La Quinta Cove

That nice 5.4 bounce on Wednesday should be a gentle reminder to GET THOSE EARTHQUAKE KITS, PLANS, AND SUPPLIES UPDATED.  Food supplies sufficient and current (fresh)?  Water fresh?  Know how to turn off the INTAKE VALVE to your water heater (so that your tank will remain pure and drinkable when our water supply is contaminated)?  Know how to turn off your gas line if you smell gas?  What happens if your family is in various places and someone can’t get home or contact home?  Got copies of your insurance policies and account numbers?  GOT CASH? Need guidance?  Visit the CERT website at http://www.laquintacert.org/ for lists and ideas.

GET BUSY!!!!

Have you been following the media discussions about the “La Quinta Forty”?  The La Quinta High School students involved in internet and actual “games” with an anti-semitic theme?  NOW’S THE TIME TO DISCUSS TOLERANCE WITH YOUR KIDS.  Young people learn important attitudes and values from their families.  This is a good time to promote the virtues of diversity and tolerance in our community.  Strike while the theme is HOT.

Yes, we’ve got ‘em too.  On a few vacant lots, on a little bit of undeveloped terrain, and in the Fred Wolff Bear Creek Nature Preserve.  These were taken in the Preserve on April 5 (Monday):

“Sleepless in La Quinta” writes:

Now that we have the great new signs in the Cove, its time to go around and trim the trees so we can see them. Also, a lot of the stop signs (i.e. Bermudas) are also blocked by trees creating a serious safety issue.

NOTE FROM MODERATOR #2: City staff tells us to report the intersections that need trimming.  The best way is to submit an online request at the City website under Request for Serivce http://www.la-quinta.org/servicerequests/servicerequest.aspx

This from Lauren:

“Time is a River” by Mary Alice Monroe

This is a story within a story, of a survivor, Mia, who goes to a retreat in the Appalachian Mountains to gain some perspective after her battle with breast cancer.  Its aim was to teach women the art of fly-fishing, but the opportunity to bond with other cancer survivors and create a support group was implied.  The teacher was a warm and empathic woman named Belle.

When Mia returns early to her home in Charleston, she finds her husband has been unfaithful and she returns to the mountains seeking a place to hide out and regroup.  Belle allows her the use of her fishing cabin for the summer and Mia begins to rediscover some of her past interest that been set aside during her marriage, as well as continuing her new interest in fly fishing.  Before she left for the summer, Belle’s only request for the free use of the cabin had been that Mia not delve into the family scandal surrounding her grandmother.  Very soon Mia finds herself fascinated with a diary she finds in the cabin that was written by Belle’s grandmother.  Unable to keep her word to Belle, she beings to try to unravel the truth of a 70-year-old mystery, feeling great affinity with the grandmother, who is deceased.

Mia meets a man while she is fishing and forms a friendship with him around their common interest.

The story is well written and interesting on several levels; Mia’s self exploration, the mystery surrounding Belle’s grandmother and the tentative steps toward intimacy after mastectomy.  I recommend it .

“Plum Lucky” by Janet Evanovich

This is a book by Evanovich that uses the same characters as her books titled by numbers.  Her Stephanie Plum character, who is employed as a skip tracer, or bounty hunter, embarks on a series of adventures with her side-kick Lula and a new addition, a man named Diesel.  As with her other books, this one provokes some laughs at the group’s misadventures, but fails to live up to the level of quality of her previous numbered series.

I was disappointed.

Our own Anonymous Reviewer submits this for your consideration:

The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

Missy, the youngest  child in Mackenzie Phillips’ family was abducted from a family fishing trip and her family went into a depression.  Especially Mack, who blamed himself and Katie, his other daughter.  Although no body was ever found, the authorities were certain that Missy was dead.

Mack labeled his depression “the great sadness”  which he seemed unable to shake off.  His wife’s strong relationship with God, whom she referred to as Papa, saw her through her grief and enabled her to go on, but Mack was stuck, until one day a note appeared in his mailbox.  The note told him to meet at the old shack in the woods where Missy’s bloodied dress had been found.  It was signed, Papa.  Unwilling to share his trepidations or his hopes with even his wife, Mack sets off for the shack, uncertain what he hoped to find there. 

What he found there was a new relationship with God, one that he could never have imagined.  This was a journey that changed his perceptions and his life. 

Very thought provoking and interesting concepts.  I recommend it.

AR

Our Anonymous Reviewer has polished off another tome and offers this review:

“Light of the Moon” by Luanne Rice

After the death of her mother, with whom she was extremely close, Susannah Connolly decides to take a sabbatical from work as an archaeologist and visit the French Camargue, where a special breed of white horses are found.  Her mother had told her of these horses and the legend of a saint connected with them.

Upon her arrival in the area, Susannah discovers that there are a group of gypsies, called Roms who have a special connection with the saint.  She meets a man whose daughter has suffered a trauma that has left her colorblind.  The daughter is very protective of her relationship with her father, so a budding romance is doomed to failure.

Through a series of revelations and efforts on both their parts to behave responsibly, a happy ending becomes possible.

Pretty typical romance with an interesting setting and story about the gypsies and the horses.  Quick read.