Comments and critiques are welcome. Just don't be a troll, no one likes a troll.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Who cares if the dogs are out!

I live in in a moderate size house on a cul-de-sac of 7 to 8 houses. Spread among these houses are at least 10 dogs. The next door neighbor has 2, his neighbor has 3, another has 2 and yet another has 2 or 3.  It’s springtime here in Colorado so we have opened our windows to air the house out. I have been sitting here for the last hour reading email, surfing the web and listening to every freakin’ dog on the block bark. They bark at every car they hear, every squirrel, every door slam, every bird and every other dog barking.

Yes, I know this is what dogs do and I don’t fault them for that. I’m pissed at their owners. My wife and I do not own a dog or any other pet and I really have nothing against dogs or their owners…except that most of the owners around here put their dogs outside and then go back into their houses and ignore them. They sit in their air-conditioning with the windows closed and are totally oblivious to the mayhem going on right outside their door. I feel if you own a dog, you should at least check on it ever so often or even bring it inside if it will not stop barking.

They call it a neighborhood for a reason. Other people live around you and you really should consider that.

Just sayin’

 

 

Today's music selection is "Whiskey in the Jar (Full Length Version)" from "Dedication - The Very Best of Thin Lizzy" by Thin Lizzy

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley

Children of the Dust Bowl

 

An excellent description of what the “Okie” children experienced as their families fled the Dust Bowl for the promise lands of California. Complete with pictures, it gives the reader a good sense of their plight to be accepted and educated in a land where they were discriminated against. They were denied an education until a local educator Leo Hart decided to build a school just for them. What follows is a heart warming story of a displaced community coming together to build the school from donated and scrap materials, including an airplane, and insuring that the children received a quality education. This book should be on the required reading list for all grades.

Shallow Graves (A Location Scout Mystery Series) by Jeffery Deaver

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John Pellam and his partner, Marty, are scouting locations for a film in Cleary, a small town in upstate New York. The book turns formulaic from the beginning. Pellam and Marty are outsiders in a close knit community which does not trust them or like the interruption of their small town life. The scouts’ motor home is vandalized, someone is watching them for the woods, there’s a murder to be solved and plenty of cover up by the town authorities. Formulas aside, this was a quick read and a decent thriller. It would be a good book for your next plane trip.

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde

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Thursday Next: First Among Sequels is one of the better installments of the Thursday Next series. While maintaining its British sci-fi/fantasy feel, it brings the story lines from the previous novels together and answers a lot of questions left open throughout the series. Although subtitled “First Among Sequels”, this ties up nicely enough to be the last installment of the series. I have thoroughly enjoyed this series and highly recommend that if you decide to read it that you start with the first book, “The Eyre Affair” or you will be thoroughly lost but beyond that warning, I know you will enjoy the series.