Snow - John Banville

Snow by John Banville, 2020

A week ago I just finished another book by John Banville/Benjamin Black and I had to get right back into reading more from this wonderful writer. I wasn't disappointed. 

This one takes place in 1957 Ireland and is about family secrets that get revealed when a parish priest is found dead on their rural estate. This is another well written mystery detective novel coming from a master of describing police procedure. It's interesting that he is using his real name for a crime novel rather than the usual Benjamin Black. 

This book was a fascinating look at rural Ireland in the 1950's during a snow storm at Christmas. A time and place full of eccentric characters.

This is also the first in a new series about the detective St. John Strafford. I'm looking forward to move novels in this series.

Read Me A Book Poppa

I was sitting on the couch reading something on my tablet while Clara was playing with a puzzle near my feet. She looked up and asked me if I would read her a book. Of course I said and asked her to pick one out. She went over to a pile of books and came back with a toy catalog. 

She sat very close to me on the couch and cuddled. She turned a few pages before stopping and pointing to a particular photo that she apparently was looking for. With her finger on the picture she said " Poppa, could you get me a kid's tablet for my birthday?" She'll be three next month. 

Center City Adventure

When Katie and Todd take the kids out somewhere for an activity like a playground or a special place they call it an adventure. Todd will particularly use the term when he takes Henry out for a walk in the woods while Clara is napping. We used that expression when we all took the train down to center city on Monday.

I wrote about riding the train in a previous post. After we left the train station we walked through Chinatown and at that time we were considering a place in the area to go back to for lunch. We headed for the nice playground in Franklin Square on the edge of Chinatown. I had never been to Franklin Square although I have driven by it many times but there have been many wonderful improvements since I passed through this area.

The kids had a great time and the diversity of the children playing there was amazing. I was impressed with what the city did with this park to make it so welcoming to everyone. There was a couple of grandparents with two children on the train with us and we saw them at this same playground which really must be a destination.

Henry was running around playing on all the swings and things and climbing on everything. Clara was a little more quiet and reserved. A little toddler boy with his grandmother came over to me and Becky while we were sitting on a bench and wanted to interact with us to the delight of his grandmother who told us he had not seen many people because of the pandemic and this was one of his first times being out with other people. He was very cute. After a while Katie and Todd decided to walk across the square to the carousel. So it turned out that Henry didn't want to ride on it but Clara went on it twice. We walked around the fountain with Henry as Clara rode the merry-go-round. She had a blast.

We continued our adventure walking down 6th street passed Christ Church and the grave of Ben Franklin which I had seen many times over the years. It used to be visible from the street through a metal bar section of the wall but that has been bricked over and now they charge $5 to go through the gate and see the grave. We continued down the street passed Independence Hall which had some significant lines and on to Washington Square. We checked out the Bourse Food Hall as a possible lunch spot but it was not inviting to us with the kids pandemically speaking.

We were hungry for lunch and walked past the square to a small take out restaurant Tulula's which was next door to the much fancier but closed at the time Tulula's Garden Restaurant. We would love to go there sometime. Their takeout operation provided us with a wonderful lunch which we took into the park across the street to eat while sitting on benches. Washington Square was a wonderful urban oasis with lots of dog walkers and children playing. We enjoyed our time there.

After the square we headed over to the Reading Terminal Market and walked around in there for awhile before going down the street to the Jefferson Station to take the train back to Mt Airy.

Riding the Train

On Monday holiday October 11th all of us, Katie, Todd, Henry, Clara, Becky and me walked down the street to the Sedgwick Station to take the train downtown for a Center City Adventure. We also walked by that station and under the bridge to get to Clara's pre-school and also to Henry's school.

The kids loved the train ride and enjoyed looking out of the window as the city passed by. They especially liked passing through the Wayne Junction station where there were many old trains along the sidings and others in various states of repair.

Wayne Junction was my local station for me using the Philly commuter train system when I was growing up and also later when I lived there with Becky on Seymour Street. I would often walk down Greene Street to Wayne Junction to take the train downtown and later in the 60's I used it to get to work at Brandywine Products in North Wales. Later still I would sometimes take it to get down to Temple University both for the main campus and also occasionally when I took a class at the Center City campus.

The other day as we passed through the Junction I pointed out my old neighborhood to Todd and we could see the old Saint Francis church. I also showed him the Point tavern that I spent a lot of time at and is now a daycare center. As a teenager we also hung out at the Wayne Junction Diner.

We took the train down to the Jefferson Station which is the new name for the Market East Station. A lot has changed with the Philly train system since I rode it regularly in the 1960's and 1970's. I've only been on the train a very few times since the major reorganization of the system in the 1980's but have been riding it regularly on our visits since Katie and Todd moved to Philly four years ago. One time we also rode it from the airport to the Sedgwick Station down the street. Very convenient except for the luggage issue. Going to the airport had traditionally been a very long and stressful drive. It was a wonderful improvement when the trains began running between the airport and center city. However, because of our large bags we've recently been taking Lyft rides to and from the airport. 

We arrived at the Jefferson Station and I was surprised again at how beautiful the station was and how different things were from when I was regularly there. In 1984 the City and SEPTA completed the Commuter Tunnel that was started in 1978 and connected all the rail lines into one system. The Market East Station also went into service in 1984 replacing the Reading Terminal Station. The whole SEPTA rail system suddenly became much more efficient.

I was very much aware of the old system as a kid using the train because of the two lines going up to Chestnut Hill. There was the Chestnut Hill East line that was part of the old Pennsylvania Railroad and then there was the Chestnut Hill West line that was part of the old Reading Railroad. Both Chestnut Hill stations were within a couple of blocks from my grandmother's house and both lines went through Germantown. The Germantown Station was on the Pennsy line which went to 30th Street Station and the Suburban Station in Center City. Wayne Junction was on the Reading line and would take me downtown to the Reading Terminal. The real difference was where the two lines took us to the suburbs and beyond which really didn't matter to me until the summer of 1968 when I was taking the train to work. Later when we moved to Harleysville I would sometimes take the train in Lansdale down to the Reading Terminal.

So we walked through the station with the kids and Clara was excited about the escalator. Then we had our Center City Adventure. We had a wonderful day and when it was time to go back home we walked to the train station and got tickets from the kiosk. I should note that if we lived in Philly riding all of the SEPTA train, subways and busses would be free because we are over 65. Back on the train the kids once again were glued to the windows watching the city pass by as we headed back to Mt Airy.

Flying Again

Becky and I had not been on an airplane since the pandemic began in early 2020. We had a couple of airline trips in 2019 and then we purchased plane tickets to Philadelphia for March 2020 that we cancelled because of the coronavirus. American Airlines held our tickets and initially we were given a year to use them. Then they extended the tickets until the end of the calendar year. We were planning to visit the kids in Philadelphia in October so we decided to use the airline tickets instead of driving. I called customer service at American Airlines and gave them our ticket numbers for the unused trip and they transferred the tickets to our October flights. We booked flights from Buffalo to Philadelphia for October 8 and return to Buffalo on October 18. A nice ten days with our grandchildren, We are a little apprehensive about being in an airport and the plane ride but fortunately it is a short hour long trip. I can't imagine what it would be like masked with all those people crowded on a cross country or to Europe flight must be like. They say the air filter systems on planes make it safe.

After we arranged for the tickets I was getting cold feet about flying. I always liked our October drive to Philadelphia which we have been doing for over forty years. I don't particularly like flying. I will certainly put up with it to go to Europe but I really wish America had high speed trains like most other modern industrial nations. I checked with the airlines and found that since we purchased these tickets with a slight increase in fare they were good for another year. I was thinking that we could then use them in January when we fly down to Philly for the birth of our new granddaughter. However, Becky really wanted to fly on this trip because it took so much less time. When we drive down it is a seven hour trip and sometimes more because we often stop for a long lunch in a restaurant. Since we started visiting Katie in Mt Airy it was a longer drive instead of going to Betsy's house and we were sometimes stopping half way to stay overnight in a motel to break up the trip. Now with Sean living in eastern NY we would drive there for four hours, visit with them, and then drive the four hours to Philly a day or so later. That will happen some time but not this week.

Flying can take up a lot of time too and usually about five or six hours by the time we leave the house and get to Katie's home. Getting to the airport in the morning, being there a little early because of lines, etc., potential delays which have happened many times, and then after getting luggage going from the airport to Katie's house. We've taken the train from the airport to Mt Airy but the bags are an issue. We plan to take a Lyft.

When we get there and are staying for ten days without a car we can use a Lyft ride to get around. There are too many of us now to all fit in Katie's car. Fortunately there are plenty of restaurants within walking distance of their home.

Anyway, we are flying tomorrow and we will need to get up very early.  Our flight leaves Buffalo at 8 am and arrives in Philly at 9:24. We need to leave for the airport by at least 6 am so rather than take a chance with a Lyft ride I booked Buffalo Airport Taxi Service for the trip.

I need to get up about 5 am tomorrow so I got to put an end to this now.

The Secret Guests

The Secret Guests by Benjamin Black, 2019

I love reading books by Benjamin Black and John Banville who of course is the same person. I think this is my ninth book by him that I've read.

I had been reading of lot of Irish crime novels recently from several authors that have mostly taken place in Belfast during the Irish Troubles. This book fit right in although it takes place a few years earlier in the Irish Republic rather than Northern Ireland. It was a very entertaining work of historical fiction.

This story is based on incidents that take place during World War II and concerns the hiding of the British royal princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in neutral Ireland during the London bombing blitz. It seemed like something right out of The Crown TV show. This was a time when children from every English social class were being sent to the countryside for their safety.

The girls are hidden on a rural Irish estate and an Irish detective and English secret agent are charged with protecting them not only from German spies but also the IRA who slip in from Belfast. This was a well written and wonderfully entertaining novel. The author has a way with the peculiar class and social mores of Great Britain.

I gave this book five stars in Goodreads. 

Time for a New TV

I wasn't sure how long we've had our current television and I just looked at the back panel on this Toshiba flat screen TV and saw a stamp for October 2008 so that was when it was manufactured or put on the market. We've had this TV for thirteen years.

For the past couple of months it started to display broken lines on the right side of the screen that would last about ten minutes before going back to normal. When it is doing that line thing it is almost impossible to watch and at some moments it is rather comical in the distortion. 

We put up with it for a couple of weeks hoping it would go back to normal but we soon decided to get a new television and began researching what to get next. However, we had a lot going on and didn't find the time to go out shopping. It wasn't critical because we would just turn on the television, walk away for a while and then sit down to watch after the broken lines went away.

We're going to Philadelphia for ten days and we will deal with the television problem when we get back. I'm looking forward to getting one of those new smart TVs.

Flu Shot 2021

Today I got my flu shot for 2021. I get a flu shot every year and have been for a long time. Most of the time over the years I got the shot at my doctor's office during a regular visit. The past couple of years I've just gotten the shot at my regular Walgreens pharmacy. It's been very easy.

It was easy today too. Walked up to the counter after waiting briefly for two very old ladies standing side by side arranging for their Covid vaccination booster shots. It took me a couple of minutes to fill out some paperwork but most of my info was already in their system so this process was very quick. After completing the form I had a very short wait sitting in a chair before getting called for my shot.

The entire process took about 15 minutes. Good to go. Becky is getting her flu shot tomorrow at CVS.

I didn't get a flu shot last year. Did anyone? Was there a flu season? People were not interacting with each other and people wore mask if they were with other folks. It was a very strange year. This year is better but still very weird. People are still wearing mask and today in the store getting my flu shot I had a mask on at all times. Perhaps this will be another mild flu season because so many people will be wearing mask when they go out which will help stop the spread of the flu.

Glass of Beer - Florida Man IPA

Florida Man is a very hoppy double IPA from Cigar City Brewing, Florida. It was good and very citrusy. You really felt like you were drinking a serious IPA. 8.5% too. 

I got this as part of a Cigar City variety 12 pack that Becky picked up for me and our local market.

Cigar City Mixed Pack

Becky came home from the CO-OP with the variety mixed pack of beers from the Cigar City Brewery, FL. 

I first had a Jai Alai IPA in 2014. I've never had any of the other beers in this box.

It includes:

• Guayabera Pale Ale
• Jai Alai IPA
• Florida Man Imperial Double IPA
• Jai Alai Low IPA