2016 Summer August 5 Friday (Happy Birthday John and Mary Anne!)

2016 Summer August 5 Friday (Happy Birthday John and Mary Anne)

85 degrees this morning, Walk 36:52 minutes.  

Happy Birthday to John and Mary Anne, my brother and sister who were born exactly a year apart.  (I came along 3 years and one day later, a little late!)  

85 degrees is hot even in the early morning!  I noticed it while I walked (probably why my time as a little slow), but primarily what i noticed wasn’t the heat, but the “heavy” air, I assume from high humidity.  

Right now, on the back patio, it really isn’t bad in fact there is a slight cooling wind.  

Lighting in the distance, I wonder if I am going to get another rainout on my bike ride?   For obvious reasons, I don’t ride my bike when it is lightning, at least close lightning, but I have found lightning storm can travel fast.  

“Life’s too short for a bad cup of coffee”!  I like it!  I also certainly agree with it and as time passes, I have avoided “bad” or even mediocre coffee and enjoy the good stuff.

The quote isn’t mine, it was sent to me as a comment on my blog about coffee, but you can be sure I will use it  a lot in the future.

There is nothing worse then a bad cup of coffee (or a cold cup of coffee, if you are drinking hot coffee).  and it is worth  the search for a good cup of coffee.  

It is strange where you find it also, Starbucks obviously is super coffee, but McDonalds has a good cup of coffee also (when fresh).  I don’t care for McDonalds iced coffee, but I love Starbucks iced coffee, especially the “cold pour” which is slightly more expensive.  

The e-mail also mentioned a new machine that some Starbucks have that I will need to search out  in my quest for an excellent cup of coffee!

I no sooner comment about not finding good fiction then I run into a book of fiction which I hate to put down!  That is the true sign of a great book!  (I’ll name it if I finish it and it continues to be a “page turner”!

I actually have several new authors I am reading and am finding the quote “So Many Books, So Little Time” to be true!  (I have at least two t-shirts with that quote on them!

Several (actually many) years ago I stopped reading fiction completely, figuring it was a waste of time.  

Of course, as mentioned in an e-mail I received today, excellent fiction has the capacity to expand your mind, and, I think, make you think in a more creative way., and I quickly realized how illogical it was to not read fiction.  

As he person who sent me the e-mail mentioned, an excellent author can even follow the same basic plot for their books and still be interesting.  (Tony Hillman comes to mind.)

Looking back, I have to agree I probably have learned a lot from good fiction books, possible more valuable than the non-fiction books I read, but I expect the combination is necessary.  

I must have  decided if I wasn’t liking the fiction I was reading I needed to try something new, which is what I have done.  

I have discovered that, while it is good to give an author a chance, it is a waste of time to keep  reading when you  really aren’t interested in a book.  Maybe I have  developed the bad habit of quitting too soon, but I do try to give the author a chance before I put the book down.

Sometimes I don’t consciously decided to quit reading a book, I just don’t read it and I suddenly realized I haven’t read it for months (or it is time for it to go back to the library) and the decision is made not to continue reading the book.

I think every book has the potential to be a great book, so you tend to not want to give up on any book!

That’s it for now, Friday, August 5, 2016