Another lazy indoor day – today should be the last day of Socal’s long, extended heat wave. It’s been mid-90s or higher every day for the last 10 days. Ugh. Hard to get too excited about anything after 10 days inside. I’d never make it in a submarine.

During all the indoor time, I’ve done a lot of reading – or tried to. I’ve developed a habit of buying cheap digital books advertised on Bookbub. Some of them are worth reading, but many of them not. Earlier this week I had a run of 4-5 in a row that I just couldn’t finish reading. it’s hard for me to give up on a book, but as the years go by its gotten easier. My remaining time is more valuable. So I’m going to switch tactics and only acquire books from authors I know and love, with few exceptions.

Even that can backfire. I read a book yesterday by Peter Clines, The Fold, and the first half of the book was excellent. Amazing; couldn’t put it down. But the second half of the book was as if it had been written by someone else. The story veered away from pure science fiction into a chaotic Lovecraftian horror story, blood, monsters, and (weirdly) a little romance mixed in. I’d give the first half an A and the second half a C or D. Clines got a lot of great blurbs/reviews for this one, but for me only the first half worked.

As I consider going back and rewriting Lost Hope, my murder mystery on the Moon, I rediscovered this website where everything you ever wanted to know about the Moon and orbital mechanics lives. It’s a bit overwhelming.

Digby has a nice collection today of MAGA morons being interviewed. The lack of awareness, the hypocrisy, the utter stupidity is something to see. I wish there was a way to keep these mental midgets from voting, but nope. They “did their research” and left with completely false, dumb ideas about their Dear Leader. It’s depressing.