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I may have found my new favorite book. Ok, maybe not my favorite of all time, but this book…its amazing. Where do I begin…I guess I’ll begin with the author, Tim Sandlin. Tim Sandlin has long been one of my favorite authors, introduced to me by my good friend Kelsey…we both were in love with his wild and quircky stories of 13 year old pregnancies, drunkin escapades, and now the glorious experience of the sixties generation when they are 80.
This book, I fell in love. From the moment I saw the cover, I knew I was in for a trip…and what a trip it was. I’ve long idalized the sixties generation. The flower children. I’ve often thought I was born in the wrong generation…but I think alot of my generation thinks that. Probably much to do with being the children of that generation. But at least if I cannot be a part of that generation, I’m a child of the generation that changed the nation.
Sorry, enough blabbing, onto the book. I’m not great at giving reviews, especially when something touched me the way this did. So here are a few of my favorite reviews about this book. All I can add, is that its a must read!!
“After crafting uproarious tales about fatherhood (Social Blunders, 1995) and Washington sleaze (Honey Don’t, 2003), Sandlin asks, What will the age of assisted living be like for boomers who longed for the Age of Aquarius? It’s 2022, and Guy Fontaine, a widower from Oklahoma, finds himself committed to a California old-folks facility where the flamboyant residents have reverted to the pursuits of their glory days, the late 1960s. Pot smoking, group sex, a rock band called Acid Reflux, cliques formed according to where you were during the Summer of Love, and the motto “don’t trust anyone under sixty” all make for a wild, sometimes grotesque milieu overseen by a bitchy director who treats the oldsters like idiot children and a staff doctor who overmedicates them. When Guy inadvertently jump-starts an insurrection, the old hippies, old hands at civil disobedience, take over the compound. Hilarious in the fine-tuned details and rapid-fire dialogue, Sandlin’s antic yet precision-aimed and unfailingly entertaining novel is a mordantly witty, covertly poignant, and genuinely insightful dissection of our fear and loathing of old age.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist
“Part Cuckoo’s Nest, part Acid Test, and part Alamo, Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty shows us that to awaken the passion and idealism we thought flatlined at thirty, we need only to slip it a dose of sunshine and poke it with stick of sandalwood. Tim Sandlin takes us on a comic flashback to the future that can give you the giggles and the willies at the same time. What a trip! Pound for pound, Tim’s stuff is as tight and funny as anyone doing this comedy novel thing.” – Christopher Moore – best selling author
“Tim Sandlin’s new novel, Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty, makes you scared shitless of growing old while looking forward to it at the same time. He states that sometime in the future, librarians will move this book from fiction to non-fiction, and I have every inclination to believe him. No matter how bizarre some of the turns in this book; it’s not hard to think that this could be real, right down to Drew Barrymore as Governor of California.
Imagine hippies and boomers, who started a whole new counter culture, getting so old that their children think they can’t take care of themselves anymore. An assisted living facility is just what these people have rebelled against their whole lives: the establishment. Here they are, older, wiser (most of the time) and with much more worldly experience than the ones taking care of them. Now they are part of a booming business, with their children all too eager to drop them off, take their money and discard them once and for all.
Thrown right into the middle of all this is Guy Fontaine. Unlike the other residents, he was never a hippie, never did drugs or protested, and wasn’t at Woodstock. He’s from Oklahoma after all. But one trait they all share is that they know for sure, yet refuse to believe that they are getting old before their time. When a resident’s cat is confiscated, and the shit hits the fan at Mission Pescadero, Guy finds himself as the unlikely leader of the aging bunch, who prove that they still have plenty to offer, with mostly hilarious and sometimes tragic results.
Throw in Viagra, LSD, pot, orgies, protests, rock concerts, dementia, Alzheimer’s, catheters and more outrageous characters than any other Sandlin book, and you’ve got a novel destined to bridge the gap between generations. I’ve never before read a book that I could recommend to my sixty year-old father, my fifty year-old uncle, my forty year-old friend, my thirty-year old wife and my twenty year-old brother. And once they read it, I’m sure there are many more people of different ages that they would recommend it to. And the reason is that Tim’s themes are universal without being set in a conventional setting. Amidst all the craziness going around at the facility, new love is found, death is dealt with, friendships are made and broken, and happiness is both a fleeting memory and also right around the corner. Within ten pages of this book, I went from snorting out loud laughing to being choked up with tears. And not just once, but consistently throughout. Tim is one of those rare authors that makes me have feelings that are almost identical to those I’ve had in actual life situations, kind of like a karmic deja vu.” – Curt Pasisz, www.timsandlin.com
i was just sitting here, waiting for my computer to turn on…when i saw a beautiful rainbow right in front of me! i took a couple of pics…they are through my very dirty window so its a bit blurry…but you can see the rainbow right in the middle. it only lasted about a minute, i’m so glad i saw it! happy morning!
June has been an outstandingly rainy month here in NYC. As of now, its the third rainiest June on record!! We did have some sunny days, or at least portions of days…and we enjoyed our yard and garden when we could. Here are some pictures of it part-way through all the rain, its much bigger now! Here’s to hoping that July and August will be beautiful, and not 100 degrees 
pergola w/plants!
isabella
the raspberry monster
those are blueberries in the right hand corner!
pretty white flowers
my pink grass balls
gorgeous blue
fun sun
our wisteria...not quite like grandmas!
love
sorrow
innocence
respect
patience
rescued
best friends
divine
Callypso (Callie Boy for short) was the third cat to join my family. When I was a junior in High School, it seemed like all my friends were getting kittens, so naturally, I wanted one too! Along came Callie. Callie was the most gentle soul on the planet. The most layed back guy ever. I took him with me in the care to my then boyfriends house to play with his cats, I’d carry him upside down, he was just a big (really big) mush!!
When I moved to Phoenix, my mom wanted me to get settled before the cats came, so I reluctantly went without him and my other baby, Lucky (her story to be posted soon). When I got to Phoenix I was so lonely…my first time away from home, from my animals, I needed a friend. So, I ended up getting another love, Casey (her story to be posted soon too!). When my mom was to come visit next she was to bring Callie and Lucky with her. But, my mom had a secret love she had been hiding for Callie. She really wanted him too!! She had just lost Doodle, and thought it only fair that I have two and she have two. I agreed, though I was going to miss him! So Callie stayed with my mom. By the time I moved back to Durango, he was so content there, I couldn’t bare to take him away.
Callie passed on a couple of years ago. He had a good life and was a great cat. I miss him terribly but know I will see him one day over the Rainbow Bridge. Love you Calypso!!
What better way to start off the all the good news in the world series than looking at our place in the universe. I mean, here we are…thinking we are so very important in this universe…and when you view these pictures…you really begin to realize how small we are. But despite the fact that the Milky Way is a tiny part of the universe, that Earth is a tiny part of our solar system, that I as an individual am a tiny being on Earth…there is no small act of kindness.
So, the Hubble Space Telescope took some AMAZING photos, I am truly in awe. I’m not poetic…so I’m not even going to try to describe these…they pretty much speak for themselves regardless. Enjoy.
Cone Nebula
Believe it or not, this image is made entirely of gas and dust. The entire cone is about 7 light years long, while the photograph shows just the top 2.5 light years (that’s 23 million round trips to the moon). These pillars have many counterparts throughout the galaxy, and astronomers believe they act as incubators for developing stars.
Photo: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (UCSC/LO), M.Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA
Starburst Galaxy
Starburst Galaxy M82, also called the Cigar Galaxy, is a prime example of a starburst galaxy. In the center, gases are compressed and temperatures rise as new stars are formed 10 times more rapidly than in the Milky Way. All these young stars are compressed into star clusters that can have dozens of stars in them at a time, and the energy they emit is referred to as a cosmic ‘super wind’.
Photo: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Orion Nebula
M42, often referred to as the Orion Nebula, goes by many names. In some older texts, it is called the Great Nebula, because it can be viewed with the naked eye. In even older texts, it is called Ensis which is Latin for sword. The Orion Nebula is one of the most photographed and studied objects in the sky and has provided scientists with much insight about the creation of the universe.
Photo: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
Sombrero Galaxy
The Sombrero galaxy is located within the constellation Virgo. It is easily visible through amateur telescopes with its unusually large central bulge and bright nucleus. At the very center of the galaxy resides a supermassive black hole, which keeps the large galaxy together. Originally discovered in 1767, the galaxy is still being studied by astronomers today.
Photo: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
Monocreotis
This is one of the most unusual stars known to man. This previously ordinary star underwent a violent and sudden burst in 2002. The star burned about 600,000 times brighter than our sun during this time. The light that was emitted was bounced off layers of cosmic dust and debris, literally creating a ‘light echo’.
Photo: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)
Cat’s Eye Nebula
The Cat’s Eye is one of the most complex nebula known, filled with knots, jets and arc-like features. Located in the constellation Draco, it was originally discovered in 1786. The nebula provides astronomers with many mysteries, one being that chemical measurements taken by two different methods come up with completely different results, and scientists cannot figure out why. Another, is that the structure of the nebula suggests there should be two central stars, but no evidence of a second can be found.
Photo: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Terra, Luna
This image was taken in 1999 by the crew on a Hubble service mission. On this particular day, Dec. 22, the moon is incredibly bright and visible. That is because it became full at the same time it was closest to the Earth, on a day that the Earth was especially close to the sun.
Photo: NASA
THERE ARE SO MANY MORE…CHECK THEM OUT HERE!!
http://www.mnn.com/technology/research-innovations/photos/the-hubble-space-telescope/12170
do you ever get tired of watching the news? i know i do…every day its the same thing…this place has been bombed, 85 people killed, earthquake hits so and so, 5 on the rictor scale, cops beat man who fly’s out of a car crash unconscious, man arrested for killing another man in road rage, this country is testing nuclear bombs, that country is committing genocide…the list goes on and on. its really quite disturbing, the amount of complete and utter evil in this world. sometimes, i just cannot handle it.
but then, i think about all the good in the world. all of the amazing people who are saving thousands of their fellow humans, acres of land, millions of animals. i think about the friendly neighbor who walks an elderly man across the street, the young kid who gives up his seat for a pregnant woman, the person who donates $5 to a cause, even though they cannot even afford that. it almost hurts to see these kind of compassionate things take place. and they are taking place all around us. the news doesn’t really show much of the good…but its out there…you just have to look.
in honor of all the wonderful things that take place in this world of evil…i am starting a new series, all the good news in the world. i’ll be searching for articles, photos, stories, and more about good news. so stay tuned, if you have any kind of heart, you’ll be crying, you’ll be laughing, you’ll be elated with joy. i’ve always wondered, if there were no evil, would good be so exciting, so comforting? would beautiful really be so striking without the ugly? would love feel so right, so life changing, if we didn’t hate? being human is both a blessing and a curse, but we have that wondrous ability to feel such a range of emotion. i think its time we stop dragging ourselves down with the bad. heres to the good.
its been a gorgeous spring this year, especially after the dissapointment of last spring/summer…when it was nice for a short time, then constant rain for over a month, then boiling heat making for a lovely swamp atmosphere…yeah, that was fun. all the flowers/veggies drowned and then were just pratically boiled to death. so this year has been great thus far. here is a chronical of our garden to date!
bucky was so excited for spring, he made a brand new pergola, in just one day!!
the corcus were our first visitors, as usual. they dont last long, but we know spring is here when they arrive!
usually we only get one or two corcus, but this year...we had a gazillion!!
this is our third spring/summer in our house, for the past two years we had daffodils come up, but never bloom, till this year!!
so pretty!!
rasberry beginnings
we've planted pansies evey year, but this year...they just appeared!!
emma enjoying the nice spring air
that was just the beginnings…we’ve now planted all of our flowers and our vegetable garden, i’ll be taking photos and posting soon…its so pretty thus far, hopefully the spring/summer stays beautiful!!
