Wordless Wednesday

California Road Trip 2019 - Dunsmuir (Part II)

Tuesday and Wednesday, October 15 & 16, 2019
Dunsmuir, CA
Railroad Park Resort

We spent most of Tuesday morning doing RV chores, but once the sun started to peek through the clouds, I hopped on my bike and went for a ride toward town. Other than battling a swarm of gnats on the return ride, it was wonderful to be out exploring on my bike. When I got back to the campground, Rod and I walked up the logging road to collect firewood (ok'd by the camp hosts) and then we relaxed with our books and laptops.

Wednesday, after doing a few loads of laundry, we drove into to town to get propane and gas for the RV. We decided to get lunch at the Dunsmuir Microbrew Pub and sat outside enjoying our meal in the warmth of the sun. When we got back to our campground, we invited our neighbors over for drinks. We had all met the previous night, swapping stories about our travels and adventures as we sat around their campfire enjoying our drinks. We discovered we had a lot in common and decided to extend our stay one more day so we could spend more time hanging out with them. 

Click on images for larger view.

Castle Crags

Sacramento River

Mount Shasta

Brats

Carnitas Street Tacos

Beautiful fall colors!

Music Monday - Hello In There

Music Monday! My recent video (on Facebook) of Rod and friends playing music in our driveway got me to thinking about the joys of listening to music. During this period of "sheltering in place," I thought it would be fun to share a personal music video on Mondays. My hope is that some of my family and friends will join in with their own videos for a virtual music tour. Today's selection is in memory of the late John Prine.

Rest, nature, books, music... Such is my idea of happiness. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Looking Back - Resurrection Day

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Resurrection Day by Brendan DuBois
Fiction
1999 Putnam Adult
Read in July 1999
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In 1972, ten years after a nuclear war decimated both the United States and Soviet Union, Carl Landry, a young reporter, searches for the killer of a veteran of the 1962 war and begins to suspect that the victim may have held the key to a terrifying conspiracy.

My Original Thoughts (1999):

Excellent thriller! I was immediately caught up in the story and didn't want to put it down. Love the references to true history. Would love to see this adapted for the big screen. The special affects would be great. Somewhat anticlimactic ending, but I'm not sure how it could have been improved. 

My Current Thoughts:

I have no recollection of this book, but it sounds like it might be worth rereading. 

California Road Trip 2019 - Dunsmuir

Sunday and Monday, October 13-14, 2019
Lassen Volcanic National Park to Dunsmuir, CA
Railroad Park Resort
Site #20
Elevation: 2,290
Distance: 109 miles
Duration: 5 nights
Cost: $40.70/per night


Brrrr! It was very cold when we woke up and since the heater wouldn't ignite, we decided to pack up and leave once we'd had our coffee. We were on the road before 9:00 and got to Redding an hour later. We had planned to get gas at Costco, but this was the first location we'd encountered that didn't sell gas. We eventually found a gas station, got groceries and ate our breakfast in the RV before heading up I-5 to Dunsmuir. We had lunch at Yaks where the burgers were decent, but the sticky buns were outstanding! They gave us samples while we waited for our food, so of course we got a couple to take with us for later.

We found our campground without any problems and were very pleased with the surroundings. There were plenty of trees and the view of Castle Crags was stunning. The park has restored railroad cars to rent overnight, as well as two dozen RV sites and two dozen tent sites. Other than a little road noise at night, it was very peaceful.

Click on images for larger view.

Mount Shasta

Caldera

(Toasted Coconut Chocolate Porter)

Avocado Cheeseburger and Tots

Castle Crags

Railroad RV Park offers full hookups with level pull-through and back-in sites, each equipped with a picnic table and fire ring. We had access to free WiFi, as well as decent cell coverage. The restrooms (with free showers) are a bit on the rustic side, but they were clean, as was the laundry room. The resort has a dining room, bar, gift shop, pool and hot tub. We enjoyed our first two days so well, we decided to extend our stay two more nights.

R.I.P. John Prine

One of my all-time favorite songs...



I love John's lyrics, but actually prefer Kris and Joan's performance better.

Option B

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
Nonfiction
2017 Alfred A. Knopf
Finished on April 1, 2020
Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding)

Publisher's Blurb:

From Facebook's COO and Wharton's top-rated professor, the #1 New York Times best-selling authors of Lean In and Originals: a powerful, inspiring, and practical book about building resilience and moving forward after life's inevitable setbacks.

After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. "I was in 'the void, '" she writes, "a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe." Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.

Option B combines Sheryl's personal insights with Adam's eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart--and her journal--to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl's loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy.

Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead. Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity. "I want Dave," she cried. Her friend replied, "Option A is not available," and then promised to help her make the most of Option B.

We all live some form of Option B. This book will help us all make the most of it.

I've had this book on my shelf for three years and every time I would begin to read it, some other book would distract me and I'd return it to my nightstand for another time. As most of us are feeling during the COVID pandemic, reading is not coming easily and we are too quickly distracted by the news, Facebook memes, Instagram updates, Zoom and binging on Netflix shows. From what I've read, most of my blogging friends are in the same reading slump that I'm experiencing. It wasn't until I started reading Option B that I felt I was able to concentrate on anything. This book pulled me in from the very beginning and my copy is littered with dozens of Post-It notes. I found Sandberg's voice comforting and very relatable.

Option B is not a dry "self-help" book, but one that is full of anecdotes and quotes, many of which are both wise and humorous. While the main focus is on grief, many of the inspirational stories relate to challenges we all face. Here are just a few of my favorite passages:

Grief is a demanding companion. In those early days and weeks and months, it was always there, not just below the surface but on the surface. Simmering, lingering, festering. Then, like a wave, it would rise up and pulse through me, as if it were going to tear my heart right out of my body. In those moments, I felt like I couldn't bear the pain for one more minute, much less one more hour.

and

I don't know anyone who has been handed only roses. We all encounter hardships. Some we see coming; others take us by surprise. It can be as tragic as the sudden death of a child, as heartbreaking as a relationship that unravels, or as disappointing as a dream that goes unfulfilled. The question is: When these things happen, what do we do next?

and

We plant the seeds of resilience in the ways we process negative events. After spending decades studying how people deal with setbacks, psychologist Martin Seligman found that three P's can stunt recovery: (1) personalization -- the belief that we are at fault; (2) pervasiveness -- the belief that an event will affect all areas of our life; and (3) permanence -- the belief that the aftershocks of the event will last forever. The three P's play like the flip side of the pop song "Everything Is Awesome" -- "everything is awful." The loop in your head repeats, "It's my fault this is awful. My whole life is awful. And it's always going to be awful."

and

Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. It comes from gratitude for what's good in our lives and from leaning in to the suck. It comes from analyzing how we process grief and from simply accepting that grief. Sometimes we have less control than we think. Other times we have more.

As I read Option B, I not only thought of my own losses, but also of where we are today, facing uncertainty, isolated from friends and family. I found comfort in Sandberg's words and while I wish I had been able to read this book 15 years ago (when we faced the tragic loss of our oldest daughter), I am grateful for the insightful, conversation tone of the author's honest account of her own challenges. Whether facing your own grief or wondering how to help someone who is struggling with their own difficult situation, I can't recommend Option B highly enough.

Shrimp Scampi with Orzo

Shrimp Scampi with Orzo

Photo Credit: The New York Times

I don't remember if I spotted this recipe on The New York Times website or if another blogger shared it, but either way, it's a winner! It's so quick and easy and has become a family favorite. I serve it with crusty French bread and a Caesar salad, usually twice a month.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon juice (from 1 lemon)
½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes (optional)
Kosher salt and black pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup orzo
⅓ cup dry white wine
2 cups boiling water, seafood stock or chicken stock (I use 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth)
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

PREPARATION

In a medium bowl, stir together shrimp, 1 tablespoon olive oil, lemon zest, red-pepper flakes, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and half the garlic. Set aside to marinate. (This step can be done up to 1 hour in advance.)

Add butter, remaining olive oil and remaining garlic to a medium skillet set over medium heat. When the butter starts to bubble, add the orzo and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring often, until the orzo is toasted, about 2 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary to prevent the garlic from burning. Carefully add the wine — it will bubble — and stir until absorbed, about 1 minute. Stir in water/broth, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until orzo is al dente, about 12 minutes.

Add the shrimp in a snug, even layer on top of the orzo, cover, and cook until all the shrimp is pink and cooked through, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, 2 minutes.

Sprinkle with parsley and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

Serves 4

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A Month in Summary - March 2020

Little Whale Cove

Depoe Bay, Oregon

March 2020

We are living in strange times, my friends. As I sit here composing this post, our world is facing one of the scariest times in our history. Over 1 million people (worldwide) have been infected with COVID-19. The United States has over 200,000 infected citizens. Obviously, those numbers don't included the presumptive positive cases, which have not been reported to the CDC, as well as those who are sick but haven't been tested. The majority of individual states have implemented legal orders for citizens to stay at home/shelter in place, while a remaining few continue to hold onto their belief that social distancing is adequate. Reading all of your updates on your blogs, Facebook, Instagram and private emails, I know that I am not alone in my reading slump. I can focus on nonfiction, but novels require too much concentration. I am fortunate to live in a beautiful community and am able to get outside and walk along the ocean and in the forest, listening to podcasts and audiobooks, all of which provides me with much needed distraction from the news and updates. We cancelled our upcoming 2-month road trip (we were to leave yesterday) for obvious reasons, but I hope to continue to blog about our 2019 fall road trip, sharing some photos from the beautiful places we've visited. I've also added a "Monthly Summaries" link in my sidebar, after receiving a few questions about previously mentioned puzzles and movies. In addition to working on several puzzles this month, we have started playing some fun games. Rod's not a big fan of games, but he's a good sport, especially if we play during cocktail hour. 

Alright. Back to books and reading. There were a couple of winners and a couple that were entertaining, but not outstanding.

Books Read (click on the title for my review):

The Janes by Louisa Luna (4/5)

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore (4/5)

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger (3/5)

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle (3/5)

First Lines:

Meet our girl: seventeen, arrived here a year ago from a rough and dusty town in Chiapas, considered pretty by most standards because she is young, her face unmarked by scars or wrinkles, her body boasting the tender snap of fresh muscle. Our girl's brain, on the other hand, is at war with itself and others: with memories of her mother's worry and her father's pain, subtle with her own simmering meditations on sex and violence, with fear of all the men that come through the door with their eyes so stark and full of want it's like they've eaten her up before they've even selected her from underneath the butcher's glass. (The Janes)

Oona stopped trusting the mirror years ago. After all, it only told a sliver of the story.

This isn't me. I am not this woman. (Oona Out of Order)

In the beginning, after he labored over the heavens and the earth, the light and the dark, the land and sea and all living things that dwell therein, after he created man and woman and before he rested, I believe God gave us one final gift. Lest we forget the divine source of all that beauty, he gave us stories. (This Tender Land)

Twenty-five. That's the number I count to every morning before I even open my eyes. It's a meditative calming technique that helps your brain with memory, focus, and attention, but the real reason I do it is because that's how long it takes my boyfriend, David, to get out of bed next to me and flip the coffee maker on, and for me to smell the beans. (In Five Years)

Movies & TV Series:

Shetland - It didn't take long to get hooked on this show. We binged on the entire series and finished in a little over a week. Thank goodness for subtitles!

This Is Us - Season 2 & 3 - Season 2 had so many heartbreaking scenes. It's sappy, but I still love it.

Prime Suspect - Love Helen Mirren! A bit dated (1991) and gritty, but pretty good.

Annhilation - Blech

Puzzlemania:

Games:

Quiddler

Trivial Pursuit

Qwirkle

Chronology

We are also spending a lot of time keeping in touch with our family and friends via FaceTime and Zoom. Thank goodness for technology!

I hope this finds all of you safe and healthy. Be well and stay home!

Looking Back - How Close We Come

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

How Close We Come by Susan S. Kelly
Fiction
1998 Warner Books
Read in July 1999
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Pril Henderson and Ruth Campbell have been best friends and next-door neighbors for a decade. They share their most intimate thoughts and wishes, their private hopes and dreams. Even their children are best friends. So when Ruth goes on vacation with her children and never returns, Pril is hurt, confused, and lonely. And when Ruth's husband names Pril as his witness in custody proceedings, she faces one of the most wrenching decisions of her life: Does she testify against her dearest friend? Or does she stand behind the woman who has inexplicably shattered her family? With lyricism, warmth, and uncanny perception, this novel explores what binds women to one another, how close we come to really knowing another, and why we hurt the ones we love the most.

My Original Thoughts (1999):

I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick, light read, reminiscent of the works of Elizabeth Berg, Kaye Gibbons and Beth Gutcheon.

My Current Thoughts:

1999 must have been my year to read a lot of novels about women's friendships. I'm not inspired to give it a second reading, in spite of the high rating.