the house, washing dishes that got used less than an hour later and were once again dirty, and worrying about a ton of things I can’t control.

I did have my regular tea and honey so that made me happy.

I spent a lot of the week trying to plan homeschool lessons and trying to figure out what to do with all the books I bought from a recent library sale to use for pleasure reading and homeschool.

I also spent a lot of time looking at a space at the bottom of our pantry where I could place some of these books but which is full of miscellaneous items and would take a long time to clean out. I mean, I could clean that space out and have a place for the books but then where will I put the garbage that I clean out?

This is the dilemma of people who don’t know how to throw anything out.

We enjoyed nice fall weather most of this past week but, and I can’t even believe I am writing this, this next week the temperatures are going to be in the high 80s. I am so depressed about it and I’m serious. I know how sad it sounds to be depressed about warm weather but I was looking forward to chilly and cozy weather.

I am trying to look forward to another chance to take the littlest swimming but the idea of climbing in and out of a pool and peeling wet clothes off doesn’t really appeal to me anymore.

We did a lot of that all summer and it was fun but it had its season and that season should be over. At least I know that much of the rest of the country will be experiencing this hot weather as well.

Because of the weather I wanted to stay inside this week but it looks like I’ll have to go out at least three days. On Tuesday I am going to get my hair cut because my mom subtly hinted it looks awful and said she’d pay me to get it done. Ahem. Mothers are lovely, aren’t they? My mother is a sweet woman and I know she meant well, but it was a little annoying since I did not want to go out and sweat this week.

On Wednesday my daughter goes back to Kids Club at a local church. On Thursday she has gymnastics. I’ll be taking her to at least one of those if not both.

Next Saturday we have a 60th anniversary party planned for my parents but so far there aren’t tons of people saying they will attend so I don’t think it will be as big of an undertaking as I thought it would be.

Our neighbors invited us to a cookout tomorrow since their daughter is home from college and I’m sure we will go to my parents on Monday.

That’s if none of us come down with the cold that The Boy caught and dealt with yesterday. I am trying my best to make sure my parents do not get sick before their party on Saturday. It doesn’t help that The Boy was with his grandparents the day before the symptoms hit. Sigh.

I did not pick my camera up all week so I have no photos to share with you but I’m sure I will next week since we will be doing summery things this week.

How about you? How was your week? Are you ready for cozy weather and getting it or are the warm temperatures hitting you as well?

Fiction Friday: Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage Chapter 3

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Fiction Friday1 Comment

Welcome to the third chapter of Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage.

As always this is a work in progress and there could be (will be) typos, plot holes, and other errors but those will be fixed before the book publishes a couple of months from now.

If you want to read the first book in the series, you can find it on Amazon HERE.

If you don’t want to read this story in chapters on a blog, you can pre-order it HERE.

If you want to learn more about my other books you can find links to them HERE.

Chapter 3

She slid her finger over the end button on the screen as she walked toward Doris. Reaching out she laid her hand on the woman’s thin shoulder. “Doris, what’s going on?” Gladwynn could feel the woman shaking under her touch.

Doris didn’t answer. Her hand was still clasped over her mouth and she’d squeezed her eyes shut as if to shut out whatever she’d just seen. Tears slipped from under her eyelids.

“Speak to me,” Gladwynn said, squeezing her shoulder. “What’s going on?” When Doris only gasped in a breath behind her hand, Gladwynn slid her hand to her back. “Where is Samantha? Did you see her? Is she in there?”

Doris nodded, opening her eyes. She slowly lifted her arm and pointed into the condo.

Gladwynn took a deep breath and stepped into the hallway of the condo. A chill swept over her and she paused, rubbing her hands up her arms. She couldn’t pause long, though. Something was clearly wrong with Samantha and she very well might need an ambulance. Her heels clipped on the hardwood floor, echoing in the sparsely `decorated main living space of the condo.

She should have asked Doris where she’d seen Samantha, but the woman had been too upset. There was no one in the living room or the kitchen, but there was a flight of stairs on the other side of the dining room. Gladwynn ascended them quickly and saw Samantha on the carpeted floor of the bedroom as soon she reached the top. The door was across from the stairs and it was open.

 Samantha was lying with her head twisted to one side, her body contorted, a clenched hand reaching toward the doorway.

Gladwynn lifted her phone and dialed 911 as she inched closer, trying to decide what to do. Should she check Samantha’s pulse? Maybe she shouldn’t check the body at all, but if there was a chance Samantha was still alive, she needed to see.

“Marson County 911. What’s your emergency?”

Gladwynn knelt next to the body, grimacing at the sight of Samantha’s face. Her eyes were open and her mouth was twisted into a grimace.  “I need an ambulance at Willowbrook.” Her voice trembled. “Condo 43. There’s a woman and she’s lying on the floor.”

“Okay. She’s on the floor unconscious?”

“Yes.”

“Is she breathing?”

Gladwynn took a deep breath and laid a hand on Samantha’s back. It was cold and hard and made Gladwynn rip her hand back quickly. “No. She doesn’t appear to be.”

“Is there a pulse?”

“Should I check? I mean, should I touch her?”

“Not if you don’t feel comfortable, but if you do you can check at her wrist using two fingers. I’m dispatching the ambulance now.”

Gladwynn cast a quick glance around the room, her gaze falling on a broken lamp on the floor, a tea cup with spilled tea on the carpet, a tipped over chair, and a piece of paper half crumpled near Samantha’s right hand.

“Send the police too,” she said. “I don’t think this was an accident.”

The dispatcher asked her to stay on the line and she did while she reached over slowly and pressed two fingers against Samantha’s wrist. Not only wasn’t there a pulse but her skin was cold and gray.

“No pulse,” she told the dispatcher. “Her skin is a funny color too. I think she’s been gone for a while.”

“Okay, ma’am. Just stay there. The ambulance and police are on their way.”

Gladwynn pulled her hand away and sat back on her heels, her stomach aching. Doris appeared in the doorway, one hand on her mouth, the other on her stomach.

“Is she – is she –”

Gladwynn looked up, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth briefly. “Yes.”

Doris began to sob and Gladwynn stood and pulled the woman against her. She felt something under her foot, glanced down, and saw it was the piece of paper.

While part of it was crumpled, she could read part of a name and date at the top of the page, as if someone — maybe Samantha — had been writing a letter.

She looked closer at the partially written name.

Der.

Maybe a boyfriend or some sort of relative? Gladwynn wasn’t sure. All she wanted to do at that moment was get Doris out of the room and maybe come back up and cover Samantha up. She knew she couldn’t cover a body, though. Not before the police had been there. Seeing her laying there, though, her body twisted at an odd angle, her hands reaching out and her unseeing eyes staring, was unnerving.

“Come on, Doris. Let’s wait downstairs for the police okay?”

“The police?” Doris looked up alarmed. “ Why are the police coming? Did someone do this to her? Oh my goodness. Oh, Gladwynn.”

Gladwynn ushered Doris toward the door. “I don’t know, but the police are better equipped than us to find out. Let’s go downstairs.”

On her way through the doorway, she noticed a black mark on the wall by the doorframe. It could have been anything, but its position on the wall, just on the edge of the frame, made her question how it had got there.

Very little about the scene seemed like an accident. The broken lap and knocked-over chair were in the wrong places if a medical emergency had caused Samantha’s fall unless she had stumbled around the room in her final moments. That was, of course, a possibility, but Gladwynn truly didn’t feel that’s what had happened.

She had Doris sit on the couch and then went to the kitchen and started to open the cabinet to get a glass of water but hesitated. This was a potential crime scene. There could be fingerprints and clues everywhere. She lowered her hand and went back to Doris just as the ambulance pulled up out front.

An EMT with a bag ran inside and Gladwynn pointed to the stairs. “She’s up there.”

Doris sniffed. “I should call your grandmother.” She sniffed again, reaching into her purse for her phone. “And Emerald. Oh, and Eileen should know too.”

Another EMT ran into the house and Gladwynn pointed up the stairs. The woman followed her co-worker.

Gladwynn held up her own phone. “I’ll call Grandma. You handle the other two.”

Doris nodded meekly, swiping a hand across her cheek.

Gladwynn stood and dialed her grandmother’s number while walking around the living room, looking at the bare white walls, the tan couch, and the plain brown coffee table with a single magazine on it. The house was immaculate but there also wasn’t much inside to clutter it. A small black bookcase with three shelves stood on the opposite side of the room next to a television with a DVD player underneath it. The shelves were only partially full.

Gladwynn stepped back to look into the kitchen as her grandmother’s phone continued to ring.  Its coloring was pale like the living room and it was also spotless. As she started to look away, though, she noticed a flower petal on the floor in front of the stove. Glancing around, though, she didn’t see the flower it could have come from.

“Gladwynn?” Her grandmother’s voice was panicked. “I’m on my way, but Emerald has fainted and we’re trying to help her. Is it true? Is Samantha dead?”

“I think so, yes.” Though she really knew so. There hadn’t been a pulse. Maybe after the EMTs worked on her? But, no. She had to accept that not even that would help.

Her grandmother let out a ragged breath. “Oh my. Oh, this is awful. Are you okay? Did you find her? Who found her? Was there blood? Was she –”

“Grandma, calm down. I want you to go home. There’s nothing you can do here. I’ll meet you there later. I’m waiting for the police.”

Lucinda gasped. “The police? Why would the police come? Is there something else going on? Are you in danger?”

“Grandma, no. I’m okay. I just felt the police should be here because something seemed off. I’ll fill you in when I get home. The EMTs are upstairs now. I’m sure they’re trying CPR. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”

The EMTs came down the stairs as Gladwynn hung up. The man’s expression was grim.  “Are you family?”

Gladwynn shook her head. “No. My friend knows her but I’ve never met her. We came to check on her.”

The man stepped closer to Gladwynn, away from Doris was crying into her phone.

“She’s gone,” he said. “There’s nothing we can do. We didn’t even try to move her. She’s cold to the touch and her lips are blue.”

Gladwynn touched a hand to her throat. “I didn’t even notice her mouth. I was so distracted by her eyes.”

The EMT shuddered. “Yeah. I can see why. It’s creepy. The police should be here any minute. We’ll let them handle it.” He looked at Doris who had collapsed on the couch. “Ma’am, are you okay?”

Doris pressed a hand to her forehead and nodded slowly, her eyes closed. “Yes. Or I will be.” She opened her eyes and offered a weak smile. “Thank you.”

The front door was still open and a frantic-looking woman with straight dark brown hair flowing across her shoulders rushed inside. Gladwynn guessed her to be around 45.

“What is going on?” she gasped.

Doris stood. “Oh, Eileen. I just left you a message. It’s Sam—”

Eileen’s cheeks were flushed. “I saw the ambulance outside. Did something happen to Samantha? Where is she?”

The EMT stepped toward her, his hand raised. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but if you’re not family I really need you to –”

“I’m the manager of this community,” Eileen snapped, a strand of hair falling across her face. “I want to know what is going on. Where is Samantha?”

Doris walked over and laid a hand on Eileen’s shoulder. “Something terrible has happened.  Samantha is dead.”

The color in Eileen’s face visibly drained, making the red on her cheeks stand out even more. “That’s not possible. I just spoke to her this morning.”

Gladwynn looked through the doorway and watched a state police car yank into a parking space. She immediately recognized the trooper who stepped out of the vehicle as Trooper Tanner Kinney. The only difference from the last time she’d seen him, though, was that today he was wearing a suit and button up shirt instead of a standard state police uniform. Another man wearing a similar suit stepped out of the passenger side. Another state police car parked next to theirs.

Gladwynn stepped out front to meet Tanner.  

“Miss Grant.” He tipped his head forward in greeting as he walked toward her. “Why am I not surprised to find you here?”

She clasped her hands behind her back and tipped her head similar to how he had. “Trooper Kinney.”

“Detective Kinney.”

“Detective?”

“I’ve been promoted to the homicide unit.”

“First, I wasn’t allowed to call you officer. Now I can’t even call you trooper. Your titles aren’t easy to keep up with. When did this promotion happen?”

“A month ago, but I don’t have time to discuss my personal life with you right now. If you haven’t noticed, there’s been a death.”

He started to walk toward the house and she hurried to catch up with him.

“I definitely noticed. I was the second person on the scene behind my grandmother’s friend Doris.”

Tanner glanced over his shoulder. “Someone you know?”

Gladwynn shook her head once. “No. Someone my grandmother and our friend knew.”

He paused and looked down at her and she was reminded how tall he was. “You do have a knack for getting yourself mixed up in things.”

“I promise it was not intentional this time. I was merely dropping my friend off to check on her friend.”

Tanner smiled briefly. “Sure. Now, where’s the victim?”

Gladwynn hugged her arms around herself, a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach as she remembered what she had seen earlier. “Upstairs. In the bedroom.”

Tanner and the other trooper disappeared into the condo.

She followed them inside, staying in the living room with Doris and Eileen, though she truly was curious what the men would say when they saw Samantha in the position she was in.

Eileen began to pace, pushing a hand through her disheveled shoulder-length hair. “Why are their police here? Is that standard for a medical situation?”

The female EMT had already gone back to the ambulance. The male EMT shrugged his shoulder. “Sometimes it is. It depends on the situation.”

Eileen paused in her pacing, her hands on her hips. “I mean it was a medical situation, right? Is that what happened? I mean did she trip or fall or maybe it was her heart or –”

“We don’t know yet,” the EMT responded. “I know this is an upsetting situation, but please try to stay calm.”

Eileen began to chew on her fingernail as she paced. “I’m trying. Will the police tell us what happened?”

“When they know, I’m sure you’ll know,” the EMT said, but Gladwynn knew that wasn’t true. The police weren’t usually very interested in being forthcoming with information, especially this early in an investigation.  

Tanner’s voice boomed from upstairs. “Miss Grant? Please come up here.”

Eileen intently watched Gladwynn walk across the room toward the dining room and the stairs. The woman was probably wondering why the police knew Gladwynn by name. A cold chill shivered across Gladwynn like it had when she’d first climbed the stairs. Tanner and two other men were in the room, either wearing gloves or pulling them on. Tanner put his hand up to stop her from entering the room. She could see Samantha’s body behind him, though, and tears stung her eyes.

She never imagined she would ever be caught up in such a heartbreaking situation.

“Miss Grant, is everything here the way it was when you first came in? You didn’t touch anything? Move anything?”

She took a deep breath, swallowing hard. “I touched her wrist to see if there was a pulse. Otherwise, no. I didn’t touch anything.”

Tanner snapped a glove on. “Good. Head downstairs and wait, please. We’d like to talk to you and the others. We’ll be down shortly.”

She nodded briefly and returned to the living room.

Other members of law enforcement trailed into the house like ants looking for a watermelon while she, Doris, and Eileen waited.

Eileen had stopped pacing. She was now sitting in a plain gray chair, texting and chewing on her nails.

“When can we get out of here?” she asked as she stood abruptly. “I need to go check on the residents and calm them down. I’m sure they know something is up with all these police parked outside.”

Gladwynn had to admit she was getting a bit anxious herself. She’d really like to get back home and check on Lucinda, but even more so she wanted to get Doris home. The woman was clearly shook up still. She’d been sitting on the couch, crying softly into a tissue off and on, and rubbing her arms with her hands. Gladwynn wondered if she should call Bill and have him come over, but she knew having too many people on a crime scene was a serious no-no. Bill also wasn’t known for being the most sensitive person.

As if in answer to Eileen’s question, Tanner came down the stairs, a notebook in hand. “Ladies, sorry for making you wait. I hope we can get you out of her soon. I’ll just need a quick statement and then you can all be on your way.” He opened the notebook and sat on the couch Doris was sitting on, but at the other end. “Which one of you was first on scene?”

Doris slowly raised her hand. “Me.” She held the tissue to her mouth and choked back a sob.

Tanner’s expression softened. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but if you could just tell me what position the body was in when you found it.”

Doris’ eyes narrowed. “She was on the floor when I found her.” She put an emphasis on she and her, to make it clear, it seemed to Gladwynn, that she didn’t appreciate Tanner reducing Samantha to an inanimate object. “She was on her face and her eyes were open.” She wiped a tissue across the corner of her eye. “It was just awful.”

Tanner kept his eyes on the notebook as he scratched a couple of notes. “I know this is hard, but I just need to gather as many details as I can in case this turns out to be more than a medical emergency.”

“Do you think it was more than a medical emergency?” Gladwynn asked.

Tanner looked up at her. “We can’t be sure until the coroner does an autopsy but the EMTs did radio in some concerns about the scene and asked for us to investigate.”

“And now that you’ve seen her body what do you think?”

A small smile pulled at Tanner’s mouth. “Miss Grant, I know you are a naturally curious person, and this has all been a bit of a shock but you also know that I can’t talk about a case while we are still investigating. Furthermore –”

“But you’re calling it a case so –”

Tanner cleared his throat. “Furthermore, I can’t discuss any case with a private citizen unless they are a family member of the deceased and I certainly would not discuss it this early on with a member of the media.”

Gladwynn sat back against the couch and sighed. “Understood. Sorry. I guess I got a bit ahead of myself.”

Tanner turned his attention back to Doris, finished his questioning of her and then turned to Gladwynn and recorded what she had seen as well.

Eileen was last. “I didn’t see anything. I got here after the ambulance.”

“May I ask when you saw the deceased last?”

“I saw Samantha this morning, briefly. On her way out the door. I asked her about this month’s recreation schedule. She told me she’d have it done later today. She was going to the lake to clear her mind.”

“Did anything seem out of the ordinary when you spoke to her?”

“Like what?”

“Like did she seem unwell? Say anything about having been sick?”

“No. Nothing like that. I mean, she seemed tired. That’s why she was going to the lake. She said she had a lot on her mind and just wanted some time to think.”

Tanner nodded as he looked at his notebook.. “And about what time was that?”

“I – I’m not sure.” Eileen wound a piece of hair around her finger. “Maybe 10?”

“How well did you know Samantha?”

Eileen let out a shaky breath. “Well enough that we enjoyed movie nights together and an occasional lunch but not well enough that we knew every single thing about each other.”

Tanner closed his notebook and stood. “You ladies may go but I may need to talk to you again when we have a conclusive cause of death.” He looked directly at Gladwynn. “I’ll send out a release as soon as I have more information.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

“I will.”

Gladwynn didn’t miss Eileen’s tight-lipped expression as she stood, her phone clutched in her hand and against her chest. She left quickly without a word to Doris and Gladwynn.

Doris stood slowly, trembling. Gladwynn placed a hand under the older woman’s elbow. “I’m going to take you home, Doris.”

“Oh. No. I should go back to the theater and –”

Gladwynn squeezed Doris’ elbow. “I’m taking you home and making some tea. You need to rest. Grandma wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t take you home to calm down.”

Doris managed a smile – the first Gladwynn had seen since they’d entered the condo. “Your grandmother is a good, Christian woman. She’d certainly forgive you. Eventually anyhow.”

Gladwynn’s cell phone rang as she opened the car door for Doris. She knew who it was without even looking at the caller ID, but she also realized she had forgotten to tell Tanner about seeing Samantha at the beach earlier that day.

He was upstairs, though, and she didn’t want to bother him again. She’d call him later and fill him in on what he saw. She didn’t know if it was important or not. Maybe he could find her cell phone and see who she’d been talking to.