valves &c

Yes, it's sort of like camping out. From clearing the utility closet for the new water heater installation, everything from the utility closet shelves is still out on the kitchen counter, dining room table, and pantry/laundry room floor. While we were reloading the closet, Linda spotted a leak, a drip in a valve of the supply line into the new water tank, so we had to stop loading tools, batteries, flashlights, and all manner of supplies collected over the years, back into the utility closet after yesterday's new installation. We stopped and texted the company photographs of the leak/drip and asked for advice.

The company rep arrived in short order to correct the situation, but turns out something is cracked and must be replaced with a part that can't be obtained until Monday. So 7H is still such a mess that Kristen cut her visit short. We'll try again on Monday. 7H will still be a cross between an episode from Hoarders and a dump site, so we may simply go out to eat somewhere here in St Andrews, doesn't matter if the workers are coming and going.

Cheese and cracker munch, Cabot cloth-bound cheddar, some Port Salut, and a very soft French cheese like brie or camembert but with a flowery name that I don't recall. Saltines, lightly buttered to hold the cheese, and a glass of cold cabernet blanc bought at a wine store in Tallahassee during our October vacation at the Lodge, Wakulla Springs State Park.

Books, starting in Saturday predawn dark I read, pressing all day when company was not here, and this evening finished, Slaughterhouse Five, the novel Kurt Vonnegut originally thought was going to be about himself personally there as a prisoner of war who witnessed the bombing of Dresden. He included that, centered the book on it, and gave it the name of the building in Dresden where American POWs were housed; but turned the novel into a nightmare of Time hopping back and forth into past, present, and future over decades, space abduction and travel, ongoing hallucinations and mental distress of a man who survived a plane crash with a cracked skull and resulting brain surgery. The book is like the mental wanderings of an insane asylum resident.

Would I recommend it? Maybe for someone like myself who is intrigued and exploring the horrific World War Two events that marked civilization's descent into destruction of population centers as a normalization of modern air warfare, what became known as Total War.

With our history over Germany and Japan, it's hypocrisy to slam Putin for his actions against Ukraine to demoralize the civilian population.

Again, triggered by "This Day in History," my interest is a multi-book quest. Also reading Farewell to Hamburg by Dieter Rudolph, which so far seems to be a charming memoir of his life, subtitled "A Completely Different and New Twist to the History of a German War Torn Family." And another, Voices from the Third Reich - An Oral History by a trio of Germans interviewing a hundred-fifty-seven German witnesses who lived during the Hitler era. Two or maybe three more books are coming (I only buy used books, preferably hardcopy, in good condition, that ship free - - most turn out to be like-new condition former library books that no one ever checked out or opened and read).

Yesterday and earlier this week, articles about our bombings of Hamburg and Dresden, including I found an English translation of a writing by Götz Bergander that was reported only available in German.

Why am I writing these things. There's no why to it, it's already there on my life calendar as when I did it, I'm just noting it.

RSF&PTL