The Cold Cold Ground: Book One of The Troubles Trilogy by Adrian McKinty

From September 2014

The riot had taken on a beauty of its own now.  Arcs of gasoline under a crescent moon.  Crimson tracer in mystical parabolas.  Phosphorescence from the barrels of plastic bullet guns.  A distant yelling like that of men below decks in a torpedoed prison ship.  The scarlet whoosh of Molotovs intersecting with exacting surfaces.  Helicopters everywhere: their spotlights finding one another like lovers in the Afterlife.

Beautiful start but these prose don't extend beyond the first paragraph.  I was hoping to find my next James Lee Burke or Ray Bradbury.  My search continues.

Breaking my cycle of bad luck

For years I've been not going to concerts.  If someone was coming that I wanted to see - Prince, Laurie Anderson, Joan Armatrading - we'd be out of town.  Or, we'd have the tickets - front row tickets - like to The Pretenders and Blondie - only to have the concert rained out.  But, I've got my ticket for December.  I'm going to make it.  It is going to be good - from this point on....



Well, that didn't last long.  Laurie Anderson is performing at OSU Oct 12 - while I'm away in NC becoming educated.

Rehabilitating October

From September 2014

Planning a short trip back to Ohio in October.  I am going to watch leaves turn, rake them in big piles, jump in them with Zupe.  I'm going to drink apple cider.  I am going to a pumpkin patch.  I am going to decorate for halloween and make a costume and party with my people.  I am going to study the clear blue sky.  I am going to love my family.

Odd Spots

#3 Starfish do not have brains. (That hardly makes them unique.)
#49 Giraffes cannot swim. (But, can they ice skate?)
#?? Oak trees are struck by lightning more than any other tree. (Note: should oak trees need to stop playing golf during storms!)
#19 Birds have the right of way on all Utah highways. (Yeah. Right.)
#23 There are around 61 trees per person in the world.  (Probably better than there are 61 trees around each person in the world.)

From 6/6/14 : Words to live by....

From September 2014

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

Sincerely,

E. B. White

Thoughts in my head

From September 2014

Are their words or phrases or questions that pop into your head repeatedly?  I hope so.  It happens to me all the time.

For the last couple of years its been either

"I don't know what to do"
or
"I've got to stop crying".

Can't say there is much mystery to why these might haunt me - though for the record, the latter never occurred while I was actually crying.  I just figure I was pretty much crying constantly inside.

Now, my inner voice asks,

"What am I going to do".

I think it is an improvement.

Work survey

From September 2014

Photo by my brother-in-law, Sam.  Thanks, Sam.

I'm guessing it is a project for The Office Facebook Page - a survey asking us to introduce ourselves, so to speak, by answering a series of questions.

What are your qualifications?

"I went to school for a long, long time and then went to school, again."   

This got shortened to DVM from The (of course) Ohio State University and PhD in Biopsychology from Duke University.  I left out the MA and the BS.... 

What is your background?

Fortunately, I had the advantage of seeing other people's answers to know that this meant, "Where are you from?"  On my own, I would think it was asking what I had done in the past.  Not all that different.  But now no one will know I was a corn detassler, a documenter of dragonfly behavior, a castrator of doves, or a catcher of radioactive horse pee.  You, dear friend, already knew all of this... so I guess I overstepped with the use of "no one".  

I am from the Poultry and Egg Hub of the Midwest.... or what at one time was the Poultry and Egg Hub of the Midwest ... like at the time I was actually becoming from there. 

 The questions got harder.

Your pets.

Hmmmm.  There is this gecko that lives behind the a/c unit in the bedroom.  Would he (please be a he an not a highly fecund female!) count?  

It seems sad, and possibly suspicious, for a vet to say "I have no pets" or "My pets are all dead."   

In the end, I went with sad.  "Still missing our bad girl, Zelda."

What animal would you like to be?

Sigh.  I don't want to be anything that has to run really fast to get her dinner.  I don't want to be an animal that has to run really fast to not be someone else's dinner.  I don't want to eat rotting animals.  I don't want to bite into a live animal and have my mouth filled with gushing blood.  I don't want to be a cow and constantly vomiting - even just a little - into my mouth.
I went with jelly fish.  They look so beautiful and so relaxed.

Feel free to comment with your own answers....