The journey continues...
This ain't the Sandy that Bruce sings about!
Winds ebb and flow, with the gusts a bit stronger, hour by hour. Light rain and drizzle overnight lead to 0.6 " of rain by the time I left for work this morning. I came home shortly after noon, and it's been raining gangbusters all day. The 24 hour total for Sandy in our back yard is 3.3". I stand ready to fire up the generator when the power fails, which I expect this evening or overnight. Once gone, it's likely to be days before it's back. Right now, BG&E has 44K outages, and the others are likely following suit.
Continue reading...Dangerous Sandy
A bit of light drizzle, some breezes, and a second day under cloud cover. That's what has happened so far. But Sandy approaches. The patio furniture is stowed in back, the hanging baskets and flag removed from the front, and the generator is tested and ready. I gave Marcia a walk-through on starting it up today, and she feels content with that. At this beginning of things, our rain gauge stands at 2.96 inches, as of 1700 EDT. School countdown: 7 weeks left. * * * Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors: Chief Warrant…
Continue reading...Beginning of the End
If you buy into the Mayan calendar lunacy, then I'll STILL have finished my degree work before the end of the world. I'll have five whole days to celebrate! However, since the degree won't be granted until December 30 ... That'd be hard luck. So the final class, taking me to 71 units completed with UMUC over the last five years, is called "Principles of Web Design and Technology I." It starts tomorrow, and finishes eight weeks from today. You'd think a class like that would be a slam dunk for me, yeah? But since I've essentially been self-trained on…
Continue reading...Mr. Penumbra's ... A Review
I've been stalking watching Robin Sloan for a while now. He apparently lives in San Francisco when he's not on the Internets. Robin wrote and posted online a short story called Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, back in 2009. I read it shortly thereafter, and was greatly pleased by the characters, the settings, and the plotting. All-in-all, one of the tightest, shiniest short stories I've read in a long, long time. So, when Robin headed down the Kickstarter path with his first dead trees work, the novella entitled Annabel Scheme, I jumped on the bandwagon, and supported his effort with real…
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