The Calm Before The Storm

The last two days in Southern Ontario have been unseasonably warm. You knew it couldn't last. The rain has started to fall and the temperature is plummeting. They are calling for our first real snowfall of the year this weekend, so goodbye grass, hello snowbank.

Thanks to everyone who has been sending encouragement about 'the Cough'. It has been much better in the last few days which I think is due to me getting a bit more rest at night (thanks to the CPAP machine). I'm still not sleeping through the night, but I'm sleeping more comfortably when I am sleeping, and every little bit helps.

Last night when I got home from school, Shell had done a tremendous amount of work in the house which made me feel good (because stuff was getting done) but lousy (because I should have been the one doing it and not her). I don't know where I'd be without her.

I'm still trying to find 'the hook' for my big paper that is due next Friday. I feel like I'm close. I'm going to be spending a lot of time in the library this weekend for this last big push. I'm not sure when my take home final will be due, and I know my one in class final is December 18th, so the next three weeks, as all end of semesters are, will be hell. But next semester is sure to be a fun one, with only one class, and that class is a History of American Science Fiction.

In fact just as I was writing this paragraph, my prof emailed me the reading list so I could get a winter break jump start. Here's what I'm reading for next semester (my wife will be so envious because this is right up her alley- in fact she's re-reading Asimov's "Nightfall" right now..coincidence?)

Reading list:
Lewis Padgett, “Mimsy Were the Borogoves”
Fredric Brown, “Arena”
Judith Merril, “That Only a Mother”
Lester del Rey, “Helen O’Loy”
Isaac Asimov, “Nightfall.”
Clifford Simak, City
Fredric Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, Space Merchants
A.C. Clarke, Childhood’s End
S. Delany, Einstein Intersection
Frank Herbert, Dune
U. K. Le Guin, Left Hand of Darkness
P.K. Dick, Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Le Guin “Word for World is Forest”
James Tiptree “Houston, Houston”
J Russ “When it Changed”
Robert Heinlein, Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Mote in God’s Eye
William Gibson, Neuromancer
K. S. Robinson, Red Mars
whew...that's a lot of reading no?