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The main deal here is to read 52 or more books. Simple enough, yeah? Cool. Let's see how that goes.

One ongoing thing I'm trying to do is read some books mentioned in, or related to, the series Hellier. I read one last year and I'm currently building my reading list for more. I'll try to track those in this space, I think.

Covers

January
- - - - - - -

February
- - - - -

March
- - - - - -

April
- - - - - -

May
-

June
- - -

July
- - - - - -

August
- - -

September
- - - -

October
- - - -

November
- - - - -

December
- - -

,.,.,.,.,.,

Reserved. No idea why but you never know when you might need more space.

Done.

First!!! Yay! Enjoy your year of reading!

ACCK! I was beaten, lol!

DAMNATIONS!! Why you do this when I'm in bed??
..enjoy your year of reading I guess :P

LOL! Congrats, Stephanie! And to the latecomers... sorry! :D

I wish you the Very Best in 2020!

Nyssa wrote: "I wish you the Very Best in 2020!"

Thanks, Nyssa! **hugs** Here's hoping that 2020 will be excellent for all of us!

First book done and logged! Yay! It feels like things are actually starting now. LOL

Congratulations. And since no one claimed it, SECOND. There's points for that right?

Thanks! And yes, there's definitely points for that! :D

Two books down, 50 to go!

Though book #2 was a bit of a "meh". It hit all the "psychotic swampbillies" requirements but it fell rather flat compared to the first book in the series. The first one had a bit more complexity in the plotting and characters, whereas attempts to do the same here just didn't work for me. So, it was just one long adventure of murder and mayhem, which is fine for what it is, but not worth more than 3 stars.

well done!
i havent read anything...

You read that post. :P

5 books down! Of course, two of them were short stories for WSW but they still count! :D

Short stories count. If I read a lot of them, I up my goal towards the end of the year.

Updated covers. The Three-Body Problem was a trip and a half. I can definitely see why it tends to be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of thing. I came in on the side of loving it, for the most part.

I also recently read a volume of comics. I hadn't read any before other than a few Dresden Files issues. I intend to read some more.

Currently reading and enjoying The Institute.

Updated covers. Hate typing on my tablet so that is all.

So, the reason I was typing on my tablet the last time I posted is because I had no power for 8 days, except from the generator our neighbors shared with us, which was just enough for the fridge, charging small devices, and the occasional cup of coffee (after first unplugging the fridge because Keurigs are surprisingly powerful). Our street took a direct hit from the tornado that hit Nashville last Monday night.

There are only 4 houses on my block that are still somewhat livable, and only two households - us and the neighbors - stayed in our homes through all of this. Debris trucks started picking up the pieces from the curbsides on Thurs / Fri and NES (the electric company) and Public Works moved in on Sunday. (They actually had to wait till then because the community and volunteer response was so incredible that the street was filled with people helping out.)

NES connected our power last night. I didn't really expect it. We were estimating that we could be without power for another week or more due to the devastation. (Nearly 1000 power poles were damaged in the areas of the city affected.) But they got us going just before dark. I was finally able to really warm up, not sleep in a sleeping bag, and pee with the bathroom light on. Don't underestimate the luxury of that last one. Seriously - go thank your bathroom light for its service. Taking a shower by flashlight is the creepiest thing ever and I never want to experience that again.

So many houses on my street are just destroyed. I really don't know how ours is still here. But it is, and I'm grateful.

And I got some good reading done! #lovemykindle

Yikes. Glad you're okay and the power is back. Hope you're neighbours get through this too.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "Yikes. Glad you're okay and the power is back. Hope you're neighbours get through this too."

Thank you! <3 The neighbors on the other side of us are back at their place this morning. They had roof damage and broken windows but it was covered with no additional damage from rain, so NES reconnected them last night as well. It was so weird to look over and see their porch light. We called their contractor last night to let him know the power was on (we talked to him a lot over the past week because he took our tree off of their house) so he was able to contact them and they came back this morning.

It's so fucking weird I can't describe it. I sit at my desk in my now-warm house at my computer and I start to feel almost normal, then I walk out the front door into the apocalypse. I don't even know how to feel right now. One minute I'm fine and the next minute... I'm so not fine.

I should probably look into getting some therapy. But my car won't have a new windshield till next week sometime (scheduled, but they had to order it). Maybe I'll feel more stable by then anyway.

I started smoking again literally five minutes after we came out of the basement after it hit. That will pass with time and I'll be back to just vaping, but considering how much insulation, plaster dust and who-knows-what I've inhaled over the past week, I'm really just not that bothered about it. LOL

Updated my covers post. Been reading some really interesting comic collections recently! Savage Highway 1-3 was really good, but the last issue was published in 2017 and the ending was set up for more that never happened, so that was a bit unfulfilling.

I wanted to do something music-related with reading but I couldn't figure out what till last night.

I got this idea to have listening sessions based on articles in Vintage Rock magazine. Read the article, list the songs and dive in. And then I realized that I only have one issue, the next issue is on hold for three months due to Covid-19, so I have to branch out. Back issues are just too expensive to go that route. So...

Books about music will work too. Yay! First up (after making my way through the current Vintage Rock issue) is going to be and then after that will probably be .

This is actually more of a journaling project than a reading thing, but it still involves reading! :D

Nice. I haven't read many music-y books over the years. I found some magic in my playing last night though. I still suck, but I liked the direction things were headed.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "I found some magic in my playing last night though. I still suck, but I liked the direction things were headed."

That's awesome! :)

I don't read many music-y books either. A lot of them are biographies and I'm not much into biographies. But I figure I can go through these and make the playlists, I don't have to read the whole thing if I don't feel like it.

My library bought one copy of the new Stephen King novella collection, If It Bleeds. My hold is estimated to come up in 6 months. Ouch. LOL I really hope they add at least a couple more copies.

Yeah, the Overdrive lines are tough. I got a few books from the library before they closed. I am keeping myself firmly in the Hoopla world from my library because it just limits you to 10 loans a month with no waitlists.

Yeah, our library increased our Hoopla borrows during the current situation. I think it was originally 8, but for the moment it's 15. I never really use it for anything but comics / graphic novels, though, because of having to use the app. I already use my tablet for those, but for regular reading I need my Kindle.

Yeah, no Overdrive connectivity for Kindle in Canada so I've learned to read Hoopla on my phone. Old dogs can learn new tricks. We'll just growl and complain about it every chance we get.

I have updated my covers post. Finally. Yay! LOL

The music journaling thing didn't really pan out, mostly because I find I don't have much to say about the music. I like it or I don't, for the most part. I came to the conclusion that the music speaks for itself, I don't need to add my verbage.

Robert Randisi recently released a new entry in the Rat Pack Mysteries, so I jumped on that as soon as I heard about it! (Which was a couple weeks after release - what's the point in subbing to author updates if they take that long? Hmm, Amazon?) Anyway, that was a fun and fast read. Makes me want to jump into some more detective stories, though I have to whittle the queue down first. I don't normally care about a TBR but I have some books I've bought instead of borrowed and I'd like to not have them get lost in the pile.

I've always believed that group moderators should have their accounts set to accept PMs from non-friends, but sadly, I had to turn that off on my account this week due to issues. So anyone on here who wants to PM me that isn't already my friend will hopefully know to send a friend request.

It's hot. I don't have AC this year. But I'm handling the heat surprisingly well. Except when I have PMS. But I'm at the age where my body just throws a rager so I'm not even sure AC would help much with that. LOL

I think that's about it. I feel like I just wrote a newsletter. :D

Updated covers again. I can't believe it's been two months since I updated them. Time flows strangely these days.

Bought another uke at some point in there. Fender Fullerton Jazzmaster in Tidepool (metalflake blue). It's pretty. I like it. I like it even more since I put Pepe Romero strings on it.

I like Tidepool. A good Fender colour. My favourite Fender colours are Daphne Blue, Surf Green, and Sonic Blue. Tidepool is nice too.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "I like Tidepool. A good Fender colour. My favourite Fender colours are Daphne Blue, Surf Green, and Sonic Blue. Tidepool is nice too."

Oooh, I love Surf Green! I would love it if they'd make a uke with that color. And with the aged pearl pickguard.

I love playing around with the Fender Mod Shop even though I have no intention of buying a guitar. I doubt they'll ever offer the Mod Shop for ukuleles but I can dream. :D

I am all about the glitz when it comes to that stuff. When I bought my last electric guitar, back in 1998 (crap I'm old now, and play only marginally better than I did back then) I almost bought a Gretsch Jet in Blue Pearl. So ridiculously over the top. I still wish I had bought it, but I love my guitar.

Too bad mod shop wasn't available in Canada. It was originally, but they block it now. It was super fun.

I just got a new amplifier. An Orange Crush 35RT.

Oooh, the Blue Pearl Jet is insane! Gorgeous, though.

The other day I was drooling over a Gretsch. The Falcon.

How do you like the Orange Crush? I've been seeing them all over lately.

I like the Crush a lot. Good clean sound and ridiculous gain stages. But for me, it is the clean sound, effects loop, and headphones. I'm maybe not enamoured with the built-in reverb on the dirty channel, but I've got a pedalboard so that is a non-issue entirely. I really wanted a simple amp to work with. I don't like menus, I don't like connecting to computers. One page user manual works for me. Truth be told I would have loved an Orange Rocker 15, but kids and everything means I need headphones and I have other things to spend that extra $800CDN on as well as not lugging around that much weight. Obviously, even though I don't wear it and would never paint my room it, I seem to like the colour orange. My use cases just don't support tubes anymore or big. Nice sound that has some style.

When I bought my guitar, the Gretsch was just more money than I could rationalize. This was what I ended up with:


I'm happy with my guitar. It's been with me for a long time. Never really been tempted to replace it.

Oooh! Your Gibson is gorgeous!

I bought a small practice amp recently. It's orange, too. LOL But some cheap import brand. I wanted just clean sound. Basically just a speaker for my uke, because I'm using my effects / modeling pedal for the fun stuff. And that's essentially what it does. I haven't used it much because I usually plug my headphones directly into my Zoom G1X Four but it's nice to have something to blast a bit out noise out of once in a while.

Thanks. I love my guitar. Finish checking, worn gold hardware and all. It's close to needing some fretwork done. I'm glad I don't feel the need for more guitars or different ones or lots of amps. Means I can spend money on pedals. Haha. Not really, but if there's one thing I love is a good pedal and the Orange really works well with my love of modulation.

Wow! Busy year! I read your posts just before the tornado, so I'm only finding out now! So sorry your neighborhood got bashed. Our last personal encounter with a tornado was in 2005 - the winds knocked over our 40 ft Christmas train and twisted a couple of trees, but destroyed several houses a couple blocks away. Instead, we get mashed by hail - two new roofs in 4 years. Mom was annoyed that the storms didn't get the windows as they did a few neighborhoods over - insurance would have paid for them. Instead, we had to replace the windows on our own dime.

Yes, it has been a busy year. In some ways. In other ways... I've been sitting on my butt at home since March 8th, so... LOL Last week I carried a trash bag out to the curb when my roommate missed on, that's the furthest I've gone since then.

We had our roof replaced from hail about 8 years ago, I think. Long enough ago that the insurance company didn't flinch over having to replace it again after the tornado.

Updated my covers.

Am I going crazy or has the font on GR changed? Just on the discussion & review / comments text seems different, other stuff seems the same.

Anyway. Got Spooky October rolling with American Elsewhere then my library hold for Battle Ground came in so the horror reading list will resume after that.

Oh! I also hit my 52/52 for the challenge. LOL Yay!

Finished Battle Ground. Holy shit. I feel like I've been through the battle myself!

Got an Oasis on Prime Day. Traded in my PW4 and Voyage. I love it! I want a different case for it than the one I bought though. I just grabbed a cheap case at the time so I'd have one, now I can take my time and find one I really want.

Updated October reads. Another month done and over. Happy Halloween!

Got my skin for my Oasis from DecalGirl today! I did a custom one using a NASA image of an EVA at the ISS in July, then added some text to it. I'm so happy with how it came out! The front is just solid black so I didn't include a pic of that.

Christa wrote: "Yes, it has been a busy year. In some ways. In other ways... I've been sitting on my butt at home since March 8th, so... LOL Last week I carried a trash bag out to the curb when my roommate missed ..."

Holy cow, you haven't been further than the curb since March! Ouch! Even my disabled brother at least went to medical appointments! I do all the shopping and that has mostly been driveup, curbside pickup, or delivery. I still go to local grocery store and local discount grocery, but at 8 am when nobody is there.

Stephanie wrote: "Holy cow, you haven't been further than the curb since March! Ouch! Even my disabled brother at least went to medical appointments!"

Well, that changed slightly since I posted that - I went to vote on election day. Nearly everyone here voted early so there were no lines, which gave me this weird feeling that all the workers were there just for me to be able to vote. LOL

Then I came back home and resumed my hermitage.

I've been getting groceries delivered for a few years now, so that hasn't changed. My insurance company expanded coverage and availability for more telehealth options, and I've had I think 4 or 5 medical calls and a few phone therapy appointments.

I've always been quite content to stay at home, but I've never been *this* much of a hermit. It's worth it, though. I'm potentially high risk - my immune system tends to overreact from time to time. The longer I can avoid rolling the dice on Covid, the better.

I have a treadmill, so I can still go for walks! :D

Updated my book covers. Also recently started the 2021 folder for the group, and my thread for next year.