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Yucky abideth

Air temperature 70 F at 0630, wind near calm, sunny. Dew point 67 F, so that soup's on. Another nasty day, and that's just the heat. AQI and pollen index both "moderate." Will walk early. Do not expect cat friends to be available.

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Thunderstorm rolled and rumbled through this evening. Moved on now but hasn't cleared the air, still hot and sticky out there. Waxing moon shines through the murk.

Predicted weather

Back from walk, 78 F out there and damp. All cat friends had enough sense to stay inside. First thistles, bell-flowers blooming, nightshade, bindweed. Even birds mostly silent, but we have seen some juvenile robins about.

Wimping out again

Air temperature 66 F before 7 AM, wind south about 8 mph, partly cloudy. We are headed for a high of around 90 F and rising dew point. Think I'll skip the bike ride and swap in a walk. After all, I do want to live to see the apocalypse.

No web-footed friends

Air temperature 63 F, wind west about 7 mph, partly cloudy. Dew point 53 F, so the humidity hasn't kicked back up. Yet. Tomorrow is supposed to revert to hazy hot and humid. We live in the frozen north to avoid that shit . . .

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Be kind to your web-footed friends.

Current Mood: crushed

Entry tags:

murderbot,
tv

WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Murderbot spoiler
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Current Music: Naomi Westwater: the empress

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July 25, 2000

My mood improved markedly with a visit from the tall one and his son, my grandkid, little treelet.

Wakanomori brought down a diary the tall one had kept as a kid: here is the entry from July 25, 2000, which includes our visit to Lloyd Alexander's house, where we put on a play for him and his wife Janine. Also included is a visit to the US mint in Philadelphia and commentary on the Delaware River (big!)

Friday floral report

White sweet clover, rabbits'-foot clover, and rambling roses now blooming. Definitely both yarrow and Queen Anne's lace. Cattails and sumac flower spikes up but not open yet. Almost all the lupines have gone to seed.

No roadkill identified, not even a squirrel. Several blotches on the asphalt, but the cleanup crew has been active.

Got out on the bike, upriver and then back through the bog. Paving project on hold for the weekend, but they have advanced and may get done in a week or two. Did not die. Ride takes me over 200 miles for the year, half of what I would like to have done by this point.

15.59 miles, 1:31:35

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a handful of microfictions

Having some feelings, so ... have some microfictions.

May 20, prompt word "serve"

Directions for serving certain abstract dishes:

--revenge is a dish best served cold
--pornography is a dish best served hot
--satire is a dish best served salty
--mockery is a dish best served bitter
--disappointment is a dish best served sour
--romance is a dish best served sweet

June 26, prompt word "kind"

"May I pay you in kind rather than currency?" the woman asked. The man was selling Dastrian funerary masks, perhaps war loot from the last conflict.

"That depends. What you got to offer?" He was suspicious--she looked Dastrian.

"These magical birds."

Impressed, the man agreed.

As he neared home that evening, the birds suddenly took flight. They plunged through the windows of his house, seizing precious objects in their talons, and flew off.

Payment in kind.

July 2, prompt word "clear"

"I'm not guilty," I insisted. It was true. Sure, I'd taken the bribe and misplaced evidence, but I did NOT betray Pereira. Yet now all I got were angry looks and curses.

"My spell will clear your name," Lady One Eye said. I believed her and didn't notice when she added, "Clear it but good."

The next day, no one knew me. I introduced myself and they looked confused. I wrote out my name, but it was like they couldn't see it.

My name had been cleared into invisibility.

Squirrel sabotage

Power out for about an hour this morning, after a boom up the street. Back on now. Found a corpse in the sidewalk on my local survey.

Air temperature 64 F, wind northwest gusting to 21 mph, partly cloudy. Should be able to get a bike ride in.

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Hazy gibbous moon
Cooler, storm has moved the heat
Scattered fireflies

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When you read about Fearless Leader attacking the Fed for not cutting interest rates, remember that F.L.'s empire is built on borrowed money.

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Severe thunderstorm warnings and watches stalk the state. Nothing directly dire here yet. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode . . .

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Full length walk logged. No cat friends met. Mockingbird seen but not heard, so I must not have been too near a nest or fledglings. Did not die.

Prelude and fugue day

Air temperature 65 F, wind near calm, sunny. Dew point 63 F. Another day where a leisurely stroll will supplant more vigorous pursuits. Scattered showers and thundershowers on the schedule for afternoon and overnight.

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Half moon low in south.

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“I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” Mark Twain

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Item on the evening news that the Senators from Texas are trying to extract a space shuttle from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and transfer it to Houston . . .

First pillage, then burn.

Entry tags:

The Way Up is Death, by Dan Hanks

In a prologue that's very Terry Pratchett-esque without actually being funny, an enormous floating tower appears in England, becomes a 12-hour wonder, and is then forgotten as people have short attention spans. Then thirteen random people suddenly vanish from their lives and appear at the base of the tower, facing the command ASCEND.

I normally love stories about people dealing with inexplicable alien architecture. This was the most boring and unimaginative version of that idea I've ever read. Each level is a death trap based on something in one of their minds - a video game, The Poseidon Adventure, an old home - but less interesting than that sounds. The action was repetitive, the characters were paper-thin, and one, an already-dated influencer, was actively painful to read:

Time to give her the Alpha Male rizzzzzzz, baby!

The ending was, unsurprisingly, also a cliche.

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