* * *
So a guy in Maine has his factory turning out millions of feet of oil barrier and no one is buying it.
Not BP, not the federal government, no one.
Wasn't there something going on somewhere that seemed to call for just this kind of thing?
* * *
ObamaCare is going to take your health insurance from you whether you like it or not. That's right: Obama was lying when he said, "If you like your insurance, you keep it!"
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The weather has cooled off and the dewpoint dropped precipitously this afternoon. Now it's around 60°, which is okay. My room is cool again.
The weather is going to heat up again, of course, starting tomorrow...but that's tomorrow.
* * *
Having finished Turtledove's Opening Atlantis I hied myself over to the bookstore to use my 40% off coupon on his United States of Atlantis, which is the next book in the series. It picks up about 14 years after the end of the first volume with the same characters it left off with, which is nice.
There is nothing on the cover of either book which tells the casual observer which book should be read first. I had to consult the printers' plates of both books for their respective copyright dates, and at that I was taking an educated guess. Fortuitously, I guessed correctly.
My intention had been just to buy that book; but I had a peek at the manga section and spied the second volume of Spice and Wolf and just had to pick it up. So the coupon ended up being applied to that book, since it cost more than the Turtledove novel. At least I got out of there without spending more than $20 this time.
Even better, both the drive over and the drive back were pleasant and relatively free of the shitheadedness of Chicago suburban drivers. There was one guy in an Acura SUV behind me at a stoplight who had his hazard flashers on, and was flicking his high beams on and off. After the light turned green I pulled off at the next place I could turn and inspected my tires, thinking he was trying to warn me of something. No; it turned out he was just on drugs or something. I don't know what the hell he was doing and I strongly suspect he didn't either.
The Escort had been making an odd rumble on the drive up Cicero Avenue, where the speed limit is 55; I couldn't pin it down and figured it was just tire noise, but the flashing lights made me wonder if perhaps I'd missed seeing something wrong with the car? Anyway shit happens and one could easily get a flat after setting out on his trip, so I thought it better to stop and inspect than just to assume the guy was a crackhead. It turned out he was, but the stop cost me only a couple of minutes' time and I was in no hurry.
In fact, a freight train blocked the CP crossing and I would have had to wait there for it, so essentially my brief stop cost me no time, really.
* * *
...you know, last week it occurred to me that if anyone calls my Jeep an "SUV" I'm going to correct him: "It's not an SUV; it's a truck. It's a Jeep." To my mind, an SUV is a four-wheel-drive station wagon based on an automotive platform. My Jeep is a truck: it has live axles front and rear, with a leaf suspension out back.
* * *
Well, I had originally intended (upon waking) to have a shower, have breakfast, blog, and then play WoW.
I did in fact embark upon that plan, but went to read the Turtledove book after a while; and while I was reading I realized that today was probably going to be the last day for the rest of the week which would be free of precipitation. According to the weather reports, anyway--so I put the book down (reluctantly) and got ready to mow the grass.
I knew that I needed to go buy gas for the mower; but then I realized that a) I had forgotten to pay the car insurance on the Escort and it needed paying today; and b) that I still had to go to the bank and renew the Escort's license plates.
...so I took the Escort to the insurance agent and paid the insurance; then to the bank where I renewed the plates (and affixed the sticker) before going to the gas station to fill the 5-gallon can from which I feed the riding mower.
State Farm sends its bills out stupid early. My bill was due on June 6; they sent it to me in April. Small wonder I forgot about it.
The license plate was less critical; I had until the 30th to take care of that, but today was as good as any other and as long as I was running errands it just made sense to do it.
Once all that was attended to, I gassed up the tractor and cut the grass. I felt a few raindrops but no real rain, so score one for me. Now it can rain however much it wants and I don't have to worry about it.
* * *
The cashier at the bookstore said that Spice and Wolf 2 had an interesting cover. I didn't go for the anime conversion, though.
