Miscellaneous Stuff

Not worth three separate posts...

• I forgot another book I read (because I gave away four on vacation!) It was Strange Piece of Paradise, by Teri Jentz. She and a fellow Yalie set out to bicycle across the country in 1977 on the BikeCentennial trail, starting in Oregon. They got across the Cascades into central Oregon, and while asleep in their tent at a roadside rest-stop were deliberately run over by a guy driving a pickup truck, hacked with an axe, and left for dead. They never caught the guy who did it. Twenty years later, she returns to the town near where it happened -- closure and all that -- only to find it was pretty common knowledge who did it. I really liked this non-fiction book, which grew on me as she becomes more and more obsessed with obtaining some kind of justice.

• As the news covers the heat wave in the west (128 in Death Valley, 120 in Las Vegas), it's comparatively cool here with our natural air conditioning from the Pacific. At a July 4th party on the coast yesterday it was a blistering 64 degrees, while on our side of the hill when we got home it was 84. Dara, who is trying to get some new plants in before Missy and Mike show up, would disagree about how wonderfully cool it's been though!

• Kyla was on the mall in DC yesterday and was shuttled off by the park service to shelter in the Native American museum when tornado warnings were issued.