Anita Birt's Note book

Count me out for a few weeks. I fell and fractured ribs on my left side. Very painful. Commiserate with me if your feel so inclined.

Anita

Anita Birt's Note book

Promises. Promises. I did say I'd talk to myself about how the first paragraph of a book will draw me in. I forgot but will pick up a book now. The book is "tinkers," by Paul Harding. he won the Pulitzer prize. Here is how the books starts.

"George Washington Crosby began to hallucinate eight days before he died. From the rented hospital bed, place in the middle of his own living room,, he saw insects running in and out of imaginary cracks in the ceiling plaster .." I could not resist such a beginning. "tinkers" is a gentle read about George's past and his connection with his father who was a tinker. I love the story and the wonderful writing.

I have purchased John L Carre's (can't find the French accent on my computer!) Our Kind of Traitor but I am pulled in by a kind of throw-away line at the end of the first paragraph. He is describing a tennis match between an Englishman and a Russian at seven o'clock in the morning on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

Here's the quote I found interesting. "How this match came about was quickly the subject of intense examination by British agents professionally disposed against the workings of chance."

British agents? How could I not jump straight into the book.

Those are my musing for this day. Great wind and rain storms have battered Vancouver Island for two days. Time for a weather change with some warming sun.

Anita

Anita Birt's Note book

I have lost my Happiness File. Can't imagine where it has gone. I've searched through every file in every file drawer to no avail. I was asked to do a presentation on Happiness and focus it on the residents of the retirement complex where I have lived for over a year. I had collected all matter of interesting material and can't find it. I'll have another search but not right this minute.

At the Cancer Clinic this morning. Since I'm having no symptoms my oncologist is holding back on treatment. He is monitoring me and will continue to do so. My friend, Helen, goes with me to sit in on the meetings and make notes which she sends to me and my son. Our big excitement happened after the meetings on the drive down a residential street when s small deer leaped in front the car in front of us. The driver hit the brakes but hit the deer. Another deer ran in front of our car. The little deer got up and ran into the garden next to the road.

It was scary. We have hundreds of deer living and wandering the streets of Victoria and the numbers are growing and growing. We need a major cull but no government is taking on the task. Perhaps when a driver swerves to miss an deer and slams into a tree with tragic results the powers-that-be will start the cull.

Tomorrow I'm going to talk to myself about why I pick up certain books. I'm always interested how the author draws me into the story within the first page. Even the first paragraph.

Do check out my web site: www.anitabirt.com and read excerpts from my books and view the covers.

Anita

Anita Birt's Note book

"No sun,no moon,
No sun, no dusk, no proper time of day
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member,
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves,
NOVEMBER" Thomas Hardy.

I was thinking of those words while out in the deary drizzly weather this morning. How quickly the coastal weather changes out here on the west coast of Canada. Yesterday was bright with some sun. Ah well. Better drizzly rain than snow.

Dis you know that one of the biggest exports from British Columbia to the United States is "BC Bud." That's top grade marijuana! It all comes from illegal grow-ops in innocent looking houses. The grow-operators steal the electricity by connecting to the power lines running past the house.

I wonder why BC Hydro does not have the technical know-how to catch the bad guys stealing power? Have specially designed vehicles to travel the streets and a "ping" hits the screen where someone has clamped on to the hydro lines. The wizards working behind the scenes inventing and re-inventing products might come up with a brilliant solution. Who goes first?

I hate fighting with inanimate objects like the parking meter in the lot I use now and then. I read the instructions, I press ONE for two hours although I only require about fifteen minutes (it's a racket folks!) I pop in my loonie and a second loonie and it keeps spitting one of my coins and asking me to send it. I tried and tried to send the loonie while I got colder and colder and finally said, "to hell with this," locked my car and left. Luckily the roaming parking lot person didn't turn up so I didn't get a ticket.

By the way, a loonie is a Canadian one dollar coin. A toonie is a Canadian two dollar coin.

I see a break in the clouds to the south west. A narrow band of hope.

Read about me and my books at: www.anitabirt.com If you are in the reading mood, I'd be delighted if your purchased on or two.

Anita.