WEEK 34 2010
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First Post,
17 March 2002
|
Eight Years
Ago, This Week, 2002 |
Seven Years
Ago, This Week, 2003 |
Six Years
Ago, this
week, 2004 |
Five
Years Ago, this week, 2005 |
Four Years
Ago, This Week, 2006
|
Three Years
Ago, This Week, 2007
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Two Years
Ago, This Week, 2008
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One Year
Ago,
This Week, 2009
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Saturday - after a number of delays I
got on the road at about noon. I took it slow, up the Tropico-Mojave
road to Hwy 58, and took that through Bakersfield, then took Hwy 43
from just north of there - it was slower and with less truck traffic.
Since I had my GPS with me I finally found Tranquility, a small town in
the middle of the valley that I searched for and could not find a year
or two ago. Not much to it, but now I can honestly say that I have found both Harmony and Tranquility while driving through California.
(Sadly I can find no town named "Peace" or, even better, "Landru" in California.)
I reached Martinez at about 8pm, both of my brothers were already there, and they had the beer chilled nicely.
Friday
- fooling around, getting ready for the trip north. I had to load the
trailer with some lumber, and some of the landscaping blocks. Since I
bought my little utility trailer used I don't really know the load
capacity - I estimate I had about 600lbs on board, when fully loaded. I
added an end plate, so as to keep the lumber and blocks from falling
out, and fastened things down as best I could.
I also bought a spare tire & rim - these small tires turn at about
twice the rate of a larger tire, and are prone to failure. It is cheap
insurance against delays at about $60. I also remembered to
include the tire iron this time ;-)
These tires and bearings are rated for 55mph - it's going to be a slow trip north!
I made one last trip to the fair with my friends. S
and her son made bread and entered it in the baking contests, so we
watched the judging. Did you know they give little samples of each
entry? There weren't enough entrants to fill me up, but it took the
edge off. Anyway, S didn't win but her son K
did. She was a good sport about it, but every half hour or so would
say, puzzled, "Why didn't it win? It was great bread?" This sounds
obnoxious, but it was really a puzzle, she generally places, and often
wins in the bread category.
And, to be honest, it really was excellent bread. I had a loaf and it
was GREAT. Perhaps the judges were looking for something with a bit
more kick this year? K's bread was pumpernickel, and he placed second.
Thursday 26 August 2010
Thursday
- finishing up the programming effort. One can automate a pivot table
report, via VbScript, but it isn't well documented - in fact I found no Microsoft documentation whatsoever, and had to rely completely on forums and blogs. Bah.
Book #59 was Traveling With the Dead, by Barbara Hambly. This is a sequel to #58, Those Who Hunt the Night,
and again, well done. Our mortal protagonist and his wife are called
upon to aid the ancient vampire Don Ysidro (Elizabethean era) once
again. It is suspected that governments may be trying to enlist the aid
of the vampire in the Great Game that the nations are playing (with WWI
still a decade or two away). This effort is scotched, but then the
scene switches to Istanbul (Constantinople) and the various intrigues
of vampires there.
I could wish there was a third book, but apparently not. I suspect
Hambly was too honest an author to continue. If you paint vampires as
merciless serial killers, with hundreds or even thousands of deaths on
their hands, and also try to make them sympathetic, eventually you will
come to an impasse.
Wednesday 25 August
2010
Wednesday
- working away. Long days.
Tuesday
- working away at things.
It was warm and sunny, so there were a few more people than usual down
at the marina. In the early evening there were several boats nearby
(within 150') with people talking, and even someone playing a guitar. I
felt irritable about it, then had to chuckle - it was so much nicer
than over by the apartments. A few weeks and I'm spoiled. Had I not
moved I would have all the hatches closed, earplugs in, and the radio
playing by my head just to keep the foreign sounds out.
Monday
23
August
2010
Monday
- working.
Sunday 22
August_2010
Sunday
- doing various things around the house. I hope to put a few days in,
down in Ventura, then go north this coming weekend, to help my brothers
with some roof repairs on my parents old house.
Book #58 was Barbara Hambly's
Those Who Hunt the Night. This is a vampire book, but well done, not
some Twilight junk. The vampires are pretty horrible, though the main
vampire protagonist is somewhat sympathetically portrayed. But, as the
protagonist points out, they have to "feed" (kill) every few days,
which adds up to a lot of deaths over a few hundred years of not-life.
Anyway, in this book someone - or something - is hunting and killing
vampires while they sleep, and an older vampire recruits a mortal, an
ex-spy for the British government, to help him solve the murders. As a
"reward" he promises not to kill the agents and his wife...
The era is the late 1890's it seems, and it is suggested that the
vampire is a victim of an infection by the (then newly discovered)"virus".
