YES!!!

:lol:

I also saw an invite from 3M and a few others I'm forgetting. You mean like this, right? :D

Horrible, just horrible. I agree. So many instances of people CYAing and not thinking.

We received Faribault wool blankets from a relative who lives in MN. We love these but they are expensive. However they show almost no wear after ~10 winters. They are fairly thin but quite warm.

:thumbup1: Knausgaard may be staying? From your previous posts I thought he would definitely be staying. As for book dealing, as long as you're not selling them out of a trench coat or the back of a van I think you're okay. I think. Love the member title!

Have you guys been to a Dick Blick in person? I went and they were great about giving me an educator's discount. Just FYI.

You know you want to....

Congratulations!!! Amazon is saying "in stock, with 1-2 extra days to process" and I've decided to translate that as "officially out of stock, but we'll hustle to get more."

We always laugh and say that just for once, we'd like a rain report without a reminder that this 1/4" doesn't make up for the multi-year drought. But I guess some people really do ask. Our roof is getting done Oct 7 and 8. I do feel a bit guilty hoping there's no rain those days. Hmmm. I think most people would enjoy the first half. After that it's trickier to tell. I suggest taking Jane up on her offer and giving it a whirl. It's a slim volume and the reading is easy. I've been thinking about the book quite a bit today and the more I reflect on it, the more impressed I am. When the book went off the rails, so to speak, I followed because I was invested in everything that had happened until that point. Reading it reminded me of surfing (not that I'm a surfer). It was as if I was always riding the crest of incredulity, no more or no less, and accepted the chaos and ad hoc swerving when the wave broke.

I finished last night. General trajectory of the book, for me: Exciting --> doubtful --> whimsical --> doubtful --> utterly confusing --> doubtful --> comforting --> doubtful I am still not quite sure what happened. I guess that was intentional. The best part for me was the contrast of the fanciful goings-on with strong grounding brought about by a constant focus on physical objects. I was also scratching my head about some of the events leading up to the ending. After a few "Wait, what?" moments I ended up giving in (around the time of the punctuation, if you know what I mean) and just accepting what was described. I really did enjoy reading the book. That said, I'm glad it was short because if any of the circumstances described had gone on for many pages I think it would have been too much. That level of bewilderment can only be sustained for so long before it gets tiring so I'm glad it was well-edited.

I wear a lot of ankle-length skirts but if the zombies come, I'm taking scissors to them faster than you can say "brains." Just as I'm looking for more books for our Earth Science study. How did you know? ;)

It's just crazy and terrible.

This was exactly my position when I re-read it a couple of years ago and I'm so glad I did.

I guess she's finally figured out she can't keep other people from doing their jobs. Does that solve the contempt issue?

I clarified later saying I was asking about Faith's church specifically. :)

I don't think it's completely fixable. I do think we can mitigate the effects by building desalination plants and building more water storage capacity so we can capture more rainfall and rely less on snowpack.

I found it interesting when Mrs was counting her objects, which I found interesting because I sometimes count/add/multiply things if I'm feeling a lot of anxiety. It relieves stress. I do agree with you about the book's general focus on objects. I am not as far along as you are, maybe 60 pages to go. I also thought I might finish last night, but I ended up listening to music instead. I can only do one or the other at the same time.

It's so strange to me that we are in between the fire and SV but have no ash and no smell of smoke. Some good news: NWS Sacramento is talking about the possibility of rain in the area of the Valley Fire on Wednesday.

Thanks for starting the discussion! I'm also enjoying this little book. The writing is straightforward and engaging. I don't think Mr. Malgas admires only the life of freedom, although I think that's a large part of it. I think he might also respect Nieuwenhuizen's ability to re-use objects in a clever way, in contrast with the shiny new objects he sells in his hardware shop. What do you think about Mrs. Malgas and her penchant for examining her objects d'art?

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

Love NFL (and college) football. I don't have a TV but did spring for an online service. Also found a local place that's not a bar showing some of the games. Otherwise I go to my friend's or my brother's.

I don't disagree that they should be authorized on their own, but what if they also refuse? The trouble with going down is there's a limit to how far down you can go. What if in a smaller county, there's one clerk and one deputy and they both refuse?

I think the provision is that the governor at his or her discretion can convene them "on extraordinary occasions" but it costs ~$60k/day of taxpayer money and this would take multiple days.

On my favorite weather blog commenters mentioned ash coming down in SJ. And also that Harbin Hot Springs is gone.