So, obviously this was not quite a normal day blog wise. Sorry. Truly, tomorrow everything should be back on track.
And there was no big issue today. It’s just that I woke up and realized it was important for our garden not to look QUITE like a jungle tomorrow. So I spent the morning mowing and weeding the front, till I ran out of battery on the mower. Which means I forgot to charge it after mowing last time.
So, I plugged the battery in, realized it would take three hours to charge and went “if I stop now, I won’t mow the back.” So I cleaned the house. Which is more of a lick and promise, since the place still looks like a cross between a storage unit (with all the displaced stuff) and a construction zone (with the flooring stuff.) But it will do. And it doesn’t smell.
Meanwhile I found another reason to miss Greebo. Apparently he was helping Havey with basic hygiene. Washing my bedspread every day is getting old. We’ve shaved him back there, but apparently we need to shave him more…. by the time we get to the point he can keep clean, he might be a cornish rex.
Other bits and pieces of straggle-business pretty much took till now.
So I’ll glancingly mention some other stuff, while I’m at it:
I have a ton of guest posts (thank you) which I’ll be running once or twice a week, as — for various reasons, it’s kind of important I use this month and a half to work for PJM as much as possible. And to finish novels.
The thing with facebook — i.e. their ability to ban forever anyone who’s been banned even once — means I might be gone from facebook, and with it the diner.
If this happens, or at least in preparation, I’m going to make a point of being on MeWe more. There is a diner there. I got tired of going there because not only do I have a ton of friend requests, but people use different names there, and I don’t know which requests are legitimate.
If you want me to friend you on MeWe contact me some other way (FB included and tell me if you sent me a request and under which name.)
Also, I mentioned this in the comments before: there will be scraps of flag available. If you feel this will help you getting through what might very well be very dark times ahead, I don’t judge. Just send me an email (or PM) with your snailmail address and I’ll get them to you, at least while supplies last.
And now, ladies, gentlemen, dragons and strolling minotaurs, I’m going to vegetate. Tomorrow there will be a post. Might be a guest posts. Depends on how the spirit moves me.
According To Hoyt 
Surprised you can work outside with the smoke. It’s even hazy here in MI.
Surprised you can work outside with the smoke. Sorry if double post – first isn’t showing.
That’s why I almost died. I didn’t have my asthma inhaler with me.
But my husband’s knees won’t allow him to do it, and Marsh has worse asthma than I do and a potential heart issue to boot. So….
You need a checklist.
No arguing. The ROCKET folks use checklists.
Now, as to what is ON the checklist…
I would *suggest* “Have medical rescue devices handy”
And “Is the environment trying to kill me? Yes? AVOID.”
But you know you better than I know you.
I don’t have med issues yet I still let my back lawn grow pretty darn long while the smoke was bad here – it’s finally due for a cut as soon as I can get a daytime half-hour free. That’s the main advantage to having done the xeriscape thing out front, as it does not need weekly (or even monthly) maintenance to look reasonably maintained.
Veg. Rest. Tame care of yourselves. God bless. (I’m not in the world’s best shape, either).
Hugs. Reading the new Rowling/Galbraith. Holy crud, it is like a dinner party for her inner conservative. So far she has ripped genially on Celtic nationalism and several other things that she “should” support, but that her characters wouldn’t.
Heh. Early reaction on the Rowling/Galbraith book has been hilarious. Not a bit of it has anything to do with the novel but everything to do with its (presumed) politics, primarily from pedants who cannot possibly believe that all positive characters in the book are puppets for the author’s pronouncements and all negative characters are thinly-veiled caricatures of officially designated “bad” people.
The idea that an author might write characters not subservient to her dictates is as incomprehensible to them as good people not agreeing with their every delusion.
The presumed attack on “trans” people wholly misses the obvious point that the main character to whom they are objecting is not trans, not even transvestite. From what I’ve read the cross-dressing is doe for easier access to victims (presumably hetereo-cis-normal men) and NOT for sexual thrills.
Conceivably Rowling might eventually decide that the cost of catering to demands of critics who likely don’t even buy her books is too much and justifies changing allegiance. Not that she’d be any great shakes as an addition to the Right (not that the British Right is particularly Right) but we’d welcome her all the same: “Nice job, glad you saw the light, now shut up and write more books.”
In other literary notes today, Winston Groom, Vietnam veteran, patriot, reporter, author, historian, reputed conservative, and creator of Forest Gump, has passed away at age 77.
https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/obituaries/2020/09/17/winston-groom-author-forrest-gump-dies-77/3482484001/
““It’s a farce, and that’s hard to do. The French do it well, but we don’t,” said Groom, in a 2014 phone interview with The Tuscaloosa News.
“ ‘If I could convince, persuasively, a reader that Coach Paul Bryant would take an idiot and put him on the football team, they’d believe anything.
“ ‘Once you hook your reader, they’ll go for the rest. And that’s, I think, where I hooked ‘em.’
“Groom drew the idea from a story his father told him, about a neighbor’s child who despite mental challenges displayed savant behavior. Inspired, he pushed aside another project, and wrote ‘Forrest Gump’ in a six-week burst of energy.”
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Just this idea of how the book pisses off the Wokescold Commissars might make me buy it.
And, that the pedants can’t figure out that the murderer is nuts and uses the cross-dressing so that he can get close to his victims? Or that he thinks that it’s “her” that commits the murders, or any number of classic madness tropes that have been used for decades if not centuries?
You lose hope at times for the intellectual class of the West.
The guy turns out to be a peripheral but important character; and it’s not even his consistent MO, just one of many strategies he uses. And JKR cites a few real life cases in passing where similar things were done.
Heck, there’s a famous case from the last few years where some lady got killed, in a church building with surveillance cameras, by somebody dressed in disguise with face covered. You get a lot of argument over whether the murderer was a short man or a tall woman, whether the strange gait is deliberately altered or actually something with the murderer, and so on.
Yes, but the Wokescold Commissars, truth is irrelevant to the Party line. And, right now, anything that insults blacks, trans people, ANTIFA, and black trans women that are in ANTIFA are doubleplus ungood and must be destroyed.
And, of course, they determine what the insult is
Going off of their behavior in Seattle when the “men in the little girls’ changing room” rule went through?
They’re pissed because it’s a currently used tactic.
The problem is to the wokescolds, anything outside of a very narrow set of gender norms is proof you are trans. They are going to do more to reassert strict gender conformity than any other religious group this side of Islam (although historically mukhannath was acceptable in some Islamic countries, so even then).
They claim they are making the world as safe for sissies as it is for tomboys. They are not.
Of course not. Because, by making the world THIS crazy and making themselves the arbiters of what is and isn’t haram, they now have power that they never would have had before in the past.
Grumble Grumble
None are available in KU.
I’m curious about them but can’t afford them at this time.
Try your local library – might have them on digital loan as ebooks.
From what I’ve read the cross-dressing is doe for easier access to victims (presumably hetereo-cis-normal men) and NOT for sexual thrills.
One of the byproducts of transactivism is there are, in the view of the activists, no such things as crossdressers. Crossdressing is proof your trans, not a fun game or even a paraphillia. If you can’t even crossdress for a sexual thrill without being trans for those people how are they going to be able to understand crossdressing as a disguise to commit a criminal act.
Hell, these are the people who have proclaimed the moves Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire as problematic and transphobic.
So where do they class Yentl? Is Babs heading for cancellation? or is she sainted enough in the leftish pantheon that she gets a pass?
Haven’t heard it come up.
They drove me out of the relevant spaces a couple of years ago. Not a cancelling just too uncomfortable to be fun anymore.
I have not seen, I will not see Yentl but as I recall the story she is forced to cross-dress because of the Patriarchy being a bunch of doo-doo heads and not in any way as a repudiation of her birth gender.
So the film is about oppression by White Males and the way “others” are forced to betray their identities, so it’s still okay.
Okay for a bad movie, that is. Not that they care whether a movie is good or bad, merely whether it is correct or incorrect.
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Heaven help Shakespeare with all those women who dress as boys and then revert.
I want to ask how they explain a guy getting a woodie from pulling on silk lingerie but I don’t guess logic is really something that concerns them.
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Also it makes people think about why men are in the women’s room. It may even bring to their attention that men have claimed to be women to gain access to victims.
She wrote about love and family and sacrifice. There was always a dose of conservative little Englander in her. I loved the fact that she used what was essentially the old money and all her hero’s ended up in stable marriages with children. That’s radical stuff in the here and now.
One of her characters said that there are a lot of nutters around, and that we reward them too much for being nutters. Cracked me up. I mean, obviously that is a normal thing to say, but normal things are the Great Forbidden, in her circles.
Hm. Some interesting characters and storyline, and yeah, not really a mystery for kids or entirely conservative. But still, it is a self-argumentation book, although so far it is remarkably artistically unified. Her muse is happy, or she has a good editor and a happy muse too.
I don’t really believe her ex-Catholic character as an an ex-Catholic. Not fighty enough, or not in the right ways. But a good lively character, all the same.
I’ll tell you what else I like. A mystery that includes some likeable characters and beautiful settings, so that it is not just horrible situations all the time. I think it is a subset of Tolkien’s narration by periods of conflict and moments of rest and enjoyment, because I do like that in a mystery.
Oh, holy crud. He has some of her characters have a giant sloshed argument where one of the detectives point out the true facts about trafficking, prostitution, and p*rn, where the supposedly feminist position gets demolished.
My goodness, what an interesting place JKR’s head must be, at the moment! Some real living and growing are happening!
My goodness, what an interesting place JKR’s head must be, at the moment! Some real living and growing are happening!
❤
Good.
She struck me as one of those genuinely nice gals… but she is English, and going off of Mr. Chesterton and Pratchett, nice English ladies are rather prone to being polite about going along with your foolishness until you either go too far or they believe you are acting in bad faith. And then the Lady Ramekin comes out….
Oh, I think Lady Ramekin is out in full force now.
I think she’s beyond thinking people are acting in bad faith. I think she believes she’s been used by people with bad faith.
As a believer in the idea that the fictional worlds created by authors are based on Real Worlds, I strongly suspect that Pratchett “toned her down a bit” in his stories.
While the Real Lady Ramekin is just as good as Pratchett’s one, she is much more dangerous than his version.
According to Ozma of Oz (in the Wearing The Cape series), as Baum was writing children stories, he wasn’t completely accurate about Oz. 😀
The same likely holds true regarding Pratchett and the Disc World books. 😉
Stories have to make sense.
“According to Ozma of Oz (in the Wearing The Cape series), as Baum was writing children stories, he wasn’t completely accurate about Oz.”
Heck, I knew that when she claimed Oz was a fairy land. While the Fae can be Good, they are NOT Nice.
What is the title?
Troubled Blood. It is book 5. Probably her best written one, with good artistic balance, despite being very long. There is some confused morality in a subplot toward the end, which goes along with the Seventies theme (and was possibly included to keep her conscious mind happy), but the choice of whodunit makes up for it. It is a mature work by a confident writer. Good ending too.
The other amusing thing is that you can have all the illustrations and licensed song lyrics you want, if you are JKR and your publisher can pay for them.
There was a surprising amount of Catholic stuff, but not much UK Catholic feel. Not complaining, that is its own world and what she did worked okay, and probably she didn’t need five or ten more pages of issues; but it was weird to treat all church as functionally equivalent, when there is so much to be said. That subplot was skated over really lightly.
Sleeping now.
So should we read them in order?
Well, there’s definitely character development as things go along in the series. The main character detectives, other people who work for the agency, their families. And quite a lot happens in this book.
OTOH, the mystery and contemporary observational part of the writing is a little shaky in Book 1 and still getting things going in Book 2, and I think you could skip around if you wanted to. I mean, if you start a series with people having severe personal problems and sad backstory, and things are more normal for them by Book 5 even though there is still drama and trouble, you might feel like starting there. (Although obviously that would mean big spoilers.) I like to know that characters will eventually be getting their heads out of their butts, and that writers improve skills. But Books 1 and 2 are still darned good books and fully competent.
Mystery series are not like other series. You should be able to read them out of order, whether or not you choose to do so, because it’s the case that is most important. But nowadays, most libraries probably have all of them digitally, so there’s no reason to read them out of order unless one case appeals more to you than another.
I mean, don’t get me wrong about the book, because it is also pretty feminist, liberal, etc. Or at least, certain characters are. And the plot rules all.
“Mystery series are not like other series.”
Waggles hand. Some are, some aren’t. Nero Wolfe can be read out of sequence, as can Travis McGee, but the references to past cases/events/persons in later entries does enrich the enjoyment … and it isn’t as if there’s a bad one in the series. Other series, such as C. J. Box’s Joe Pickett or Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone definitely benefit from following the sequence as published.
Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter books and Margery Allingham’s Campion you would want in order; I’m not so sure it matters for Dame Agatha’s two main characters. OTOH, there are pleasures to be found in watching an author develop and master (or not) a genre.
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Brother Cadfael is really all One Big Book (and don’t skip the prequel!)… you can read ’em out of order, but you’ll miss a LOT. I love this; OTOH it also means if I start reading, I read ALL of them in a lump. This is not a complaint. 😀
Yes. First page through last page, no skipping about.
Or did you mean read the series in order? Might as well, eh?
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First day home from an extended trip is, by definition, not normal.
Although … for this bunch of bananas it is remarkably normalish.
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So Murphy decided that dropping a tree on my SUV and my house was better than dropping a house on me. After 3 weeks, the tree guys removed the tree from the house but made the unkempt front yard worse. And the SUV is back from the body shop. How did I celebrate? I mowed and edged the front yard in the FLA heat because I could. I feel you sister.
What the Wallaby said. If you’re looking for normal, you’re in the wrong place. 😀
Yep – Norm is a guy what everybody knows his name but who ain’t nobody here.
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Hi, please look at Mastodon/Fediverse. Decentralised, so no inherent power/control relationship caused by “the” host of “the” site. I can invite you on to an initial Fediverse host to get you started, if that helps (noagendasocial.com). But there are many others.
Mastodon is not quite so decentralized as it likes to claim, and can blacklist a given instance. Gab’s instance is unofficially but effectively blacklisted. Also, I find it difficult to impossible to find anything, and I’m not alone. (Actually, I am all alone there, because I couldn’t find anyone unless I already knew where they were. Gave up on it as not worth the trouble.)
The Ragefull One speaks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7nwoqKQ_fc
Massive happy thoughts to you and take some time to wait for the air to get better. I had to wait for about two weeks before I could start rucking again due to the fire smoke. Had to swap air filters for the house twice because they were BROWN.
Come on. My first two days back from our extended trip, was to crash for two days. Well okay … had to clear out the trailer of food (or it’d start stinking, after almost 14 years not letting that slack), and clothing (or nothing to wear). But otherwise, did nothing. Did get the rest of the trailer cleaned last week … I don’t travel distances well at all. Over 40 years trained hubby to take two or more days going somewhere, VS one shot just because we can. It helps that he has to do all the driving when we drive the truck towing the trailer. BUT same trip home, it is always “Well stop over night somewhere, spend two days driving home.” Nope. He hits that dang Oregon border, he’s like a horse headed to the barn. What’d you know. This time we hit the Oregon border, stopped at the next rest area on I-5. Took 42 years, but finally! Good thing because we’d tried coming home via Hwy 126 through Blue River. We’d have been stopped, but still.
Then one of the new kittens decided that mom’s foot looked like a good toy …. while mom was walking!!! First. Kitten is okay. Managed to not step on him. Fell. Did not fall on kitten. Well padded carpet. Well padded recliner rockers. OTOH left knee went “snick” (which honestly is why I fell). I was not helpful when son & hubby asked if I was okay. Swearing was out (it hurt too bad). But Ow, Ow, Ow, Owwwww. Apparently wasn’t super communicative. Funny. I thought all that meant “No”. Walking without support, now, as long as I follow knee’s terms. Doctor wants to see it once the swelling is down. Already had a small tear in the ACL from about 23 years ago (who knew learning to ski when almost 40 was a bad idea?) Any bets on whether the rest of the ACL didn’t tear? I’m hoping it didn’t anyway. Got a beautiful black/red/purple bruise out of it. Which is not an accomplishment for me. I’m of the type of “where’d you get that bruise?” Heck if I know? 95% of the time.
Ha! I always bonk myself. Re:knee, I am sure you know about frozen peas, but they really do help, whereas an insulted bursa making itself known does not help.
We have a couple of soft ice packs. One of them, immediately after two Ex Strength Tylenol + 2 Advil were downed, was applied. Combination was recommended when I got the root canal redo VS prescription good stuff of the past. What is good for root canal had to be good for knee. Knocked me out, more or less. Restless leg syndrome was definitely a thing. (It hurts. Resettle until doesn’t. It hurts, again. Resettle again. Repeat. All. Night.) Kittens & dog got back at me subsequent nights by deciding that specific knee was the one to cuddle up against & on. Kittens were bad enough, and they are only 5 or 6#’s, each. Dog is 20#s. They are not happy. After all the rule is “what is cuddled, does not move”. I am breaking the rule, big time.
I’ve used the acetaminophen/ibuprofen successfully for a while, though I suspect I’m more sensitive to pain killers. I take one of each when I need it. Works, usually.
I started that regime when I was prescribed Vicoden after a cornea procedure–that hurts a lot the first day. I think I did two doses of Vicoden, but after that it was the combo. The podiatrist prescribed Norco (similar to Vicoden) after bunion surgery, and I managed to avoid it.
The border collie clears off the bed when the CPAP machine turns on. The lab-aussie wouldn’t (she doesn’t get up on the bed very often any more. Too hard to do.) The older CPAP machines and gear had some impressive outflow, while the latest one isn’t that bad. OTOH, $SPOUSE notices it if I don’t have something blocking the breeze.
I’ve been working on ladders a lot the past several days. Finally(!) finished the shed’s roof, though I have some minor flashing to add on the sides. My right knee hasn’t been happy since a slip jammed my leg a few years ago, so the left gets most of the ladder climbing duty. Had to alternate yesterday when the left knee said “enough”.
Sitting in a chair for too long makes for an interesting time getting up. I have a recliner in the office (AKA “The Comfy Chair”) that I use when practical to do so. Semi-straight legs are A Good Thing.
“acetaminophen/ibuprofen”
I was pleasantly surprised & glad that was what the specialist prescribed. I was not looking forward to having a prescription for “the good stuff” as we call it, which is what happened almost 20 years ago. Even at half dose I’m O U T, emphasis meant. I can’t function, on them.
Two each acetaminophen/ibuprofen helped me sleep with my knee, but that’s because the knee pain was toned down enough I could sleep. Not because the combination made me sleepy. There is a difference. I could at least function taking this combination.
Ow. Hope it’s not totally trashed.
If you can get your doctor to write a prescription Diclofenac over the phone, it has been very helpful when the pain level of my left knee gets to the point that I have to move from the cane to the crutches.
Veterinarians often use DMSO, which, due to mostly-political issues, isn’t FDA-certified for use on humans in the US, though it’s widely used in the rest of the world. “It’s an industrial solvent *and* a paint stripper!” I got some to experiment with, but I’m sensitive to odors and, yes, “garlic” is close, but “putrefied garlic” would be closer…
Grandmother used DSMO. She’d get it from Aunt who used it on her horses.
I’m sensitive to *scents. No. Just NO. Good suggestion, however.
Sarah,
For those of us that don’t do The Devil’s Database, what’s a good way to notify you of my request at MeWe? I’ve looked around this site and have not found any link for e-mail or PM. I do have a contact request in waiting for you, probably sent when I followed The ILOH over there from his blog last year.
my first two initials last name at the email of heat.
Well, I found the Diner thingee on MeWe and send a req. I’m Reziac most places and Rez Zircon where it wants two names. And with my ugly little monster avatar everywhere that’s convenient to set. So that’s me, even if I look funny over yonder.
Are you giving up the blog or just Farcebook?
neither. But there’s a good chance of being banned forever from faceborg.
Ahh. Good to hear the blog is staying. I quit Facebook about six years ago, it was bad for my mental health.
Yeah, I’ll just be back to three original posts a week at most, filling in with guest and BFP, at least until after the elections.
I’ll hang around here regardless. I never did Facebroke so they can ban me if they like. (Tho I suppose some year I should set up a business page… *sigh* )
I got a timeout. For all of five minutes. I post next to nothing. What do I post? Kitten pictures. I mean what have I posted to the Diner on FB? Then only because I haven’t an option to post the pictures here. Answer: Cats. Dogs. Cats with baby (even then baby wasn’t clear, and the picture is 31 years old!!!). What is there to ban me for? The group I belong to? Seriously? Or …. I know! I don’t trust FBSOB with Any Data. That is why I’m not to be trusted.
I’d made ONE post on Reddit (helping someone make a website behave)…. came back a year later and discovered I was banned. This state persisted for several years (tho last I looked I’m unbanned. I didn’t bother to ask about it.) Far as I can guess, my sin was subbing to /theDonald, a subreddit since banned entirely (guessing when it was nuked, that somehow unbanned me).
Can you sue them for slander for not banning you?
Nuke Facebook from orbit.
TWICE.
THEN.. get SERIOUS about removing the festering pustule from the face of the earth.
I know that Ripley is a Disney Princess TM, but we are pretty near being able to send nukes up to orbit, and back. There may well be better and more reliable ways to deliver nukes.
And nuclear weapons are a profoundly inefficient way of ridding the world of the Boche of fash.
Ripley and the Marines took a lander down from the ship. The nukes were still aboard the ship; all it had to do was drop them, like in Heinlein’s “Space Cadet.” Or did I miss your point?
Yeah, if we want to nuke facebook from orbit, we would actually have to get the nukes into orbit first.
And frankly, in orbit already or not, it is probably a pain to engineer re entry vehicles for accurate delivery of a nuke. I’m not familiar with the movie. Do they have a good reason to have on hand re entry and guidance hardware that is suited for any planet?
As for Earth, ICBMs and hypersonic vehicles maybe make sense, but I’m not sure about launching something into an actual orbit, and then it comes down later. It sorta of seems like the logic of nuclear warfare would work against that? I guess it partly depends on the intercept capabilities realized by the opposition?
Nukes feel like they would be wasted on Facebook, much less surface to orbit to surface nukes.
Okay, you don’t want nukes, fine.
Take a C-130, load it with a year’s printed output of the Federal Register (or as much as will fit), and use the drogue extraction system to drop it on top of Zuckerborg HQ. Go for the kinetic kill. Not as good as dropping rocks from the Moon, but way cheaper. And there’s always last year’s Federal Register, unsold copies of “Elle” and “Sports Illustrated”, and the seemingly-infinite supply of twine-bound bundles of “National Geographic” that nobody wants to buy at library sales.
There is an at least partly credible rumor that one really overlarge “Cosmos” satellite that was launched by the late-term USSR and mysteriously lost when it failed to circularize its orbit was in fact an orbital bombardment platform with awholelottanukes on board, intended to allow warhead deorbit attacks on the US from unexpected directions to get around SDI.
And the rumor continues that the CIA managed to get one of their assets to toss a wooden shoe into the appropriate gears to cause said failure to attain orbit.
Who needs nukes? Just throw big rocks. Same effect and less collateral damage.
Nuke them from orbit? COOOOOL! But please, PLEASE make sure your targetting is really good. I live about 3km from Facebook WHQ, and I’d prefer to survive the glorious event.
The aardvark congratulates you on finding a better way to mow the lawn than gold-fleeced, fire-breathing sheep, which are effective but unwise.
Am reading (and some re-reading of course) Ellery Queen on Kindle. Think must be regressing as just finished re-read of Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. And always every other year of so Peter Wimsey. Nice breaks from the insanity of 2020. So tired of being force fed politically correct viewpoints instead of plots etc.
Am enjoying reading about ya’ll’s trips, etc. as I am still stuck at home being a trifecta for wuflu: old, heart, and lung problems. I remember the years we spent in Denver with great fondness; 50 years ago. First year we were there it snowed on Labor Day and all the kids (and me) were out making snow angels and snow men. On Thanksgiving Day weather was so beautiful we ate on the back patio.
Colorado winters were so different than the ones in Massachusetts where the snow which came down in October was still there in May. Layers and layers piled high. Lucky enough to be there for an ice storm which is unbelievably beautiful = the whole world is a fairy land. I was too inexperienced to realize how dangerous it could be. Took Katherine out and we rode on all the back country roads through a crystal world. Never lost power at home.
Now in Florida have to have oak and palm tree trimmed, and dying magnolia cut down (apparently somebody girdled it with lawn mower in the past.) Have neither equipment nor ability to do myself. Seems like yesterday that Herb bought his first riding mower. Let me drive it and I promptly ran into a bush…good times.
Four(?) of the Ellery Queen novels were actually written by Jack Vance. I now have them in my to-read stack; even if they’re not my preferred genre, they’re still Jack Vance.
I would read Jack Vance’s grocery list. Provided, at least, that I have time to reread EVERYTHING (now starting to think about an 8th trip through the whole stack) because reading one invariably begets a desire to read the next, and the next, until I run out. Not sure I have all the EQs, tho… you got the titles to hand?
I’ve done the same thing several times. And now I’ve found even more Vance stories I’ve never seen before in the Internet Archive… even if they’re trivial pulp throwaways from the 1940s or 1950s, it’s like an extra Christmas.
Whoops, it looks like he only write three as Ellery Queen:
The Four Johns, 1964
A Room to Die In, 1965
The Madman Theory, 1966
Supposedly he wasn’t happy with the editing that was done to “tart up” the manuscripts. There *was* a fourth, but apparently it was never published, though it’s available in the Jack Vance Integral Edition. Which, alas, may forever remain outside of my Discretionary Spending Budget.
He did a couple of novels about a county sheriff; “The Fox Valley Murders” and “The Pleasant Grove Murders in 1966 and 1967 as “John Holbrook Vance”. Given he wrote the five Demon Princes novels, Space Opera, The Blue World, and several short stories in the same timeframe, he must have been a writing fool for a while.
I have all of those except A Room to Die In (and I don’t have Bad Ronald in deadtree). I thought there was a 3rd book about the county sheriff, or at least that same venue, but I’m fuzzy on his stuff outside of SF. Yeah, the VIE is sadly waaay beyond my budget too, but one can hope it preserves the obscure works, to eventually filter out to the rest of us.
I must search the Archive; wasn’t aware there were Vance antiquities lurking there. [drool]
At least one was written by Theodore Sturgeon: The Player on the Other Side. I enjoyed it although my tastes in mysteries run more toward Nero Wolfe.
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c4c
I saw your note on Instapundit about driving cross country. I wondered if you automatically go back to Portuguese when yelling about stupid drivers. I taught my boys that they should keep a wary eye and imagine the stupidest thing anyone driving around them could do and be prepared. All three say it’s been good advice. Regarding driving versus flying, last year I took a road trip with my middle son from TX to WI for the big Oshkosh Airventure airshow. After 40 years of steady business related airline travel, over two million miles, it was quite refreshing to be the master of my own travel. I hope, despite the anxiety, you got some of that feeling.
No. I yell in English. Younger son caught us mid-drive and I was screaming at drivers on the road. At first he got scared, then started laughing.
I’m less nervous now, inexplicably.
Normally I have nothing to say to other drivers… but when I feel an urge to cuss at one, it invariably means that driver is about to do something stupid, or dangerous. Apparently the subliminal cues are plenty strong even if there’s nothing obvious yet in sight. Either than, or telepathy.
“Cuss at drivers getting ready to do something stupid”
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BIL said the same tonight. They just got back from one of the major Prineville Lake state campground, where they were one of the camp hosts. Incidents they have had to deal with this summer, one last Wednesday.
1) Pickup 4×4 pulling a 40′ 5th wheel. Gal pulls out of a parking lot & nails the 5th wheel, just in front of the steps. No problem letting P/U and front of 5th wheel go by, but can’t see the rest 35 feet? Trust me. The 5th wheel RV is massive.
2) Coming down Hwy 58, traffic slams to a sudden stop. BIL can see smoke coming out of car spread all over the road, & long truck fully loaded hauler up against the outer uphill rail (read cliff). Car on fire. BIL grabs fire extinguishers from truck & 5th wheel, along with other drivers to put out the fire on the over turned & scattered vehicle. Two people & their two dogs DOA (on impact). Being tied to the car with seatbelt didn’t help. One dog was killed thrown from vehicle, other died of shock, almost immediately, within vehicle. Besides the tragedy for couples children, grandchildren, and possible great grandchildren, highway 58 was closed for 8 hours on Wednesday. You know the only highway E/W that was open between Oregon southern border & I-84 at the gorge. Pretty sure section of highway where someone had to back track either east or west (probably both) to call 911 authorities.
Four witnesses + video cam video of what happened. Not trucker’s fault. BIL didn’t witness, but was first on the scene after the accident other than the 4 witnesses & trucker. SIL was in a small vehicle following BIL driving their RV setup. She didn’t see anything.
These are not quality vacation adventures 😦 Yeah, you gotta wonder how it is people don’t see something the size of an elephant, but they don’t. Blind spots can be very strange. Especially the one smack in front of the windshield.
“These are not quality vacation adventures”
No. But they seem to collect them. I guess the universe knows that he knows what to do in emergencies.
The were camp host from April 1 thru just after Labor day. Accident happened as they were moving in. So they were able to schedule the 5th wheel damage fix for in Prineville, where the insurance got to put them up in a hotel for the days needed. Damage looked bad, but apparently while significant, was more cosmetic. They were delayed a day coming home because part of the repair work had to be redone Tuesday. They just stayed in the Motorhome at the lot Tuesday night, then came home Wednesday. Coming on the accident Wednesday was just pure bad luck, or good luck, depending on how you look at it. They delayed long enough in Crescent City, where the cutoff from 97, to 58 starts, that the delay either prevented them from being just ahead of the accident, or put them into the middle of it because there is no way he could have prevented plowing into the two involved cars with the truck & 5th wheel, not going down hill. They have a big pickup pulling that 5th wheel. It can not stop that fast.
For anyone who knows 58 there is a stretch heading east where there is a large curve toward the south, heading up hill. It is two lanes up hill. Smaller car passing a commercial long haul semi, with a second car behind the first. First car drifted into the semi’s lane, forcing that driver into the rail (going off the road there is NOT advisable, it is a long way down, trees are not stopping that rig until it had hit bottom), eventually clipping the semi’s front tires. First car exploded (essentially) & flipped, resting on it’s top. Second car clipped first car. Already mentioned what happened to occupants of first car. Second? BIL didn’t say. Trucker was okay. At least 4 other vehicle occupants, as well as trucker’s dash cam, witnessed the accident. BIL & SIL (who was behind their 5th wheel, so NO view), didn’t witness, but was on the scene before anyone could get out of their vehicles. After authorities got there, statements taken, BIL got their 5th wheel turned around and moved up the pass to get it turned downhill again, but parked in the shade (a small freezer full of frozen fish from months worth of fishing were at peril – maybe NOW they’ll get a small generator?) It was 7 or 8 hours before authorities told SIL to get him that they were opening the highway. BIL found out more information online, but my google foo is broken.
We thought we had adventure stories regarding getting up early Saturday for our move from Madison to Grant campgrounds in Yellowstone, only to have the road between Old Faithful & Grant intersection, close behind us due to the Lone Star Fire flaring up. Already had loop closed on south east loop. Then getting the news that we couldn’t come home highway 126 like we planned. After hearing their stories? Uh, never mind ….
Take care of yourself, Sarah.
And anyone on MeWe, just remember: some of our trolls and parasites are over there too. Update your block lists appropriately.
but I haven’t created an account there yet
I was thinking more of the Vile Bunch. Not sure if they can really do much without being connected to us, but why take the risk?
Take care, young lady.
You getting fallout from the California wildfires? I didn’t know the were affecting Colorado that badly.
Anyways, I sent you contact request on MeWe. I am Viking Stormcrow over there.
Oregon and Washington are burning, and I seem to remember part of Utah, and we were warned at the start of this week that Iowa is doing a bunch of controlled burns. (We had about a foot of rain the week before, so everybody wants to clean stuff up FAST while it’s relatively safe.)
Oh, the fires from last month are still going in Colorado, too.
Here’s a map; top right corner to adjust the layers, I restricted it to only known active fires to find that:
https://fire.airnow.gov/#
Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, South Dakota and Nebraska are all on fire.
Doesn’t include stuff like the field burns I mentioned.
Yellowstone & Tetons are getting smoke from California, Oregon, & Washington. Apparently east coast & Europe is being affected too. Or were. Willamette Valley, at least Eugene got rain last night & some this morning. Heavy rain last night. Along with pyrotechnics (lightening), which, even with heavy rain, we didn’t need. What is needed is days & days of rain to soak things good. The lightening isn’t a surprise in retrospect. That is generally the result when cold Pacific storm comes in & hits a hot Willamette Valley. Valley has been cooler than forecast due to the smoke from the fires. But that storm hitting the hot, due to wildfires, west side of cascades, … same effect.
The air is hazy. BUT weirdly Kansas was worse.
It’s sliding down the east face of the mountains and onto the plains. We’ve not had a true sunrise for several days, and the sun is orange. We’re 5 degrees or more cooler than forecast because the smoke is blocking the sun.
Our sun looks like it’s shining through cheesecloth.
Trick for MeWe, if you have a vetted selection of people– not your facebook page, obviously, but maybe the Diner– you can put a link to a trusted location on the other side, to do a pre-filtered port over.
Then you can see “ah, they are in X, they are OK to friend.”
Obviously requires some quality control on the “new” trusted location, or just use it as a burner to filter.
And the election is already over:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/09/michigan-joins-pennsylvania-will-accept-late-ballots-14-days-election-will-allow-ballot-harvesting/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=websitesharingbuttons
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on several issues on Thursday to ensure a Democrat Party win in November.
** The Green Party candidate was struck from the ballot
** Ballots will be accepted UP TO THREE DAYS after the election
** Poll workers must serve voters in the county where they live — this protects far left districts where fraud is likely to occur
This means Pennsylvania will likely not have their numbers in at least until November 9th, a Monday.
Democrats will do anything to win.
And now Michigan Democrats joined their counterparts in Pennsylvania.
A Michigan judge on Friday said the state must accept ballots that arrive 14 days late after the November 3rd election.
The court also will allow ballot harvesting in Michigan.
This tactic is illegal in most states.
So, the vote harvesting will be allowed and they’ll know their target number “to win”. Expect such rulings in every state Obama won that Hillary didn’t.
So, do I bother to vote and endorse this farce or refuse to engage in the charade my vote matters.
It’s not over till the fat lady sings.
I don’t know about the fat lady but the skinny buzzard has kicked the bucket.
I notice how the MSM and the Dems (BIRM) are already re-writing Senator McConnell’s words, eliding the phrase about “when the presidency and the Senate are controlled by different parties.”
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Actually, I think we should celebrate how she deliberately and purposefully trolled Trump into a speedy nomination, precisely because she wanted to be replaced before the election.
But it was her dying wish that her replacement be nominated by the next president — so if Trump wins reelection Justice Ginsburg wanted the seat to remain vacant until 2025?
I am not sure when dying wishes started trumping the Constitution but AOC herself has endorsed this!
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I refuse to let them tell me that my vote doesn’t matter. Even when it doesn’t, I won’t give it up.
And remember, recounts happen, not only in favor of Democrats.
I very much doubt that Trump is going to roll on his back and wave paws in the air.
BE NOT AFRAID.
Indeed. Possibly the most courageous man we’ve had in that office since Washington.
And it is something seriously weird, isn’t it?
Himself chooses the most unlikely warriors.
I think Grant, Eisenhower, Reagan and a fw others qualify as highly courageous. Jackson took a cane to an would-be assassin, after all, and Teddy Roosevelt took a bullet to the chest* and proceeded to deliver an eighty-minute speech before getting medical attention; that seems at least somewhat brave.
*It should be acknowledged that had the .38 not hit him in the speech (folded in half and placed in the inside pocket of his overcoat) TR might have suffered more seriously. But I can think of many a president of my lifetime who’d have required a change of pants rather than a clean hankie such as Roosevelt used to conceal his wound from the audience.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-speech-that-saved-teddy-roosevelts-life-83479091/
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From your link:
Roosevelt warned that if government neglected the well-being of all its citizens, violence of the sort that had just befallen him would become commonplace. “The poor man as such will be swayed by his sense of injury against the men who try to hold what they have improperly won” and “the most awful passions will be let loose.”
Prescient….
I suspect the Supreme Court will have something to say about those blatant re-writing of laws and regulations.
Which means 2020 just got stranger.
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Yes, the court will rule however John Roberts required to cocktail party invites, so these rulings will be found to not only be Constitutional, but required by the Constitution.
Not in the current composition, Herb. They wouldn’t be going so crazy at Red Blue Green’s death if they hadn’t been counting on her.
I don’t trust Roberts. He’s sold out his “convictions” too brazenly when it really mattered to the left.
Leave it at 8 so it deadlocks with the four actual GOP appoints on one side and the liberals (including Roberts) on the other on all the liberals issues.
Spend the energy fighting for an amendment to apply the veto to the SCUS.
I also do not trust Robert’s.