Captain Hook
Summer has really shown herself today. It was very warm. Too warm to really do anything so I took it easy. Work in the morning, and then read. I finished A Clockwork Orange. It’s a fascinating read. The nadsat Burgess’ uses makes the book difficult to read. You need to often infer the meaning of a word by its context and as such may need to re-read sections. Or refer to the word list in the back as my edition has. The book is sometimes misjudged because it features vivid descriptions of violent encounters. This makes sense as the ultra-violence is something the protagonist not only performs, but also enjoys. And being the narrator, he would revel in it. In the end, though, the violence isn’t the point. The underlying issue is free will and morality. Choosing to be good, versus not being able to be anything but good and struggling with that in your mind.
I then started reading Libriomancer, by Jim Hines. It’s an urban fantasy where the protagonist is able to pull things from books through magic. He and others form a secret society to protect this book magic. However, bad things start happening. As they are wont to do in books. Books also create monsters. Vampires, for example. With the many ways vampires have been described, you also get different kinds of vampires. For instance, there’s the Sanguinarius meyerii, these vampires come from the books of Stephenie Meyer and they sparkle… I’m only a few chapters in but I can tell I’m going to like this. It’s a fantasy book lover’s book, there’s references to books, items from books, and authors all over.
In between I did a little bit of weed pulling in the back yard. Slowly, because of the temperature. And I decided I was finally going to get my hooks sorted.
I’ve wanted a way to keep the back door still when it’s open. So it doesn’t go back and forth when there’s wind. Or closes accidentally leaving a sad Milo outside pawing the glass to get back in. At first I was thinking of some kind of retractable leg. You’d lower it to the ground and then the door gets stuck. But those things are more specialty and harder to find. So I decided on simple hooks.
After weed pulling I grabbed my wallet and bike and headed for the hardware store. I got myself a short hook and a long hook. On the way back I stopped, as usual, at the thrift store. No luck on furniture or items, but luck in books (also as usual). I left with Pillars of the Earth, a Brother Cadfael mystery and a book of Siberian myths and legends.
Once home I waited for evening to come on and the sun to go away some. The short hook was to attach the door to the fence that separates my yard from the neighbours. I eye balled the height and started screwing the small eye in the door. That is kinda tricky to do without a pre-made hole. You don’t really have an easy way to give the needed weight so the screw actually goes in. But, I managed it. Then I screwed the hook into the fence and part one of two was done.
The long hook was meant to attach the door that opens to the door that stays shut. This way I have a middle ground between open and closed. It’s open far enough for the cats to go through and to let air in, but closed enough so it’s not very windy. Because this hook was much longer, it was also much bigger. Which meant it was a bit harder, too, to screw it in. In the end it worked, and I have a door that I can secure.
I texted the pictures to mom, so of course she came to look a little while later 🙂 It was a short but fun visit. It wasn’t until much later, when I went to collect the cats and close the door fully, that I realised something. I’d screwed in the large hook too close to the other door… The other door has an overlapping edge that I forgot to take into account. And that edge couldn’t pass the screw. Nothing to be done but to remove it and screw it in again, 1 cm more to the right. Once that was done, I truly had a door that still worked with hooks that worked 😀
Busy day, today! I’ve been reading a new comic book series the last year called Amoras. It’s a six book series that tells a Suske & Wiske story in a dystopian future. There’s time travel, crime, death, blood and a fair amount of cursing and swearing. Suffice to say, it’s definitely not meant for kids. I really like the storyline and how it looks. A while ago I saw on Facebook that the Stripmuseum (comic museum) in Groningen would show an exhibition of Amoras pieces.
When I got out, I made my way to the centre of the city to meet up with Gert and see X-Men: Apocalypse. I’d heard some bad stuff about it, but I liked it. The build-up wasn’t always strong enough. I didn’t notice, for instance, that the end battle was the end battle until it was a good bit underway. And I would have liked to see a bit more detail on the origin of Apocalypse.
And not just a queue to get in the museum, no, the queue to get a ticket. Every minute or so, yellow-jacketed hosts would let another handful of people through to the queue at the door where they could go in to buy their tickets.
Disappointingly it was not allowed to take pictures in the museum. Not even just flash-less pics, no, not at all. This did not stop us from sneaking in a few phone pictures anyway.
After a well deserved break, we got back on the tram, the right one this time, and headed for the city center. From there it was just a few minutes to get to The Book Exchange. We dove straight into the basement where they keep the scifi and fantasy books. I picked out some Star Trek books and then went around the room alphabetically. I found several books that had been on my list, or are sequels to works I have. I found Elizabeth Bear’s first books (the Jenny Casey trilogy) that I’ve been wanting. I found the follow-up to C.F. Bentley’s Harmony and also the sequels to Robert Sawyer’s Hominids. I’ve been looking for these last two for ages! They also had a fun Stargate book, and two Kim Harrison books that I still needed. And, in a surprise, twist, part four in that trilogy I got at the local thrift store on Wednesday…
A quiet hour later, we both had our arms full of books and decided to call it quits for now. With packed bags we stood outside and quickly agreed to skip the American Book Center for today. We walked back towards the city center. Gert bought himself a pink waffle with sprinkles. (I tasted, it’s ridiculously sweet)
Eva had offered to help me get the table so after some contact with both Eva and the seller, Wednesday afternoon was agreed upon. Eva came shortly after I’d gotten home from work. We had a cuppa first and then drove a few towns over to get my baby. The table is one piece and the legs cannot be removed. We had no other options then but to put the table in the back of the van with the legs pointing up. We strapped the legs on one side to the car seats. Then we tied the van doors around the legs on the other side so they’d keep still while driving. The doors couldn’t close, so we drove home gently.
We then decided to check out the thrift store and turned the rest of the afternoon in a fun little shopping trip, taking Nienke with us. I almost bought a jacket, but didn’t like the fit enough. I did find a nice wooden decorative box and a reed basket. And books. Because I cannot leave there without books. It’s usually children’s books as they don’t generally have a lot of English works.
So, today we went back to the furniture store with Dad. After some trying out of both, the decision was made to get the one we chose Wednesday. Except in a different colour.
Thus it was decided. After filling out the order form, Mom decided she also wanted a new chair to go with it. In the showroom across from the sofa was a chair she had been eyeing while we were there. It’s a more modern and streamlined shape than the old-fashioned wooden chair they currently have. The covering resembled that of the sofa on display without being too matchy-matchy.
Next stop was the thrift store one town over. As of today Nienke has a new house, so I will need some additional furniture when she moves out. That will still be a few weeks away but we’re in the neighbourhood anyway. The thrift store didn’t have anything that struck my fancy in the furniture department. I checked out the books, and hit the jackpot there. I found both the third part in a three-book series that I’ve been missing. I got the first two parts as a kid and always wanted to get the third to go with it. Here it was, for fifty cents 🙂
We then made our way over to the town center to check out a few other stores and to have lunch before heading home.
A little after five Mom picked me up to drop me off at the 
May 2016 be good to you all 🙂
Yesterday was a fun day, in so far as national-blow-shit-up day can be fun. I worked during the day so that was business as usual. In the evening we watched TV, ate tasty shit and even played a board game. At Nienke’s suggestion.
The holidays are upon us!
I love my prezzies: Anna fits perfectly with the Elsa I already have. I don’t have that many Supernatural books yet so more is always good, and the colouring book was already on my list.
I hit the treasure trove yesterday and today! It’s been a while since I’d been to the thrift store in town so I decided to pay them a visit yesterday. I came home with seventeen books for just € 3,95.
Then today I went over to my Parent’s building. They put together a small autumn fair where local crafters could sell their wares. This was the second time they did something like this. I missed the first time, but I wanted to support them. It’s nice when there’s things like this in town. Plus, it places them more into the community at large.
This morning I went to Groningen. Gert alerted me to a book sale at a thrift store there a few days ago. We met up at the bus stop near the store and headed there. They were selling the books by weight, one kilo for a euro. We combed throught the books on offer and I came away with nearly 2,5 kilo’s of sale books. And another two from outside the sale for a euro each. Total score: ten books for €4,40 😀