The Grand Tour and the Books I’ve Been Reading

I don’t sleep well at night anymore---damn pandemic and moving related stress---so I read from 10 PM to 12:30ish when I take a sleeping pill. Currently I’m reading book three of an eight part series by S.W. Hubbard called The Palmyrton Estate Sale Mysteries series. I’m thoroughly hooked and know I’ll end up reading them all. I’ve never been a fan of the mystery genre but this series centers around a woman who owns an estate sales business and she’s talking my language of art and antiques, architectural history, social norms history, collectibles and downsizing---with a little murder and mayhem thrown in. Some of the books are billed as read-all-night-mysteries, some are billed as psychological thrillers but the first two are labeled ‘romantic psychological thrillers’. A long-time fan of the romance genre, I was looking for something a little different in my Kindle Unlimited subscription which is how I happened on these books. I just remembered, at one point over the past few years I was hooked on series of books written in a dog’s voice. I don’t even remember the author or the dog’s name but that dog helped a private investigator solve crimes. So I guess I have read more in the mystery genre that I originally owned up to. I was thinking of the Agatha Christie type books that I tried to like but I just couldn’t get into. Back then I decided anything set in England and/or by an English author I would avoid like walking barefoot through a fire ant hill.

But I broke that English-author-set-in-England rule recently when I read another romantic psychological thriller by Keri Beevis Every Little Breath which I read because I follow her on Facebook for her daily laugh-out-loud memes and I get so much pleasure out of them that I felt should at least try one of her books. I have since read two more of her thrillers. They are definitely creeper than Ms. Hubbard’s books and I’ve decided I need to learn the ‘code words’ that reviewers and publishers of this genre use because I don’t want to get too deep into the minds of sadists and serial killers but I also don’t want to work too hard to decipher the subtle nuances of old-school mystery writers who seem to unfold clues in slow motion, boring me out of my ever-loving mind. Romance reviewers have ‘code words' like “sweet”, “hot” and “steamy." “Sweet” meaning the bedroom door slams shut after the couple swap a little spit but with “steamy” you get a play-by-play of everything that happens when couples get their faces down in each other’s crotches. “Hot” is full of verbal foreplay and totally tricked out alpha guys. Too much information?  Yup. Sometimes you just have to skip right over some of that stuff like I’m guessing some readers of hard-core psychological thrillers do when someone is getting sliced and diced.

Moving on: I went on a hard hat tour of the campus I’ll be moving into. After taking us through a fully furnished model unit and some of the public areas the Sales Director I’ve been working with since this whole process started decided to take my niece, me and the others on an impromptu tour through my unit. As we walked through the door, we were all wowed by the light coming in window area at the end of my living space. It wasn’t even a sunny day but at 3:30 the wonderful light came in from three sides. It was amazing! I could picture my painting easel sitting in that north light. I could picture my writing desk sitting in that north light. In the model they had a desk sitting in front of the window in their office so I’m rethinking the whole computer hutch against the wall idea, taking my time on that decision which might have me working on a card table for a while but, that’s okay. Wouldn't be the first time.

The photo at the top is of the apartment model. My unit will have the same flooring, the same subway tiles, cupboards and appliances. My counter tops will be a darker gray than this place has and I don't have an island. Where the island is I'll have my Amish Oak table and chairs with my restored oak ice box on the wall to the left. (That will be my food pantry.) When I first saw this photo I was bummed out because above the cupboards is solid with no place to display anything. But when the Sales Director took me to my unit she pointed out that in my unit it's open....just like I prefer. Not sure what will go up there yet but I have several possibilities---my 1940s sand and beach tin toys which are colorful or my tin whaling and ship lamps which have interesting shapes but no color but they'd go good with the stainless steel appliances.

The walls in my unit are painted and the kitchen and bathroom cabinets are in but the countertops and flooring are not. We borrowed a tape measure from a workman and measured a couple of places that were stressing me out and now I know what will fit in those two places. I was happy with almost everything I saw except for where they put the intercom. I had wanted to put a mirror there but to look into it I’d have to stand on my toes. But what a great day I had. After the tour my niece and I went out to dinner. I hadn’t seen her since last summer and since we’ve both been fully vaccinated we could be in the car together and in the booth at the restaurant without our masks. The taste of freedom was in the air. If people keep getting vaccinated we could all be mask free by the fall. ©