Book, movie, sweat

Book:  If you are a fan of American history, this is an excellent read:  "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S. C. Gwynne.  It is the story of the rise and fall of the Comanche Indian tribe, basically from the mid 18th century to the dawn of the 20th century.  The narrative is very readable and since it isn't plot driven, you don't need to read it all at one sitting.  But it's fascinating in its detail about how the Indian tribes, especially the Comanches, went from nomadic wanderers on foot to becoming incredibly accomplished horse warriors.  The interaction between tribes was new to me as was the whole horse culture of most of the tribes.  We all know about the "white man's robbing the Indians of their land."  In our lifetime we have seen and read about Indian protests about injustices imparted upon the tribes.  But this book takes you into the fights, the massacres, the sham treaties, the savagery on both sides of this episode of American history.  It's a good book, very detailed in its research and I can promise that you will see the Indian - soldier conflict in very different ways when you are finished.

Movie:  this is an instant download through Netflix, although you can get it on disk if you don't do the Roku thing.  "The Waiting Room" is a small, independent British film that has charm and wit, imagination and reality.  People just trying to figure out what their lives are about and in the process they get their feelings hurt and they hurt others.  The search for a bit of happiness is never a smooth one, is it?  Not for anyone.  We are all looking for love in all the wrong places, and these characters are no exception.  But it works towards a nice ending, one that is a bit contrived but in a good way.  It's a very nice way to spend an hour and a half.

Sweat:  not to belabor the point, but Santa Rosa has been hotter than I expected this past week.  We went to bed last night around 10:00 and the inside temp was hovering around 88 degrees.  The house just doesn't cool off.  I had on a skimpy tank top (don't dwell on that picture too long) that I actually splashed water on before turning off the light, just to have a little coolness.  Ah well, it's just hot air and nothing more serious than that.  This too will pass.

Hope everyone enjoyed the July 4th birthday celebrations.  From my porch I could see some of the higher fireworks from the fair grounds, and they were lovely.