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WEEK 48 2007

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Saturday 1 December 2007

Saturday - a brisk, coolish day. The sun was, mostly, visible; the cats stayed outside longer than I thought they would - a good half hour. But I didn't let them out until after 8:00am. I spent some time, doing bills, doing a bit of homework, doing a bit of shopping. Watched House, also Journeyman - the latter for the first time, so it's a bit puzzling as to what is happening.

I can hardly believe it is December already.


I made an effort to get Sir Thursday, but was foiled. The city has a limited law enforcement presence, as I've noted before. Only a serious crime or accident - one in progress - gets a response in less than three or four hours. They do, however, have enough personnel and money to completely block off about an entire square mile of city (which includes the library) all morning, during the start of Christmas season, all morning, for a parade.

So I've finished Book #60: Drowned Wednesday (The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 3) , by Garth Nix, as well as Book #61: Lady Friday (The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 5). I'll have to read Sir Thursday some other time.


In the evening I went over to a friends' place, helped out with some electronic stuff, and had a nice home cooked chicken dinner.


So, for this years' reading, we have over 60 books. I doubt I'll hit 70, but maybe. The longest, by far, was #56 John Adams. The shortest was #40: Xena and the Magic Arrow of Myx.
#1 The Island at the Center of the World*
#2 Enders Game*
#3 Constructional Steelwork Simply Explained
#4 Riding the Bullet*
#5 Sea Change* 		#6 Dykstra's War,
#7 Six Frigates*
#8 The Green and the Gray
#9 The Hills is Lonely*
#10 Hell's Gate
#11 The Voyage of Kristina
#12 Wyrms
#13 The Worthing Saga
#14 Expiration Date
#15 John Paul Jones* 		#16 Dinner at Deviant's Palace
#17 By the Wind
#18 Skeletons on the Zahara*
#19 Blue Gold*
#20 The Androids Dream
#21 Some Golden Harbor
#22 Beautiful Just
#23 Godforsaken Sea
#24, The Professor and the Madman*
#25, Thomas Jefferson		 #26 Earthquake Weather
#27 Killers Wake
#28 Desolation Island*
#29 Academia Nuts
#30 Sorcery and Cecelia
#31 Rainbows End
#32 The End,A Series of Unfortunate Events, Volume 13
#33: Building Harlequin's Moon
#34, Undaunted Courage*
#35 The Presidents House*		 #36, Rocket Boys*
#37 The Ghost Brigades
#38 The Fortune of War*,
#39 The Wallet of Kai Lung
#40 Xena and the Magic Arrow of Myx
#41 The Map That Changed the World*
#42 The Machine's Child
#43 Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War*
#44 Dark Chant in a Crimson Key
#45 In the House of Secret Enemies		 #46 Airship: The Story of the R.34 
#47 The Death-Bringers*
#48 Outerbridge Reach*
#49 Nightlife
#50 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
#51 Lindbergh*,
#52 A Crack In the Edge of the World*
#53 The Elysium Commission
#54 In The Company of Soldiers*
#55 Dzur, by Steven Brust		 #56 John Adams
#57 Sandworms of Dune
#58 Mr. Monday (TK2K, Book 1)
#59 Grim Tuesday (TK2K, Book 2)
#60 Drowned Wednesday (TK2K, Book 3)
#61 Lady Friday (TK2K, Book 5)

Friday 30 November 2007

Friday -  I arose at 4:30 am, got dressed, put all the equipment in it's cases after charging batteries, etc. Then I opened the door -

Ah, rain, lovely soft rain. I'm back in Lancaster - and it's still raining here. Cool.

So, no work in the bottom of the flood control channels today.


Book #58 was Mr. Monday (The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 1), by Garth Nix. My sister loaned it to me a week ago, along with several others in the series. It's a fantasy, juvenile, but remarkably imaginative. A far better book than Sandworms of Dune. It belongs to the "City in the Center of Reality" genre, I've mentioned those before. And since each book is tied to a day of the week, there is a guaranteed ending to the series.

Well, not guaranteed I guess. Not with the horrid abuse of Frank Herbert's Dune legacy, as in this week's Sandworms of Dune.

Book #59 was Grim Tuesday (The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 2), also by Garth Nix. And I'm on the next book, Drowned Wednesday (The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 3), right now.  They go quick, being small books.

But K didn't loan me Sir Thursday. Acckkk. What to do??

Thursday 29 November  2007

Thursday - tired. I have to get up early to get to the new job site, it's a good thirty miles east of here. I like my new boots, they broke in immediately and the waterproofing is working wonderfully. I dithered on waterproof versus breathable, it looks like I  made the right decision. I like them so much that I am considering getting an identical pair as a backup, should these get swamped and/or worn out.

I missed the GOP debate. I guess the network choose a bunch of Democrat party operatives as the "randomly selected" questioners - party workers for John Edwards, union reps. etc. They don't even make a pretense of even handedness any more. Maybe that's a good thing.


Update 30Nov2007: Actually they are pretending innocence at CNN. 

Wednesday 28 November 2007

Wednesday -  a long day, but a milestone, we completed the last of the first two zones and start on a new inspection zone tomorrow. Yay. But now we need to also sit down and start organizing the data from the earlier inspections. There will be lacunae and errors...

Tuesday 27 November 2007

Tuesday - working away.

There are a lot of transients down by the Ventura River. We got to talking to one, "Timbo". He's the guy who pointed out my flat tire a couple of weeks ago, thus keeping me from driving on it and ruining it. He seemed normal at first, then a little odd, then really. He walks around the river bed, cleaning up stuff, wearing a long black duster and hat with silver colored buckles on it. Winters he spends in Alabama at his parents (he is my age). He likes "Jesus Weed". And he spent 8 months in the slammer for hitting someone with a shovel. He says he was defending himself from another transient with a pit bull. Could be.

Anyway, it's a good idea for us to work in pairs down there...

I was too tired to watch "House". Besides, it's Tivoed.

 Monday 26 November 2007

Monday - back on the road, down to Oxnard. Did a bit of work in the afternoon.

Book #57 was Sandworms of Dune, by Brian Herbert and Keven J. Anderson. Not to be unkind, but you need all the fingers on the right hand to count the various Deux Ex Machina in the conclusion and all your fingers and toes to add up the loose ends left. It's ridiculously bad. Major characters that the books have been following for thousands of pages...just don't show up. There isn't a speck of mystery in who the Kwisatch Haderach will be. Extraordinary superhuman characters from earlier books show up as cardboard spear carriers. Bad, bad, bad.

Sunday 25 November 2007

Sunday - I have no idea what happened Sunday. Laundry was involved.

Picture of the Week
Parasailing and sea birds
Photo Notes: Birds, not of a feather...

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