It’s the equinox but things are far from equilibrium.

So far iOS 15 seems to be working fairly well.

Downloading iOS 15, wish me luck.

Another nice day.

Went for a short walk on a long bridge.

Moving day 3, last one for this week.

Moving day 2 but not much actual moving.

Here we go again, moving day 1.

Oh good, another moving day coming up tomorrow.

The size/feature combinations of the iPhones 12/13 Pro/mini don’t appeal to me, but Watch 7 looks real nice.

I’m going to watch the iPhone event today, but I am not going to buy a new iPhone. Or so I keep telling myself.

Chicken sausage, sautéed onions, and fresh basil 🍕

Back to work today, and I would prefer a day with no basement floods or flat tires please.

Good news/bad news.

Nothing scheduled today, I guess it’s time for laundry.

The sun is out again today but we are not quite to the weekend yet☀️

Rainy day 🌧

Where has the summer gone?

Moving day.

Today would have been a wonderful day to be at camp, but alas it was not to be. Instead we are packing up for our next move (with several more still scheduled).

Packing day tomorrow.

As you may have noticed, book reviews have been few and far between this summer, as I have simply not been able to sit down and read with any regularity. I have started several books only to neglect them until the overdue reminder guilt becomes too much to bear and I give up and return them to the library halfway read. I have started listening to audio books during my daily walk, but so far only works I’ve read several times before.

Given my continuing lack of dedication I decided to try this strange little YA novel by an author I’ve not read before, and found it sufficiently brief and the characters interesting enough that I kept coming back to read another chapter. It is the first-person narrative of young Mona (who keeps pointing out that she is 14 years old), a wizard in a world where magic is both unusual (most people don’t have the talent) and limited, in that the few who do have powers can only affect a specific target, such as water, or dead horses, or (in Mona’s case) dough and baking.

The story takes place in a city which reminds me of the setting of several Miyazaki films, with the fantastic interlaced with the mundane, and the characters have distinct personalities, but I felt that the plot was a bit uneven and unconvincing, showing Mona as both terribly naive and tremendously competent in turn, rather than a logical progression from baker’s assistant to master wizard. There are a number of striking and sometimes dark scenes, but they don’t seem well connected.

But for a light summer read that doesn’t demand too much it was just about right.

Up (2009) 🍿

The long weekend is ahead but not quite here, plus it’s moving time again.

Still doomscrolling.