Having Fun While Trying to Beat the Heat

It's been really hot and humid here over the past week. So hot, in fact, that several days were spent mostly in the air-conditioning in the TV room upstairs. It can get a little dull sometimes being "room bound" all afternoon, but it's a great time to take advantage of the fun of a hobby. I've started another felted doll and gotten a lot of things taped into my scrapbook. It's too hot and humid to print anything here at home, because the ink actually separates and spreads --- but I was able to get prints of old newspaper clippings that Dad could do at work.

On Tuesday, I spent an hour cutting clippings out and gave myself a nice sore spot on the hand from the scissors. Hey, "no pain, no gain" as the saying goes. Spread out all of my clippings and tape and scrapbook pages on the floor and got to work arranging it all. They were all about Dan Duryea, this time. Fun. All together, that was a nice way to beat the heat.



We went out to Wooster to a book sale and a book store today and did really well! The most exciting thing, in my opinion, is that I got another version of Gone With the Wind. This one is the 1940 paperback movie tie-in edition. And it was only $6.00! Not a bad find, huh? Also got a book that is the history of the filming of Gone With the Wind, so I'm looking forward to reading that one. Elizabeth got another version of Lorna Doone. This is the movie tie-in edition from the silent film with Madge Bellamy. We also got a lot of kids' books and some sheet music (with Hoagy Carmichael, Bing Crosby and Ray Noble on the covers). Pretty fun day. Weather permitting, we're hoping to catch another book sale tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

One more exciting thing happened. Yesterday afternoon we went out to pick up a few things. Passed by Harbor Freight Tools. That's a store we've never had a need to go in, but it's next to Staples --- where we did need to go. What should we see passing by the window? A garden windmill! For $25.00, too. A bargain. Well, maybe not to everybody, but it's a bargains when you've been spending all Summer looking for one. It's about seven feet tall, green on the bottom with the actual wheel painted red and yellow. Boy howdy, I'm excited. Dad's going to coat all the pieces in some kind of non-rust coating before we put it together, so pictures of the finished product to be posted at a later date.



Well, nothing else too thrilling happening. I got a really interesting book from the library yesterday. It's called Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. Don't get me wrong. I can't stand film noir, but --- I love Dan Duryea, and this is the only biography listed anywhere for him (what a shame!), so I ordered it into the library. Surprisingly enough, it has a ton of guys that we watch in other things, since it seems that almost all actors appeared in some film noir at a point in their careers. So far, Fred MacMurray, Arthur Kennedy and Sheldon Leonard have been the most interesting. That is, aside from Mr. Duryea!

Mom and I looked into ordering it this morning, but it seems to be quite a pricey book. I figure on watching for it over time and hoping for a deal. The price of new books is pretty crazy. More later.