A bonus entry, bookies. How absent-minded can your favorite bookseller be? Pretty danged absent-minded.
So, I get in my neat little new-to-me car to go get some medicine for one of our dogs, she's very sick and this might make her more comfortable. I was trying to think of all the stuff I had to do today, put the key in the ignition and...and...and nothing. It was the wrong key.
Yes, it was stuck. I tried everything, it wouldn't come out. After waiting for the locksmith, he got it out in about three seconds using pliers and a screw driver. Whew! I had visions of tow charges and hundreds of dollars in repairs. I got lucky.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Back to books
Good morning, bookies. School starts in a week but in the meantime I thought it would be a good idea to actually have a blog entry about a book. This one is a military book, but I proise to get around the stuff like mysteries and SF and the like soon.
Today's book is a good choice for anyone interested in aviation, whether it's you, a hubby, a dad or granddad. It concerns a little known German super-weapon from World War II. Not some exotic project that looks cool but was never built,this place actually flew and fought in decent numbers, it was simply too late to have much effect on things. And no, it's not the ME-262, the world's first jet fighter.
Instead, it's the TA-152, the revolutionary upgrade of the Focke-Wulf 190. I haven't read it but the review makes it seem like one that I would love, and I might yet find a moment to read it. Let's hope so.
The remarkable TA-152
Today's book is a good choice for anyone interested in aviation, whether it's you, a hubby, a dad or granddad. It concerns a little known German super-weapon from World War II. Not some exotic project that looks cool but was never built,this place actually flew and fought in decent numbers, it was simply too late to have much effect on things. And no, it's not the ME-262, the world's first jet fighter.
Instead, it's the TA-152, the revolutionary upgrade of the Focke-Wulf 190. I haven't read it but the review makes it seem like one that I would love, and I might yet find a moment to read it. Let's hope so.
The remarkable TA-152
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Automotive reincarnation
Hiya bookies! Tomorrow became Day-After-Tomorrow, I know. Lots of running round yesterday, meeting with teachers, renewing library books (I didn't tell you that story, either. Jeez, so much excitement I can't keep track of it all), trying to set up this nifty new computer (see, yet another great story untold!), and on and on. But let's focus on the Focus.
As we last left our intrepid hero, me, my car was totaled and dead, smelling moldy after a week in the hot summer sun as dirty rainwater dried out inside. My mechanic kept telling me it was hopeless, that you would never know when some rusted out circuit would fail and I finally, reluctantly, had to believe him. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend. Not only that, I was down to our family's emergency car. The insurance company paid, and then I discovered that the payment wouldn't come close to buying me a comparable car. Figures, right?
In 1990 we bought a new (well, a low-mileage demo car) Volvo 740, which every member of the household has driven at one time or another as their primary car. Both my kids learned to drive in that car. It's pretty beat up now, the seats are split out, the dashboard and door panels cracked, the trunk jammed shut...we have often been encouraged to get rid of it. The question is: why? It's the perfect emergency car, and after 20 years it qualifies as an antique. So that was my choice, drive the Volvo. Except the A/C didn't work. Fortunately, two shots of freon and the air was so cold I used it to hang meat.
No, not really, but I probably could have. Nice and frosty, the way I like it when the heat index in Memphis tops 120, which it did for like three weeks straight this year. That old Volvo remains one of the most stable cars ever built and if they really wanted to sell a lot of new ones, they would take that old car, duplicate it as much as possible and call it something brand new. Which, given its quality, it probably would be.
Anyway, I had wheels, but the Volvo doesn't have a CD player, just cassette. I don't listen to radio when driving, I listen to audiobooks, but mine are all on CD now and I was really depressed. Indeed, on that fateful day when my Focus was drowned I had begun listening to the Teaching Company production of History of Ancient Rome, a series of 48 college lectures by Professor Garrett Fagan. (By the way, if you aren't familiar with The Teaching Company, you may want to check them out. They have lecture courses on every conceivable subject. And if Ann in Nashville is still reading this blog, I am reliably informed that your library system carries many, if not most, of them).
Not having a CD player, however, I listened to ESPN sports radio and realized just how utterly dreadful those hosts really are. I'm a sports guy, too, but come on! I'm glad most of the people on ESPN radio work there, because I can't imagine what else they could do for a living. And for one brief afternoon I listened to local sports-talk radio. Amazingly bad. Intelligence-insultingly bad. Stunningly wretched, even. It wasn't fun.
Then, about two weeks ago on the Memphis Tigers message board, an ad popped up from one of the long-time posters. He was selling a car. What kind of car? I kid you not, a 2001 ZX3 Ford Focus. Blue, no less. I PMed him immediately and he agreed to meet me at my mechanic's place one afternoon. The car was virtually identical to my dead one. The hood was wrinkled from an accident, it didn't have power-door locks and had 88,000 miles vs. my old one's 27,000, but it was cheap and my mechanic gave it a thumbs up. I wrote the check. I did have to put some money into it, but I expected to. I may even have to put a little more, who knows? But the happy ending is that I am once again driving a nifty little 2001 Ford Focus hatchback, and at a fraction of the cost that I might have had to pay to get something I liked.
One small footnote that shows how foolish manufacturers can be. Ford no longer makes a Focus hatchback. If they did, I would have gone out and bought a brand-new one, even though car notes are anathema to me. I loved the car. But in their infinite wisdom, the big-wigs at Ford discontinued the Focus 2 door hatchback and replace it with the Fiesta hatchback.
Sorry, Ford, no sale on that one.
And so, your friendly neighborhood bookseller is once again wheeled up and ready to ferret out the best books for his bookies to buy. Thanks to you all for sticking with me!
As we last left our intrepid hero, me, my car was totaled and dead, smelling moldy after a week in the hot summer sun as dirty rainwater dried out inside. My mechanic kept telling me it was hopeless, that you would never know when some rusted out circuit would fail and I finally, reluctantly, had to believe him. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend. Not only that, I was down to our family's emergency car. The insurance company paid, and then I discovered that the payment wouldn't come close to buying me a comparable car. Figures, right?
In 1990 we bought a new (well, a low-mileage demo car) Volvo 740, which every member of the household has driven at one time or another as their primary car. Both my kids learned to drive in that car. It's pretty beat up now, the seats are split out, the dashboard and door panels cracked, the trunk jammed shut...we have often been encouraged to get rid of it. The question is: why? It's the perfect emergency car, and after 20 years it qualifies as an antique. So that was my choice, drive the Volvo. Except the A/C didn't work. Fortunately, two shots of freon and the air was so cold I used it to hang meat.
No, not really, but I probably could have. Nice and frosty, the way I like it when the heat index in Memphis tops 120, which it did for like three weeks straight this year. That old Volvo remains one of the most stable cars ever built and if they really wanted to sell a lot of new ones, they would take that old car, duplicate it as much as possible and call it something brand new. Which, given its quality, it probably would be.
Anyway, I had wheels, but the Volvo doesn't have a CD player, just cassette. I don't listen to radio when driving, I listen to audiobooks, but mine are all on CD now and I was really depressed. Indeed, on that fateful day when my Focus was drowned I had begun listening to the Teaching Company production of History of Ancient Rome, a series of 48 college lectures by Professor Garrett Fagan. (By the way, if you aren't familiar with The Teaching Company, you may want to check them out. They have lecture courses on every conceivable subject. And if Ann in Nashville is still reading this blog, I am reliably informed that your library system carries many, if not most, of them).
Not having a CD player, however, I listened to ESPN sports radio and realized just how utterly dreadful those hosts really are. I'm a sports guy, too, but come on! I'm glad most of the people on ESPN radio work there, because I can't imagine what else they could do for a living. And for one brief afternoon I listened to local sports-talk radio. Amazingly bad. Intelligence-insultingly bad. Stunningly wretched, even. It wasn't fun.
Then, about two weeks ago on the Memphis Tigers message board, an ad popped up from one of the long-time posters. He was selling a car. What kind of car? I kid you not, a 2001 ZX3 Ford Focus. Blue, no less. I PMed him immediately and he agreed to meet me at my mechanic's place one afternoon. The car was virtually identical to my dead one. The hood was wrinkled from an accident, it didn't have power-door locks and had 88,000 miles vs. my old one's 27,000, but it was cheap and my mechanic gave it a thumbs up. I wrote the check. I did have to put some money into it, but I expected to. I may even have to put a little more, who knows? But the happy ending is that I am once again driving a nifty little 2001 Ford Focus hatchback, and at a fraction of the cost that I might have had to pay to get something I liked.
One small footnote that shows how foolish manufacturers can be. Ford no longer makes a Focus hatchback. If they did, I would have gone out and bought a brand-new one, even though car notes are anathema to me. I loved the car. But in their infinite wisdom, the big-wigs at Ford discontinued the Focus 2 door hatchback and replace it with the Fiesta hatchback.
Sorry, Ford, no sale on that one.
And so, your friendly neighborhood bookseller is once again wheeled up and ready to ferret out the best books for his bookies to buy. Thanks to you all for sticking with me!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
What I did this summer
Yes, bookies, I'm seriously going to try and keep this thing going at a regular pace, regardless of how many other distractions come down the pike. But I've gotta issue a whining warning, because, sadly, I'm gonna whine for a minute.
Finishing with the tale of summer school, neither teacher added the optional '+' to my grades. Not that it really matters from a GPA standpoint, it doesn't, but it looks better on a transcript and believe me, my transcript needs to look as much better as is possible. Not only that, a '-' after your letter grade does adversely affect your GPA. Which really stinks. And the whining involves just such a designation, that little minus sign after what should have been a plain old A.
In most courses an 'A' grade is 90-100 percentage. A 91, for instance, is an A. In my communications class I received a 93. By itself that really angered me, it should have been at least a 95 but he didn't like my last speech. Or, rather, he didn't like that I took a subject that he assigned me, and assumed I would take a negative stance on, turned it around with a positive stance and was applauded by the class. And I did not get the grade for that speech that I deserved. Having given more than 1000 presentations and speeches in my life, it was my job for five years!, I know when I'm on and when I'm not. And that day, I was on.
Oh well, it's really a minor thing but you hate getting cheated on something you think you've earned. Whining warning is now cancelled.
Did I tell you about my car? I don't think so, but if I did pretend that I didn't. So, back in May, the 24th to be exact, I'm at that very COMM class and on my way home. I had just cracked open a new Audiobook CD. A college lecture course, actually, The History of Ancient Rome on 24 CDs from The Teaching Company. As you know, I'm a real Roman history buff and was pretty pumped to listen to this on the way home.
Early afternoon, hot, the air wet with coming rain. Three miles from home the clouds started dumping water, harder and faster than I had ever seen in my life. Ever. Hail the size of golf balls. Waves building on the street. Surrounded by traffic with water a foot deep on the road I was trapped. Then, before I knew it, my car was floating and water was pouring in the doors. A warm sunny day had become like a Bible lesson with me as Noah and my car the ark. Except my car wasn't waterproof.
Long story short, my nifty little 2001 Ford Focus ZX-3 with 27,000 actual miles was dead. Totaled. I begged my trusted mechanic to lie to me, to tell me he could bring it back to life, but to no avail. The insurance paid a reasonable amount but I didn't care. My car was dead.
Tomorrow, the exciting conclusion!
Finishing with the tale of summer school, neither teacher added the optional '+' to my grades. Not that it really matters from a GPA standpoint, it doesn't, but it looks better on a transcript and believe me, my transcript needs to look as much better as is possible. Not only that, a '-' after your letter grade does adversely affect your GPA. Which really stinks. And the whining involves just such a designation, that little minus sign after what should have been a plain old A.
In most courses an 'A' grade is 90-100 percentage. A 91, for instance, is an A. In my communications class I received a 93. By itself that really angered me, it should have been at least a 95 but he didn't like my last speech. Or, rather, he didn't like that I took a subject that he assigned me, and assumed I would take a negative stance on, turned it around with a positive stance and was applauded by the class. And I did not get the grade for that speech that I deserved. Having given more than 1000 presentations and speeches in my life, it was my job for five years!, I know when I'm on and when I'm not. And that day, I was on.
Oh well, it's really a minor thing but you hate getting cheated on something you think you've earned. Whining warning is now cancelled.
Did I tell you about my car? I don't think so, but if I did pretend that I didn't. So, back in May, the 24th to be exact, I'm at that very COMM class and on my way home. I had just cracked open a new Audiobook CD. A college lecture course, actually, The History of Ancient Rome on 24 CDs from The Teaching Company. As you know, I'm a real Roman history buff and was pretty pumped to listen to this on the way home.
Early afternoon, hot, the air wet with coming rain. Three miles from home the clouds started dumping water, harder and faster than I had ever seen in my life. Ever. Hail the size of golf balls. Waves building on the street. Surrounded by traffic with water a foot deep on the road I was trapped. Then, before I knew it, my car was floating and water was pouring in the doors. A warm sunny day had become like a Bible lesson with me as Noah and my car the ark. Except my car wasn't waterproof.
Long story short, my nifty little 2001 Ford Focus ZX-3 with 27,000 actual miles was dead. Totaled. I begged my trusted mechanic to lie to me, to tell me he could bring it back to life, but to no avail. The insurance paid a reasonable amount but I didn't care. My car was dead.
Tomorrow, the exciting conclusion!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
It's been a while...
Hi bookies! Yes, I know, it's been quite a while since I posted here. And to those thousands who have written wondering if I'm okay...well, okay, to the one misguided woman who thought I was channeling her long-lost cat, the answer is that I'm fine, but this has been one hectic summer.
Aside from all sorts of non-bookie stuff, you know, like lawn maintenance and family and the like, I have been in school. Yes, back to college. One course required me to actually show up every morning, sit in a classroom and takes notes and stuff. With people half my age (or less). Fun times. It was during pre-summer, which meant 4 hours per day in a classroom for three weeks, then homework at night. Gross. I received an A- which royally peeved me. No way it should have been less than an A+, except the teacher was a dolt.
But that was must warmup for taking two, count 'em, two, online courses during summer session. The total number of pages read for both courses combined topped 3,700! In just over 2 months. That's 9 books, 7 of them textbooks, not counting videos we had to watch, three written essays or more per week, two mid-terms each with two essays questions, a book review and a comparative book review. Holy cow! I did it, I'm not sure how, but for people who have to physically get up and go to work each day and then try to work such classes into their schedule, I have no idea who they do it. I really don't.
Grades? Out of 2,000 possible points, 1,000 for each class, I received 2,002, and maybe a few more. Enough to pass, I guess. Hopefully the teachers will add the optional '+' to the letter grade.
And school starts again in two weeks. Two more courses, God knows how many more pages to read...but I'll try to do a better job updating this one. Thanks to you all, and go enjoy the rest of summer.
Aside from all sorts of non-bookie stuff, you know, like lawn maintenance and family and the like, I have been in school. Yes, back to college. One course required me to actually show up every morning, sit in a classroom and takes notes and stuff. With people half my age (or less). Fun times. It was during pre-summer, which meant 4 hours per day in a classroom for three weeks, then homework at night. Gross. I received an A- which royally peeved me. No way it should have been less than an A+, except the teacher was a dolt.
But that was must warmup for taking two, count 'em, two, online courses during summer session. The total number of pages read for both courses combined topped 3,700! In just over 2 months. That's 9 books, 7 of them textbooks, not counting videos we had to watch, three written essays or more per week, two mid-terms each with two essays questions, a book review and a comparative book review. Holy cow! I did it, I'm not sure how, but for people who have to physically get up and go to work each day and then try to work such classes into their schedule, I have no idea who they do it. I really don't.
Grades? Out of 2,000 possible points, 1,000 for each class, I received 2,002, and maybe a few more. Enough to pass, I guess. Hopefully the teachers will add the optional '+' to the letter grade.
And school starts again in two weeks. Two more courses, God knows how many more pages to read...but I'll try to do a better job updating this one. Thanks to you all, and go enjoy the rest of summer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
