Knots (not nuts) in the family tree

I finished Still Waters the other night. The ending was wretched. The main character, upon gentle prodding, suddenly remembered in intricate detail an encounter he’d had years earlier that tied in to the current case. I can’t possibly imagine how someone wouldn’t be able to make the connection between one instance where all the fingers had been cut from someone’s hands and another. I wasn’t overwhelmed by the book up to that point, but it went downhill rapidly in my regard from that point onward.

I started Ken Bruen’s Cross. This is the first of his novels I’ve read, and I felt at first like I’d come into the middle of a movie. As if there had been a lot of things happening that I missed. His voice is distinct and, after a few chapters, I feel like I can hear the Irish brogue beneath it. I’m still feeling disoriented, but I’m being dragged along by the protagonist.

I’m almost finished with my Storytellers Unplugged essay for June. I also discovered a couple of more valuable genealogy resources: graveyard records and obituaries! My family tree is now 44 x 27″. One complication is that my mother’s cousin married my father’s brother—it sounds incestuous, but it isn’t. It means that I have a set of relatives who are simultaneously my first and second cousins. Another complication is that I have ancestors who abruptly changed the spelling of their last name, from Hayesley to Haseler, for no apparent reason. Also a few census takers who seemed to take liberties with birthdates. I mean, why else would everyone’s age in a household be an even multiple of five?

I’m thinking about picking up the guitar. I’ve owned one for ages, and I can play a handful of self-taught chords and can even pick the beginning to “Dust in the Wind” and play Pink Floyd’s “Mother,” but I’ve never had any training. I found an online site that offers instructional videos. I play the piano (poorly, but with enthusiasm), so I know how to read music. No one’s ever shown me how to properly form the guitar chords or shift between ’em, so I’m considering taking the plunge. I have plenty of free time on my hands this summer.