WEEK 50 2009
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First Post,
17 March 2002
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Seven Years
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Three Years
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One Year
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Saturday 12 December 2009
Saturday - it rained off and on all
day. In between showers I put up the Christmas lights and raked leaves.
I always feel guilty raking leaves in the usual Lancaster winds,
because mostly they blow down the street into my neighbors yards when
disturbed. Not today - wet and soggy and right into the green waste
container.
Book #81 was Ordeal,
by Nevil Shute. This was one of my Dads books, and is the 1939 hardback
edition (the link is to the audio version, since there is no
description at the hardback link and the summary at the paperback
edition is for a different book altogether).
The story takes place over a couple of weeks: it begins with an air
raid, and a small family sleeping under their car in a garage to
escape. It's Southhampton and one of the first raids of the year.
Eventually the bombing itself and the resulting cholera and typhoid
epidemics drive the family away from their home onto a small yacht, and
they travel about trying to find somewhere to stay. No-one will let
them, because of the fears of epidemic, but upon rescuing a downed
flyer the British navy gives them some supplies and tells them that the
ports in France are still sending liners full of refugee's to Canada,
so they sail there. After quarantine the wife and children sail for
Canada and the husband enlists.
It's a bit odd in that (1) France
as a refuge? Obviously this is pre-Dunkirk and (2) talk about refugees
from cities being bombed and epidemics? How did that get by the wartime
censors.
Friday
- Yes indeed, more rain, and lots of it. Which is good, the southern
and mid parts of the state could use a good drenching.
I went down and checked the boat again, still dry and tight after the
last storm. I plugged in the shore power and left a small light running
- it'll keep some of the damp off that way. It will also make it a bit
more pleasant for a friend that said that he and is family might go
down to watch the annual Channel Islands Parade of Lights on Saturday
(weather permitting).
Book #80 was
The
Defiant Agents,
by Andre Norton. This was via the Sony Ereader and Project Gutenberg,
and is the third in the Time Tradeers series (though so far, out of
four books, only in the first and last of the series has any "trading"
been done while they are in their cover identities). It's a bit odd,
Travis Fox - the Apache protagonist from book two is sent to an alien
planet to colonize it. He and his confederates are brainwashed
(partially) to think they are apaches of the time of Cochise. They
crash land because the Russki's have got their first with their brainwashed
colonists.
So, this one does
have a beautiful exotic woman in it - Mongolian, in fact, brain washed
to think she's a member of the Golden Horde.
I've been waiting for a package to arrive. It was sent from New Jersey
on Tuesday, according to the tracking page, and has been sitting in
Vernon, California. Hopefully it'll get delivered this weekend!
Thursday 10 December
2009
Thursday
- kind of a slow day. It was gray and cloudy, and started raining just
after 6:30pm. Quite the downpour, and it's to rain off and on
throughout the weekend.
I suspect the roof will leak in the Ventura rental, but we moved the
bed away from the leak the other day.
In other news: watched a bit of Alice
over the weekend, this being a re-make or sequel to Alice In
Wonderland.
Eh, not very interesting.
I like the new car radio -
it's nice having a dash display again, one that shows the frequency you
are tuned to, or the track on a CD. It's nice having a working CD as
well, the skipping was so bad on the old unit that it's been unusable
when the car was
moving. I can charge things via the USB port, but haven't tried putting
anything in through it yet. It's "Ipod ready", I'm not sure if it will
automatically play anything else. Guess I'll have to try it out. In any
case there is a 3mm AUX in on the front panel. Also, I think,
bluetooth.
Wednesday 9 December
2009
Wednesday
- the truth is, I don't feel a lot of blogging inspiration lately.
Maybe it's winter, and the cold temperatures.
Monday, while replacing door locks a dog decided to homestead on my
front doormat. It was cute, friendly, and clearly wanted to come in. It
was cold and blustery, getting ready to storm, but it had no ID tags
and I was to leave in a few hours. So, feeling mean, I left it out
there. A half hour later it was gone, and it's probably for the best -
it looked like it had some boxer or bulldog in it, and had I turned it
in animal control would probably have just killed it the next day.
While it was there on the doormat, the cats sat on the stairs (an
escape route to upstairs) glaring at the door...
Tuesday 8 December 2009
Tuesday
- back to work.
Monday 7 December 2009
Monday
- I had a couple more chores to do, so spent the day in Lancaster. In
late afternoon the promised storm arrived, with high winds and rain
blasting into the valley, and snow was reported in the mountains. So I
left mid evening for Ventura, so as to avoid the worst of the
storm.
Sunday 6 December_2009
Sunday
- The installer at Best Buy didn't want to install the radio. I
insisted, showed my receipt and eventually he grudgingly agreed to
install the radio as per the written agreement. He was as deliberately
slow about it as he could be, but I didn't have anywhere else to be.
While he worked it was a nice visit for me to the bookstore and
Starbucks. There was no phone call to tell me when it was done, but I
saw it in the parking lot and went in and got my keys. He informed me
that the right speakers still didn't work, so maybe there is a short in
the wires? He couldn't be bothered to check.
So...no tip for that guy.
