Retire In Style Blog Too

I confess that once again I am writing about a book BEFORE I have finished reading it. I often do this. The bad thing about this is that I really don't have the complete picture. The good thing is that I will not give away the ending. It is hard to not hint at the ending once you know how the story comes out. When we were in Mexico a couple of weeks ago I finished reading Ann Cleeves'  Red Bones: A Thriller (Shetland Island Mysteries)   on my Kindle app. It was a good mystery as always. I love Ann Cleeves a lot. I had down loaded a couple of very old books written by Willa Cather. I needed a change of pace and Cather is one of the great American storyteller that has survived the test of time. I chose to read The Song of the Lark , one of a trilogy that also included O' Pioneer and My Antonia . I had read My Antonia several years ago so Song of the Lark and O' Pioneer caught my eye. I suppose I liked the idea of reading Song of the Lark because the book not only inclu...

It seems that everywhere my husband and I travel we see that there is a class of people that are used as "slave labor".   In China the Mongols live in slum housing along the ditch bank, no schools are provided for their children and they fill the labor pool doing the menial and dirty work. In India the unclean caste were and maybe still are taking away the human waste. In the Middle East people from The Philippines, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan flow into the country to operate restaurants, work as servants and do all those jobs no self respecting citizen of those countries would do. In the United States we have used the black people and are now using the legal and illegal immigrant from VietNam and Mexico. I see them in the back rooms of restaurants and nail salons. In Portland, for example, a prominent local restaurant owner was charged the harboring illegal residents in his 5 Star Chinese establishment. I have heard nail salon owners tell their workers to stay indoor...i...

It occurred to me that I travel with my nose while we were in Mexico this month. The smells of a country tells the story of how people live and what they eat or drink. That memory of smell actually can make or break the experience for me. As I grow older I am better at taking an odor that locals do not even think about. I have also learned to keep my mouth shut because it turns out natives don't like to be told that their town "stinks". I suppose the first time I even experiences that feeling was when we were in Thailand over 10 years ago. The ever present smell of fish sauce lingered in the air everywhere we went. I have learned to appreciate what that sauce does for Thai food but it was not easy for me. Gallery selling obsidian art and jewelry.  When we were in Viet Nam we traveled south on an island called Pho Quoc to a port where the Vietnamese fish sauce is made. The essence of the rotting fish in the air was so strong I wanted to hold my nose. That sauce cannot be c...

Image via Wikipedia I wrote this post back in 2010. I still double spaced after sentences and was quite new to blogging. But memories are memories and many are worth revisiting. This is one of those posts! I am not from the city. Not even close.  I am from a very small village in eastern Oregon.  I grew up fishing, digging holes in the dirt and hanging out with friends. I did not work in the summer...well unless you count painting fences. I loved girlie stuff and shopping. And I always wanted to be from New York City! When I was very near my 40th birthday I managed to score a trip to the Big Apple...all I had to do was escort a plane load of teens to the city. Six of those teen were my personal responsibility. After we got there all I had to do was make sure none of them got broken or lost. I also needed to make sure I came back with all of them. Parents are funny that way. If I promised to do those things, my plane ticket and room were giving to me at a reduced rate. It ...

I recently received a letter from a follower about the best way to choose a park models. The writer had bought a lot in California and was thinking about putting a small house on it. Her inquiry went like this: I am new to park models but recently obtained a lot in Southern California and have tried researching what the best manufacturer is but there seems to be limited information and most of the reviews are negative as to quality. Do you happen to have better info on which manufacturers are best and do most require you buy thru a middleman. Thank you. It is a very good question don't you think. How do you make sure that the park model you buy is the best, the sturdiest and will fit your needs? I have lived in the same park model for over 9 years now. It was built in 1987. In the world of park models, that is very old. But, fortunately, ours as a Cadillac in it's day. Even so, we do have to upgrade and repair a little all of the time. Here is how it works, While the frame of a...

b+ February 2017 I'm just saying. Sometimes I wonder what I am doing but in the end the conversation is worth it. Thank you so much! b+