Cool

Summer might be coming, but today was a cool, cloudy day. I needed my covers to sit outside and read while Keith air fryer-ed dinner. I was reading Melissa Gilbert’s book Back to the Prairie. Did you know she is married to Timothy Busfield? I didn’t. I asked Keith. He said, “Who’s Timothy Busfield?” I said, “I think you should know because I love him.” I thought about it. Maybe I love the character he played on the West Wing. That helped Keith figure out who he is.

Anyway, it’s a memoir of their time (Melissa and Tim) fixing up their Cabbage (Cabin Cottage) in the Catskills (not that very far from where my sister used to live) before pandemic, then hunkering down there during pandemic. I found it very interesting to read about them during the pandemic, remembering what it was like as it unfolded. It helped me remember I wrote a diary within the first month of pandemic – for about a week. It’s somewhere in the computer. I am going to look for it. (Lies. I don’t even know how to look for it. Keith is going to look for it.)

I wonder if anyone (in the time of phone computers – not just computers, but RIGHT THERE computers) can read non-fiction without looking up a ton of things. She described her red wedding dress (red modifying dress, not wedding, ala Game of Thrones), I looked up a picture. She talked about her father and his death, I googled up Paul Gilbert. She mentioned her sister, Sarah, and I researched all about their family tree and then got on to reading about everything that Sarah Gilbert has been in. I looked up Deathlayer chickens, because how could I not? I took a picture of the recipe for Rosemary Apple pie that was included. It sounded so fancy. Then I remembered I hate rosemary and deleted the picture. I requested from the library the children’s book she wrote. And. More. Lots more. I am sure I spent as much time reading adjacent information as I did reading the book. It was all excellent fun.

Keith brought me a little bowl of blackberries while I was reading. They were soooooo good. We have been buying blackberries a LOT because they have been the tastiest berries of ever. Whatever the weather has been wherever these have been growing has been just right. I am very hopeful for strawberry season.