Saturday, July 14

Slept late this morning, until nearly 8:30. After breakfast, and once I was ready for the day, we went to the river for a stroll on the paved walk. Mother went with us, and I pushed her in her wheelchair, which provided a bit more exercise for me, since there are some inclines along the way. I also took my camera to get a few snapshots.

Afterward, we stopped by a local elementary school, which was sponsoring an indoor yard sale. It was 11 a.m. by the time we got there, though, so it was well picked over, and we didn't find anything of interest.

Back home, after lunch, we watched a Lifetime Movie Network feature called, "Adopting Terror," about a couple being terrorized by a man claiming to be the father of the baby they were in the process of adopting.

Mother headed to the couch for a nap after that, and Hubbie and I watched a second feature called, "The Canyon." A young couple on their honeymoon agree to let a grizzled older man guide them in a mule ride down a trail of the Grand Canyon. Everything that can go wrong does, in this tense tale of survival.

Later, for supper, I made turkey bacon/tomato/lettuce/Vidalia onion sandwiches, which we had with potato salad. Afterward, I accompanied Mother to her house, and then Hubbie and I continued to watch TV.

I didn't completely waste my time with the TV, though, since I went through a pile of old magazines, read what interested me, and then disposed of them. We've finally wised up and quit subscribing to many magazines, since whatever I want to know, I can find on the Internet. We are now down to two or three periodicals that arrive by snail mail. And the day may be close at hand when, if postal services pass into history, we can no longer receive anything by mail.

One of the magazines...Smithsonian (a periodical I hate to dispose of)...featured a humorous article about purple prose writer, Amanda McKittrick Ros. In her now-famous novel, "Irene Iddlesleigh," Ros, said to be the greatest bad writer who ever lived, wrote such memorable sentences as, "Speak! Irene! Wife! Woman! Do not sit in silence and allow the blood that now boils in my veins to ooze through cavities of unrestrained passion and trickle down to drench me with its crimson hue!"

After reading the article, I immediately went to an online bookstore and ordered it for my e-reader. The book is free. No wonder. It's recommended reading, though, for English and literature teachers. I doubt I'll need it as a teaching tool, but it'll surely be a lark to read.