May overall went as planned. At the beginning of the month, I watched Avengers: Endgame (awesome send-off) and got a new lawnmower; mid-month, my wife and I watched the end of Game of Thrones (a not-so-awesome sendoff BUT, in my wife’s and my opinion, overall a satisfying conclusion even if extremely rushed to get there) and now here at the end of the month, I am in the midst of a long holiday weekend. Initially, it was going to be a three-day weekend, but now it’s a FOUR-day weekend so I’m not complaining, y’all.
I am drafting this on Friday night, probably will publish this Saturday morning, and then settle in for the four-day holiday weekend, mostly with reading. I am continuing to read, and obviously enjoy, the All Creatures Great and Small series by James Herriot. I finished All Things Wise and Wonderful, the third book in the U.S. version of the series, earlier in the month and now am starting The Lord God Made Them All.
In addition to my regular Sunday Salon posts here on the blog, my wife and I also talked TV in back-to-back What We’re Watching Wednesday posts, first, my picks for short season shows and then her picks for short season shows. We also shared our favorite Mother’s Day movies.
June, which includes my 50th birthday on June 9, starts right out of the gate, almost in a gallop toward my birthday. Bang! First day of the month, June 1, I work at the library. Bang! First day of the first week, June 3, I have my first physical therapy session for my bruised left knee (since the end of March) at 9 a.m. Bang! Second day of the first week, June 4, I have an afternoon appointment with an orthopedic specialist to make sure the bruise isn’t something worse. I have been doing exercises as prescribed by a physical therapist who gave me an initial assessment too. He and my nurse practitioner believe it is a minor sprain and strain.
I had planned to go out for breakfast on June 1 to kick-start my birthday month, but then I was asked to work. At least, it’s starting with books ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . It’s not all bad. Plus I have no doubt that I will be reading June 2, probably starting the final book in the Herriot series, Every Living Thing.
The highlight of the month comes the second weekend with Smokin’ Summer Kickoff on the Seneca Lake Wine Trail. The self-guided tour of 22 participating wineries includes a pairing of wine and food over three days, June 7 through June 9. We already have our tickets and will be visiting as many wineries as we can on Saturday and Sunday since I work Friday and we won’t be able to get up there until Saturday. I will share more of my plans for my birthday weekend at the start of that weekend.
The weekend after my birthday is Father’s Day, and I plan to get together with my father sometime over the weekend, even if it isn’t Sunday. I’m not sure yet if I might have to work yet on Sunday since our library added Sunday hours in April and there still (last I knew) a need for someone to work that Sunday. I’m also not sure what yet what we’ll do or if I’ll just go over to my parents’ house to visit with them both or if he and I will do something on our own or with my sister and her family too on Saturday.
In addition to planning on finishing the Herriot series, I will be having a book giveaway here on the blog. I plan on starting the giveaway on the day of my birthday and running until the end of the week? two weeks? month? I haven’t decided yet how long, or how exactly how I’ll do it, but I do have a pile of books ready to go. I also want to delve into All of Us: The Collected Poems by Raymond Carver, one of my all-time favorite collections of poetry, and on the last Sunday of the month, I plan on starting Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, another of my all-time favorite collections of poetry. I thought it would be good to celebrate America with the Fourth of July coming up that following week.
I’ll leave you with my favorite song of the month, from possibly my favorite album of the month:
How was your month of May? Read any good books, seen any good movies and/or TV shows, listened to any good music? What was the highlight of your month? What are you looking forward to in June? Share in the comments.
Still an unfinished person... 
The wine tour sounds great .. I love a good birthday month. I was disappointed in some of the GOT ending, but I’m sorry it’s over. Now if only the next book would come out!!!
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In my defense, I didn’t read the books so might have been even more disappointed if had because of character inconsistentcies.
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Inconsistencies.
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Happy early birthday. I haven’t begun writing my May summary set. There’s still time to finish a book. My weekly updates
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I still might too. It’s just that the end of the week is busy, going back to work after a four-day weekend, so I wanted to get blog post done early.
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May is turning out to be a good month as my daughter came home from college. It’s always so nice to have her home, especially since she goes to college across the country.
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That is good. Enjoy your time with her as she is home.
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My library isn’t open on Sundays, I’ve always thought it should be though, for a few hours at least.
I hope you are enjoying your long weekend.
Have a great week
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I wasn’t thrilled about the way it was done, but now that it’s done, I think it’s good. Any time a library can be open to serve the community is a good thing.
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I wish you a very Happy Birthday Month, I think that’s a great idea, and it does ound exciting! I may do that for my next birthday!I
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Today, my wife and I actually planned out our wine trip…at least a little bit. So we’re hoping it’s fun.
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Happy birthday a little bit early! I always say I’m going to celebrate for a whole month but it never seems to work out that way for me. The winery tours sound like a lot of fun!
I haven’t watched any of the GoT series. My son read the books and didn’t make it through much of the series.
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I agree that GoT had a satisfying conclusion even if it was rushed. I truly didn’t mind the ending… But I know a lot of people are unhappy.
Enjoy your birthday when it comes!
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Thanks for the well wishes. It will be nice to have two days away…I don’t know if I completely understand the GoT complaints, BUT I didn’t read the books. I did read the first one and got into the second one and decided I didn’t care to read the rest. Plus most (at least in the first two) were in the series, so I decided why read them?
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My husband and I (jokingly) consider the month of our birth to be our personal birthday month every year, but especially so during a monumental year. When it comes to making a decision, we bow to the birthday person during his/her month.Small daily gifts are encouraged. Dinner is always the birthday person’s choice. I think this should be a national policy.
I have no record of the Herriot books I read because it was so long ago, but I’m certain I haven’t read the fifth book, and I don’t have any memory of the fourth book. That is wonderful news. I enjoyed this series very much.
I’m off in the wilds of north Texas (well, I’m sitting in the breakfast area of a Days Inn, currently, but I’ll soon be off) and my husband and I shall be traipsing down creek beds for the better part of the next three days searching for fossils. Adventure.
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Naturally I am in agreement about the national policy. My grand plans to read yesterday were dashed by napping and binge-watching some old Scrubs episodes. Hopefully this afternoon, I’ll actually get to the reading. I envy your adventures, if not the probable heat you have. 🙂
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It’s exciting to read all your birthday month plans and the wineries tour sounds like it will be a fun opportunity 🙂
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We’ve been on the tour before, but only for one day. It will be nice to not feel rushed this time around.
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All the best to you in your birthday month! 50 has been good to me so far, other than knees breaking down slowly…
Celebrate well!!
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Thanks, Darlene. I remember your birthday celebration too. I’m having an “issue” with my left knee, but it’s healing slowly and I’m jumping through all the medical hoops to get it better.
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