Reading

I've been an avid reader all my life. I don't even remember learning to read, I learned so young (my parents taught me to read before I even started school). I don't remember reading the "See Spot Run" type of books at all.

The first books I remember reading were the Lensman books by E.E.Smith, followed by "anything I could reach standing on the floor" (Mom kept the child-rearing books on the top shelf). Reading has always been my primary form of entertainment, almost exclusively science fiction.

And I read a lot. My reading speed on entertainment material is about 600wpm and I would have guessed that I read an average of 20-30 books a year. But this year, I've been tracking my reading on Goodreads. And I'm currently at 110 books this year! That's 15 books a month! And that doesn't even count short stories, or the nine that I gave up on and didn't finish!

I never had a grasp before on just how much I read. Wow.

Reading in the tub

I like to sweat out a cold by soaking in a VERY hot bath for an hour or more at the first symptoms. I find that knocks it down to one or two days, tops.

And, of course, I like to read while I'm in there. Probably not a surprise to anyone who knows me. I've done it for many, many years, and only dropped a book into the water once.

But I do my reading on electronic devices these days, and dropping one of those in the water even once is not acceptable.

So I was thrilled to discover that my tablet works just fine sealed inside a zipper freezer bag. Now I don't have to find a hardcopy in my collection to read the next time a cold virus tickles my throat.

marco, no polo

The kids in the complex were playing "Marco, Polo!" in the pool this afternoon.

At one point, I heard, "Marco!...Marco!...MARCO!...Where the hell is everyone?"

Seems the rest had quietly left the pool and were hiding behind the bushes.


Now that's funny!

It's ALIVE!

CLEAR!

CLUNK!

We have a pulse! I think...yes...okay, back off, it's stirring. Let's see if it survives any longer this time.

So, after two years, I feel like posting to this thing again. No promises how often I'll post, but we'll see.

DST atomic clock

I have one of those atomic clocks, that are supposed to update automatically. For the several years now that I've had it, it never caught the Daylight Saving Time time change. I let it go once, and it corrected itself Monday night.

I did some research, and learned that it checks itself at midnight. Which, of course, misses the DST change, because that happens at 2am.

Then, yesterday, I got up and it had reset itself properly.

WTF? Did they somehow distribute an update through the time signal? (Seems impossible.) Was my research that said it updated at midnight wrong? (Seems much more likely.) But if so, why didn't it ever update automatically for the 5+ years I've had it?!

I thought technology was supposed to make our lives easier, not more puzzling.

Look up your name on Urban Dictionary

Of course, it is Urban Dictionary, so be prepared for something horrible.

I ran across the idea in another blog: Look up your name in Urban Dictionary -- if you dare!

I did, and got this. I swear this is what came up first, but you're going to have to take my word for it, since I ain't putting my real name in a public blog. :) Fortunately, yes, I'm a guy.

1. [my first name]

    A man who is quite simply perfect.

Yeah. I can live with that.

Winter Driving

I've lived in San Diego since I was seven. But I spent a year in Salt Lake city in 79-80, working as a copy machine repair tech. During the winter I got all the snow driving experience I ever wanted.

Some of it was fun, like learning how to break the back tires loose as I rounded a corner and slide just far enough to leave me on the new direction. But when I did with my wife in the car, her reaction was, "Cute. Don't ever do it again with me in the car." Yeah, she knew I was doing it for fun, she just didn't appreciate it. And of course I was only doing it deliberately when there was no immediate other traffic that I could hit if I slid too far.

But my most memorable experience was a call that took me up to Park City, a ski town north of Salt Lake. I got up there and was driving up the main drag towards the address of the call when I came to a fairly steep hill. The last snowfall had been a couple of days earlier, and when I saw the blanket of clean, unmarked snow on that entire hill, I said to myself, "Man, if the locals won't drive it, ain't no way I am," and went around.