Saturday
- sick as a dog. No Halloween parties for me! Too sick to even go out
and get groceries - but a kind friend left me a package of foodstuffs
to keep me going - breakfast, ice treats, applesauce. What a lifesaver.
In between fever bouts I watched a bunch of NCIS re-runs, and slowly
read through a very short book.
Book #66 was
Patrick O'Brians Man-0-War:
Life in Nelson's Navy, a very short but nicely illustrated
guide to the British naval vessels at about the time of the Napoleonic
wars.
Friday
- a long day, and I definitely am coming down with something. Bah.
Well, back on the road to Lancaster, much later than I had hoped. The
cats were happy to see me and piled onto my lap, sharing me for a bit.
Thirty pounds of feline affection is a lot.
I took a pic with the phone, I'll have to see if it came out.
While standing in the Arundell Barranca with a friend I noticed some
Monarch Butterflys. Three, in fact, despite the high winds, cool temperatures and truck activity.
"Well," I said, "there they are. Three of them though - the eternal triangle?"
And my friend immediately replied: "A Monarch à Trois?"
Thursday 29 October
2009
Thursday
- I had insomnia Wednesday night, and am beginning to feel a head cold
coming on. Not good - I was really looking forward to a nice relaxing
weekend, before heading back to work. Bah.
I mentioned The Time
Traders the other day. This is the first in a series of
books written by Andre Norton. I thought The Defiant Agents
was the second in the series, but it is apparently #3, with Galactic Derelict
being book #2. GD
doesn't show up on Project
Gutenbergs Norton holdings, though TDA does.
Well, the Port Hueneme library carries it, so I might pick it up there.
And, remotely related, I see that the Camarillo public library has The Little World of Don Camillo,
which I've been looking for, for some time, albeit in a lackadaisical
manner.
Wednesday 28
October
2009
Wednesday
- stupid Yankee's.
Book #65 was
The
Commodore*,
by Patrick O'Brian. This is the 17th book in the series (there are 21-
including the unfinished last book), and is excellent. It is perhaps a
little spare in places, with less of the luscious deep prose one comes
to expect from O'Brian - the sea battle near the end, for example, is
given rather short shift. Still it's a small failing, and the book is
recommended.
I think I prefer Richard Brown to Dave Case, as
narrator. Case has more of an Irish accent, and in general 'performs'
the characters voices to a much greater extent than Brown does - I find
it rather distracting. And I have listened to Brown so much that his
voice is often the 'voice in my head' when reading something technical.
Odd, but there it is..
I generally use the books on tape as
commute distraction, but I've been working locally, so it's taken a
while to get through the current book. I admit to sitting in my car
during lunch a few times, and just relaxing to the tapes....
Tuesday 27 October 2009
Tuesday
- another busy day.
One
thing I forgot to mention was seeing a rattlesnake yesterday. I thought
it was a small gopher snake, curled up on the channel, but it hissed
and struck at me as I got near - a few feet being 'near'. Since it was
only about a foot long it's striking distance was about 2/3 of that, 8
inches, so the danger wasn't great. It's the first snake I've
seen in a channel, after 750,000 Feet
of Inspection.
A friend took pictures, I'll post one when I get it.
Monday 26 October 2009
Monday
- back to work. I spent a number of hours in the field, but it looks as
though we might hire another inspector to replace me, for the next week
or so, so I can get some office work done.
Book #64 was
By
Heresies Distressed, by David Weber. This is the third in a
series, after Off
Armageddon Reef (#63, 2007)
and By Schism Rent
Asunder (#41, 2008).
This was another typical Weber, with villainous villains and noble
nobles - rather cartoonish. Better drawn are some of the supporting
characters, good and bad. The plot is simply a continuation of the
first two books, with a cyborg attempting to (by force) push a roughly
medieval era world into a technological path, to resist a possible
alien invasion.
Sunday 25 October_2009
Sunday
- a slow start to the day, but I eventually reached the office and put
in a few hours of work.
I talked to my friend and he said it had been an excellent haunted
house - I am sorry to have missed Saturday night.
The Angels, after a one day rain delay, choked and gave the Yankee's
the win. What is it about Los Angeles teams freezing up in the
playoffs? So it'll be an east coast series, Phillies and
Yankee's. Yawn.
Book #63 was
The
Last Theorem, by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederick Pohl. Eh.
Both authors being experienced writers there isn't too much wrong with the book
(though they have done better), but then again there is not much new or
exciting or particularly well done here. The characters are cardboard,
and subplots appear and disappear without much point, the aliens and
their motivations are cartoonish. An evenings read, but not really
recommended.
