Have I mentioned I have a new Irene in Chicago Culinary Mystery coming out at the end of the month? Just joking, because I know I have. It’s easy to think by now it’s all done, and I am idle, but that is not the case. Today I fired off two guest blogs to tell the cozy world about Irene in a Ghost Kitchen and tonight I’ll try to post on some cozy mystery groups web sites. I still have to proof the final version, when the formatter sends it, and get it up and available on Amazon, decide who gets comp copies, etc. A lot of details to wrap up, and so that’s where much of my day went today.
Jean and Jeannie Chaffee came
for happy hour tonight, bringing with them a bountiful feast of dips and
quesadillas and all sorts of good things. Despite our best efforts, they wouldn’t
take any of it home with them, so I have a loaded refrigerator. Jeannie also
brought Benji a bag of new toys, and he took an instant shine to her, plopping
his slobbery tennis balls in her lap, crawling over others to get to her. I
haven’t seen as much of Jeannie in recent times, so it was fun to reminisce
about the days we shared office space—well, the administration didn’t know it, but
that was what it amounted to. We had glorious funny lunches and all kinds of
adventures. It was a good life, and we will always treasure those memories.
Those two ladies are getting
ready to set off on an adventure—they leave this week for London for a couple
of days and then a ferry across the Channel to France. June 6, D Day, will find
them on the beaches at Normandy, with a crowd of at least thousands, marking
the 80th anniversary of that event. It gives me goosebumps to think
of them crossing in a ferry, replicating that journey taken by all those men,
many of whom never returned. I know the trip will be fun, and I suppose they’ll
have lots of rich experiences—they will, for instance, spend a half day with
the Bayonne Tapestry. They will probably also eat some really good, country
French food, the food of the villages and not Paris—I offered Irene’s menu
advice, but so far they have not taken me up on it. But it will also be a
somber trip, commemorating a day when many lives were lost. It seems
significant that we mark today the men and women who died for democracy when
democracy itself is so challenged. A part of me will be with my friends as they
make this journey.
Tomorrow, the world gets back
to business, and I have a list of phone calls to make, questions to ask. We are
supposed to have a cold front (lower eighties, which is just fine, thank you)
coming in, with possible storms tonight. I will be glad if the world is a bit
cooler, although the heat hadn’t struck me until late this afternoon when I opened
the patio door for Benji and a blast of hot, wet air hit me.
I haven’t seen much of “In
Flanders Field” by John McCrae this year, so here’s the final verse. It amounts
to a challenge to Americans to fly the flag high and remembers those who gave
all on June 6, 1944.
Take up
our quarrel with the foe:
To you
from failing hands we throw
The
torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye
break faith with us who die
We shall
not sleep, though poppies grow
In
Flanders fields.
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