Posted via email from ClunyBrown’s posterous

1. Cold medicine — yes, finally I can sleep.

2. My new, dark red, flannel sheets — I don’t know why, but the bed just looks more comfy with them on it.

3. Audiobooks — I don’t know how I’d survive the commute without them.

If you want something else to read, try Faster Than Kudzu. I regularly laugh myself sick reading it (hmm… maybe if I read it now I can laugh myself well).

Feeling better today, but had to work. Tomorrow too, but I’ll see if I can’t put up a link or something.

Yesterday, I drove to Torrance to install a transceiver on Adam’s laptop. It took an hour and a half to get there, less than half an hour to install, and we had to test it. So I was outta there by 11:00 pm. It took me four hours to get home. And I still had to go to work today. So that’s my excuse for yesterday.

But still no good excuse for Monday. I just plain forgot.

On to the Sci-Fi Meme. I got this from Doug at Balls and Walnuts:

“Behold, the SF Book Club’s list of The 50 Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books, 1953-2002. And no list like that can go without someone somewhere turning it into a meme. Shocking, this internet.

So, the rules: Bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you read and hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put a star next to the ones you love.”

Check it out below the cut . . .

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien — I’m not sure I loved it, but I’m glad I read it, if only to have a background for the fantasy that came after.
   
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
   
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. *Neuromancer, William Gibson — I have an interesting reaction to his books. I’ll pass on them over and over, but once I get into one I can’t put it down.
   
7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. *The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett — I didn’t love this particular book, but since it’s the only Terry Pratchett Discworld book on the list I have to star it.
    
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey — loved it as a teenager, but I haven’t read it in years so I don’t know how it held up.
    
22. *Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. *Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. *The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. *Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks — again, haven’t read it in years, can’t remember my feelings on it.
    
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Some of these authors I haven’t even heard of. Maybe it’s time for me to try out some new (to me) books.

And in its place, here’s what I’ve been seeing in my back yard when I let the dogs out in the morning. The beautiful clear sky over one of my few backyard trees.

This is a salt pine. I’m sure it has another, very technical, name, but salt pine is what the realtor called it when she showed us the house. And I learned first hand why when I walked under the tree after the dew had — what would you say? — fallen? Anyway, I walked under a low branch and got wet, and when I accidently tasted it — you guessed it — mmm… salty.

Yeah, I had to go take a shower afterwards cause it was in my hair — ewwww. But the tree stays, because I’ve got a black thumb, and it’s one of the few things in my yard that seems to thrive.

This is several miles past the 138. The sign says, “N-15 WILL CLOSE TO CAJON PASS NOV 18 - 20.” What this really means is, “Don’t even THINK about going anywhere this weekend until Monday, and maybe not even then!”

They call it a Rapid Rehab Weekend. It’s actually a good thing, as it means the road work gets done sooner, but when it’s going on ain’t nobody going nowhere.

Basically they’re closing a freeway connector and rerouting all the traffic to go north on my usual route. It’ll be bumper-to-bumper.

This is the southbound side of the connecter that they’re closing for the weekend. The 15 south splits to the right, and the 215 south continues on straight.

Also, for anybody worried about that yellow sky and Southern California smog, it was overcast, and the yellow came in when I tried to bump up the color in the rest of the photo. Mostly the sky was kinda dull gray.

And this last one is coming down the small hill toward the 30. This is where you first see San Bernardino on the skyline (What? Can’t you see it through the haze? Over there — no more to the right. See it now?).

Ok, more tomorrow. I just know you’re itching to see it *grin*.