March 7, 2026. KOKOMO

Spent the last week in Aruba with friends. It's just what I needed to get  through the rest of this God- forsaken winter. Totally lucked out too--Missed the BLIZZARD OF 2026.  While New Englanders were shoveling out--I was relaxing drinking a pina colada--with a floater-- on Baby Beach. Sorry. Don't know about you but winters are getting tough for me. I can't stand the COLD-- AND THE WIND is unbearable. Don't remember it being like this when I was younger. Climate Change?  Looking forward to springing ahead this weekend--daylight savings and warmer weather. Cheers to making it through another winter. Read a few good books over vacation, but one I really enjoyed was called Heft by Liz Moore. Arthur Opp is an obese, former English teacher, who hasn't left his home in ten years. His only contact with people comes from couriers when they deliver food, groceries and other necessities. He spends most of his time thinking about Charlene Turner, a former student he met eighteen years earlier, when he was teaching night school in Manhattan. Arthur and Charlene became friends during the semester and briefly dated before Charlene called it off, however, they continued to correspond for several years until the letters finally stopped. It's now been 20 years since Arthur has heard from Charlene--who out of the blue calls him to ask him to tutor her son, Kel. Kel is a baseball prodigy trying to juggle school with taking care of his mother. This quirky story is told through alternating voices--Arthur and Kel--as both try to navigate loneliness, trauma, and ideas of family in this hopeful novel that I truly enjoyed. Don't want to say much more. Give it a try and let me know what you think.