Wednesday, September 24, 2014

1st Day of Autumn

Ironically, the first day of Autumn, September 23rd, was ushered in by a major Pacific storm bringing copious amounts of rain and wind.  That's about as obvious a change in seasons from summer to autumn one might expect to see.......in SoCal the only noticeable difference between September 22nd and 23rd was the slight drop in temperature from 100 to the mid 90's.  On the Oregon coast you are not left wondering what day was the official beginning of Fall.

We have now been here for 3 weeks and are loving all that the weather has thrown at us including September 23rd.  Since it pretty much rained all morning, all afternoon, and all night we decided to just stay inside, reading, watching some recorded TV, and watching movies.  It was just a day to remain inside where one can be assured they will remain warm and dry.

The one movie (DVD) we watched was "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" (given 3.5 stars by IMDB).  I remember when this movie came out in 2004, but never saw it, and having been a life long fan of Peter Sellers' work I was interested in seeing the movie.  I thought it would be a movie about his work, but instead it was a movie about his personal life, which was pretty dark and depressing.  IMDB gave it 3.5 stars.....personally I'm somewhere in the 2 star range.  If you want a good laugh this is not your movie choice!  Thankfully I only paid $2 in a thrift store a few weeks ago for the DVD.  To be fair the movie did give some insight into his character development process.....I guess like many people who excel in a given field he had this obsessive/compulsive fixation with each character he played, which is why each is quite memorable.  As it turns out his second to last movie, "Being There" (1979 with Shirley MacLaine) was ultimately autobiographical, and I would definitely recommend that movie to anyone.  Peter Sellers died in 1980 at the age of 54.

The local school system held cross country races in the park Tuesday, and I felt a little bit sorry for the participants, as well as their friends and families.....it was a miserable afternoon to run, but you know those crazy Oregonians just ignore the weather and continue on with style.

We were kind of excited about the Prime Time lineup for Tuesday night as it had the return of the NCIS franchise, and Person of Interest.....regrettably we only saw three quarters of one NCIS, and a snippet of the second, and none of Person of Interest as the cloud cover became so thick, and rain so heavy we lost the signal for CBS.....most of our other channels came in, but not CBS.

I finished reading one book, and moved on to the next....since I have pretty much plowed through all the Louis L'amour books, some 3 times over, I have moved on to another Western author, Ben Bridges, and I am now coming to the end of his body of work.  I like westerns.....always have, so if any of you out there have a similar "Western" passion I would be interested in any other authors you might recommend.  

Thanks for stopping by!

6 comments:

  1. Clarke, Elmore Leonard started out writing westerns before he shifted to crime novels. He's an excellent writer.

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  2. I second the rec for Elmore Leonard. He wrote the classic 3:10 to Yuma.

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  3. BK Gore (Brian), a fellow full-timer, has a two-book western series, the first volume is free on Amazon -- "A Matter of Honor" and "Shadow On The Mountain" are his Westerns. I read mysteries set in the west, but different strokes...

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  4. Thank you Michael and Glenn, I will check out Elmore Leonard. Wil, I have read all of Brian's books so far and am looking forward to his next one.

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  5. For a different kind of "western" you might like one of several books by Wallace Stegner. He wrote fiction and nonfiction books about the American West. My favorites include Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety. His writing expresses so much of what you and Elaine have experienced in your travels in the western US.

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    1. Thank you Jeanne for the recommendation...I will definitely check out Stegner! Hope all is going well with you and Chris!

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