Should I Stay of Should I Go Back

I few months ago, I had the chance to fund a Kickstarter campaign for a book I would have liked to purchase.  One of the perks of funding the project was the I would get a free preview of the book in a PDF form.  Using that PDF, funders could help review the book and check if over for errors.  I had a few misgivings, having never done one of these campaigns before, but I decided to try and go for it on the very last day.  Practically in the last few minutes.  Unfortunately, I waited too long.  There wasn't going to be enough time for me to sign up to Kickstarter and go through the entire registration process before the campaign ended.  I still have some regrets about not funding that project.  However, there is a new campaign that just started on another book.  I am very much more interested in this one than I was the last one.  The project has already been fully funded!  In less than a few hours!  Some of the stretch goals are very intriguing, featuring a very good deal on the PDFs of some books I missed out on over the years.  I just have to add a little bit more to my pledge.  I still have some misgivings, though.  The last campaign had to be scrapped after a week due to the outbreak.  The company just felt it wasn't the right time to have it funded, yet.  The are going to go back later in the year, provided they have an available time to do so.  I also haven't registered to Kickstarter.  I have no idea how long it will take to start an account, or even if I am able to.  Still, this feels like the right time to start.  I have to figure this out, but I think I will have time enough to go through with in.  This time around.

I've Got Nothing

Literally.  I don't have a single idea for a good post this week.  I admit that I have had ideas, since even before my post from last week.  However, none of those ideas feel good enough to anchor a post.  Actually, many of the ideas feel a little too controversial to write about right now.  I try to be as apolitical as possible with these posts, but many of my ideas are inching very close to the line.  While I believe that I could treat these topics with a fair hand, some part of me thinks that I would be censored or blamed in some fashion if I did so.  That fear is crippling my creativity.  I have tried to come up with other, safer topics, but I can't really think of anything else.  Practically nothing is happening in my life.  The only thing differentiating the days is what I think about.  I hate to say it, but I might be turning into a conspiracy theorist nut.  I can't help it.  All I do is think, and think, and think.  The more information I hear, the more my rebellious streak wants to resist.  Normally, I would stop before anything got out of hand, but lately, I just want to push things further than I would need to.  If I give into these thoughts, well, the first few sentences of this post can give you an idea.  So much to think about, yet so much I shouldn't be thinking about.  Just to be honest, I wouldn't actually act on some of those thoughts.  I just don't want anyone to hate me if I let these thoughts out.  Or worse, if anyone actually did act on those thoughts.  I don't want to be blamed either.  I shouldn't even be mentioning that, but this is all I have to write about.  Boring.  Hopefully, I will have anything else to write about soon.  Maybe.  At the very least, I am thinking about coming up with another big puzzle, like the crossword from over a year ago.  Something that big will take over a month for me to fix it up just right.  So, what else is there to say.  Nothing.  Nothing.  Nothing.  I going to end this post short.  There is nothing to write about.  See you next week.

The Night the Lights Went out in Kentucky, Again

It was sometime after 10:00 pm this past Sunday night.  I was getting ready to play a round of Golf Clash, after posting some messages for my fellow players, but I wasn't feeling it.  For the past few minutes, the lights had been flickering.  The forecast wasn't that high for storms, and the radar didn't show anything near by.  Still, I felt wrong.  I decided not to just stop playing, but to temporarily shut off my laptop.  Barely a moment after I did, the power went off, for a second.  The lights came back on, but the television did not.  The cable box began to search for channels.  The router also started to blink, with most of the lights on it out.  All of a sudden, the power went off again, and it did not come back on immediately.  There was a high wind advisory, but it didn't officially start until midnight.  Apparently, the gusts started early.  I had been hearing the wind for awhile before the power went out.  Strangely enough, I'm not really sure I even heard any thunder, although a storm may have been a county or two over.  That night, while trying to fall asleep, I mostly heard rain, not wind.  Just before going to bed, some neighbors had gone out to check on the damage.  There were some reports of trees down, as well as some damage to the city hall.  When I woke up the next morning, I knew the power was still out, as the light I had left switched on was still off.  A call to the power company revealed nothing much, just that the power could be back on that day.  More talking with neighbors revealed that there was more damage all over than just here.  Pikeville police suggested that an E1 tornado may have come through the city, with the level of damages received, although straight-line winds were slightly more likely.  Phone calls to friends and relatives showed just how far flung the damages were.  On the plus side, many parts of Pikeville had their power restored by mid-afternoon.  Not here.  In fact, a crew that had come that night had left  before they could do anything, mostly due to the heavy rain that night.  They were supposed to return that day, but I guess they were called off to another site that affected a greater number of costumers.  What was worse was that a cable from my place had seemed to fallen in the storms, suggesting I might not have cable television and/or internet when the power came back on.  Anyway, a second restless night was spent without power.  I could barely sleep, and I woke up about 3:30 am and never really got back to sleep.  When I did get up, the second part of the problem was revealed--the water was going off.  Apparently, again, the pumps didn't have a back-up, and the tanks ran dry.  They would have ran out anyway, but it didn't help that a person down the street washed it down with some of that water, even though it had been raining on and off the entire day.  That person also had a generator that ran all night.  I almost thought it was the sound of a crew working just out of sight, until I found out the truth later on that second day.  Even though it wasn't planned, I made a quick trip to Pikeville to check up on my store.  I saw the extent of the damage everywhere:  downed trees, broken roofs, debris-covered roads.  The store was fine, by the way.  Sure, the power had been out, but there was nothing there that could have been hurt.  Unfortunately, I had no reliable wifi signal there.  On the first day, I even tried to use the cars wifi, but my laptop wouldn't accept it.  Some sort of security issue.  So, that was the second day.  At least the town got a diesel powered generator for the pumps.  I even saw it go up the road, I think.  That night, it was colder.  Still had problems sleeping.  The start of the third day began with another phone call.  This time, it seemed to actually have a real answer that fit into a timeline. In fact, the trucks were arrivals just as I was leaving for Pikeville again to try and start getting supplies and such.  By the time I got back, the water was back on, but not the electricity. At least I got back online.  I had to sit in a parking lot to do so, but I managed to get a bare minimum done.  I even got some reception ag the store.  Reports starting coming in suggesting the power would be on later that day.  It did actually come on, later than other nearby areas, but at a similar time to many of them.  I guess power companies prefer 7:00 start times.  Well, I got even luckier as I started to turn things on.  I actually had cable, and internet.  I guess that downed wire wasn't actually hooked up to my place.  Still, I am thankful.  I just wish that the many conflicting reports weren't so wrong, with different calls giving different answers and officials who may have sent too many crews to some sites.  

Buzzard Crossing

Just yesterday, on a weekly trip to check out the store, to make sure it was okay, I almost ran into a buzzard.  From a distance, it almost looked like a turkey.  I guess why this particular breed is sometimes called a turkey buzzard.  To be honest, I had seen turkeys on this stretch of road as well, just not as often as buzzards, strangely enough.  This time around, the bird was trying to get at some roadkill.  It flew off as I drove near, and it quickly returned to the dead possum after I passed.  This was the third or fourth time I had seen buzzards on or near the road, coming very close to hitting them at times.  That is all.  What can I say.  Nothing much else is happening to me right now.  Every day is about the same thing.  I pace my reading so that my books will last.  I am getting tired of doing puzzles.  They are starting to blur into on another.  I am playing so many games, I think I am starting to hurt my eyesight.  I all have left to do is watch television. Unfortunately, most of the day is filled with outbreak coverage.  I switch which news outlets I watch, so that I can get as many different takes as possible.  But even that is tiring.  I know almost everything else has shut down, but there has to be something else going on somewhere.  I sometimes just leave the weather on in the background as I try to do something else, but even that is getting boring, as the weather tries to bring up outbreak related stories as well.  I almost hope for a bad storm outbreak to cut into the monotony.  The worst thing is the press conferences.  I try to avoid them as much as I can, because many of them are becoming so overtly political as to lose much of the original intent, if politicizing this outbreak wasn't the original intent.  So little changes in these speeches, except the actual counts which frequently gets buried deep into the conference. This is starting to seem familiar.   Toilet paper shortages.  Travel bans.  Encouraging snitching.  Outright propagandizing of the populace.  Dissuasion of religious practices.  Am I paranoid, or is this situation starting to feel like the Soviet Union at the height of Communism?  Too little time outside is making me want to start making conspiracy theories.  I just have this eerie feeling that something is getting ready to reach a breaking point.  While I think I can take this situation for a little longer, I just know that someone, somewhere is not.  The tipping point is coming.  Compassion can only go on for so long until the greater needs far outweigh those of the few.  This will be especially be true if the current protective orders go on too long or if they get more restrictive.  I just hope that these orders were always meant to be protective in nature, and not designed to encourage the problems that they are causing.  For it they are and certain people find out about it ... Well, I hope nothing goes wrong.  The buzzard had flown off somewhere by the time I drove back although the roadkill was still there, just off to the side of the road.  Maybe a car had knocked it aside.  Maybe the buzzard had accidentally dropped it to a harder to reach spot.  Maybe it found an easier meal.  The buzzard, and others, are still there.  Circling, waiting for the right time.  

The "Dresden Files" File

Back many, many years ago, my store, Booknotes, randomly ordered a modern fantasy novel as part of our "Books of the Month" promotion highlighting the fantasy/science-fiction genre.  The book was Fool Moon by Jim Butcher.  At the time, I barely looked at it.  It was original to paperback, so I hadn't thought too much of it, especially since it turned out to be the second book of the series.  Well, some time later, I found out that the series was being adapted for television for what is now Syfy.  Well, that's when I finally read the book, as the store still had it after all that time.  Of course, this was after I saw the first few episodes and realized that the show was based on the book.  I liked the show well enough, and the book was good too.  I then ordered the first book of the series to read as well.  That first book, Storm Front, had some flaws and mistakes, but it showed promise.  The series is about a modern wizard by the name of Harry Dresden.  It is set in Chicago where, Harry works as a sort of investigator for hire, while also working as a special consultant for the police under the authority of Karin Murphy. To be honest, Harry is all but overwhelmed in the first two books, especially with trust issues, but he does get the job done, even with the threat of major recurring bad guy Boss Macone, a perfectly regular human who controls much of the criminal enterprises of Chicago.  (Yes, I have read many of the books as the store.  Yes, that is kind of unfair, but make sure not to damage the books when I read them.  And no, I don't do that to all the books either.) Anyway, I wound up getting the new books as the came out, even after the show was cancelled after one season.  To be honest, some of the liberties the show had to take with the book's world made much of a difference.  The newer books of the series were in hardcover, showing how well the series had been received.  This also led to a problem, as I never read all of the intervening books.  I had a gap of about five books that I never read.  I didn't want to order too many extra books for the store just so I could read them.  It took a few years the sell those first two books in paperback; ordering more that I couldn't return would not be feasible.  At least the hardcovers could be returned, and many times, they were sold.  This led to some confusion, as plot points had to be sussed out without any way to easily find out.  This continued, even after the series took a very unsettling turn.  I won't spoil it, but the last few books have turned the series on its head.  However, gaps between new books grew.  Usually, the next book in the series came out every spring, but sometimes slipping into summer.  Then, Butcher took some time off.  He wrote a steampunk sci-fi book that was supposed to be the start of a new series, but it sputtered before a second book came out.  He finished up a separate high fantasy series, which he has said holds a special place for him.  He would publish some short stories, collecting them for a hardcover releases, with a new one or two mixed in.  But no new novel for a few years.  Yet, this past January, the next book in the series was announced for a summer release. There was even a short preview of a battle that takes place.  Since it has been so long since there has been a new book, and that I have nothing better to do, and that I have gaps in the series, I have decided to read the entire series, in order, to prep myself for the new book.  Before they closed, I managed to check out five of the first six books from local libraries.  For some reason, I had the other book of the first six at the store.  I try to keep at least one there at all times.  That one is in the tall premium format, while the most of the others are in the original paperback version.  One is a hardcover, possibly the first one to come in that format.  I'm reading one a week, which should be hold me through this current situation.  Yes, I could read about one a day, but then I would have nothing to do for so long.  I already checked, and I am fairly certain I can get the other books through the libraries as well, once they reopen. Now, all I have to do is make sure that the new book is not delayed.