Author: marionvermazen

I am a traveler, hiker, avid reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, Spanish and French language student, knitter and genealogist. I am retired after working for almost 30 years in the Computer Industry. I live in Reno, Nevada with my husband Duke.

Allison Brown – My Daughter – Episode 1 of the Marion Vermazen Podcast

Allison Brown – My Daughter – Episode 1 of the Marion Vermazen Podcast

I have always believed in learning by doing so when I decided I wanted to
do a podcast interview show I decided to jump right in. Here is my
first effort. Roll your mouse over the bar below and you will see a play button.

Allison Brown – episode 1 – Marion Vermazen Podcast

You should be able to subscribe to my podcast by clicking on the link at
the top of the column to the right. If you want to subscribe in iTunes from the iTunes Advanced menu select Subscribe to Podcast and copy the feed URL.

"  http://marionvermazen.blogs.com/mv-podcast/rss.xml  "

In
this first podcast I interview Allison Brown about Travel, History and
interviewing. As many of you know Allison happens to be my daughter. This is a picture of the two of us.

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In
my podcast I also refer to Charlie Rose's interview with Doris Kearns
Goodwin and her husband Richard Goodwin. If you would like to see that
interview it is available here.

I am am very eager to hear your suggestions and feedback.

Steamboat Ditch and the Tom Cooke Trail to Hole in the Wall

Back In February Duke and I hiked the Tom Cooke Trail to Hole in the Wall. This hike is on page 233 of the book Afoot & Afield Reno-Tahoe A comprehensive hiking Guide by Mike White. The trail starts right next to the Patagonia Outlet on the Truckee River and heads south and then west along the Steamboat Ditch to where the ditch goes through a tunnel.

If you are familiar with Reno you are familiar with the ditches but otherwise you are probably wondering what I am talking about. Reno has a series of canals that carry water from the Truckee river for irrigation. I wanted to know more about the Steamboat Ditch but had a hard time finding any information. The Reno library wasn't able to help me.

Finally today I went to the library at the Nevada Historical Society. The people there were incredibly helpful and I learned a lot.

As the Reno area was first being settled in the second half of the nineteenth century most ranches got there water by buying shares in a ditch company. About 130 miles of ditches were created in the Reno area primarily for irrigation. 

The last ditch company was formed in 1877. It was the Truckee & Steamboat Irrigating Canal Company. Trustees  hired Chinese labor to construct the 33 miles of canal. White laborers were angry and announced that they would drive the Chinese out by force. In spite of their threats the Steamboat Ditch was opened July 1, 1880. It took two years and $40,000 to build

The Steamboat Ditch starts at the Nevada-California Line near interstate 80 west of Reno. Water is taken out of the Truckee river and is carried in flumes and through canals to an area south of Reno near Steamboat Creek. On our hike we walked along the ditch to one end of a tunnel that was built through a hill above the river. It is a long dark tunnel and you can just see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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During the winter if you ever take Interstate 80 into Reno you can see the flume for the Steamboat Ditch on the other side of the river. The icicles hanging down underneath the flume are beautiful.

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There are other paths to hike along the canal and I am looking forward to exploring more of the Steamboat Ditch and learning more about it.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The book club selection for the Reno Newcomers Club Book Club this month was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I decided to get this book from the library rather than buy it for my Kindle because I didn't think I would want to read it again but now I am not sure.

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I can't say I enjoyed reading this book because  as I read it I had a sense of dread. How can you not have a sense of dread when the book is set in Nazi Germany and the narrator is Death.

In spite of the fact that I didn't enjoy reading the book I was totally blown away by the book. What a masterpiece. The multiple layers. The unforgettable characters. I feel like I know them. My sense of dread was because I cared about them.

The Book Thief talks about the power of words to heal as well as wound. It talks about the power of words to calm. One of my favorite parts of the book was when the main character, Liesel, reads to her neighbors and family in the bomb shelter. It reminds me of how I read to my girls when they were growing up. Especially how I would sit between their two rooms and read to them when they were teenagers and were going to sleep after an exhausting day.

I think if I were to read The Book Thief again I might be able to relax and enjoy the intricacies, the colors, the words and the rich themes of love, loyalty, humor, community, and the power of words.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Over the weekend I finished reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman on my Kindle. It is my 12th book this year. The list of books read this year is here.

This is the first Gaiman book I have read but it won't be the last. The Graveyard Book won the Newbury award this year. To quote form the American Library Association web site "The Newbery Medal honors the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children."  If you want to smile you should read Gaiman's blog about the phone call he got saying he had won the award.  In fact I would recommend reading Gaiman's blog regularly it is very entertaining.

The Graveyard Book is a children's book in the same way that the Harry Potter books are children's books. In fact Harry Potter is the closest thing I can compare The Graveyard Book to. But The Graveyard Book is also different. For one thing Bod is the only child living in the graveyard.

This is a book that you want to read. It is intriguing, entertaining. As I was reading it I kept thinking of people who I knew would enjoy it. I will be very interested to hear Allie's opinion of the book, and Shan's opinion, and Linda's opinion and the list goes on.

I usually would not enjoy a book that starts with a toddlers parents and sister being killed. In the graveyard Mr and Mrs Owens eventually adopt the baby. When I read the following my heart was warmed and I was hooked

"Mrs. Owens bent down to the baby and extended her arms. “Come now,” she said, warmly. “Come to Mama.”

Because it made me laugh one of my favorite quotes from the book is the following:

"It is going to take more than just a couple of good-hearted souls to raise this child. It will,” said Silas, “take a graveyard.”

Neil Gaiman was interviewed on The Colbert Report . He said that the moral of The Graveyard Report is "Life has meaning". I like this quote from the book about potential.

"You’re alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you’re dead, it’s gone. Over. You’ve made what you’ve made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.”

I think this is the crux of why The Graveyard Book is so wonderful and why I might just read it again soon.

If you've read other Gaiman books which one should I read next? Maybe one of his adult science fiction books?