The Arnold City Library has removed all of their signs prohibiting firearms. The signs in the parking lot, which had no legal standing, have been replaced with visually similar signs declaring it a tobacco and smoke free campus (after all, there must be signs prohibiting something). Given the conservative, gun-friendly electorate of the city, it is not surprising to see this change, and in fact it was unexpected to see the signs in the first place. I will have to look for a similar change the next time I go to the headquarter branch elsewhere in the county.
I had decided some time ago that I was going to avoid reading anything except pulp for the foreseeable future. I wanted to read only things that would grab me and hold my attention, and which I would naturally get through in just a few days. Mainly, this meant sticking to known authors in series I have already started. Unfortunately, I’ve been doing a bad job of that. Things on my reading list intrigue me, and then I start reading and they don’t engage me. So, I have reworked my reading list, to contain only things I’m fairly certain I’ll be able to get through quickly. It basically means I will be alternating between hard-boiled detective fiction and science-fiction or fantasy.
I finally had an opportunity to use the rotary hammer I bought months ago. It was amazing. Drilling half-inch holes in concrete was trivial. It was like drilling holes in hard wood with a dull bit. I spent more time running the extension cord.
I now own a bathroom scale. I weigh a little more than I thought I did, but I should have known. I’m at the high end of the “normal” body mass range for my height. My exercise could of course be better, but really it’s my diet that needs to be reined in. I’m eating too many carbs, and too often. I really need to think about high-protein snacks.
I am starting to read Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman, M.D. I picked it up as research for a creative writing project, but I can tell already that it is going to have a profound effect on my world view. So far, it hasn’t told me much that I didn’t already know, but I am astonished by the relationships between things I didn’t previously think of as related.
I’ve finished watching through season four of Elementary, which is all that’s available through Netflix. I’ve really been enjoying it. This means the only television I’m watching is ST:TOS, of which I have only fifteen episodes remaining, and the new Twin Peaks, which trickles out an average of an episode a week. It seems like I should be looking for other things to watch, yet at the same time I’m highly skeptical of television. I actually tried watching Supergirl; hot character, awful writing and low production value. Before that, I tried watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which turned out to be a musical. Maybe I’ll give Longmire a try, and of course ST:DIS is coming in a couple of months. Maybe I should blitz through the movies on my queue for a while.
Speaking of television, I finally made the effort to cancel the television and telephone service from my cable company, keeping only the internet access. I should have done this a long time ago, because Charter/Spectrum has had the gall to charge me more than $150/mo for the most basic of these services.
Our heat wave culminated in 105° temperatures yesterday. The air conditioner in the house couldn’t keep up, and it reached 79° indoors. The air conditioner in my truck cut out worse than ever, and I finally took a look at it and concluded it was overcharged. The japanese maple is looking decidedly scorched, and so are my “tropical” rio dipladenias. Both will receive some remedial watering today, though in fact I’ve been watering my lawn a fair amount the past few weeks. I’m looking forward to a high of only 97° today.
I made the effort to learn how to properly make ribs on my grill. I don’t know why I hadn’t learned about indirect-grilling before. It will open many new possibilities for using my grill. I also bought and used a smoker box, and it was pretty amazing. My brother has stated the desire to eat more turkey, and I’m thinking about roasting/smoking a small turkey, or perhaps a large boneless turkey breast.
