MMXVIII/͵βιη

New Year's Eve plans fell through at the last minute. No one else wanted to brave the cold, and I could see why. Maybe tomorrow?

There was a wild party going on upstairs earlier. They're quiet kids, in general. But, you know, everyone is multifaceted.

To better times in 2018!

On the brrrr-ight side

Okay, with just a couple of days to go in 2017, I think it can be said that this has been an...aggressive December. Many days and especially nights where going outside feels like walking into a meat locker. You begin to see why bears hibernate. And I don't mean large hairy gay men. Or do I? The literature is ambiguous.

Pluck pluck

Harpsichord isn't used much in jazz. It doesn't slide into the combo easily like the piano does. .So I'm interested in hearing the results when jazz musicians do play harpsichord. This tune by Garner is a little baroque and a little bluesy. It does make you sit up and pay attention.

Navidad update

So, had Christmas dinner at the house of a couple of friends. It was them, their kids, another friend who I'd met, and his wife who I hadn't. With a father/grandfather and his girlfriend showing up later.

The male half of the couple would usually be the one to drive me home, but he had done some drinking - as had I - and the roads were a bit icy. Thus the lady drove me. Which was nice. It was a different kind of conversation I had with her than I guess I would have had with him.

Anyway, Happy Hollandaise!

Where the streets have no friction

Last night and this morning we got a tremendous amount of frozen rain. That means that if you walked on the sidewalk today, you got to play that funnest of games, "Guess Where the Ice Is." Somehow I didn't actually fall anywhere, but it was hairy in a few spots.

I haven't heard that much complaining for drivers. The roads must have been better salted.

Red letter day

In this year's end clickbait listicle the author says, "I'll admit it: I can’t stand Jake Paul because this is the first time in my adult life where I truly believe that what the kids like is scary and wrong. " Well, I've never heard of Jake Paul, don't know who he is, and feel no obligation to find out. So I guess I've reached a different phase of adulthood: the one where you can remain blissfully ignorant of those aspects of youth culture that might annoy you. Hey, I'll take my meager comforts where I can get them.

Three arms to hold you

I'm currently reading Matt Hill's Graft, which is so named because it features a woman named Y with three arms. One growing out of her back, and it's artificial. And appropriately enough for the name, I don't really know why she does. Admittedly I'm only about halfway through, so when I'm finished maybe I'll get it. Her voice and memories have been taken away, which makes it look like some kind of slavery, although there are also indications she signed up for this treatment. But I don't entirely see why this kind of body modification is worth the trouble.

Hill writes fairly well, which is one reason I haven't given up on the book. But his best writing tends to focus on relatively ordinary carjackers, madams, and hit men. He might be better at writing straight noir crime fiction set in the North. Maybe the biological engineering is so his book can be sold in the sci-fi section?