Exit - Belinda Bauer
This is a really good one. Belinda Bauer has a wonderful sense of humor—about death and dying and old men and gambling and a bunch of other stuff. I don't know how a 58 year woman can have such accurate insight into the thinking of a 75 year old man. But she does. I enjoyed the adventure she portrays in Exit.
Felix Pink is an Exiteer. Bauer's sense of whimsy shows just in the name—connecting my thinking to Disney's Mouseketeers although Bauer references the Musketeers. The Exiteers are a group of people who stand by as terminally ill people end their lives.Suicide is legal in England the location of this tale. Actually helping some to kill themselves is murder, however, but the Exiteers can sit by and tidy up afterward so that the family is not disturbed and insurance is covered. Felix is very patient and can eat his strawberry jam sandwich and drink his tea while waiting for the subject to decide that the time to die has arrived. But of course it is critically important to attend to the death of the RIGHT subject!
Felix lives an unassuming life now that both his wife and his son have died. He shares his house with his dog, Mabel. His life is very well ordered. When his Exiteer partner, Chris, decides to quit, a young lady takes his place. And, in their first venture together, things do not go as planned and the story spins out from there.
Bauer choose her words carefully and crafts a clever tale around them. Felix not only contemplates the end of life for his subjects, but his own mortality. "He had bought his last three-pack of Y-front [underwear] a year ago, and the socks he had now would see him out. It was a strange feeling—that he would be outlived by his socks." "He sometimes wondered whether his dying thought would be of a half-pint of milk going to waste in his fridge."
But Felix is not a morose character, and when he finds himself in serious trouble, he faces up to it and in the process begins a relationship with his neighbor, Miss Knott. Bauer develops all of the minor characters well, and one of the few flaws that I found with the story is that the focus sometimes drifts too far from Felix as other characters take on leading roles.
I am very much looking forward to reading more of Belinda Bauer's books.
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Home Logs
Ships have log books that keep track of the innumerable things that a ship will experience during its life. When things weren't so digitized and electronic, a ship's log could be used to record navigation hazards, tides, currents, and even the quality and make-up of the bottom of the ocean. When the captain couldn't see because of the fog, he could drop a sounding line, sample the bottom, and know where he was. Logs could be used to keep track of maintenance chores to make certain that they weren't overlooked.
Houses generally last much longer than ships. My house has been here for well over a hundred years; I've been here for almost fifty! But I don't know how old it is. I don't have a record of it. I don't have a log book. I don't know when it was heated with coal or when each section was added on. (Except a four room addition that was added in 1926. The sheetrockers signed the back of the gypsum board when I ripped it down. The room was numbered '26'.)
When I recognized this lack of chronological information, I started keeping my own log. I wish I'd taken more pictures in the process which is certainly easier to do now than it would have been in 1926. I try to note the fundamentals such as the date, contractor, cost, along with roof shingle color, or wall paint color.
When I finally leave this house, I can pass that record along to the next owner so they will know what was done to the house and when. Of course if they choose to bulldoze it (which I sincerely hope they won't), they will have to start over.
When you buy new appliances or equipment, they come with a user manual that often includes the caveat, "Keep these instructions for your records." Where do you keep them? In a drawer with a pile of cocktail napkins and old candles? How about a three ring binder? It would be helpful for product manufacturers to three-hole-punch their instructions.
There are a number of home maintenance log books available and some big box stores will keep track of things that you buy there so you can buy them again. However you accomplish it, the 'log book' should be part of the house like a window or a door. It needs to be transferable to the next owner. Remember: you are just visiting the house.
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