Joining Kat and friends for Unraveled Wednesday.

Knitting.

I needed a car project last week for the hourlong trip to get my covid vaccination, so I started a hat. Turned out that I can only knit with the dark blue yarn I pulled from the stash while sitting in my knitting chair with the very, very bright LED lamp. So that is what I have been working on for the past week. Finished it last night; back to Boxy tonight.

Reading.

How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior. Based on the title, I was expecting this book to be a cute little story, something like Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Not the case. It is a story about an 86-yo curmudgeonly woman who decides to have an adventure, which in this case means traveling from her home in Scotland to an Antarctic island to visit a penguin research station. That still sounds like a cutesy-poo story, but it is not. This is an endearing but fully formed novel. I loved it. 4★

Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History by Paul Farmer. I was introduced to Farmer via an audiobook, Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, in the early aughts. I was so taken with him that I recommended the book to Elder Son; Farmer became his role model, successfully doing what ES wanted to do: treat the medical issues of the poor. Farmer is a Harvard-trained anthropologist, physician, professor, author, and founder of the nonprofit Partners in Health. I just started this book a few days ago, so I am just reading about his trip to the Ebola region in 2014. It is rather a long book, so it will take me awhile to get through it. But I am looking forward to it.

Watching.

The X Files. We are nearing the end of season 5 (Or just starting season 6?) As much as we like the series, we both get pretty annoyed at Hulu. At some point — or multiple points — in every episode the audio and video just drop off — nothing but a black screen. Grrr. Rewind and try again. And after an episode ends, the screen shows what is up next, which until recently was the next episode. Now it is an episode of a series we have no interest in.

Sherlock. When we get too annoyed with Hulu, we move to Sherlock on Netflix. We watched most of this when it was broadcast on the local PBS affiliate, but Smokey thought we had probably missed a few episodes.

The Stranger. And when Smoke goes to bed way earlier than I do, I started watching this series. Harlan Coben is a decent writer of thriller books, so I thought this might keep my interest. And it certainly does — so many plot lines!