Week’s End Notes (16)

• I cannot believe it’s the first of summer here. It seems I was just posting about the (long-longed for) start of spring and of Carl’s Once Upon a Time VIII and here we are at summer already.
• I suppose part of my surprise at the arrival of summer already is that it seemed spring was late to start this year and then seemingly cooler than the last few years (which could be my poor memory) and rather wet. As evidenced by the fact that so many of the flower pics I’ve taken this year have raindrops in them.

• In fact, many local farmers were off to a bit of a late start because their fields were so wet. And then this week. Well.
• While not as devastating as the sort of flooding that tends to make the national news (I sort of feel like northeast Ohio’s tagline should be “we get weather, but never quite as bad as…”), I’ve never seen it so wet locally. It started out with a localized torrential downpour Monday, just as I was making my way home from work. Between the near-zero visibility and the thundering of the rain on the roof of my car, it was perhaps the worst conditions I’ve driven in all year. Finally, it stopped and I thought all was good, an easy final fifteen minutes home…right up until I realized that the road was flooded (evidence: 1 car stalled mid-road). Detouring around proved difficult because of all the many low spots: in at least two locations, I saw men standing in the middle of the street, the water half-way up their calves.
• Tuesday was okay, but Wednesday morning  another heavy downpour just before I left for work. The ground, still too saturated by Monday’s rain, wouldn’t accept any more water, so, although I detoured around the section that had been flooded Monday, I still found myself facing flooded roads. That settles it, I MUCH prefer driving in the snow. At least I don’t have to zig-zag all over the county to detour around bad winter roads. Then they’re all equally bad.
• To add insult to injury, the rain was so localized that my coworkers all had the same response: “It rained?”
• So all that to say I’ve become a little obsessed with the weather app on my tablet. It’s been dry the last few days, so fingers crossed the worst is over. (And come August we’ll probably be longing for rain!)
• In other news, the end of spring means the end of Once Upon a Time, and while I don’t feel like I’ve posted very much about it, I DO feel like I had one of the best OUAT’s I’ve ever participated in. In addition to the books I’ve posted about (The Wizard of the Emerald City & Urfin Jus and His Wooden Soldiers for fairy tale, The Conjure Stories for folklore), I’m in the middle of another book of folklore, The People Could Fly, and I completed a reread of The Two Towers and am halfway through my reread of The Return of the King. I didn’t get to any mythology (unless one counts all the mythological references in the Siglo de Oro poetry I read back in April), but still–that’s the highest number of relevant titles I’ve ever read during a OUAT spring. Now I just need to finish out the “middle-ofs” and post on them.

• I think this is the first time all year I haven’t felt that I was behind in posting about books I’ve read. I’ve been reading, I just haven’t finished anything lately. (Excepting the Tolkien books, which I’m going to post about as a whole.) I guess I’ve also finished reading an English translation of El burlador de Sevilla [The Trickster of Seville], but I don’t have any thoughts on that yet. I’m going to try the Spanish first, and if I’m still at a loss, I’ll reread the English.
• El burlador de Sevilla is for a group read hosted by Richard of Caravana de recuerdos. It’s a play from the Spanish “golden age” of literature, first published in 1630. A nice short read (only a couple hours), it’s the first dramatization of the Don Juan legend. And it’s not too late to join in, I’m sure! I don’t know if Richard’s still planning on posting at the end of the month, but I probably won’t get to it until the start of July. Not only because of the rereads, but I’m really slammed at work right now. The project will be finished Friday, so I should have a breather after that.
• I’ve also started Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold for the July Spanish Lit Event. The García Márquez readalong title for the event is actually News of a Kidnapping, but this one is shorter. The important reason for picking a book, of course. And if I have time, I’m sure I can find something else on my shelf for the month…
• Notice, I’ve not mentioned a thing about my Ohio project. It’s not been completely neglected lately; The People Could Fly is comprised of folktales retold by Ohioan Virginia Hamilton. But I’ve not started The Bluest Eye as planned, nor anything else. Soon, I’ll get back to it soon.
• But for now, I think I’ll take advantage of this absolutely lovely summer day, and read one of my current reads on the back porch. A perfect day for outdoor reading.
• Have a happy reading week!