Thursday, July 21, 2005

The power came back on a bit ago - waiting for the hot water heater to do its thing before I jump in the shower. It went out at 10:00 yesterday a.m. and came back on about 10:30 this morning. Took a bit longer for the water to come back on. What a night it was - mosquitoes and heat and little sleep. We went out for pizza at Sop Choppy's when Steve got home from work, thinking the power would surely be back on when we got home. No such luck. We sat out on the porch watching a late departing Carnival cruise ship leave - looking like a big floating Christmas tree - and all I could think of was - They have air conditioning and water!!! We did see a power company truck on the road down below and thought we were in luck, but they drove away without doing much besides looking around with flashlights. I was over tired and in a snit after they left without fixing anything, so I finally gave up and tried to sleep. Didn't get much - but the mosquitoes got lots of blood. I even have bites on my face. Can't wait to wallow in a nice cool shower.

I spent most of the day yesterday cleaning since I couldn't get on the computer, but I did get some reading time in. Finished Amanda Hemingway's The Greenstone Grail, the first book in a trilogy about 13-year-old Nathan Ward, the son of a human mother who apparently traveled through a time warp to another universe where she conceived a child. The inhabitants of Eos are humanoid, but much taller with elongated features, and great powers. They have harnessed magic, but in doing so it has back fired and is contaminating their world. Nathan's mother Anne knows her dying partner is not Nathan's father, as do the people around her. The young mother runs away with her infant son and finds a home with the portly kind Bartlemy in the Thorn family home, where generations prior a Thorn employed magic to hide the Greenstone Grail, one of the holy relics from Eos that is thought necessary to save their race. Now a young teenager, Nathan unwillingly dreams himself into his father's world. At first it is frightening and then he wills himself to return there to find out more about Eos and how he is linked to the Greenstone Grail. In one of his dreams he saves a man from drowning and unknowingly brings him back to earth, where he is considered one unusual illegal alien! :-)

I could go on and on about this book as there is so much food for thought in these delicious 360 pages. I want to go back and "chew" on it again with another reading. Is it fantasy? Is it science fiction? Perhaps what we call magic is science that we just don't understand yet. Who says there can't be human like beings in another universe that we can travel to in our dreams? These are the kind of books I devour - the ones that leave you with as many questions as answers. Can't wait for the second book about Nathan. Have come to feel great affection for this teen, along with his side kick Hazel and her desire for something big to happen to her too. I am hoping Hemingway will give Hazel her wish.

Off to the shower! Yahoo - lights and water! I would have made a rotten pioneer woman! :-/