I finished revising my latest short story and turned it in to the prospective market. I have a book review to finish and another short story to contemplate. Then it’s on to the novel.
We had some rain on Saturday. It started in the mid-afternoon and went well into the evening. I’m not sure of our total accumulation around here, but I’m guessing somewhere on the order of ¾” to an inch. Nowhere near as much as they received in downtown Houston, a mere 30 miles away, where parts of town got 6-10″ in as many hours. There were pictures of main highways through the city that looked like bayous, with cars buried in water up to the windshield wipers. People always think they can make it through deep water and learn to their consternation that they can’t. Over 150 people had to be rescued from high water. At least one acquaintance posted that he had to spend the night in a hotel because he couldn’t get home from work. There was also enough hail in some places around the Med Center to make it look like a significant snowfall accumulation. We’re expecting another cold front at the end of the week that could set record lows in the lower 40s. It’s supposed to be something like 80° today. It’s been a wacky spring.
My website was disabled for a while this morning because hackers were trying to break in. They’ve been attempting to do so on a regular basis, but there was a concerted effort overnight. I awoke to over 200 alert messages from the Guardian that protects my message board. Unfortunately, that made my hosting service think I was sending out spam, so they turned me off until I was able to explain the situation to them. There are also attempts made on WordPress, which hosts this blog, but I have that locked down fairly well, too. I wish I knew what they hope to accomplish. Most of the offending traffic comes from China, it appears.
Down to the final four on The Amazing Race. The scenes in the haggis shop were amusing. I liked the way the country singers flirted with “Robbie Burns,” who did his best to stay in character when he wasn’t reciting his tribute to the nasty stuff. I’ve never sampled the “delicacy” myself, but I think my parents did back in the day. I was surprised that the leading teams chose to U-turn the fourth and fifth place contestants instead of the team that was in third, who are serious contenders.
Sorry to see Malcolm go from Survivor. I wonder if he got bogged down by thinking that the clue to the hidden immunity idol referred to the well. “Near the water” to me would imply somewhere on the beach rather than the well. Maybe someone else will scare one up this week, when there are two tribals. Cochrane is really stepping up his game this time around. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make it to the end. Winning an eating contest is one thing, but to win an endurance test is another. Of course, he had the advantage he won at the auction and he used it perfectly. Don’t tire yourself out needlessly. Use it at the first moment that you can and save the energy drain.
I like the JJ Laroche character on The Mentalist. I still wonder whether it would have been better to leave the tupperware container’s contents a complete mystery. In the end, they didn’t exactly resolve the matter, but they let us think we know what’s in it anyway.
I’m not a huge fan of “let’s reset the timeline” solutions to time travel stories. Seems to me like a “hail mary” solution once you’ve written yourself into a corner. That’s what happened on Doctor Who this week. The whole thing seemed a bit of a jumbled mess. One thing I find interesting is the way they record Clara’s breathing. It’s like one of her character traits—a lot of short breaths. They’ve done that from the very beginning and I’m not sure if it’s supposed to mean something or not. You don’t hear all the other characters breathing that way.
Curious to see what the resolution of the cliffhanger on NCIS will be. I could see the car crash coming a mile away. There’s something about the way they set up those scenes that projects it. Last season, there were several actors who hadn’t renewed their contracts who were potential victims of a bomb blast. This season there’s just one actor who’s contract is up for renewal. I wonder if that’s just a publicity stunt by the producers to heighten the suspense. I suppose it’s possible they might allow a character to die. They’ve done it a few times in the past.
We watched a few more episodes of Inspector Lewis this weekend. We particularly enjoy the series because we’ve both spent time in Oxford, though the city has changed a lot in the 30 years since we were there.
