So another book-and-weather report. Above seasonal temperatures for the past month or more and sun, sun, sun. People continually remind me that, this being Calgary, the weather could suddenly turn just awful and, you know, they remember when it snowed in June, or July, or August, etc. Be that as it may, all that snow in the front yard that would never go away finally, and rather suddenly, disappeared for the most part. One side of the back yard, out of the sun, is still snow covered and, oddly, I like that. Perhaps it's because I know that if we were ever to be without a water supply for some reason, we could fill a pan with snow and heat it on the stove. As a matter of fact, we actually did that recently when a water main broke!

And now the book portion of this blog. Yes, the book I'm now on is 1776, again by David McCullough. It's supposed to be the "companion volume" for the book John Adams and was published the same year. Naturally, it has to do with the events of 1776 in America and is, as expected, a good read.

I'll just add that one character I've been fascinated learning more about is George Washington. Like many U.S. school children in the 50's, Washington was, for me, a sort of god, part of the patriotic pantheon we learned about. On the wall behind the teacher (at least in some classes) was that famous portrait of the man. He (along with Lincoln) was to us a symbol of our nationhood but our ideas of who he really was were vague and romantic. (Most repeated story about him: he chopped down his father's cherry tree with his ax and when his father asked him if he did it he said, "I cannot tell a lie, father. Yes, I did chop down the cherry tree." But I believe no one knows if that event ever actually took place...)

Anyhow, this book pins down some verifiable facts about the man. For starters, he was six foot two, taller than just about everyone in those days, and in great shape. He was 42 in 1776, BTW. Also, indeed, a man of courage and integrity. But not the best military strategist: he really blew it at the start of the war.

My favorite story about GW so far? The day hundreds of men from Virginia and New England (they hated each others' guts) got into a snowball fight. Things began getting out of hand--punches thrown, a real melee--when Washington showed up. Quick as a flash he leaped from his horse, grabbed a couple combatants by their necks and started lecturing them. In no time word spread that GW was on the scene, the fight broke up, and everybody slunk away in shame. They never told us that story when I was 10, but I sort of wished that they had...