The Smells of Summer

I just picked some tomatoes. Tomato plants are a smell that I associate with summer. We don’t have a large garden, due to the numerous four legged neighbors that we have prowling the estate. Instead we have a couple of plants in pots on the deck (the hostas that The Mrs planted have been designated The Cervine Cafe). So far the littler critters have avoided our pots, probably due to the healthy dose of chili powder we set down.

Speaking of critters, we have a pair of foxes that have been roaming the grounds. I heard them before I actually spotted one. If you’ve ever been serenaded by vulpine music in the evening…

I had a most enjoyable birthday celebration. We had some out of town guests which made it that much more special. Thank you to everyone who took to social media for the birthday wishes.

Among the various material I received for my birthday were two different sets of drinking vessels. I’m going to assume that this was due to my recent interest in mead making and has less to do with any upcoming intervention.

Listening To: Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wisell. What a fascinating concept for a creature—something which incorporates external material to create physical structures inside its body. And to make it the protagonist? Genius.

Currently Reading: It Was Her House First by Cherie Priest. I’ve been waiting to dive into Priest’s new take on a haunted house since it was first announced. What a great present to have my pre-order delivered on my birthday.

Current Obsession: We’ve been catching up on the new season of Resident Alien. This season has a touch more melancholy than previous ones but we’re still enjoying it immensely.

The paperbacks have shipped out to all of the backers who answered their surveys, so now we are just waiting on the other material to arrive. I just checked and it looks like the shirts and water bottles should get here some time next week and the hardcovers a week after that.

The big news for this week is that we will be in Chicago this Friday - Sunday for Flashback Weekend. If you are in the area (or feel like making a drive), come out and visit us!

I am a self-proclaimed book dragon. I don’t just read books like a bookworm, I horde them. As such, I rarely go head out to the library with the intent of borrowing a physical book. This being said, one of the first things that I did when we moved to the New House™ was get a library card. I think that it is important to have the option of checking out a book.

What I do use my library card for are digital downloads. I am a huge fan of audiobooks, as anyone who isn’t new to the Substack can tell. I routinely borrow audiobooks using Libby. Unfortunately, this often comes with a significant wait period for new releases. For example, I am currently 36th in line for the new Stephen King book Never Flinch. I started out at 112th, so I’m getting there. My second go to was Overdrive.

Recently I have had much more luck with Hoopla. For some reason, I completely forgot about this app. They seem to have a nicely curated set of horror books, including Senseless by Ronald Malfi (which came out in April of this year) which I will be listening to during my drive to and from Chicago this weekend (assuming I finish Someone You Can Build A Nest In tomorrow which seems quite likely).

I was surprised to find that The Mrs has also been borrowing audiobooks recently. She’s not a big reader and most of her recent listening has been of the podcast variety. I was very happy to discover that she too has been taking advantage of our local library and their access to books of the audio variety.

One thing which I do miss is having access to scholarly journals. For a long time my U of M account was still valid. A couple times a month I would log in and find criminology articles which looked interesting and read them. Unfortunately, someone finally noticed that I haven’t been a student for over a decade and deleted that particular account.

I am well aware that there are numerous other benefits of libraries and I will probably have a rant on that sometime in the near future. What I really wanted to do here was push Hoopla for your digital download needs.

Which might come back and bite me on the ass if all of you start borrowing the books that I am hoping to read.

This may have been a mistake.