Goodbye July

Content consumption: What I read, saw, watched, bought and thought

Hello hello dear readers and subscribers! You’ll notice I’ve changed my rhyming headline for the first of the month to reflect the month past instead of the month to come. It felt awkward to greet the new month in a post which is basically a summary of the last one, so I made a unilateral decision to change that. We’ll see how it goes.

For those who have been following along but not memorizing my peregrinations and also for those just joining, Crone Life is about figuring out old age, more or less. I guess I’m not that old–I’ll be 66 in September–but I’m certainly old enough for this endeavor.

If you’ve been following along and paying attention¹, July was to have been a month off wherein I had fun adventures. And I more or less have. I spent a lot of time at home napping and reading books. I went to NYC for a couple of days to visit my sister and see an art installation. I went to Storm King and thoroughly examined a selection of outdoor art. I went to the Catskills with my husband and found it all rather boring. Very pretty, but not my bag. It was especially not Mr Crone’s bag, who began agitating to leave the day after we arrived, saying things like “When you’ve seen one tree you’ve seen them all” and “You’re spending too much on the matcha lattes.” We finally left a day early because he said the bed was too soft to sleep in.

The view from the top

The high and low point of the trip was when we took the gondola to the top of Belleayre Mountain and he rediscovered his fear of heights and cajoled me into walking back down which was not a good idea. He runs every day and goes for walks most afternoons, whereas I am underconditioned after a series of injuries. He was leaping about like a mountain goat as I tried various techniques such as walking diagonally across the steep incline and walking in the grass so I didn’t wipe out on the loose gravel. I was wearing sneakers instead of hiking boots since this whole jaunt was unplanned.

It culminated (or reached its lowest point) when he encouraged me to cut across a turn to save time and I tripped, fell, hit my arm on a rock and couldn’t get back up again. It was like my quads had ceased to exist. I had to slide the rest of the way on my butt (ruining a pair of barrel-leg khakis in the process.) When we finally reached a level paved area, I was able to stand again with his help. And then a well-timed white Subaru driven by a man about our age who was making a tour of ski runs he had loved in the past came by and proved willing to be flagged down. He kindly took us back to our AirBnB at the bottom of the mountain. We had made it about ⅔ of the way on foot, maybe not so bad? But boy did I feel old and out of shape and boy was Mr Crone thrilled at how fit he proved to be. My hips still ache a week later. The bruise on my upper right arm (yes, the same arm with the shoulder replacement) is huge though fading, but no greater damage was done I don’t think.

We were in the westernmost part (Highmount) of the town of Shandaken, which is in Ulster County and contains the famous and well-publicized villages and hamlets of Phoenicia, Big Indian, Pine Hill, Mt. Tremper and so on.

I thought it was the first time I’d been to the Catskills, but then I remembered I had chaperoned a middle-school trip with my son to the Frost Valley YMCA camp maybe 16-17 years ago. They were supposed to climb Slide Mountain, the tallest peak in the Catskills, but the bestlaid plans were forestalled by a freak October blizzard and instead we spent a few hours tromping through the woods, utterly unprepared for the conditions. Then after everyone was thoroughly chilled and wet, we retreated to the cafe area, drinking subpar hot chocolate garnished with sugary cereal. I hope never to spend that much time with 12 year old boys again. It was probably a good experience for those Brooklyn kids, who seldom encounter nature in all its glory, but I had already lived through the Great Ice Storm of 1973² and didn’t need to be reminded. At least the power didn’t go out.

I guess unexpected things going wrong is my Catskills vibe now, like it used to be my Maine vibe. A tale for another time.

Read

What We Are Seeking, Cameron Reed. A novel about how humans might settle distant planets inhabited by incomprehensible aliens and how gender roles might develop under varied, often tragic circumstances. One character is from a culture that abominates marriage. A second is from one that only sanctifies male-female relationships. A third is from a society that recognizes and honors a third gender. It might sound dry, but it’s a great read. Oh, and there’s also AI. Real AI. Don’t forget the aliens! Cameron Reed wrote The Fortunate Fall (1994), which I haven’t read. Reed identifies as a nonbinary trans woman. The New Yorker has a good review.

My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein, Deborah Levy. Enjoyable but slight. I learned a lot about Gertrude Stein, though.

City of Bones, Martha Wells and The Wheel of the Infinite, Martha Wells. I chose this month to finish up my Martha Wells reread with two of her lesser works. Both have the same great worldbuilding, but peter out into apocalyptic nothing. Each title probably should have been a trilogy.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, Shannon Chakraborty. Amina al-Sirafi is a retired, middle-aged pirate queen who has moved back home to live with her elderly mother and young daughter. She is enticed back to her pirate ways by an offer she can’t refuse. Not quite as irresistibly rollicking as I would have hoped. It feels like it’s just a set-up for the next one, which I haven’t read.

Dangerous Dirty Violent and Young, Zayd Ayers Dorne. What does it mean to devote your life to a cause? What does it mean to be the child of parents who do? Ayers Dorne, oldest son of the founders of the Weathermen/Weather Underground, a 1960s radical group, delves into his past. He doesn’t find any easy answers.

The Starving Saints, Caitlin Starling. Delightfully weird fantasy involving nuns, cannibalism and a feudal castle under siege.

The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling. Great title, but convoluted and tiresome and not worth the time it would take to explain it. DNF. The link is to a Reddit reviewer who goes deeper into why they think it’s terrible.

Paladin’s Faith, T. Kingfisher. I have been sick and I needed something light I could read on my phone. All of the Paladin books tend to blur together and this is no exception.

Watched

Backrooms. Clever, stylish and low-budget. I’m still laughing about some of those sets. But also, terrifying.

The Odyssey. I liked it but eh. The Ancient Greeks were so weird. Maybe they were aliens. There’s plenty of online discourse about this, and it’s all very interesting, but since most people aren’t Classics scholars, most of them have no idea what they’re talking about. But go see it! It’s not boring! It’s not a work that defines or defiles Western Civilization, either.

Saw

Clinamen, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot

This aleatory audio-visual installation could have been cheesy, but instead it was a delight.

Bought

From ebay:

A really cute secondhand pair of ivory linen-blend pants with eyelet trim that didn’t quite fit

A brand-new, tags still attached Comptoir des Cotonniers x Uniqlo white linen tee

From Old Navy:

A whole bunch of stuff in the sale, none of which is really worth reporting back on

From Sephora:

Living Proof Mini Perfect Hair Day (phd) style refresh hair mist. Had a mini sample, trying a larger size. I always feel like I need some kind of refresher for my second-day curls and this works.

Pureology mini smooth gloss mask for frizz control. Bought a travel size on the recommendation of Jenn Romolini in an attempt to reduce frizz. Seems like any other hair mask.

Free luxury sample of Crown Affair Leave-in Conditioner. Too much fragrance for me and too expensive, but seems effective. I used it on our brief Catskills trip.

Something from Drunk Elephant I have entirely forgotten³

Instead of the free samples I requested, which might have proved useful (shampoo/conditioner and face wash), Sephora sent me a 24-hr brow setter from BeneFit and Prada Banana Yellow “lip frosting care” glittery gold lip balm. Meh.

From HSN:

UNbrush detangler brush. I feel slightly uncool for ordering this, but it was half price with free shipping. The drugstore versions are more expensive. Anyway, I’ve been looking for a brush that could loosen and volumize my curls without creating frizz and destroying the curl pattern and this does that.

From Wacoal:

A hot pink minimizer bra. Very comfortable! This reddit review sums up my reaction exactly.

Cycling Frog THC Seltzers. Bought a variety pack on the way to the Catskills and can recommend.

Veronica’s Corner

She’s been a bit flighty since we got back from our trip and I’ve also had a horrible, nasty cold, so we haven’t seen much of each other. She is still sleek, squeaky and very soft.

NEXT WEEK: Crone Life turns three!

1. Not required

2. It was a book AND a movie

3. It was this.