Weekly Round Up: Books and a Long Weekend Trip

 

This week we're doing a mashup of the Weekly Round Up and Let's Go Places!  We'll be talking about TV and books, lounging on the beach, and walking across an international border, all within a few hours of home.

Watching

Like everyone else on the planet, I try to balance my interest in watching TV with my disgust at the price of the major streaming services.  I'm very stingy with these services but also I hate ads so when I do get a subscription, I always pay extra for the no-ad version.  I had quite the list of Netflix shows to watch, but I couldn't stomach the price increase of the no-ad version so I kept putting it off.

But when I listened to a recent episode of The Reframe podcast, I was surprised to hear Kathleen's argument for not paying for the ad free versions.  She said that when she watches TV that she will inevitably take breaks, so she views the ads as a reminder to get up from the TV.  After pondering that, I realized that one of the reasons that I take forever to watch shows is exactly for that reason - I'll sit down in front of the TV and then want to get a snack, or Doggo will want to go out, or I'll get distracted by something on my phone.  So just for yucks I decided to get the ad (cheap) version of Netflix this time just to see how annoying the ads were compared to my TV watching cheapness.

So far so good!  I've watched a lot of Netflix in the past few days, and the ads are really not that obtrusive.  And I end up pausing the shows a lot anyway due to the aforementioned reasons for taking breaks.

So what have I been Netflixing?

First up: I read the book and now I've seen the movie of Remarkably Bright Creatures.  I put off reading the book because I heard it was about an octopus and that sounded weird, and then I put off watching the show because even though the book pulled it off surely there was no way that the movie was going to be able to do it.  Wrong on both counts!  The movie held its own and was well worth the watch.

Currently: Beef!  100% due to SHU's recommendation, and she did not steer me wrong.  She described it as having a White Lotus vibe, and I agree and think that is all the background that you need.  I was instantly hooked.  Netflix dropped me straight into season 2, but from what I've heard it's an anthology show with new story lines each season so I don't think I'm missing anything by going out of order.  Like I said, I am a somewhat slow TV watcher, but I think it's a safe bet that I will have seen the whole thing by the next time we talk.

Reading

Catching up from last time: well, I tried, but I ended up DNF'ing Tom Lake around the 50% mark.  It was just sooooo slow and I wasn't bonding with any of the characters.  Hey Whistler was so good that even if I never click with another Ann Patchett book in my life it was still worth it.

I also left you in the middle of The Book That I Didn't Want to Read, which started strong and just got stronger with every page.  That would be A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides by Gisele Pelicot.  If you are not familiar, she is the woman who was living her life like any other woman: happily married, loving life as a grandmother, and dealing with a few alarming unexplained medical conditions such as blackouts and loss of memory.  She got her explanation when her husband was arrested and had his computer seized: he had been drugging her, raping her, and having a jaw dropping number of strangers come to their house to rape her for years.  When it came time for the trial, she was offered anonymity, but then she realized that if she was anonymous then the staggering number of defendants would also be anonymous, and that did not sit right with her.  She went public and wrote one hell of a book.

A comment that I got on the last post and had myself before going into this book was "I would have to be in the right headspace to read this book".  I can only speak for myself, but the book was so well written that the only emotion that I had was wanting to wildly applaud her with every page.

The book that I read since we last talked: The Burning Side by Sarah Damoff.  This book is about a marriage that is on its last legs when the house burns down and the protagonists have to move in with the wife's family.  I feel the same way that I felt about the author's previous book, The Bright Years.  Great premise, the book got my attention on page one and then...it was a "good enough to keep reading" experience.  I also wish that I had skipped the final chapter, since there was an "Aha!  So that's why this plot point was in the book" tie in that I could have done without.

Currently: I've got a few titles checked out on my Kindle and an audio book for book club, it's just a matter of digging in and seeing what sticks.

Let's Go Places: Long Weekend Edition

The stars aligned and Hubs picked a few of the ideas that I'd written down for possible couples trips at the start of the summer.  The moral of the story is that just because we don't live near the ocean doesn't mean that we can't go to the beach.  And also that apparently we are not sensitive to smoke because the first two days of our trip were the height of the latest round of wildfire smoke.  It brought back memories of The Great Island Bender of 2023, which also started off extra smoky.

If I asked you to visualize a location halfway between Cleveland and Buffalo, I am guessing that this is not the picture that came to mind:

Presque Isle PA, 2022

The view of Erie PA from Presque Isle, 2023

The same view on July 17, 2026

So, yes, conditions could have been better, but they still weren't bad even with the smoke.  We went on a long bike ride around the isle and put in a long session on the beach.

By Saturday things cleared up and we headed up toward Buffalo.  On the way we stopped at the newly opened Barcelona (NY not Spain lol) lighthouse.

The stairway was recently rebuilt.

Barcelona is a place that likes to let you know what you're getting in to.  They had a mock up of the entrance to the tower in the visitors' center and you have to climb through it in order to be admitted into the lighthouse.  It is not a wide space.

But as always the views were worth it.

While in Buffalo we went on an FLW bender and went to the Martin House and Graycliff, which I had previously been to in March 2023.  

And then we did something that was a "been there done that" for Hubs but new to me, which was walking to Canada, as one does.

Then we did a "new to both of us" activity, which was a hike that a friend recommended to Eternal Flame Falls.  The hike isn't very long, but there is quite a payoff at the end.  

And with that we headed home.

What's Next?

I'm headed back out of town!  The teaser is: road trip, state capitals, FLW binge, and a loooooong overdue blogger meetup.  See you on the other side!

Peace Out!  Do you pay extra for the no-ad versions of streaming services?  Who's seen Beef?  Have you read any of these books?  Did you get smoke from the wildfires?  Have you walked across an international bridge?