Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 10/2/21

Hey there!  I don't have much to talk about yet, but I thought it would be a good idea - and a step toward normalcy - to post a Saturday Reading Wrap-up today.

Since last we met, I did pick up 5 hardcopy books, three of which I already had.  I'm trying to complete my Vince Flynn collection, but I can never remember which ones I don't have and I don't carry the list with me, so more often than not, I end up getting the same titles over and over.  Derp.  Other than those, I picked up a  copy of The House of Seven Gables, which I didn't have yet, and an old Hitchcock mystery anthology.  As for ebooks, I have 9 left unread - which I obtained between July 12th and August 20th.  

Stopping by Goodreads this morning, I see that I am 6 books behind schedule.  50 books read out of my goal of 75.  Reading 25 books in the next 3 months shouldn't be unreachable.

No books read.

Also no DNFs.

Currently reading... that Hitchcock anthology.  I got through one story yesterday and started another.  It's not much, but it's reading again, which is good.

How are things in your readerly life?

The Last Day

If all the stars have aligned properly, today should be my last day working on helping my friends with their move.  I'm totally ready to be done.  Like I told him, I'll miss them, but I'll be glad when this is over.  I'm a walking bruise and my muscles feel like I've gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson.  But hey, I lost 4 pounds in the past month.

They're supposed to call when the movers leave so I can go over there and help clean their house.  Then I can come home and fall apart.  Yay.

I have some ideas percolating - both for the writing and for the business aspect of it.  We'll see if any of them come to fruition in the weeks/months ahead.  

What I'm looking forward to most is sitting down with a book and spending the whole damn day reading.  That may be tomorrow.  Or Friday.  Or both.  ;o)

Still Not Dead

I know I've been absent a lot lately.  Sorry about that.  The end of this adventure is near and I should be back to some semblance of normal soon.

Today should be the last packing day.  Tomorrow the U-haul arrives and we load that.  Wednesday the movers arrive to take all the large stuff and I clean the house.  That should be it for me.  The new owner takes possession on Thursday and they take possession of their new house then, too.  Yay.

I'll probably be toast Thursday through Sunday, so don't expect great things.  If you don't see me before then, see ya next Monday.

Question Everything

Pardon me for a moment while I wander through some stuff...

When I was a kid, they were saying we were entering a new ice age and we should all panic.   By the time I was a teen, they said the planet was heating up and we should all panic.  Now, it's 'climate change' is bad and everything bad weather-wise is caused by man but nothing good weather-wise is, so we should continue to panic.  

When I was a kid, they were saying eggs were bad for you and we should all stop eating them.  Later, egg whites weren't so bad, but the yolks were awful for you, so stop eating those.  Then egg yolks were okay if you only eat a little of them.  Now, eggs are super foods.  Eat away.

When I was a kid, fats from dairy products were bad - whole milk, cheese, ice cream - and you should stop eating those.  Today, I read an article that said studies now show fats from dairy products can actually prevent cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.  

There's a hole in the ozone layer, we should all panic and ban CFCs.  Oh, wait, there's always been a hole in the ozone layer and it fluctuates... we'll just stop talking about that.  But we'll keep the ban on the CFCs cuz we don't like those, even though they work better and make our lives easier.  

DDT is an evil thing and it's killing baby birdies, so we should panic and get that horrible stuff outlawed.  Except the data was faked, no birdies were dying, and it never harmed people.  Well, we'll still keep that outlawed even though it worked really well and without it, tons of people are dying of mosquito-born illnesses.

These days, they keep talking about following the science.  Well, they don't actually have a good track record over the course of my lifetime, so what science should I follow exactly?  The science of today?  The science of yesterday?  Which scientists?  The government paid ones?  The lone outliers?  

They're also saying 'the science is settled'.  That phrase alone should send you running for the hills.  Science, such as it is, is never truly settled.  Hell, their own track record on that proves science is never settled.  

It really makes me wonder what else they've said over the years that is patently untrue.  Long before I was born, cigarettes were okay.  In fact, doctors were recommending them.  Now, they're spawned from the depths of hell and no one should ever smoke one lest they be cast into the pit of unholiness.  Is it true?  :shrug:  Mom's been smoking since 1958 and she seems fine.  Dad smoked since he was 10 - unfiltered for a large part of those years - and not one of his ailments was ever related back to his smoking.  Yet, Hubs' best friend never smoked a day in his life and he died from esophageal cancer.  I had an aunt who never smoked, but she died of cancer, too.  (Lung, I think, but I can never remember for sure.)

Hell, they said being out in the sun was bad for you and would give you skin cancer.  Now so many people spend so much time out of the sun, they're suffering from a lack of vitamin D and calcium.  (You need the sun to process vitamin D and you need vitamin D to process calcium.)

All that's anecdotal of course, but it makes me wonder.  And science is actually supposed to be about wondering and questioning and thinking about possibilities and stuff.  

So, now we're here in the 'rona ages.  In roughly 18 months we went from 'it'll kill you' to 'it might kill you, but it will kill kids and old people' to 'it'll definitely kill old people' to god knows what.  The truth?  It kills some people, especially if they're old, infirm, or obese (usually a combination of those things).  But according to them, we all need to get the vaccine and mask up anyway.  (The social distancing thing seems to have been dropped somewhere along the way.  Personally, I want people to stay 6 feet away from me whether there's a virus around or not.)

What's the point of all this?  :shrug:  Question everything, perhaps?  Especially if something sounds hinky or feels off.  Follow the money, think about the motives, consider the sources, and do your own research.  It's hard work, which can be scary, but it's definitely less scary than the world they're presenting to us.  

And don't take my word for it either.  If anything I've said in this post, or any other, seems off to you, do your own research.  Just don't come back here to argue with me about it.  I'm so over arguing with anyone about anything.

Peace out.

Thursday This n That

I just noticed something... I keep seeing people use the word 'partner' instead of 'husband' or 'wife' or 'spouse'.  In terms of language it's kind of right, but not exactly right.  All husbands and wives are spouses, all spouses are partners (or they should be), but not all partners are spouses.  (And spouses are broken into husbands and wives, so not all spouses are strictly one or the other.)  Specificity, folks.  Hell, you could even slide another level in there - significant other.  Put it between partner and spouse.  As in, all spouses are significant others, but not all significant others are spouses.  When partner can also include business relationships - company ownerships, law offices, etc. - as well as law enforcement, using partner when you mean significant other/spouse is lazy language.  Or it's a further degradation of our way of life.  Either way, knock it off.

Sonny the buck is almost totally unafraid of Hubs now.  True, Hubs can't pet him yet, but it's to a point where the buck is getting within mere feet of my husband.  I may end up watching Hubs' back while he puts out food during the rut.  I'll go out there with my big walking stick and that alone should keep the deer back.  They're still terrified of me.  My mere presence in the window makes them walk away.  Scary scary lady here.

Speaking of my walking stick, we were out at the lake a while back and I found this stick that had washed up on the shore.  It's about 5 ft long and just the right diameter, tapering down to a solid point.  Both ends show distinct beaver gnaw marks.  It's awesome, so I brought it home.  The beavers did the work of removing all the bark for me.  Hubs stained it for me last week.  I can't wait to use it.

I have another one my oldest brother made for himself out of an ash tree he cut from the land where we grew up, and I just assumed custody of it when he left home.  My oldest brother is 6'8, so you can imagine how big this thing is.  I can't actually wield it as a walking stick.  Staff?  Anyway, it's a piece of home, so I've carted it through every move since 2001.  It's standing in the corner of my living room behind the TV.

Today's my mom's 81st birthday.  I sent her a rock.  Yep, a rock.  And a loaf of homemade zucchini bread made with my zucchinis.  And some homemade granola bars.  The rock is a long story.  Suffice it to say, she liked it and that's all that matters.

Okay, I should probably get some stuff done before I have to head off to the Packing Show.  Have a great day, ya'll.

My Life is So Exciting

It's Wednesday??  Blerg.  Not that Wednesday is necessarily bad.  I just feel like a turd because I missed Monday and Tuesday.  Sorry about that.  Not that you really missed anything.  I spent Monday working and I had yesterday off with much decompression happening.  (Code for total vegetation.) 

I did hit the thrift store yesterday.  Picked up 5 old books, 3 of which I already had.  I can never remember which Vince Flynns are in my library, so I keep picking up the same ones over and over.  At least some good comes of this folly.  If the new copy is better, I trade it out for the worse copy.  Aside from the VF novels, I got a copy of The House of the Seven Gables (paperback) which I didn't have.  And an Alfred Hitchcock anthology in hardcover.  I love those things.  They're about the only anthologies I really enjoy.  I also found two gorgeous coats for cheap  ($9 total).  One is waterproof and lined so its toasty warm.  No more slogging out in wet snow and getting soaked.  Yay.  The other is also nice and warm and lovely.  Lined with faux fur.  

I also hit the bank and then drove over and paid the trash bill.  I don't mail that bill because the company's office are right on my way to damn near everything.  Just park and throw the bill in the handy-dandy box they have for that purpose.  

My life is so exciting.  

Sunday Update, I guess.

 Okay, so yesterday morning I detailed what I've been up to lately - with photos.  It's not all that interesting or exciting, but it's keeping me out of trouble.

I spent 6 hours yesterday loading a 14' trailer with Hubs.  Well, actually, half of that was spent loading and the other half was unloading part of it and reloading different stuff.  We had a decided weight problem.  

You know those big ass tool boxes - like 6 foot long and five foot high and filled with various tool stuffs?  Well, we loaded it, but after we got everything else on, the trailer was sitting way too low to safely move.  So, we unloaded the stuff we'd put in after the toolbox and then the toolbox.  Then we loading up again.  

Along the way, we read the specs on the trailer and discovered it was only rated for about 3000 pounds. Umm, the toolbox was probably at least half that.  Blerg. And even after we got it off, we couldn't load as much as we would've like to.  Trying to maintain the right balance, doncha know.  Stupid trailer design.  

I guess there's a reason why the moving company said they would NOT move his toolbox.  He'll have to figure something else out.

We left before the trailer got moved.  I can only hope they didn't need to pull more off of it after they lost their movers, but we were exhausted.  Thank goodness today is an off day because I don't think I could lift a box of feathers right now.

Unfortunately, they're moving in 10 days and there's still a boatload of stuff to do.  They'll call me tonight and we'll go over the game plan for tomorrow.  I'm almost out of Asperceme.  Time to hit the Blue Emu.  And the Aleve, of course.

I'm still a goddess.  The Goddess of Bruising and Pain.  LOL

In other news, because this is the Sunday Update, I guess.  I made zucchini bread yesterday morning before we left.  Active 5 out of 7 days.  Weight: 182.4 as of yesterday a.m.  I did see 180.6 this week, but it went back up again.  

 I got up over 200 million in poker then went back down to 91 million.  I'm making my way back up again, but it's slower going up than it is going down.

I didn't read anything, but I did do like one and half crossword puzzles.  Woohoo.

And that's all I can think of right now.  Another 10 days and I should be back to regular life and regular posts.  

How did your week go?