Attacked by a stick

On the way home on Monday, the wind was strong enough that at one point it picked up a stick and blew it into my rear wheel. The spokes carried it along until it hit the fender stay, where it bent the stays on both sides, then tore the stay loose from the fender and shattered the back 10 inches or so of the fender.

It didn't really cause me any trouble, other than "what the hell was THAT noise?" as the plastic scrunched and the studs dug into the fender. I stopped and saw a hunk of plastic bouncing along behind me.

Guess I'll be putting a new set of fenders on my next order from somewhere. Wonder if Alfred E Bike is still doing free shipping?

Note the ridiculous quantity of salt on the tire. I've actually said from time to time that I'm surprised people don't slip and fall on the SALT in our parking lot - rock salt can get slippery since it can roll underfoot.

Book list, 2nd half of 2008

Back on July 2nd, I listed the books I read in the first half of the year. Here are the books I've finished since then.

Audiobooks:

• Lords & Ladies (Pratchett)
  
• The Sea & Little Fishes (Pratchett)
  
• Asteroid War series: The Precipice / The Rock Rats / The Silent War / Aftermath (Bova)
  
• Honor Harrington series: On Basilisk Station / The Honor of the Queen / The Short Victorious War / Field of Dishonor / Flag in Exile / Once A Hero / Honor Among Enemies / In Enemy Hands / Rules of Engagement / Echoes of Honor / Ashes of Victory / War of Honor / At All Costs / Crown of Slaves
  
• (OMW #2,3) The Ghost Brigades / The Last Colony (Scalzi)
  
• Barsoom: A Princess of Mars / The Gods of Mars / Warlord of Mars / Thuvia, Maid of Mars (Burroughs)
  
• Orion (Bova)
  

Audio lectures:

• Science in the 20th Century - A Social-Intellectual Survey
  
• A History of St Patrick
  
• Science Fiction - The Literature of the Technological Imagination
  
• Search for Intelligent Life in Space
  

Print (ebook)

• Winning Colors / Change of Command / Against the Odds (Moon)
  
• His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass / The Subtle Knife / The Amber Spyglass
  
• Rainbow's End (Vinge)
  
• 1984 (Orwell)
  
• The Lost Colony / The Time Paradox (Colfer)
  
• Seventh Son / Red Prophet (Card)
  
• The Graveyard Book (Gaiman)

No dead trees this time around.

Totals Jan-Jun:
Audiobooks: 26
Print: 10 (2 on paper)
All: 36

Totals Jul-Dec:
Audiobooks: 27
Lectures: 4
Print: 13
all: 44

Total for 2008: 80

That's probably pretty skimpy for a lot of you, but it's frankly astounding for me. I've gone entire years without reading a single book, in the last 10 years. I decided this was shameful, and resolved to turn that around. While I have gotten really into a few series in the last 18 months and racked up a lot of books in those series, I've done some work on expanding the field a bit, and I'm generally pretty happy that I've read a few books in genres that I've not historically been much into.

One of the Weber books was co-written by Eric Flint - I may check out some of his alternate history books. I'm honestly completely ghastly at history - I am interested to read about it but I seem to be completely incapable of retaining any of it, dates, names, or sequences of events.

I've generally been pretty put off by most fantasy, but I think I might give a few of the major series a try next year.

end of year total

Bike odometer: 16202 miles
Jan 1 2008: Bike odometer 12,541 miles

2008 total: 3661 miles
2007 total was 3726 miles
That's probably about right; I've driven to work or worked from home another handful of days more this year than last.