By Elizabeth Prata
I am an educator, so I get summers off. The time away from school is about 9 weeks, and I love every summer that comes around. By Memorial Day when school finally ends I am ready for it to be ended. We all need a break.
I like to read during the summer. I like to read all the time but many days during the school year I am mentally exhausted by 3:00 last bell. I just don’t have the mental capacity any more to educate up to 27 students differentiated to their reading levels across 4 grades using 3 different programs. Phew, it’s a lot.
So when I get home I either read a really light book or even a pamphlet, or I watch TV.
I like TV.
During the summer, I use the time to stretch myself. I research topics from the Bible I want to follow up on. I choose a difficult classic piece of literature each summer to read, and I read other theological books, too.
But even the most mentally alert person won’t read all day long. So in the evenings I watch a TV show. Movies these days seem to require a commitment to time I’m unwilling (or unable) to keep, (do I have a growing attention span deficit?) but a TV show is right up my alley. What have I watched this summer?
I like to binge. I prefer sameness so sticking with one show gives me a known quantity with characters I am already invested in and know about. I started with Monk. I’d seen the show when it came out and rewatched some a few years ago. I like Tony Shaloub. I liked him in Wings back in the 1990s and also in the Monk movie, as well as the TV series.
I rewatched to year 4 before I stopped. It is a well-done show, interesting and the acting is good. It’s clean, too. But by season 4, Monk’s tics were making me nervous. And his palpable grief made me too melancholy. Good show though. I skipped to the series finale to rewatch and also the ending of the movie to rewatch.
Moving on, I watched Squatters featuring Flash Shelton. This was before A&E locked all the episodes. I saw a lot of them and I enjoyed them, but I also became enraged at the low life squatters who would do this to families. Squatters are the worst. I also became weirdly afraid of squatters suddenly appearing to squat my apartment (unlikely) so maybe it was a good thing I was cut off when A&E locked the episodes and I could not watch any more…
That Thrifting Show on Hulu has 8 episodes and I watched 6 of them but it is a terrible show.
The Blacklist– while admitting it’s an excellent show and I re-watched several episodes, it is just too dark for me. Law & Order the comeback seasons, too liberal.
Psych– I watched 2 seasons but bailed on it because I could not stand the main character’s selfishness. It’s clean though with well-drawn characters. A lot of people love the show.
Hawaii 5-0 the reboot, the new version. I love it. It’s clean, good characters, the good guys win, it’s pretty wholesome with good action.
I did watch a few movies- Remarkably Bright Creatures with Sally Field was a standout film. Re-watched Fried Green Tomatoes, it holds up and I loved it the 2nd time around. Enola Holmes 3– wasn’t a fan. DNF. That Hamilton Woman, a good old B&W with Vivian Leigh was good and based on a true historical person.
Youtubes: I enjoy the Sergeant Curtis channel. He is a well-decorated veteran of the Las Vegas police force who critiques police stops in an educational and humble way. I learn a lot from him. I love his charitable attitude.
Arvin Hadad critiques multi-million dollar real estate videos. I get a peek at these ultra fancy mansions and also learn about architecture, fixtures, and layout. He is informative and also funny. Phew, the ultra-rich ARE different.
Built By Becker talks real estate from a construction point of view and he explains renovating in an understandable way for laymen.
Here are the books I read. I choose a classic, a historical fiction (usually a shipwreck book), literature, and some theology. 9 books in 9 weeks. I usually read several at once so it just worked out with the 9 books in 9 weeks.
The books I have going into the Fall now are “The Only Woman in the Room“, a biography of the incredibly beautiful movie actress Hedy Lamarr who was also a brilliant scientist whose inventions helped WWII. And my old favorite I am revisiting after 50 years, the King Arthur legend “The Once and Future King“. I have not decided on which theology book will be next but likely I will choose a Puritan Paperback.
I started the book Theo of Golden but did not finish.
So that was my summer. I didn’t take a trip anywhere. I am done with overnight vacations away. At this stage of my age it just seems like a lot of trouble to pack and go and settle only to re-pack and come back to the one place I dearly love and hate leaving anyway.
I’ve had time to pray, read God’s word, enjoy books and tv and movies, cooked good meals, ate a lot of fruit, watched and listened to the birds, generally just be content at home!
Naps taken: 2
Books read: 9
TV watched: a lot
Haircuts: 1
Kroger runs: 8
Library runs: 4
Thrift Runs: 4
Friend runs: 2
Doctor visits: 3
August is hot and hard. Getting back to school is always a shock to my system. But then September comes and with it, my favorite time of the year, cool autumn!
the-end-time.org 