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Predictions and warnings about a big storm overnight. I never know what to do. Do i wait and see if work cancels? Do I take a vacation day and end up wasting it because they cancel work? I always save extra days so it's not that big a deal but it's annoying if that happens. By the time I went to bed, not a lot of snow had fallen. It seemed that here in the city we were spared the worst of it though when I got up this morning there was more down. We still only got about half the predicted 35 - 40 cm of it and apparently they did delay opening of the office until 10. It helps keep the street traffic down so the clearing is a bit easier. Every little bit helps. I took a vacation day anyway. They never clear our pathway very early in the morning nor is the bus stop often cleared until later in the day or even the day after and it's not that safe. I don't feel steady, anyway. Last time we had a lot of snow, when i got off the bus, i had to get through it to the sidewalk and missed where the curb was. Down I went. I have a difficult time getting up but someone came by and lent a hand. I don't need pulling up, I just need someone or something to hold onto to steady me then I can get up under my own steam.
The Minglewood gig last weekend was great, too. He did a lot of songs from a new CD but then switched over to the old classics which I loved. Graham actually preferred the newer stuff. I enjoyed reliving the old memories.
Winter is usually pretty low key. I hate the cold so i tend to want to stay in on weekends. G. gets out through the week sometimes, just to get out. He's started up his Facebook page for his freelance art, Artoons, and has had some inquiries so far.
The Piano Maker - Kurt Palka
A woman arrives in a small town in northern Nova Scotia in the 1930s. Her family made pianos up to WWI and she traveled with a man obtaining and selling antiquities after that. But the man is dead and she was aquitted of his murder. That past is about to come back on her. The book tells her story over the years from pre-war to the present, little by little revealing what really happened. Very good book.
The Rehearsal - Eleanor Catton
A teacher was accused of either abusing or having an affair with a student, the truth is never really clear but the point of the book is the effect the scandal has on the high school girls, including her younger sister and the acting school students who decide to use the scandal as their year-end play. The book jumps around in time by months, which is a bit tricky to follow at times. There's a saxaphone teacher who also seems to be observing the goings on and she's a complex character, with fantasies and possibly an agenda of her own.
Nostalgia - M. G. Vassanji
Takes place in the future where people that can afford it, can live practically forever, upgrading their bodies and having their past memories purged and new pasts implanted as their own "reality". But the ordinary people who can't afford it, can't get jobs because the others are not dying. The religious are up in arms because they believe in reincarnation and other things contrary to the idea of living indefinitely. And the poorest, war torn parts of the world are being controlled and suppressed by the governments. A doctor who specializes in memory implants has a patient who's past memories are starting to leak through, Leaking Memory Syndrome, or "Nostalgia" but won't let the doctor help him. The doctor becomes obsessed but doesn't know why this particular patient has affected him so much. Interesting book and concept.
Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson
This is actually three books together and was a very long read and a bit tedious at times. The book covers time from the mid 17th century to the early 18th, much of it concerning the new Natural Philosophers, who have evolved from alchemists. Isaac Newton and his peers, the Great Fire of London, the restoration of Charles II, The Glorious Revolution of William and Mary and the deposition of James II all form the back ground events. Science and discovery fill book one, with Puritan Daniel Waterhouse recalling his earlier life as a friend and university mate of Newton's. The second book follows the adventures of Half Cocked Jack Shaftoe and Eliza, whom he rescued from a Turkish Harem. The third book is back in England but has brought Eliza and Daniel in the same sphere with her adventures as a spy and financial advisor to both the court in Versailles and for William. It's long, it's sometimes overly detailed, I found it a bit of a slog sometimes but found most of the story entertaining enough to get through it though it took me 4 months dipping in and out.
This Was a Man - Jeffrey Archer
This is the last book in a series about the Clifton and Barrington families that covered much of the 20th century. I love family sagas and this one had good characters, sometimes good villains including one that just wouldn't go away but who never came out on top most of the time. Each book ended on a cliffhanger and began where the last one left off, almost impossibly managing to get round the apparent fatal disasters that the cliffhanger implied but it's all good. You always knew the good guys were going to win!
The Minglewood gig last weekend was great, too. He did a lot of songs from a new CD but then switched over to the old classics which I loved. Graham actually preferred the newer stuff. I enjoyed reliving the old memories.
Winter is usually pretty low key. I hate the cold so i tend to want to stay in on weekends. G. gets out through the week sometimes, just to get out. He's started up his Facebook page for his freelance art, Artoons, and has had some inquiries so far.
The Piano Maker - Kurt Palka
A woman arrives in a small town in northern Nova Scotia in the 1930s. Her family made pianos up to WWI and she traveled with a man obtaining and selling antiquities after that. But the man is dead and she was aquitted of his murder. That past is about to come back on her. The book tells her story over the years from pre-war to the present, little by little revealing what really happened. Very good book.
The Rehearsal - Eleanor Catton
A teacher was accused of either abusing or having an affair with a student, the truth is never really clear but the point of the book is the effect the scandal has on the high school girls, including her younger sister and the acting school students who decide to use the scandal as their year-end play. The book jumps around in time by months, which is a bit tricky to follow at times. There's a saxaphone teacher who also seems to be observing the goings on and she's a complex character, with fantasies and possibly an agenda of her own.
Nostalgia - M. G. Vassanji
Takes place in the future where people that can afford it, can live practically forever, upgrading their bodies and having their past memories purged and new pasts implanted as their own "reality". But the ordinary people who can't afford it, can't get jobs because the others are not dying. The religious are up in arms because they believe in reincarnation and other things contrary to the idea of living indefinitely. And the poorest, war torn parts of the world are being controlled and suppressed by the governments. A doctor who specializes in memory implants has a patient who's past memories are starting to leak through, Leaking Memory Syndrome, or "Nostalgia" but won't let the doctor help him. The doctor becomes obsessed but doesn't know why this particular patient has affected him so much. Interesting book and concept.
Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson
This is actually three books together and was a very long read and a bit tedious at times. The book covers time from the mid 17th century to the early 18th, much of it concerning the new Natural Philosophers, who have evolved from alchemists. Isaac Newton and his peers, the Great Fire of London, the restoration of Charles II, The Glorious Revolution of William and Mary and the deposition of James II all form the back ground events. Science and discovery fill book one, with Puritan Daniel Waterhouse recalling his earlier life as a friend and university mate of Newton's. The second book follows the adventures of Half Cocked Jack Shaftoe and Eliza, whom he rescued from a Turkish Harem. The third book is back in England but has brought Eliza and Daniel in the same sphere with her adventures as a spy and financial advisor to both the court in Versailles and for William. It's long, it's sometimes overly detailed, I found it a bit of a slog sometimes but found most of the story entertaining enough to get through it though it took me 4 months dipping in and out.
This Was a Man - Jeffrey Archer
This is the last book in a series about the Clifton and Barrington families that covered much of the 20th century. I love family sagas and this one had good characters, sometimes good villains including one that just wouldn't go away but who never came out on top most of the time. Each book ended on a cliffhanger and began where the last one left off, almost impossibly managing to get round the apparent fatal disasters that the cliffhanger implied but it's all good. You always knew the good guys were going to win!