books: what are you currently reading?

[Silence Dogood]

Based on S.D.'s recommendation, I just finished the Mike Campbell audiobook. Wow, what a fantastic rock autobiography! What an interesting story of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and told so well. I highly recommend the book, and if you can/want to, listen to the audiobook read by Mike himself.

So glad you enjoyed this one.  There are few pleasures like that of finding a great book to get lost in.  I'll probably wait till next year when much of the details wear off and give it another go.  Very few modern books make it to my re-read pile. 

[Silence Dogood]

And today was Bee Day.
I picked up 6 lbs (20,000 bees).

Wow, this is a completely fascinating hobby!   Dumb question: Do you ever get stung? 

One of my favorite shows is Small Town Big Deal and they recently had an episode featuring beekeeping. The hosts and the lady who runs the honey business were covered head to toe in protective gear, but her husband only covered his face.  It was a good episode you might enjoy.  If you're interested, go to about 12:45 on the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV-DGA8I2BY

[Queequeg]

Wow, this is a completely fascinating hobby!   Dumb question: Do you ever get stung? 

Funny story-
Last year, I worked two different apiaries so I was in numerous hives once or sometimes twice a week all year (except the dead of winter). Never got stung once.
Then two weeks ago I went for a bike ride and found myself near one of these same apiaries, so I stopped by just to see how the bees were doing. It was a beautiful spring day. Sunny and about 80º; what I would call a "perfect bee day". They should be very happy and calm.
When I got about 50 or 60 feet from the hives this swarm came after me in a big way. I got stung on the ear and I tore off my bike helmet and dropped my bike and ran back to the road.
The problem then was I had to return to rescue my bike and helmet.
Just wait 15 minutes for them to calm down and then grab the bike & helmet, I thought. So after 15 minutes I walked back over and before I ever got to my bike these angry bees started after me again.
hmmm...
I beat a hasty retreat and avoided getting stung again.
I need a new plan.
More time. Give them an hour. So I went into the Botanical Gardens main building and spoke with the woman at the desk. I told her my story and ended with a strange request. Did she have any cologne or perfume with her? You see, getting stung, I now had "angry bee pheromones" on me, which would alert all bees in the vicinity that I was a threat. I was hoping to mask these pheromones to prevent that. Well, she had neither cologne nor perfume but she offered up some Cutters insect repellent. I was skeptical but accepted her offer and sprayed an excessive amount of Cutters on myself and rubbed even more around my ear.
After an hour I had developed my new plan.
I would run fast as I could, grab my helmet and bike quickly, turn around and run back, stopping for nothing. No matter what!
So, with courage slightly dominating fear I was ready to execute The Plan.
Off I went. Got to the bike & helmet and I'm hearing lots of buzz.(Angry bees make much more noise than calm, happy bees.)
I spun around without stopping but they were on me. Work The Plan! Interestingly, they went right for my ear. The same ear where I still have a pheromone-drenched stinger embedded in the skin. I felt the second sting hit me an inch away from the first one, but I kept running.
Until...with a helmet in one hand and a bicycle in the other, my shorts fell down around my ankles.
Should anyone ever ask you, it's difficult to run with your pants down around your feet.
But I made it back to the road somehow without getting stung again and the bees quit following me.
Speaking with my beekeeper mentor later she told there was a very angry swarm of wild bees (not from our club's hives) in a pine tree directly above the spot when I was attacked.

[Silence Dogood]

Funny story-
Last year, I worked two different apiaries so I was in numerous hives once or sometimes twice a week all year (except the dead of winter). Never got stung once.
Then two weeks ago I went for a bike ride and found myself near one of these same apiaries, so I stopped by just to see how the bees were doing. It was a beautiful spring day. Sunny and about 80º; what I would call a "perfect bee day". They should be very happy and calm.
When I got about 50 or 60 feet from the hives this swarm came after me in a big way. I got stung on the ear and I tore off my bike helmet and dropped my bike and ran back to the road.
The problem then was I had to return to rescue my bike and helmet.
Just wait 15 minutes for them to calm down and then grab the bike & helmet, I thought. So after 15 minutes I walked back over and before I ever got to my bike these angry bees started after me again.
hmmm...
I beat a hasty retreat and avoided getting stung again.
I need a new plan.
More time. Give them an hour. So I went into the Botanical Gardens main building and spoke with the woman at the desk. I told her my story and ended with a strange request. Did she have any cologne or perfume with her? You see, getting stung, I now had "angry bee pheromones" on me, which would alert all bees in the vicinity that I was a threat. I was hoping to mask these pheromones to prevent that. Well, she had neither cologne nor perfume but she offered up some Cutters insect repellent. I was skeptical but accepted her offer and sprayed an excessive amount of Cutters on myself and rubbed even more around my ear.
After an hour I had developed my new plan.
I would run fast as I could, grab my helmet and bike quickly, turn around and run back, stopping for nothing. No matter what!
So, with courage slightly dominating fear I was ready to execute The Plan.
Off I went. Got to the bike & helmet and I'm hearing lots of buzz.(Angry bees make much more noise than calm, happy bees.)
I spun around without stopping but they were on me. Work The Plan! Interestingly, they went right for my ear. The same ear where I still have a pheromone-drenched stinger embedded in the skin. I felt the second sting hit me an inch away from the first one, but I kept running.
Until...with a helmet in one hand and a bicycle in the other, my shorts fell down around my ankles.
Should anyone ever ask you, it's difficult to run with your pants down around your feet.
But I made it back to the road somehow without getting stung again and the bees quit following me.
Speaking with my beekeeper mentor later she told there was a very angry swarm of wild bees (not from our club's hives) in a pine tree directly above the spot when I was attacked.

WOW!  Crazy story.  I'm trying to picture how comical this all would have looked from a distance: a grown man running and waving away angry bees, and then his shorts come down around his ankles!
  

Bees, hornets, etc. are funny creatures.  I still can never figure out exactly what spooks them or sets them off.  I (unknowingly) walked under a yellowjacket nest that was tucked beneath an overhang on my house several years ago.  The nest emptied and landed on my face in about half a second.  I didn't even know what was happening.  I was stung something like nine times on the face.  Ended up in the ER getting fire injected into my hinder parts by a doctor that looked like she was 13 years old.  Not a fun day. 

[Queequeg]

WOW!  Crazy story.  I'm trying to picture how comical this all would have looked from a distance: a grown man running and waving away angry bees, and then his shorts come down around his ankles!
  

Bees, hornets, etc. are funny creatures.  I still can never figure out exactly what spooks them or sets them off.  I (unknowingly) walked under a yellowjacket nest that was tucked beneath an overhang on my house several years ago.  The nest emptied and landed on my face in about half a second.  I didn't even know what was happening.  I was stung something like nine times on the face.  Ended up in the ER getting fire injected into my hinder parts by a doctor that looked like she was 13 years old.  Not a fun day. 

Yellowjackets are ALWAYS angry. Very aggressive. And unlike honeybees, they can and will sting multiple times.  Assume the worst.
Thanks for the YouTube. 

[StringPicker6]

I busted out laughing when you said your pants fell down!!! 

[Silence Dogood]

Been getting into this one.  The introduction even took me quite a bit because there are many terms and concepts that are new to me.  Sometime last year I tried going directly to Jung and didn't get very far.  I've been listening to Jordan Peterson lectures for a good while and he was the one who put Dr. Jung on my radar.  It has made me want to learn more so I decided to start with this book.  Definitely not light reading but completely fascinating stuff.  It's really a deep desire on my part to "know thyself" (Nosce te ipsum, as the ancients would say) that started this journey.  We will see where it all leads. 

[StringPicker6]

I like the things that Jordan Peterson teaches. I feel like he's trying to help ease suffering and give young people a positive way forward.

[Silence Dogood]

I like the things that Jordan Peterson teaches. I feel like he's trying to help ease suffering and give young people a positive way forward.

Absolutely.  The main thing I like about Dr. Peterson is that I believe he really does care about people.  I believe he cares about truth as well. You can easily sense that in his teaching.  And he has proved that he is courageous by the way he entered the world stage (refusing to obey speech tyranny in Canada).  He has skin in the game and isn't just some "content creator" endlessly commenting on life. 

And yes, he gives younger folks a pathway forward, and he gives the older ones who wish to go deeper a way to finally better understand ourselves and the world around us.  I find him to be a genuine gift to humanity during these times. 

[Queequeg]

Ok, last word on Campbell's book from me (maybe!).  I finished it up yesterday.  Easily the best musician memoir I've ever read.  Campbell's reading of his account of Petty's death was so moving: I don't mind admitting that I was in tears, as was Campbell during the narration.  I love how the production team left that in and didn't have him redo it.  Anyway, I was sad to see it end.  What to read next?...

Based on S.D.'s recommendation, I just finished the Mike Campbell audiobook. Wow, what a fantastic rock autobiography! What an interesting story of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and told so well. I highly recommend the book, and if you can/want to, listen to the audiobook read by Mike himself.

Thanks for this recommendation. I just finished Mike Campbell's Heartbreaker.
Certainly the best of the musicians' memoirs I have read. Very well-written.
Yes, my eye's welled up as he told the very sad ending of Tom Petty's life.

[Silence Dogood]

Thanks for this recommendation. I just finished Mike Campbell's Heartbreaker.
Certainly the best of the musicians' memoirs I have read. Very well-written.
Yes, my eye's welled up as he told the very sad ending of Tom Petty's life.

Very glad to hear this! And I'm glad this wonderful book was written.  I'll wait till next year and give it another read (listen).

[Silence Dogood]

I've been keeping a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales by the bedside and enjoying the stories a lot.  I've had a sense for a long time now that the truth of things is contained in fairy tales, and now that I'm older I can see it all over the place in them. 

Something many don't realize is that "fairy tales" were not originally intended for children, but during the Victorian era they fell out of fashion and were relegated to the children's bookshelves.  Up till that time they were just "stories" that everyone enjoyed and benefited from.  But since the Victorian times they have been considered bedtime stories for children.   

[StringPicker6]

Finally reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Dangerous book for me, it's giving me the wanderlust. Now I just want to grab a guitar and a duffle bag, put on my ramblin' shoes and hitch hike west...

[Queequeg]

Finally reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Dangerous book for me, it's giving me the wanderlust. Now I just want to grab a guitar and a duffle bag, put on my ramblin' shoes and hitch hike west...

Oh yeah. Kerouac's stream of consciousness. Rumored that he wrote so fast an furiously that he taped his typing paper together, end-to-end so he wouldn't have to stop to pull another page. True? IDK.

I read this novel of the beat generation about 25 years ago when I was living abroad.

I'll be interested to hear your take on it when you have finished.

[StringPicker6]

Initial impressions on first 100 pages, it's wonderful. It's like watching young 20-year olds enjoying youth and a big wide world. Makes me a bit wistful and contemplative of my 20's.

[Silence Dogood]

I enjoy travel and usually make my own travelogues for every trip.  I'll also save parking ticket stubs, etc, from various places and put them in my journals. It's a great way to relive a good vacation.  I never did the "backpack across Europe" thing but have done some great American road-trips. 

[jasonchamb]

Oh yeah. Kerouac's stream of consciousness. Rumored that he wrote so fast an furiously that he taped his typing paper together, end-to-end so he wouldn't have to stop to pull another page. True? IDK.

I read this novel of the beat generation about 25 years ago when I was living abroad.

I'll be interested to hear your take on it when you have finished.

True story. Mostly anyway.
https://youtu.be/Hq-H1AojcFM?si=JI2Cj7GFdq60wVuk

[Queequeg]

True story. Mostly anyway.
https://youtu.be/Hq-H1AojcFM?si=JI2Cj7GFdq60wVuk

Thank you for posting this.

[Gill]

Every day you learn something new,I never even knew about the "rolls", that video certainly was an interesting watch, I read On the Road back in the 60's,it gave me very itchy feet- an itch I only scratched in the mid to late 70's when I spent four years hitch hiking around Canada and the USA,an experience I'll never forget.

[Queequeg]

Every day you learn something new,I never even knew about the "rolls", that video certainly was an interesting watch, I read On the Road back in the 60's,it gave me very itchy feet- an itch I only scratched in the mid to late 70's when I spent four years hitch hiking around Canada and the USA,an experience I'll never forget.

Yes, they were rolls. Not sheets taped together as I had heard and posted above. He used teletype paper which came in rolls.