h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Harbingers of autumn here: gold and orange here and there on the trees (not solid color, mind you, just a few leaves here, a few leaves there); woodsmoke in the air; crisp mornings that require a sweater or jacket; winter squash and apples appearing at the farmers' market; a bright pale blue sky (Lil, GDZ and Marv, you know what I mean when it comes to the sunny autumn sky in the Rockies).

I love this time of year!

I like autumn, but wish it could be autumnal without raining while I'm outside! Rain is good for the plants and good to watch, but not good to be in unless the temperature is warm.

I remember enjoying the specialised second-hand bookshops in Hay-on-Wye. I seem to recall a particularly great one for crime novels.

Harbingers of Autumn here: um... temperature's down around the mid 70s F. It's raining, every day, just like it has been for the last month. Nothing really special, actually.

You should have a very different winter with central heating, Lil. When did your landlady make the decision to have it installed?

We've noticed a change in temperatures here over the last few days. I'm now having to wear socks and a cardi.
Fingers crossed we get one of those lovely Indian Summers in a few weeks.
After this coming Saturday, I am officially retired - at least until I find another career path - and then I'm off to Beijing again at the end of the month. We're hoping to visit the Purple Hills to see the autumn leaves. Apparently this is as significant as spring cherry blossom in Japan.

Lil - if there are no takers for 1001 to 1500, I'll do it. It'll have to wait until Tuesday afternoon though.

minichessmouse - I never drink coffee after about 3pm because the caffeine prevents me from sleeping. You could try cutting out caffeine in coffee, tea and fizzy drinks and see if that helps. Hope your sleep pattern returns to normal soon.

the clouds literally opened and poured the rain uot earlier, it was bizzare! i have noticed that the weather is getting colder, although i did walk back from Partick without my jumper on last night. its around a 3mile walk.

[Mr. D ]

(lml)

harbingers of autumn on SoCal: people wear long pants when out to dinner after dark. yeah, that's pretty much it, really. Seasons? Um, yeah, we don't really have those.

I can just hear Mr. Nerd saying that

One of my Dad's favorite t-shirts (grew up in the Willamette Valley in Oregon) was a navy blue shirt with 2 people in yellow slickers and nor'easters looking up and saying, "What is that strange yellow orb?" I don't know how long he had it--I remember it from before I could read, and the last time I saw it, it was nearly transparent!

> Poordy abused likkle catlet is curled up asleep on the laundry like a cat in a picture book. He is actually rather poorly having chosen the trip to the vet to have the runs.

And you're letting him sleep on the laundry? Brave woman.

> I was one of those children who read wildly inappropriate books for my age--and I found them all on my parents' bookshelves

Me too. Including Clan of the Cave Bear, and the sequel, which I agree with on the whole yucky factor. My first exposure to adult fiction was "The Brave Little Toaster," which was in a copy of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction... (I wonder if they still publish today?) Anyway, I read that story, thought it cute but a bit young for me (published in 1980, so was nine) and read through the rest of the magazine, which was much less cute and a lot older than I was... I remember one story in particular about a girl at the beach who meets up with a guy who turns out to be the human equivalent of a mating spider... Anyway, needless to say I read my parents' entire collection of science-fiction books, and as a result am slightly warped today.

It hasn't been *really* autumnish here yet. In fact, we sat outside for lunch today and it was nice.

But the other day - ummm, mid last weekish - in spite of it being nice, I remember thinking "there's autumn coming". Couldn't quite say why, no nip in the air as such. I just felt it.

*loved the yellow orb & the T-shirt *

The central heating is for the courthouse museum, not my house. The chimneys have all been plugged and the stovepipes removed, so we'll not be burning wood again. If the weather changes before the sub-contractors can be herded back to the job, I'll be sitting in front of leaky doors in a 7000 square foot building, hunched over an electric fan heater, and this will not be good for my health.

My house has one natural gas wall heater that is ample for the whole interior space, but the fuel for which has become expensive. So I depend on the fireplace. I'm getting the chimney cleaned and extended so I can use the fireplace even when the west wind is blowing (which is much of the time).

I just noticed on the way home this evening, that the 30 mph speed limit sign down the road has been replaced by a 40, and the end of speed limit sign moved about a quarter of a mile up the road...past the new housing development. And this is very pleasing, for I did write to my local MP a few months back and request that this be done.

Ah the power!!

The change of season has changed (sorry) an awful lot since my childhood years.

It used to be:

January-February: solid winter with lots of snow
March: snow beginning to melt, first signs of spring
April: full spring
May: slightly warmer than April
June: first month with summer temperatures
July-August: blazing summer
September: cooling off
October: chilly and first night frosts
November-December: solid winter

These last few years, it's been more like:

January-February: luke warm, cloudy and rainy autumn still lingering from previous year
March: tulips and daffodiles just about to pop open when WHAM! winter pops up as a nasty surprise with lots of snow in no time at all. Rest of March snow melting with new wet snow falling, clinging to your clothes, your hair, your bag, and muddy water seeping into your shoes.
April-May: almost summer temperatures
June-July: warm but rainy
August-September: Indian summer but rainy
October-December: autumny, hardly any night frost and definitely no snow to speak of. White Christmasses seem to be a thing of the past...

The 'no snow until March next year' has happened for the third time in a row in my neck of the woods - and it's wrong, I tell you - wrong!

Wait, they actually *raised* a speed limit?

Anyone looking for computer games for cheap should know that Morrison's have a huge sale on their chart games. Wii games are £15; I bought Lego Indiana Jones, which I could trade in at Computer Exchange (sorry, Entertainment Exchange) for £16. There's profits to be made here if you fancy carrying a lot of discs around.

Also today I received a jiffy bag from the US of A. Specifically from Telltale Games enclosing my Sam & Max Season 2 DVD ROM and Sam & Max Surfin' the Highway comic book (or is that "graphic novel"). Anyway, the relevance is that it introduces a new variant on rounders called Fizzball, where the ball is replaced by a heavily shaken can of Cheap Evil-Smelling Beer and the bat with something heftier, like an axe handle or tree branch. Also there's no fielders. Or points. Just a lot of beer-can carnage.

[GDZ]

Is this week over yet?

Anathem comes out tomorrow. There's a nice little video interview with Stephenson on the book's page on amazon in which he lays out the plot. I am intrigued and looking forward to receiving my copy.

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Jeez, that sounds like the last few guys I've dated.

Anathem does look interesting. But I haven't finished Quicksilver yet, or started the two books that follow that.