Dancing Around the Four Sides

More than anything else I want my dog; yet she is the one thing in this world that I cannot have.

This is very hard.

So. I haven't posted lately, and it was because Chango, without my really noticing it, had become quite elderly. And with elderly comes a whole bag of other health problems.

( This does not have a happy ending, so I'll keep it short. )

Sunny and not a cloud in the sky. I have the back door open, and a wren came into the kitchen and hopped around on the floor for a bit, exploring. :D

1) Finished Joe Hill's Horns last night, and holy crap, I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH GOOD THINGS ABOUT THIS BOOK. Seriously, it is going straight to the top of my Five Favorite Books of the year (not that I actually have such a list, but). It's ... supernatural horror, a murder mystery, fantasy, a Rashomon-like investigation of a single terrible act, there are puzzles within puzzles that Hill circles back around to in such a sheer display of writing virtuosity that I actually for REAL said "Oh my fucking god" out loud at about page 350 (there's a treehouse involved, for those who've read the book). This is like reading Stephen King, when King was at the height of his storytelling powers (and yes, I mean was, because I thought King's Joyland was awful and Doctor Sleep, while it had a strong start, was fatally flawed). ANYWAY. Horns is amazing, and people should read it. The end.

2) Waiting for my copy of Martin Cruz Smith's new Arkady Renko novel, Tatiana, to be delivered (today).

3) Chango seems to be a little better. She's been able to stand on her hind legs to be hoisted onto the bed (our usual routine), and that makes her much happier. Her hearing still appears to be going, though.

4) Here is a happy story about a guy finding his dog after the Illinois tornadoes.

5) Dreading Looking forward to Person of Interest tonight.

Five things etc. :D

1) Warm and horrifically humid. Ugh.

2) Finished The Son and really enjoyed it. The only problem I had was keeping everyone's genealogy straight. I think a lot, if not most readers will have to keep referring to the family-tree chart frontispiece. Well worth reading.

3) Read Douglas Smith's Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy. I think possibly this is the book the word "heartbreaking" was invented for. On a sidenote, the book contains some fascinating pages on the work of the American Relief Administration during the famine of 1921, clearly implying that American doctors were among the relief workers. American doctors! In Russia! I'm sure everyone can see where that might lead. Well, probably not for me, but someone could take that and run with it. ;-)

4) Started Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane last night and could not put it down, which means that I'm already more than halfway through (it is a fairly short book, though). Holy wow, is it good. And fucking terrifying -- there's a scene that's on the par with some of Stephen King's best. It left me deeply shaken and made it difficult to fall asleep for a long time. (For those who have already read the book, it's the "bathtub" scene.)

5) Sorting through a rec list for fic I've recommended on my DW/LJ. It is slow going, but then pretty much everything is slow going these days. Especially when it's related to writing and/or fandom.

6) Chango's tenth birthday was July 14th. :D

Six things make a post.

Ugh, slept v. badly last night. The one-a-day drug I take (anastrozole) can have a side effect of hot flashes, and they seem to come and go in cycles. One month I will have almost none; the next month they come in waves. Also, I think that perhaps Chango is becoming afraid of the dark, because when I turn out my light to go to sleep, she comes to my side of the bed, anxious and wanting comfort. She is nine years old, so I guess this is to be expected to some degree. Last night I got up and found an old nightlight we have and plugged it in -- that seemed to help, so it'll be interesting to see what happens tonight. (She's fine during the day, btw.)

May put down the Steinbeck for a while -- it's a decent read, but the biological collection methods of 1940 were horrific, to say the least. As just one example, they caught a sea turtle, ( cut for graphic description ...  )

Anyway. Watched the Tony Awards last night and was happy to see Nina Arianda win for lead actress in Venus in Fur. She was in Born Yesterday last year with RSL, and was nominated for that role also. So that's a good thing. :-D

Eight photos beneath the cut. Dog, lizards, hilarity ensues. This was all just about an hour ago. *g*

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My poor dog. She's such a genius. :-D

Two photos of Chango, taken about 20 minutes ago. :-)

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After being silent most of the day, the jackhammer two doors down has started up again. Boo and hiss.

To compensate, here is a picture of Chango (from this morning) ( under the cut ...  )

It snowed a couple of inches, I think, but it's starting to melt already even though it is still friggin' cold outside. It's 37 degrees (2.7 C), which isn't that bad, but the wind is blasting out of the west northwest to give us a wind chill of 24 (-4.4). Erk. So I took a few photos, but I didn't want to venture out on the deck.

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Sunny and cold, still some patches of snow on the ground. Three pics from Friday are under the cut.

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