An ELEPHANT Never Forgets

Today ended up being completely different from what I anticipated.  The plan was to take my mother to lunch with her friends in San Rafael again, to celebrate another birthday.  To my amazement when I called to make sure she was awake she remembered that we were supposed to go out, but she was not feeling well...said she "ached all over" and that she didn't feel like going anywhere.

Of course I worried about her all day, but when I called in the afternoon, she felt just fine and didn't remember feeling bad in the morning.  The woman is a constant enigma.  I admit that the thought crossed my mind this morning that she might have claimed illness because she didn't want to go to lunch, but we'll never know.

With the day stretching out ahead of me, I got a couple of letters written and then sat down 'for just a minute' to read a bit more of the book I'm reading, "Leaving Time: A Novel," by Jodi Picoult. My friend Pat said she had it on her old Kindle and thought I'd like it, so she was willing to loan me the Kindle (since she has a newer one anyway).  I started reading it on our way down to Santa Barbara and could see instantly why she thought I'd enjoy it.

The story is told from the point of view of four people -- 13 year old Jenna, whose mother disappeared under suspicious circumstances when she was 3 years old, Virgil and Serenity the retired detective and the psychic she hires to help her find her mother, and Alice, the mother, an elephant researcher whose observations of elephants, in Africa and in the sanctuary in the U.S. that she ran with Jenna's father, make up a huge chunk of the book.

Well, it was the familiar old story ...  Yeah, I know I have stuff to do and I'll get to it after I read just. one. more. chapter.  It was so interesting and gripping that I finally just gave up and decided to read until I finished.

I took a brief break to make bread again (yes, I remembered to add yeast), which is about ready to come out of the bread maker as I write this.

I also had to stop at 4:30, with only 10% of the book left to read, so I could watch the streaming concert from Berklee that Jeri had told us about.  Unfortunately, I could get the stream, but the speakers to my computer are terrible and I missed everything that the faculty said, but remembered to plug in my headphones and at least heard the students in concert, even if I wasn't sure exactly what I was hearing.

 

Oooo....bread just came out of the bread maker.  Looks beautiful.  Smells better.