I Came, I Thaw, I Conquered

Now Playing -    
Ease Back
by Amos Lee

Life -  

 A combination of snow, sleet, more and more snow, warm and cold weather.. That's been the last few months. Which has resulted in an accumulation of very firmly packed snow topping out at over two feet in a lot of places in our yard. Our driveway, which gets plowed and scraped and sprayed with sand has suffered too. In some places, the ice on the drive was over 6 inches thick. It was not uncommon this winter for Lindsay's car to only make it halfway up the driveway before giving up.My Element handled it pretty handily for the most part, but it's been intense. We've been using what we've called "the goat path" to get down to the drive. I'm pretty sure there's steps somewhere under there, but you'd never know.

But for the last month, we've started getting some warm days. Warm enough that the driveway loses a bit off the top, refreezing at night into a glassy finish. And the other day when I went to leave for work, my car had slid over six feet down the drive as the ice below it melted.

So spring is on it's way, and I cannot wait. I love winter, delight in the snow falling down, in the cold prickles of air up my nose, but enough is enough. I want to walk the dogs, clean out the house, go to the car wash. I even want to pick up four months of dog poop!

For the last three days, it's been raining during the day. I can even see dirt in a few places and the three foot tall pole in the back yard corner has broken through for the first time since December.

Keep it up, Mother Nature!

The ROUS FAMILY -     

It's A Dog's Life...

Now Playing -
Beep Beep by The Playmates

Life - 

Today was my first day back at work after an abbreviated rotation, putting me on a better schedule for the holidays. Because it was only three days off, rather than my typical six, I was scrambling to do all of the things I don't do when I'm working, not to mention the additional drama that we've been dealing with. To that end, I slept very little and kept my night rotation, averaging less than four hours a night. Because our dogs are used to sleeping with us in the bedroom during the day/night, me sleeping so little and being home really threw off their groove. They spent most of the three days pouting and sighing sleepily. Poor guys.

It is officially COLD here. We had roughly three days of Autumn, before 'Ol Jack decided to move in. And I still have a pretty significant chunk of yard work to do.

Really, that's all I have to report today.

Book Reviews - 

THE STRAIN
by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
2009, 401 pages

A stunning combination of new ideas and classic folklore  --  Suspenseful and Terrifying  --  Near Perfect  --  Can't wait for the next book in the trilogy!  --  Del Toro and Hogan's story create a beautiful and creepy image in your head

5/5


THE HUNTED
by Wayne Barcomb
2009, 309 pages

Stereotypical Characters in an Original Plot  --  Female Serial Killer!  --  Kind of boring  --  Russo, the main character is a bit too handsome to be realistic  --  Wine can be a pain in the butt in Barcomb's universe!

2/5


SECRET PREY
by John Sandford
1998, 384 pages

Sandford's character, Lucas Davenport feels grumpy and unlikeable  --  An obvious villain  --  Some great supporting characters  --  A weak entry in the "Prey" series  --  Far too much banking intrigue

2/5


HONEY IN HIS MOUTH
by Lester Dent
2009, 248 pages

Intentionally despicable characters make life hard for each other and everyone else  --  Written in 1959, by the creator of Doc Savage, this is the first publication  --  Kind Of A Hardboiled Freaky Friday for the Whiskey and Dames set  --  Great period dialogue  --  Gorgeous Cover and Book Design

3/5

This was the first book I've received as a member of Hard Case Crime's mail order club, and it's so cool to get a classic crime rag in the mail every other month. The dictator is dead, long live Hard Case Crime!

Writing - 

Got a couple hundred words in, nothing much.

The Last Sentence - 

It's like a horrible, plus-sized nightmare!

From - "Graves" (WIP)

Waiting for the other shoe...

Supposedly, for the last 3 days, Pocatello was to be in the grip of a winter storm so frightening in it's magnitude that the city could grind to a halt, civilization would begin to degrade, and only those with snowshoes and sled dogs would prevail.

Thus far, all we've received is lots of wind. Which, as all Pocatellans and Chubbuckians learn in grade school, is because Idaho Falls sucks, and Utah blows. In fact, walking to my car, Strontium after work tonight, the winter air seemed downright balmy!

That said, it wouldn't faze me one bit to wake up and see 2 feet of new snow and 20 foot drifts in the morning. In fact, being off work for the next two days, I'd welcome the chance to curl up with a blanket and some coffee and try to finish slogging through the Clive Cussler book I picked up at the thrift store last week...