Crime, Mysteries & Thrillers discussion

Hi friends! Let's chat.

Hi everyone. I hope the New Year is treating you right.

Things are finally settling down at my house. My husband has finished the majority of his various treatments and therapies and has a few more follow-up doctor's appointments, aside from the regular ones. It was a challenging December and we didn't decorate for or celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah, I didn't have enough spoons.

I also didn't have much of a chance to read and when I did have downtime I was too tired and would drift off. I'm glad to have more time to read and be involved with Goodreads.

How are you doing?

Glad things are settling down for you guys and hope your husband improves quickly. My mother died 11/5 and I've been a little crazy but think I'm getting back to as normal as I ever was 😊. My bank was totally merged or bought out or whatever with another bank I don't want so I've changed banks and have been working to update monthly drafts. Such a headache. In doing this I realized that I keep paying my gym membership but haven't been in over a year. Someone please motivate me.

˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ wrote: "Glad things are settling down for you guys and hope your husband improves quickly. My mother died 11/5 and I've been a little crazy but think I'm getting back to as normal as I ever was 😊. My bank ..."

Thank you, I am so glad he seems to have come through the other end. My condolences about your mother.

We just had an issue when out bank of ten years was bought by another bank. It's certainly is a headache,

The only time I every successfully exercised regularly was when I found something I actually enjoyed. I bought a bike and road 100 miles a week... until I had a collision with a truck.

Oh my gosh!!! Stay out of the way of trucks!!!

Got my gym draft straightened out today and actually did a workout.

˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ wrote: "Oh my gosh!!! Stay out of the way of trucks!!!

Got my gym draft straightened out today and actually did a workout."

Good job!

The ground is covered with snow here in South Georgia for the first time in many years. We don't know how to handle driving in it, so most people are hunkered down. Still several days of freezing weather ahead. Hope the power stays on. I don't know how you guys up north deal with this all winter!

Scout wrote: "The ground is covered with snow here in South Georgia for the first time in many years. We don't know how to handle driving in it, so most people are hunkered down. Still several days of freezing w..."

Same here in NC but not as much as South GA. I have friends in Statesboro and Louisville and last night my daughter was trapped in the Atlanta airport. This has been something of a week.

I live in the warmest part of Canada (Vancouver B.C. on the very west coast) and we still don’t have snow! We rarely get it, and when we do, we all have issues driving in it also, haha. Ontario and the eastern provinces all laugh at us as a couple centimetres of snow makes everything shut down! It’s been a stressful week and certain world events are not helping my depression. Not this weekend but the last one, the fan in our heat pump died on the Friday and they couldn’t fix it until the Monday! They brought us space heaters, which helped, but yeah our house was very cold! And of course that happened on one of the coldest nights of the year, when it went down to -2C, lol. Seems to be how my luck always goes!

Sylvia wrote: "I live in the warmest part of Canada (Vancouver B.C. on the very west coast) and we still don’t have snow! We rarely get it, and when we do, we all have issues driving in it also, haha. Ontario and..."

Learn something new every day. I thought all parts of Canda got snow. We've had 17°F here lately and I sure don't want to be without heat. Glad you at least had space heaters.

We also had snow in South Carolina. I will not drive in it.

Tammy wrote: "We also had snow in South Carolina. I will not drive in it."

I don't usually drive either but this was such a soft snow.

Sylvia wrote: "I live in the warmest part of Canada (Vancouver B.C. on the very west coast) and we still don’t have snow!."

I vacationed there once, it was so beautiful. I'd love to live there but I'm not sure my (adult) kiddos would appreciate needing a passport to visit their momma.

Sylvia wrote: "I live in the warmest part of Canada (Vancouver B.C. on the very west coast) and we still don’t have snow! We rarely get it, and when we do, we all have issues driving in it also, haha. Ontario and..."

Do you get a lot of rain?

Sorry I can’t make direct replies because I’m on the mobile app and it’s (still) terrible.

Sheri: Yeah, most Americans think every part of Canada is cold and snowy, lol. Even though where I grew up in Vancouver is 20 mins from the (Washington) border; so our weather is basically the equivalent of Seattle. We get a decent amount of rain, but Vancouver gets more than Victoria. In recent years, with climate change, it’s really varied. In 2023, we had such a dry winter. We have a large homeless population in both Vancouver and Victoria because our winters are so mild. We get really bad summer fires though… in 2021 we had the heat dome; us, Washington, and Oregon (there’s even a Wikipedia page on it)… it was bruuuuuutal and something I will never forget. Over 700 people in my province died from it. 😥Temperatures hit 50C (122F) and set new records for the hottest temp ever recorded in Canada. We had an entire town (Lytton) burn to the ground. This year a lot of our firefighters went down to volunteer in the California fires. We get bad ones every single summer but some years are worse than others. 2021 we then also saw an “atmospheric river” that caused flooding and mudslides. Climate change is brutal.

Gem: That’s awesome! It definitely is so pretty. I could never live anywhere else. I took a trip to Ontario once and being not able to see the mountains or ocean was crazy to me, lol. We have had a massive population boom here and the island (Victoria) in the last decade which has led to a massive housing crisis, made the homeless population worse (some of them are literally given one way bus tickets by other provinces to come here). Housing is super expensive here; we are second in Canada only to Toronto. My grandma was from Ontario, and my brother-in-law is as well. We have new(ish) neighbours from Manitoba. There’s a saying that people come visit from other parts of Canada and then never leave (or decide to move here) and that’s true.

We did get a little bit of snow this past week, like barely even 3cm, and there were so many accidents and shutting down roads and schools having snow days. It’s essentially gone now and all the roads are clear. The eastern provinces laugh at us, but they get budgets for snow removal/plows and they all have snow tires etc which we don’t. So it’s very different here.

Maybe when we become the “51st state””””… 😝

Ugh sorry, mobile sucks (and doesn’t let you edit).

My last sentence to Sheri should read “climate change is brutal”

And to Gem I was sarcastically saying “maybe when we become the 51st state” 🤪😜

****maybe when we become the 51st STATE 🤨

I remember hearing an exchange between an American and a Canadian (both students) here in London. The American said "Canada is part of North America." The Canadian replied: "No, the USA is Southern Canada."

Well it's pouring down rain in this part of Southern Canada today 😊 and my sister in Virginia has 5 or 6 inches of snow with more coming. Doesn't do a bit of good to complain about the weather but I'm a little tired of all this wet stuff. Hope we get a bit of it in August.

I had to go in person to renew my drivers license. We have to go in person every other year for a renewal. I'm not sure if that's specific to NC or not, but it's a nightmare in my area. The DMV line is always back waaaay out the door. Thankfully I had made an appointment online - as my reminder card suggested - and it was 2 months before I could get an appointment. Today it was pouring rain and the people without an appointment were having to stand outside in the rain. I'm sure they had to stand there for hours waiting to be seen. My daughter in MS and a friend in GA say it's not like that where they live - just show up and go in. No idea why my city DMV is always so crowded.

˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ wrote: "I had to go in person to renew my drivers license. We have to go in person every other year for a renewal. I'm not sure if that's specific to NC or not, but it's a nightmare in my area. The DMV lin..."

Every other year is crazy! I've never heard of that. Everywhere I've lived it's been 5 years (BC, Ontario, Kansas, Massachusetts.) When I went this year I had to make an appointment. I wanted to do it online, but had used the same photo for the maximum time so had to go in. One thing about making appointments is that the long lines have vanished.

Karin wrote: "˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ wrote: "I had to go in person to renew my drivers license. We have to go in person every other year for a renewal. I'm not sure if that's specific to NC or not, but it..."

Sorry I worded that incorrectly. It’s every other time, which is a 5 year span. So 5 years ago I did it online and I had to go in person this time. Problem in my area, and I’m not sure why, is there are no available appointments within a 50 miles radius. I was up at midnight, when the appointment page updates, for days trying to get a close to my house appointment. I finally did but I know several people who’ve had to drive more than an hour for an appointment. My friend living in GA and my daughter in MS don’t have to make appointments. I was glad to get it done.

˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ wrote: "Karin wrote: "˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ wrote: "I had to go in person to renew my drivers license. We have to go in person every other year for a renewal. I'm not sure if that's specific to NC ..."

Wow! Yes that is extremely inconvenient. I would think they don’t to have that many people at the DMV just for renewals. I also live in Georgia and recently, May 3 years or so, they set up a kiosk in some of our Kroger store to renew DL/ID and even to get your car tag renewed. Nobody wants to spend hours at the dmv!

˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ wrote: "Karin wrote: "˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ wrote: "I had to go in person to renew my drivers license. We have to go in person every other year for a renewal. I'm not sure if that's specific to NC ..."

That's okay--I've been known to word things incorrectly. Worse, I swipe-text (started after I had to switch to a real smart phone, troglodyte that I am) and if I'm not wearing my reading glasses (sadly I have reached that point) and don't look closely I've sent some odd things out.

I use a desktop for GR though--it's better for my neck.

Gem, I love the forum cover picture of the flower field.

hi I'm reasonably new here and still figuring everything out here, but I was wondering where would I got about voting for next months read?

rosie xo wrote: "hi I'm reasonably new here and still figuring everything out here, but I was wondering where would I got about voting for next months read?"

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

This is where the book choices are posted BUT a poll will be sent out when it's time to which. I think that date for December is November 2nd. I think the November books have already been voted on so November 2nd will be for the December books.

rosie xo wrote: "hi I'm reasonably new here and still figuring everything out here, but I was wondering where would I got about voting for next months read?"


Plus this is the nomination place for a Christmas themed book.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Thank you for asking and let me know if it makes sense :)