My Year in Books 2018

Hi everyone! I know it’s been a ghost town on this blog for a while. I meant to get back to it but things got in the way. I doenjoy this little book list habit I got into a few years ago, and I want to keep doing it every year. 

What book list habit? A few years ago, I started doing the “My Year in Books” at the end of the year, because I saw it on a friend’s blog. Go check out Lisa’s blog (where I first saw “My Year in Books”); her blog is called Two Bears Farm. The first time I had done “My Year in Books" was because she had done it on her blog. I believe she had done it because she'd found it on someone else’s blog. But I don’t think that original blog is up and running anymore. I can no longer find it. 

Ever since I first participated in the year-end “My Year in Books” theme, I’ve made it a habit to wrap up my year in books on or around December 31st.

The idea is that you take the following prompts and "answer" each one with the title of a book you read during the year. 

So here is "My Year in Books, 2018.”

Describe yourself: 

The Escape Artist, by Brad Meltzer

How do you feel: 

Flesh and Blood, by Patricia Cornwell

Describe where you currently live: 

Chaos, by Patricia Cornwell

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: 

Odessa Sea, by Clive Cussler

Your favorite form of transportation: 

The Perfect Horse, by Elizabeth Letts

Your best friend is: 

The People v. Alex Cross, by James Patterson

You and your friends are: 

(Robert B. Parker’s) Colorblind, by Reed Farrel Coleman

What's the weather like: 

Depth of Winter, by Craig Johnson

Favorite time of day: 

Nighthawk, by Clive Cussler

What is life to you: 

Wait for Signs, by Craig Johnson

Your fear: 

Cave of Bones, by Anne Hillerman

What is the best advice you have to give: 

Wait for Signs, by Craig Johnson

Thought for the day: 

E is for Evidence, by Sue Grafton

How I would like to die: 

Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie 

My soul's present condition: 

Shadow Tyrants, by Clive Cussler

I’m woefully behind in my yearly reading, so this year’s responding to the prompts took some thought. Also, some of my book titles this year were repeats. I had read books in the past and enjoyed them. So when I had some long road trips, I’d revisit those stories (that I’d read a year or more ago) via audiobook. 

What is Mother Nature Thinking?

We've been having "typical" Iowa weather lately. It's March 6th, and we've already had sunny, warm weather (in the 50s), gusty winds, heavy rain, chilly weather . . . you name it.

Last year on this day, we had a tornado watch, which turned into a warning, complete with sirens going off, and us heading to our "tornado corner" downstairs.

This year? Well, yesterday as I was on the road from Des Moines to Cedar Rapids, I drove through torrential rains on I-80, and drove into freezing rain as I entered the Cedar Rapids area. Then it turned into snow. And today, we've been having gentle "snow globe" snow.

The trees, however, are still coated in ice from yesterday's freezing rain.

I had my daughter take a pic of some of the trees we see on our drive to school.

They look cool and they seem to have a "Sleepy Hollow" vibe, in my opinion, with the dark, wet trunks. (By the way, I enjoy the Johnny Depp "Sleepy Hollow" version from 1999).

Currently, I think it's about 30°F right now, with the wind chill in the 20s.

A couple more Instagram pics: one from yesterday during the freezing rain, and the other from this morning during the snow. . .

Pediatric Visits

As I've mentioned before, Jock and I are a therapy dog team. I took him to obedience classes, then he and I passed his AKC Canine Good Citizen test, and then I went through Pet Partners so he and I could be registered as a Therapy Animal Team. We go to a local assisted living/hospice center on a weekly basis to visit with elderly hospice patients. We also go to the University of Iowa College of Law during mid-terms and finals, to provide stress relief to the students (and those faculty and staff members needing some stress relief).

However, I have always wanted to take Jock to visit pediatric patients in the hospital. Since I haven't been able to get to get through to the volunteer program coordinators at the local hospitals, I decided to check out whether I could volunteer at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital.

Well, I found out that they do take therapy animal teams as volunteers! They have a program called "Furry Friends" where they allow Pet Partners therapy animal teams to visit the kids in the hospital (and they also allow families with dogs to bring their family pets in for visits).

So yesterday, Jock and I went for an initial interview at the University of Iowa Hospital with the team who coordinates the Furry Friends program.

And it went well! Jock was calm and charming. The interviewer and her two assistants loved Jock. They asked me about my experiences with volunteering as a therapy animal team and where else Jock and I have volunteered. They asked how he does with kids of various ages, and other questions of that nature. It definitely felt like a positive experience.

Jock did have a funny reaction in the elevator (his 3rd time ever in an elevator), though - when it started moving and it felt like the floor was dropping out, he splayed out his legs and put his belly to the floor. But he remained calm.

So now our next step is for me to go to a general volunteer orientation (without Jock) to fill out paperwork and get some training specific to this hospital (rules and regulations, and that kind of stuff). Then I'll get a University Hospital volunteer ID, do a shadow visit with a more experienced therapy animal team, and then we'll be assigned a certain area within the children's hospital! Oh, and I need to have Jock's vet fill out the University's vet form, to ensure Jock is healthy.

Oh, it was a good thing is that I left really early, yesterday. I wanted to make sure I got there in time, due to possible winter road conditions. Also, I wanted to be sure I got there in time to find parking (they have multiple parking garages), and find my way to where I was supposed to be in time. The only problem was that the parking garage was mucky from winter road grime, and the outdoor walkway was super cold - Jock started limping as we made our way though the slushy parking garage and slushy outdoor walkways. His feet must have been icy cold. Good thing I had brought a towel, so I could wipe his cold paws off as soon as we got in. He was back to normal once I wiped off the cold slush off his cold feet.

Jock was pooped out by the time we got home.