Day two of the 08 freeze, housebound for the second day in a row. The temperatures are predicted to go up to 25 today. The main roads are nice due to the sanding and the deicing. However, the roads that feed into the main roads are a sheet of ice. It is impossible to get to the main roads. This is the longest bad winter spell in Portland since about 1990. Today’s plans include getting ready to do my corporate and individual tax returns. I want to file early in January before the busy season starts. I can file the corporate return early but I will have to wait until March to file my individual return due to a K-1 I am expecting from my Aunt Ella’s estate. That doesn’t mean I can’t have my return completed except for the K-1 and that is what I plan on doing.
Just some miscellaneous items today:
They arrested a suspect in the Woodburn, Oregon bombing that killed two law enforcement officers. Apparently he was seen on a security video from a close by Wal-Mart Store. The suspect makes his first court appearance today.
In another bit of interesting if not surprising news, according to a Harris Poll fifty percent of the women polled in a survey said they would give up sex instead of the internet if given a choice between the two. It doesn’t surprise me that some women would choose the internet over sex but fifty percent? The mind boggles.
Being housebound I have been catching up on some reading. Here are the ones I just finished:
KILLER VIEW by Ridley Pearson, three of five stars, about the covering up of poisoned water and dead animals.
CRUEL INTENT by J. A. Jance, three of five stars, about internet dating, marital affairs, and computer sabotage.
BRASS VERDICT by Michael Connelly, five of five stars, about a lawyer that takes over the case of a murdered colleague, police procedures, and a friendship developing between a police detective and the lawyer.
DIVINE JUSTICE by David Baldacci, the Camel Club looking for member Oliver Stone being sought for the murder of two high government officials, life in a small town, and friendship.
Hope things are going well with all of you. How is the weather in your neck of the woods?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
I'd say the weather here in the Los Angeles area is cold, but you and Mary and probably others would just laugh at me. But it's cold for here, and we even got rain yesterday. I love it!
I read KILLER VIEW and liked it about 3 stars' worth, too. I usually like Pearson. I'll read BRASS VERDICT as soon as I see it in the library, too. I tried one J.A. Jance book some time ago and didn't like it... maybe I should give her another try, ya think?
Right now I'm reading ESCAPE by Robert Tanenbaum, which has jihadi terrorists blowing up synagogues and a crazy woman who killed her three kids and will try for an insanity defense. Seems to me she's crazy by definition, but I'm sure it'll get much more complicated as it goes on. Next, and for the book club, is ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY, nonfiction about a 16 y/o who journeys from Honduras to the US to find his mother. I have on the shelf Ken Follett's WORLD WITHOUT END, which I had intended to read in December when there is no good tv, but it looks like it'll be on the shelf a while yet, all 1000+ pages of it.
Hi Pat
I wouldn't laugh, I remember the college years when I would visit my parents in LA at the Christmas break. I was always colder in LA than I was at college in Oregon. It just seemed that way.
I like Pearson's Daphne Mathews series and I do think I would give Jance another shot. I like some of her stuff but not all of it. I like Connenly's books the best.
ESCAPE sounds like my kind of book. It also reminds me of a book that I am sure you would like, EXHILE byn Richard North Patterson
ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY sounds abolutely fascinating. Some of Follet's work is outstanding but I haven't read much of his stuff lately. 1000 pages would take me a year to read!
Bill
Drive on ice? Not if I've any other choice at all! Especially the black ice you can't see, 'cause it comes from exhaust hitting freezing payment and you never know when a patch will appear. That was my worst nightmare in Mpls and Juneau.
Good job on starting your taxes. I hope to follow your good example, although I can't do much until the end of January, when the last of the credit cards come in (we charge business expenses to cards, to make tracking easy). 'Sokay, since January is filling up fast with other stuff.
Am filing your reading suggestions!
Pat, I remember when the family all gathered in LA in 1988, because my b-i-l was working there temporarily and it was the only way for us all to get together. In a motel. Long story, but funny in restrospect. Anyway, the not-funny part was LA had their worst cold snap in 28 years, starting on Christmas day. The folks from AK and IL had winter coats, but Himself and I came from FL, expecting warm and sunny and darned near froze our little tushes off!
Here? Colder than a witch over the weekend, yesterday was a balmy 49 and they're actually predicting 60+ degrees for tomorrow. In December, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. Go figure! 'Course, we've got rain and drizzle and damp to go with it, but still...
It's snowing here too Bill...MA and NY....Had a huge power outage in my area in MA...Glad I was travelling...No heat! Yikes! (Glad we're survivalists and have kerosene heaters and a generator)..Good books to read...Hmm, I am on a Paulo Coelho binge right now...Just read Brida, now reading Eleven Minutes,and after that, I'll read The Witch Of Portobello....Love his works!
Hi Dr
Driving on ice is just not really a good idea anywhere. The black ice is dangerous because there is no warning that allows you to slow down.
You can tell how bored I am when I decide to start my taxes!
Today are highs are predicted to be 35 and twenty degree bump but guess what they are predicting that is going to come with the rising temps? Snow. I would kill for 60 degrees and just rain right now!
Bill
Hi Lisa!
I've been reading about the East Coast power outages. I've been wondering if you were in it. Fortunately we haven't lost our power here yet.
I have survivalist tendencies too because both mom and have kreosene heaters and lamps but no generator. I think that is great foresight to have a generator.
Was Paulo Coelho the author we discussed when we were at Powell's here? I like him really well also.
Stay warm.
Bill
Hi again, Bill. I also like Connelly the best. I just looked it up, and EXILE sounds very good. I always like Patterson's books.
WORLD WITHOUT END is a sort of sequel to Follett's PILLARS OF THE EARTH, which I loved. It's not really a sequel, but is set in the same place 100 years later. Over 1000 pages does put a person off, but PILLARS was long, too, and I really got immersed in it. It's kind of silly to put it off because it's long. It's like reading two or three "regular" books, and that never intimidates me.
So far, ESCAPE is spending a lot of time on backstory, probably from previous books with the same characters. When it's into the current story, it's good, but I'm getting a little lost in the backstories, which sound like they just might be better books. But I'm forging ahead and we'll see how much I like it once they get back to the "present".
Hi Pat
Exhile is also long at I think 600 pages but there is a lot of Middle East history in it. I ikght try the 1000 page Follet Book, I think he did The Twins too about cloning and I liked that one.
I get lost easily in books with back stories but if I hang in there I usually figure them out.
Bill
Bill, books again. If you haven't read it, I'd recommend Follett's PILLARS OF THE EARTH before tackling WORLD WITHOUT END. Of course I haven't read the second one yet, myself, so can't compare them, but PILLARS is definitely worth reading, and you'll learn about the setting for the second book and how the cathedral was built.
Hi Pat
After I get done with Phillip Margolins TIES THAT BIND, if I can get out (another major storm predicted this weekend) I will look for PILLARS OF THE EARTH.
Bill
Not to rub it in, but since you asked == the weather here is sunny and balmy. But we'll probably swing into monsoon season by the end of the month with all-day torrential downpours.
Hi Snug
Right now I'd be happy with torrential downpours.
Hope it stays balmy and sunny for you throught the year and beyond!
Bill
Post a Comment