I got the estimate from the contractor and we're going to...

I got the estimate from the contractor and we're going to go ahead with the work, so the house's inevitable collapse is postponed. Yay! I'm still sick, but not too sick. Mostly sore throat, no fever or anything else. :knock on wood:

I mentioned Chesterton in this post because there is a Father Brown story I read ages ago that had an old decomposing house on the edge of a beach cliff, crumbling away, and all the people inside are terribly oppressed by the atmosphere of the house. They invite Father Brown to dinner, and explain about the psychic oppression, doom-filled miasma, etc, and ask Father Brown what he thinks. And he tells them (paraphrased) "Get out of the freaking house! What is WRONG with you people?" At least that's how I remember it and I like my version better.


Scott Cupp said very nice things about me on a forgotten book post on Missions Unknown: The Element of Fire by Martha Wells


NPR: Astronaut's Brother Recalls A Man Who Dreamed Big about Ron McNair. I was in college when this happened, at Texas A&M. I vividly remember walking into Rumors, a little lunch place under the back stairs of the Memorial Student Center, and seeing everyone just staring silently at the TV and knowing something really bad had happened.