Tornado, Castle and Fan Fiction

 Good morning, Don.

We are in the middle of Memorial Day weekend and we are currently experiencing weather. We spent about 30 minutes last night sitting in the hallway as a tornado bounced over us. While we were sitting there in the dark, we started remembering other similar experiences but not in Colorado. 

We spent seven years in the Ohio Valley, and our first spring there was an introduction to floods, torrential rain, and 45 days without the sun. It was the 45 days without the sun that really got to us. That was back before physicians decided that most of North America was vitamin D deficient. Truth be known, we moved back to Colorado for the good weather. We've had five days now torrential rain and tornado warnings. I think we are watching the weather climate change right before our eyes.

Don, I never thought of you as a gearhead. I do remember watching the Indianapolis 500 race several times on TV and one of my favorite ministers actually got her wish to go see the 500 race a couple years ago. Her comment was that it was fast and loud. I was tickled to hear that you are able to get out on your motorcycle. Was your son able to join you?

I love what Ontario has done to the election process! To not be able to advertise until the last three weeks of the election is a stroke of genius. I get so tired of the months on end of political slandering that goes on before an election. If I only had to put up with it for three weeks, I think my attitude would be a lot better. By the time we get around to the election here, I really don't care about any of the candidates or what they stand for; I just want to go away.

I wish I could say that I was really as active as you think I am. I'm not getting anywhere near as much exercise as I think I should. I'm not walking as much and I'm definitely not running; I am trying to at least clock some time on the stationary bike. I think that as the weather settles down, I'll be able to get out more. I envy you being able to swim in a saltwater pool. It seems to me that would make the swimming experience so much better than being overwhelmed by all of the chlorine that is in the water in our pools. I also have to admit that I don't like swimming in the summer. I know, that's when it's hot, swimming would be refreshing, …  I love swimming in the wintertime. I think I've described it before; being able to swim, have the steam come off the water, and watch it snow. There's nothing quite as relaxing as that experience.

We took time out yesterday to go to a real bookstore. And it was a grand adventure. My husband got a book on the history of cars – so you're talking about cars Don, was really interesting. Larry talked about some of the models that only had 700 cars made. Now we understand why we didn't see some of those models. 

I got a book called the Uncommon History of Common Things by National Geographic. 

Fantastic! It gives the history of things like the zipper, buttons, tents and where treehouses come from; how we got swimming pools; that the attic is really from the 17^th century. It covers symbols like birthday cakes and toasting, how did we got the diploma; superstitions like black cats and four leaf clovers. 

I think I'm going to use a lot of the topics in this book for the research project for my Composition One classes. A student draws a topic out of an envelope and then they have to write a 1 to 2 page research on that topic. It is not a topic of their choice – I explain the boss and the client want the information whether the student is interested in the topic or not. As they only have a week to do the research and the writing, it gives them a taste of writing on the job. It also gives them a good taste of documentation.

Over the last couple of months, we have become avid watchers of a program called Castle. While we were at the bookstore, we discovered that there are fan books that are written by the main character of the program who happens to be an action mystery writer. The premise of the program is that a writer hooks up

with the New York Police Department and uses one of the detectives as his latest inspiration. The fan books are the books that the writer wrote using the detective as his main character. The books are a lot of fun. We discovered that there is also a Manga book out based on a character the writer killed off before he started working with the Police Department. Fanfiction is amazing! I did not realize that fanfiction was such a big genre.

Riddle cave! Okay, I'll give you the magnetism riddle – and I'm well aware of your pun. The sports one, however, I don't think so. Thank you for saying that it was not one of your best. And you are correct, sunflowers are the answer to my last riddle.

My guess for your riddle this week is libraries.

I don't have a riddle this week – I've been so busy grading and working on the HLC report that I haven't taken the time to work on my words. I'm also starting the process to get Transport 32 ready which will be out in a couple of weeks. So I think I'm going to pass this week.

Have a great week everyone!

Carolyn

All images downloaded from Google Images

Fig 1 – Lightning and Tornado retrieved from tornado-facts.com

Fig 2 – Gearhead stories photo 4 retrieved from www.carcraft.com

Fig 3 – Man passes sign in bookstore window retrieved from www.condenaststore.com

Fig 4— Truth about Hammock camping retrieved from theultimatehang.com

Fig 5 – Treehouses – downloaded from Google Images

Fig 6 – Castle retrieved from Fond d'cran-wallpapers retrieved from www.fond-gratuit.com