Hello. I would love to find some more blogs to follow.
I love blogs where people talk about their life, love books, and talk about their faith, but they don’t need to have all three of those.
Clean blogs are nice, but the blogger, obviously, doesn’t have to be perfect since I am not. *wink*
Let me know of any blogs you recommend in the comments.
This post is part of Joyce’s blog From This Side of the Pond and her weakly feature Wednesday Hodge Podge. Click over to her blog to find links to more Hodge Podge posts.
I’ve been waffling on how to make extra money to help support our family as costs go up. First I’ll think stock photography is the way to go and then I think promoting my books and by the end of the day my head is just spinning as I go back and forth on it all. I need to choose a direction and go in that direction.
2. Do you like waffles? Make your own or ‘leggo my Eggo? Any favorite toppings or add-ins? Waffles or pancakes-which do you prefer?
I do like waffles but about ten years ago I dropped all wheat and also found out I am allergic to corn which is in everything so I don’t eat waffles often. I can’t remember the last time I had one but my kids eat them all the time. They will even eat them without syrup and usually have the chocolate chip Eggo waffles. One thing I used to love on waffles was Nutella spread in between two waffles. I also loved waffle cones as a kid. I need to find a waffle maker and some gluten-free, corn-free waffle mix and make some and slather on the Nutella!
I don’t really eat waffles or pancakes but if I did, I like waffles more. Pancakes just seem too…I don’t know. Cakey to me. *wink*
3. Do you have any momentos from this summer (or past summers)? What do you do with them?
I do not have mementos from this summer and I don’t know if I do from other summers really. We don’t go on a lot of trips and I can’t think what I’d collect if we did. If I did collect momentos they’d go in a drawer or box like other momentos I suppose.
Wow. That was a boring answer.
4. One thing you’d like to do before summer ends?
Visit a local swimming hole near us with the kids and watch more Paul Newman movies for my Summer of Paul, which is me watching as many Paul Newman movies I can. I don’t think we will get to that swimming hole, but I can watch more Paul movies.
5. Life is too short to _______________
stress about likes and comments on social media.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Last night my son came into my room at 2 am after he went to see why our dog was barking and told me he looked into our backyard and thought he saw a naked man hunched over but it turned out to be his sister’s plastic side which was faded in the sunlight over the years.
Last week I continued The Summer of Paul (Newman that is) by watching Cool Hand Luke and Torn Curtain. The Summer of Paul is what I am calling my summer challenge to watch as many Paul Newman movies as possible.
I started this project late, so it wasn’t really an entire summer of Paul movies. If you want to get technical about it.
So far this summer I have watched:
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Paris Blue
The Long Hot Summer
The Hustler
Sweet Bird of Youth
The Rack
A New Kind of Love
Cool Hand Luke
Torn Curtain
In the past, I have also watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Twilight, The Towering Inferno (good grief…what a silly, crisis movie. Ha!), and Exodus.
I have about two weeks left of summer to finish a few more Paul movies, but I may stretch this movie marathon into the Fall of Paul, because, well, it rhymes, and because I have a few more movies I’d like to watch, as well as the documentary series about Paul and his wife Joan, directed by Ethan Hawke and called The Last Movie Stars.
Movies on tap for this week
The Prize
The Sting
From the Terrace
Movies I hope to fit in next week or this fall:
The Color of Money
Hud
Rachel Rachel
Rally Around the Flag Boys!
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
And
Somebody Up There Likes Me
Now for my impressions of Cool Hand Luke and Torn Curtain.
Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke is based on a book of the same title by Donn Pearce. Pearce and writer Frank Pierson wrote the screenplay and the movie was directed by Stuart Rosenberg. The story is about a former veteran, Luke Jackson, (Newman) who is sentenced to two years to a prison camp in the hot South for the petty crime of removing the heads off parking meters.
The sentence he receives is ridiculous, honestly.
Luke becomes a figure of strength to the other men in the prison when he stands up to a bully in the camp, refusing to be knocked down during a boxing match. He also stands up to the captain, played by Strother Martin who utters one of the movie’s most famous lines, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” This is a line, I might add, that my mom likes to quote a lot, but I’m not sure why. Hmmmm.
Anyhow, Luke becomes a hero to the men until he attempts to escape and that’s when things go a bit haywire. Before that attempt, Luke tries to keep the men’s spirits up by doing weird challenges, such as eating 50 hardboiled eggs in an hour, a famous scene that the movie is known for.
Luke becomes like a Christ figure to the men but eventually, he can’t live up to all the pressure and he doesn’t want the pressure. He wasn’t a hardened criminal before he came to the prison. What he was was a misguided man with no direction in life. He came from an abusive home with a mother who was in and out of relationships and didn’t do a great job at raising him.
His petty crime spree wasn’t something that should have left him in a strict prison where the captain of the prison worked hard to break his spirit and bring him into line.
Much of the movie is heartbreaking, but there are some funny moments in between.
The theme of the movie, besides Luke’s need for guidance and something to work toward, seems to be about staying in line and not rocking the boat to keep your life smooth and easy.
Luke rocks the boat and the other prisoners sort of want to rock the boat but they are too stuck in their criminal ways to know how to move beyond crime and become actual, upstanding citizens.
According to the entertainment site, Looper:
“. . . it’s an acting showcase for its star, Paul Newman, maybe the best he ever got. It’s a timeless narrative of the individual’s struggle against heartless authority, and it’s a very timely tale about how that struggle played out in the ’60s. It’s a mythic, universal story, and it’s one filled with gritty specificity. It’s a story about a Christ figure, or maybe it’s about a mortal man wrestling with God.”
Pearce had a very exciting life, much more exciting than what he wrote about in Cool Hand Luke, the article further states..
At the age of 18, Pearce “joined the US Merchant Marines in the aftermath of World War II, before he fell in love with a pregnant Italian reporter and went AWOL.” He eventually traveled all over Europe cracking safes, passing off counterfeit money, and escaping prison. Eventually, though, his misdeeds caught up to him and he spent time on a chain gang in Florida. He began writing after that but only wrote two books, Cool Hand Luke and Nobody Comes Back in 2005.
Writing for Hollywood didn’t work out for him because of his volatile nature so he eventually became a bounty hunter. Luke Jackson may have been based on someone named Donald Graham Garrison who Pearce may have heard about in prison, but Pearce denied this and said a lot of what Luke did was based on his own life, including eating 50 eggs in an hour on a bet.
Some other cool facts about the movie that you can read more about in the Looper article, or other places online:
The set was a recreation of a real Florida jail;
Jack Lemmon almost played Luke;
Paul, a method actor, toured the South while researching the role;
Some of the sweatiest scenes were filmed in very cold weather;
Paul actually didn’t eat any of the eggs during the actual filming. He put between eight and 12 in his mouth and the rest of the cast ate about 200 during the filming of the scene to get rid of them;
Paul actually learned to play the banjo for the scene where he plays and sings in memory of his mother.
Read More: https://www.looper.com/306866/the-untold-truth-of-cool-hand-luke/?utm_campaign=clip
Torn Curtain
I didn’t like Torn Curtain. There is the bottom line of my impression of the movie.
The plot and the script were honestly all over the place which fits with stories that Alfred Hitchcock hated the final script.
I loved looking at Paul and admiring his blue eyes, but I could not get into the movie and much of it seemed pointless. Not only that but I could not see Julie Andrews in the role opposite Paul, but maybe that’s because I’ve seen The Sound of Music too many times.
To me, Julie was not meant for a serious suspense film and this movie proved it.
Plus, she and Paul had horrible chemistry in the film. They seemed like two buddies instead of lovers. It was odd.
Before I go too much further in this post, here is the plot:
American physicist Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman) shocks his friends and family by defecting to East Germany to work with the Soviets during the height of the Cold War. Even his fiancée (Julie Andrews) is surprised by the move, but when she follows him behind the Iron Curtain, she discovers that her husband-to-be isn’t a spy, but a double agent working to discover Soviet nuclear secrets. As they plot a way to escape back to America, his cover is blown, putting both of their lives in jeopardy.
This is one of the few movies of Paul’s I’ve seen where his personality was horrible. He had no range and watching him act was void of emotion and like watching paint dry. He was like a cardboard cutout of himself. He seemed bored the entire time, which bored me.
I honestly kept wishing the movie would just end so I wouldn’t have to remember Paul this way. Sigh.
Hitchcock apparently hated the film so much he declined to do a trailer with him in it, which was a tradition for other films of his.
According to Imbd, the idea for the movie came from the real-life defections of British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean who defected to the Soviet Union in 1951. Hitchcock was especially interested in Maclean who later had his wife and three children move with him.
Paul and Hitchcock didn’t get along because Paul was a method actor who wanted to know what the motivation of his character was. Hitchcock reportedly told Paul his motivation was his salary for the movie and left it at that. That probably explains the lackluster performance.
Even though Hitchcock didn’t like the movie or the performances of the actors in the lead roles, audiences did. It was the highest-grossing film, at least for Universal Studios, in 1966.
I am hoping the next couple of movies I watch will remove the memory of Torn Curtain.
Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.
What I/we’ve been Reading
You might recall that last week I had a list of books from which to choose from for my reading pleasure but hadn’t decided on which one.
After I posted that post, I chose The Boomerang Clue by Agatha Christie, which I had picked up at a book sale at the local library. It was an old copy, maybe from the 70s and after reading it for a bit I realized it smelled like an old book and that wasn’t a good thing. I started getting a weird headache and coughing so I had to place the book aside. I looked online to see if I could download an ebook copy of it, but lo and behold, much like some of Christie’s other books, this book had been renamed. I’m not sure what was offensive about this one’s name and why it was changed, but I do know why And Then There Was None was changed from its original name. You can look that up if you are curious.
The book was the basis for a mini-series on Britbox which we recently watched so I decided I’d see if the book had been renamed to that and, indeed, it had been renamed at some point in the past, even before the series. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? was the new name for the book but it was $9.99 on kindle and I’m pretty cheap (aka broke) so I decided I’d see if I could get it at the local library instead since I was already invested and wanted to see if the book was different than the mini-series. I mentioned all this to my husband who said, “Well, good thing I bought that book on a super great Kindle deal a couple of months ago then…”
Needless to say, I am reading the book on the Kindle instead of breathing in all the spores and who knows what else in that old book. I should be done with it today or tomorrow.
I am continuing to read the 80s Rom-Com Club, which is a series of novellas in the evenings, and also hope to start a book by Sean Dietrich who writes Southern stories, both fiction and non-fiction this week.
What’s Been Occurring
Last week I got way too wrapped up in trying to figure out Instagram and how to promote myself not because I want to be rich and famous but because even an extra $50 bucks a month would be such a help right now. In the end, none of it mattered because one day I had 5,000 views on a video and the following day I had three and when I Googled it said my drop in views was probably because I had somehow pissed off the Instagram lords and they were hiding my account.
I don’t have time for those games. School starts in a couple of week, I have a house to try to keep up and clean (though my husband moves faster and does a better job so I am always behind), photos to edit for stock, and just reality to live in. Social media is a putrid toilet right now and I don’t want to be caught up in the downward spiral, especially if it means I have to sell my soul to the Devil just to get a few new followers and maybe a few sales.
Little Miss and I visited my parents Thursday and tried to go swimming but the water was simply too cold, a sign that fall will be upon us too soon. As if the changing leaves weren’t enough to let us know that. Luckily, we were able to get a swim in yesterday instead since the temperature was warmer then and might get one in today.
On Thursday the kids also helped my dad pick some of the collard greens in his garden and we cooked some of them down for freezing and I brought some home to do the same.
On Friday the kids and I drove 45 minutes one way to the town where we used to live to get Zooma The Wonder Dog’s nails trimmed at the vets and also made a stop at a small market across the NY State border for some meats. It is a market we shopped at often when we lived there. We did drive by our old house and it’s always weird to see it and know we don’t live there anymore.
I am having a horrible time with the keys on my laptop. I took them off to clean them because the keys were sticking and now they won’t go back on and I sort of want to cry. This is how my life seems to go lately – something is always failing or falling apart. Because of the broken keys it took me a little longer to write this, but I can at least still hit the keys. Replacing them is apparently not possible and replacing the laptop is definitely not an option, since we can’t even pay our heating oil bill.
This week I will be getting ready for school as well, by cleaning out and straightening my homeschool closet, as well as double checking what we do and don’t have for the upcoming year. I originally wanted to start back on August 31, but we may end up waiting until after Labor Day. We aren’t sure yet.
What We watched/are Watching
I finished Cool Hand Luke yesterday. Man, that is a terribly depressing movie. I have a couple more Paul movies to watch in August as part of my Summer of Paul and hope to find a couple of happier ones before the summer is complete.
The Husband and I watched Torn Curtain last night with Paul and Julie Andrews. It is an Alfred Hitchcock film about a professor who infiltrates East Germany looking for information for a defense weapon which won’t require the use of nuclear weapons. His plans are almost foiled thanks to his poor communication skills, which results in his fiancé (Andrews) following him. This leaves both of them in great danger. I’ll write more about it in a separate post later this week, but it wasn’t one of Hitchcock’s best, probably because he was not happy with Paul and Julie being in the film and hated the script. I don’t blame him for hating the script. The movie was pretty awful really.
We hope to cleanse our pallets with The Sting later in the week. I also plan to watch The Prize, which is supposed to be a comedy.
Earlier in the week, we watched Brokenwood Mysteries.
What I’m Writing
Last week on the blog I shared:
I am also working on Mercy’s Shore and hope to continue this week if my keyboard will continue to work.
What I’m Listening To
This week I plan to listen to TobyMac’s latest album Life After Death which just came out.
Now it’s your turn
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Hey to the two people who sometimes read the new chapters on here: There is no new chapter this week. Chapter 16 simply isn’t ready yet, but hopefully it will be by next week. I wasted time on some unimportant things this week instead of writing and I hope to remedy that this next week.
In the meantime, I have caught up on the list of chapters under the Mercy’s Shore tab at the top of the page if you need to catch up on the story.
I look forward to sharing more of the story with you next week.
Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I, have been exchanging classic movie suggestions this summer. This week I am talking about The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which she and her mom suggested for me, and she is talking about His Girl Friday, which I suggested for her.
I am so glad that Erin suggested this one. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would when I first heard about it.
The premise of this 1947 classic is rather simple. A widow, Mrs. Lucy Muir, wants to get away from her in-laws (a sister-in-law and mother-in-law) so she looks for a home to live in with her young daughter, Anna Muir, who is played by Natalie Wood. She finds a house that no one else seems to rent and later finds out it is because people believe that the home is haunted by a sea captain who owned the place and killed himself during a break from the sea.
The sea captain is played by Rex Harrison and the widow is played by Gene Tierney.
Not to give away too much but Lucy meets the ghost, and they form a friendship aimed at allowing Lucy to keep the home and not have to go back to live with her controlling in-laws. It will also allow the ghost, Captain Daniel Gregg (no, not Daniel Craig so no shirtless scenes here), to remain as a spirit around his home and keep it like it was when he was alive.
There are times during the movie that Lucy believes she has imagined the Captain and other times she is sure he is real. Sometimes even we as the viewer wonder if she is imagining him or not.
There is a terrible amount of sexual tension between the two, even though the captain is a ghost and there is no chance for a relationship between them.
I can’t deny that young Rex’s sex appeal just oozes from him as he starts to fall in love with Lucy, who he nicknames Lucia. I’ve always had the older Rex from My Fair Lady and Dr. Doolittle in my mind when I hear his name so to see him so young helps me understand why he became such a sought-after leading man in the 40s and 50s and beyond. I read in one article that he believed his character needed a beard in the movie but the studio fought it because they felt many women would want to see his handsome face. In the end, Rex won the fight.
The lighting and cinematography in the movie are very dramatic and set a romantic and rich mood.
An article on the Turner Classic Movies website describes Lucy and Daniel’s first meeting well:
The pools of lamplight and the soft, deep shadows create a rich atmosphere that evokes ghost story imagery but not menace. Rather, it is oddly welcoming and comforting and Bernard Herrmann’s score (one of his finest) is uneasy but curious rather than spooky. Harrison’s booming voice rises as she challenges him and then drops to a civil, at times admiring tone as they talk. Her courage impresses him and rather than scare her off, he comes to terms with his permanent houseguest: a co-existence that turns into a partnership and even something of an unspoken romance.
The movie does have quite a bit of humor in it but there is also an underlying sadness at times, especially since the Captain is a ghost and can’t truly be close to anyone.
The movie is based on a book by R.A. Dick.
“How unfortunate of a name,” I thought when I read this and after further research saw it was a pseudonym by an author named Josephine Leslie. She was an Irish writer who also wrote a book called The Devil and Mrs. Devine. I guess she had a theme going there with the titles. She did not write a third book in this vein, with her only other book being Light and Shade.
It was published in 1945 and made into a movie that was released in 1947, which is a pretty good turnaround to me.
The book and movie were also the basis for a sitcom, which ran for two years.
I won’t tell you what I thought of the ending, in case you haven’t seen it, but if you have seen it, let me know and maybe I can tell you in private. *wink*
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. It was such a great pic from Erin and her mom. She and I haven’t discussed the next movies we recommend for each other or even if we will, so I’ll keep you posted there. It has been a fun experience either way!
Welcome to the Blog Tour for Dead Sea Conspiracy by Jerry B. Jenkins, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
Title: Dead Sea Conspiracy
Series: Dead Sea Chronicles #2
Author: Jerry B. Jenkins
Publisher: Worthy Books
Release Date: August 23, 2022
Genre: Christian Suspense, Dual Timeline (Biblical & Contemporary)
In Book 2 of the Dead Sea Chronicles, archaeologist Nicole Berman is about to discover the key to unifying three major religions, if a dangerous and evil enemy doesn’t stop her first.
She is the first woman to be awarded a permit to lead a dig in Saudi Arabia and believes what she hopes to discover has the power to rewrite history. She assembles a team that will ultimately surprise – and in some cases – betray her. In a parallel storyline, readers are launched back to ancient Ur where young Abram is sent to learn from his forebears, who tell him firsthand stories of being on the ark during the Great Flood.
This was my first book by Jerry B. Jenkins and this is probably not the book I should have started with, since I didn’t realize when I signed up to read it that it was the second in the series. Oops! Luckily it didn’t matter too much, and I was able to quickly catch up with what had happened in the first book, Dead Sea Rising.
Part of this book was mainly dialogue with little scene or location description, which I didn’t like at first, but then, as I got into it, I started to get used to Jenkins’ style of writing and had trouble putting the book down. It was full of mystery, ancient history, and a lot of what-ifs related to archaeology.
Jenkins definitely knows how to weave a story and how to do so in a creative manner. This book jumped between two timelines — one set in a Biblical setting and one in modern times. I am not necessarily a fan of dual timeline novels, but I gave this one a chance and it grew on me.
I did like the main characters for the most part, but felt that Nicole, the archaeologist could have been better developed with some more introspection moments with her. This, however, is not Jenkins’ style of writing so that’s completely fine. His focus is on the story more than the characters and the story was engaging.
If you usually read a different genre, but you want something full of mystery and some heart stopping action, then this book is for you. It will give you a sample of mystery, Biblical fiction, and speculation all rolled into one.
I was provided with a complimentary advanced copy of this book but was not required to provide a positive review in exchange for it.
PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indie Bound | Christianbook | BookBub
Jerry B. Jenkins‘ books have sold more than 73 million copies. Twenty-one of his titles have reached the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Wall Street Journal best-seller lists. The phenomenally best-selling Left Behind series inspired several movies, one starring Nicolas Cage and another starring Kevin Sorbo. Jenkins has been featured on the cover of Newsweek and his writing has appeared in Time, Reader’s Digest, Guideposts, and dozens of other periodicals. Jenkins owns the Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild, through which he trains thousands of aspiring writers. He is a member of the Colorado Authors Hall of Fame and chairs the Creative Writing major at Colorado Christian University. He and his wife, Dianna, have three grown sons, including Dallas, creator and director of The Chosen TV series.
Connect with Jerry by visiting jerryjenkins.com to follow him on social media or subscribe to email newsletter updates.
(1) winner will receive signed & personalized copies of Dead Sea Rising (paperback), Dead Sea Conspiracy (hardcover), and a $50 Visa gift card.
(9) additional winners will receive signed & personalized copies of Dead Sea Rising (paperback) and Dead Sea Conspiracy (hardcover).
Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight August 16, 2022 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on August 23, 2022. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
*NOTE: This post contains affiliate links.
Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing, and listening to.
What I/we’ve been Reading
I finished Dead Sea Conspiracy by Jerry B. Jenkins Friday and enjoyed it a lot more as I got into it. I’m still not a fan of dual timeline books but I like how this one tied the two timelines together.
I do recommend it, especially if you like speculative fiction.
I also finished the first novella in a set of novellas called The 80s Rom Com Club by a few different authors. The novellas are all light and fluffy romances about a group of women who have a club that watches old 80s movies together. I’ll probably stretch them out and read one or two a week and read them in the evenings because they are light.
I want to start a mystery or suspense book this week so for my choices I have:
Of course, by the time I post this, I could change my mind on all of my choices and choose something completely different. I’m really not sure at this point.
The Husband just finished The Identical by Scott Turrow and is reading The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie, which I found at the aforementioned book sale the morning Rushdie was stabbed. I saw the books by him, commented to the librarian about the stabbing (she then in turn asked me if I knew David McCullough had died) and then The Husband texted and asked if I found any books by him there. Weird timing.
Little Miss and I are reading Ramona, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary.
The Boy is reading War of the Worlds whenever he isn’t playing video games so he should finish that book by 2025 at this point.
What’s Been Occurring
On Monday I was prepared for a relaxed day where I would do some housework, but otherwise hide inside from what promised to be a humid, muggy day.
Then a friend sent a message and asked if the kids and I would like to go with her family to the local lake and state park we had visited at the end of June. I wanted to say ‘no’, in some ways, because the Weather Service had issued a heat advisory, but I knew it would be good for us all to get out, so I agreed.
In the end, the weather turned out not to be very hot and the predicted afternoon storms never came, even though the clouds kept threatening it.’
The kids had a blast.
My anti-social teenager even jumped into the lake with all his clothes on right before we left.
On Wednesday, Little Miss developed a sore throat and later in the day a fever. By Friday it was almost gone and on Saturday it was all the way gone. I’m not really sure what that was about. Every three or four months she seems to get a couple of days where she gets a brief sore throat, a low-grade fever and the sniffles for about three days and then moves on. Usually, it happens with weather changes so spring and fall are the worst times for it. The weather did get cooler this week, but not until after her brief illness.
The weather got so cool this week, I started thinking about fall, which I thought I was looking forward to until I thought about the lovely green leaves all falling off and it getting cold and dreary. I do like weather where I can curl up under a blanket but I also like temperatures that are just right so we can do outside activities without sweating through our clothes.
While I was outside thinking about fall I also thought about how our backyard could be a filming sight for National Geographic. Not only do we have a big woodchuck living under our shed, but she’s apparently had babies because I saw a mini-version of her run across our yard the other day. Now, in addition to trapping her, we have to trap her babies. Fun times.
The boy found a half-eaten rabbit in our yard last weekend – as in something bit it in a half and left the head. Our dog loves to chase those rabbits but she only gets as far as her lead and never catches one. She hadn’t been out there long enough to do that kind of damage so we knew it wasn’t her.
Long story short, I asked our neighbors if they had had their game camera up this year and if they had seen what was in our yard that could do that. From a quick search on the ole’ interwebs, I learned that fox, coyote, and racoon will all rip a rabbit in half and sometimes not eat all of it. It’s possible we interrupted their supper when I let the dog out that night. The neighbor had not had their camera out but they put it out this week and it appears our culprit is a fox, which doesn’t surprise us since we heard one screaming outside our house in the spring.
Luckily this summer we have not seen the skunks we saw last year. The deer have been out some, but not as much, and I finally saw a couple squirrels, which is weird because we were commenting one day recently how we don’t see squirrels here in the more rural setting when we saw them all the time when we lived in a bigger town. So far we have not heard of the bear returning since it visited our neighbor at the end of the street. Yes, we consider the houses up and down the street our neighbors. *wink*
Last night (Saturday) was the annual Outhouse Races, which we attended as a family.
I wrote about the outhouse races last year.
They are held as a charity event for the local Lions Club.
What We watched/are Watching
Continuing the Summer of Paul this week I watched half of Cool Hand Luke yesterday. I hope to finish it later today or tomorrow.
I didn’t take the time to watch any of his other movies during the week since Little Miss was so clingy and in between her clinging I had to cook dinner and work some on my book and try to figure out reels on Instagram, which I finally gave up on.
I’ll have more thoughts about Cool Hand Luke and Rachel Rachel later in the week, but I will say that I didn’t like to see John Walton being treated so poorly in Cool Hand Luke. One of the men was portrayed by the same actor who played John Walton, the patriarch on The Waltons.
Wayne Rogers, who played McIntyre on Mash, was also in the movie, but of course I was watching it to see Mr. Blue Eyes himself.
The Boy and I watched Raising Arizona with Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunt Friday night. I had seen it years ago, but he had never seen it and really enjoyed it. Here is a trailer for those of you who haven’t seen it.
The Husband and I also watched another episode of Harry Wild with Jane Seymour. I didn’t enjoy that on as much as the first episode. Then we watched another Brokenwood Mysteries.
What I’m Writing
I have been adding quite a bit to Mercy’s Shore as more ideas for it are starting to flow.
This week on the blog I shared:
What I’m Listening To
I wish I could say I am listening to a lot of music, but I really haven’t been, other than Matthew West. I also listened to Matthew’s podcast last week.
Now it’s your turn
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
This is a continuing/serial story. I share a chapter a week and at the end of the story, and after I edit and rewrite, I self-publish it. To catch up with the story click HERE. To read the rest of the books in this series click HERE. Let me know in the comments what you think.
Chapter 15
“So, the dude with Angie is her boyfriend.” Judi pushed a bite of cake into her mouth. “He’s a doctor.”
The cake was amazing. Judi hadn’t eaten cake in — well, she didn’t know how long. She’d always stayed away from cake to try to keep her figure. She couldn’t believe what she’d been missing. This had been her third piece since they’d gotten there.
She stared at the half-eaten piece for a few seconds, then laid the fork back down. Whoa. She was about trade one addiction for another. The sugar addiction wouldn’t kill her as fast as the alcohol might, but still. She pushed the plate away.
“Anyhow, that’s what Mark says. He’s a nice guy when you get to know him.” She wiped frosting off her upper lip with a napkin. “He hates you, though. We should probably duck out before Angie and the kid gets back before they give you another concussion.”
Ben pushed a hand back through his hair and sipped from the cup of coffee Leona had brought him earlier. A handful of guests were still lingering, helping Leona and Adam clean up. Judi had heard them agree they’d stay around until Amelia came back and opened her gifts. The mention of gifts reminded her of the stuffed bear Ben had shoved in the trunk a few miles back. They’d stopped at a toy store in town. He’d had no idea what to buy but Judi had grabbed the bear, shoved it at is his chest and declared bluntly, “Kids like stuffed things. Let’s go.”
“Should I go get that bear out of the trunk?”
Ben stared into the coffee cup for several moments then jerked his head up suddenly. “Huh? Oh. Yeah. That would be a good idea, I guess.” He sat back in the lounge chair he was sitting in and rubbed the back of his neck. “You know what? Let’s go get that and then let’s head out.” He looked at his watch. “It’s getting late and we’ve got a long drive back.”
Judi wanted to go back. Evan’s suggestion they get together when she got back to Spencer was at the forefront of her mind. Still, something tugged at her conscience and she decided not to agree as quickly as she usually would have.
“Shouldn’t we stay?” She shrugged a shoulder. “Just to see how Amelia is?”
Ben shook his head and sipped the coffee again. “No. I think we should go. I shouldn’t be here.”
“Sure you should. You’re her dad.”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t know that, and I’ve never acted like a dad, so, no I shouldn’t be here. Plus, it looks like she’s got someone to be her dad anyhow.”
He had a point. Should she tell him he had a point? She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and watched him drinking the coffee and staring blankly at the back of the house.
Actually, both Jesus and Ellie would probably not point out to Ben that he was right about Amelia having a replacement dad. That definitely wouldn’t help his mood.
“Well, still, it would look bad if you just left and didn’t see how she was.”
Ben finished off the coffee. “I’m sure she’s going to be fine. It was just a bloody nose. I got them a ton when I was a kid.”
He said the words but his dipped brow, far-off stare, and hunched shoulders told Judi he didn’t believe it.
“Well, this party has been a bit of a bust, huh?” Adam laughed as he walked over to the table and sat next to Ben. “Angie just called, though, and Amelia seems to be doing fine. No broken bones. They’re heading home soon.”
Ben’s muscles visibly tensed at the word “they’re.”
Ben placed the cup on the table and rubbed a hand across his eyes. “We should be heading out too. We’ve got a long drive back.”
“You’re welcome to stay the night,” Adam said, folding his hands in front of him as he leaned on the tabletop. “We’ve got a pullout couch in the den and Angie can sleep in Amelia’s room tonight.”
Ben shook his head quickly. “No. Thank you, but I need to get back and rest up. I’ve got court Monday morning.”
Judi cleared her throat. “Actually, I could use a rest before we head out.”
Adam’s expression brightened as if he was glad he could help somehow. “Sure. You can crash in Angie’s room. It will be a little more private than the den and I’m sure she won’t mind.”
Ben’s expression darkened and he shot Judi a glance she knew meant he was not happy with her. It was true, though. She could use a nap before the drive back.
Manipulating situations was a talent of her’s and she was glad to be able to use it for good this time instead of bad. Stalling their departure would give Ben another chance to see Amelia and say goodbye and maybe give her the gift they’d brought. Leaving now would only leave him on a lower note than he’d been on when he’d arrived. Maybe they could redeem the trip if he and Amelia had another chance to bond. It might make him less grumpy at work on Monday too. Judi wasn’t completely without an ulterior — and self-serving — motive.
She followed Adam into the house. He paused in the kitchen to let Leona know Judi be laying down in Angie’s room and then led Judi up a flight of stairs leading from the dining room and down a narrow hallway with a large window at the end of it.
Adam pushed the door open to a room on the right and as Judi looked to her left, across the hall, she noticed a closed door with a unicorn picture taped to the outside. Turning her attention to Angie’s room, she took in the sunlight pouring in streams across a queen-sized bed with a cherry wood headboard and a comforter featuring pink roses against a white background spread across it. The room even smelled of roses. Clean, tidy, and picturesque. The whole scene made Judi want to roll her eyes. She might have if Adam hadn’t been there and also hadn’t interrupted her thoughts by letting her know where the upstairs bathroom was if she needed it and asking if she’d like an extra blanket from the hall closet.
She thanked him, declining the blanket, and when he’d left and shut the door, she tossed her purse on a chair next to an armoire, stretched her arms over her head while yawning, and looked around the room before flopping back onto the pile of pillows at the top of the bed.
“My-my, Angie Phillipi, you sure know how to live in style.”
She yawned again and rolled onto her side, intending to take the nap she’d said she needed. An open drawer in a desk across from the bed caught her attention briefly but she closed her eyes so she wouldn’t get up and go to look in it. She was turning over a new leaf, changing her ways. She wasn’t about to snoop in the drawers of a desk owned by a woman she barely knew.
When she reached over and laid her phone on a book by the bed the book and the phone fell. The book must have been closer to the edge than she realized. She leaned over and picked the book up and when she did a photograph fluttered to the floor.
“Great. Just trash Angie’s stuff, Judi,” she said to herself as she flipped the photograph over to slide it bask into the book.
Ben and Angie’s smiling faces looked up at her from the photograph and she paused, studying it. Ben’s arm was around Angie who had her body pressed into his side. They were definitely a couple whenever the photo was taken, not only because of Angie’s intimate posture but because of Ben’s hand resting on her thigh. Judi studied the photo for a moment then opened the book to lay the photo inside. Handwritten dates and journal entries made her realize the book was actually a journal. As much as she wanted to know what, if anything, Angie had written about Ben. She was going to stick to her personal promise to not pry into the private lives of others.
She pulled herself back into a comfortable position and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep quicker than she normally did.
The sound of her phone ringing woke her. She answered it without thinking and without looking at the caller ID, her eyes still closed.
“Hey, gorgeous. I didn’t expect you to pick up when you saw my name.”
The voice sliced a chill through her and she sat up, her eyes popping open. She swallowed hard, wanting to slide her finger over the end call button but feeling as if she were in a daze. Her arms wouldn’t move, her mouth had gone dry, and an odd roar filled her ears.
“Speechless huh?” A sardonic laugh filtered loudly through the phone, causing her to flinch as she realized she’d bumped the speaker button. “Yeah, well too bad you weren’t speechless when you lied to Seline about that night in my apartment.” Jeff’s cheerful timbre slid into a more mocking tone. “Funny how you didn’t mention to her how you were all over me all night in the bar and all those highballs you kicked back before you asked me to take you back to my place.”
Judi pulled the phone back and started to hit the end call button, noticing the tremor in her hand.
“You wanted it, Judi. You know it. I was only giving you what you wanted before you decided you weren’t going to let me have it. That’s how girls like you are. You beg for it all night long and when we finally give in, then you cry rape. That’s what sluts do, Judi. You know that right? You don’t want your family to know what a slut you are, do you?”
She gasped as the phone was snatched from her hand. She looked up to see Ben standing above her with her phone in his hand, anger flashing in his eyes. She couldn’t figure out where he’d come from or how she hadn’t heard the bedroom door open.
“Who is this?” he hissed at the phone.
“Who is this?” Jeff shot back. “Judi’s new boyfriend?”
“No. This is Judi’s lawyer, and it sounds to me like you’re trying to blackmail my client and I don’t appreciate that and neither will a judge when we — “
Jeff spat a curse word and the line went dead.
Judi hugged her arms around herself, suddenly aware her entire body had grown cold and she was trembling.
“You okay?”
She started to shake her head but changed her mind and nodded.
He lowered his voice and she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the bedroom door was open and she could see into the room across the hall. Amelia was sitting on a pink canopy bed with a doll, brushing its hair.
“Amelia is showing me her room but when I’m done, we need to talk about what just happened. Don’t tell me it was nothing. I don’t know who that guy was but he was threatening you. Is this related to that text you got from some Seline earlier?”
Judi’s head jerked up and her mouth dropped open. “Wha —”
Ben held his hand up and turned toward the doorway. “No. Don’t tell me now. Take a deep breath, calm down and we’ll talk when we get in the car.”
“How much did you hear?”
“Enough to know whoever that guy is he’s a piece of garbage.” He paused, his hand on the doorknob. His tone had softened. “Are you going to be okay for a few minutes?”
Judi nodded but didn’t speak. Ben studied her for a few moments, eyes narrowing, then stepped into the hallway and closed the door. She’d been afraid to speak. If she had, the wall might have fallen, the emotion might have spilled over, and she wouldn’t have been able to put the lid back on again.
