Book: QNTM's "There Is No Antimemetics Division"

Book eight of the year was an odd one.  QNTM's "There is no Antimemetics Division" feels like a slightly disjointed collection of short stories that generate a complete, fleshed out storey of  war.

An antimeme is an idea that self censors.  As soon as you see/hear/sense it, you are unable to remember it.  We discover there are whole civilisations and wildlife that have evolved antimemetic camouflage that you forget about as soon as it is learned.  How do you fight a war when you don't even know it is happening?

The stories feel independent to some extent but the characters flow from one story to another.  What the characters know or not know changes as time passes.  The result is a fascinating telling of an original story.  Having said this, Doctor Who had a storyline about a race known as the Silence who you forget about as soon as they got out of sight i.e. antimemetic camouflage.

I gave this book a rare five stars out of five on Goodreads as it was well written and it felt very original.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Five - A Rainy Interlude

Day Eleven - 22 September

We'd hoped to get out of Wrexham early but there were no good train connections to our next destination, Stratford-upon-Avon, until noon.  This would get us in too late for the afternoon walking tours.

Holy Trinity church where Shakespeare is buried.

We arrived and took a taxi to our hotel.  Our travel agent which made most of the hotel reservations on this trip put us in a beautiful hotel on an old estate but it was way out in the boonies.  It cost us over $30 to taxi to it from Stratford-upon-Avon.  It was so remote we really couldn't do anything outside our hotel this evening.  It was still raining so walking around the estate was out as well.

Day Twelve - 23 September

Shakespeare.

We checked out of our country hotel and found a place in central Stratford where we could drop our luggage (thank you Stasher.com).  The place was just a four minute walk from where the morning walking tours started.  It was raining/drizzling but it really didn't slow us down.  Our tour (just us and a guide) walked us around historic Stratford-upon-Avon near where Shakespeare was born and educated.  We visited the church where he is buried and walked by the city theaters.  At the church, the old man collecting entrance fees to see Shakespeare's tomb asked where we were from and started talking about Carter Lake which is not far from where we live - small world.  At the end of the tour we ate at a cafe in one of the theaters and exited through the gift shop naturally.

We picked up our bags and took an Uber to the train station.  From there we took a couple trains to Oxford.  Like in Stratford-upon-Avon our hotel was out of the way in an old estate.  It was too late to do anything and it was pouring rain - we had to haul our bags through the rain to a second building (with many stairs).  We ate dinner in the hotel and decided that any tour of Oxford was out of the question.  We just didn't have the time.  Next time.

The next day we would be heading to a place many have not heard of and it turned out to be a magical place.  We would also be meeting with our friends from Stubbington again which made it all the better.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Book: M. R. Carey's "The Trials Of Koli"

I'm kind of behind in my book posts.  The seventh book of the year for me was the second Koli book: M. R. Carey's "The Trials of Koli".

The book continues the story of Koli, an exile from his home, traveling a future Britain to help save his dying civilization.  The story reads like a middle book of a trilogy which is what it is.  The action feels muted and everything feels transitional.

I wish there were more important things happening in this book.  Koli's story does move forward but at a slow pace.  The most important thing actually happened in the last chapter of the book.  This isn't a bad book but it was more meh than anything.

I gave this book four stars out of five on Goodreads as it wasn't a bad book, it moved Koli's story forward, and it kept my interest.

Weekly Ephemera #117

• One of the Wife's cousins (once removed) tragically passed away this week.  This Autumn is turning into a sad season. The Wife will be going to her memorial in Texas later this week.
• We will be having family visit near the end of the week.  The Wife and I will be checking out the new bed as our guests will sleep in ours.
• I had a CT scan on Friday to check on a kidney stone that was detected after my surgery earlier this year.  The stone is non-obstructive and I have an appointment with my (new) urologist early next year to see how I should proceed.
• I walked twice this week for a total of 25.9 miles (41.6 km).  One of those walks was the longest since the Wife's Camino in May 2023.  My body is recovering faster which is progress though my legs continue to feel it for days afterwards.  Not sure how much of this is overexertion and how much of this is age.
• On the television front I've been watching ... well there's no nice way to describe it but crap.  The kind of crap that allows your brain to just tune out.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Four - Are You Ready For Some Futball!?!

Day Nine - 20 September

Today was going to be our most complex travel schedule  involving Uber, taxis, three trains, and our first tube ride.  The Uber picked us up outside Saint James Church in Cooling and dropped us at the Chatham train station.  Here the Wife did her good deed of the day by giving some money to a lady you was trying to get her son to school.  The guard at the turnstile was being a raging dickhead.  The lady got her young son on the train and was kind enough to give us the change she got back after buying the ticket.  (I admit I thought she was scamming but the return of the change proved me wrong.)

The first train took us to London.  From there we had to take the tube to another station.  It took me awhile to figure out the tube map (they really needed an information person there).  We got on the tube with our massive luggage and made the one stop trip to the next station without issue.  Our second and third trains went without a hitch and we took a taxi from the Wrexham train station to our hotel.

Wrexham Mural from TV.

While checking in we discovered that the Wrexham AFC (Association Football Club) store closed in about twenty minutes and it was a fifteen minute walk.  We dumped our bags in our room and headed out.  Google maps, ofc, steered us the wrong way - operator error most likely.  We ran into a young man - a college student I presume - and he pointed us in the right direction and walked with us most of the way.  A nice fellow.  We arrived at the store with a few minutes to spare and bought some Wrexham AFC merch.

For those who are not acquainted with Wrexham Futball, you should try to watch "Welcome to Wrexham" to catch up.  We stopped at the Turf Pub next to the Racecourse stadium for a pint and diet coke.  The Wife got a picture with the pub owner who has appeared in the show.  They seemed to be filming something for the upcoming season here.  Unfortunately the Wife or I are probably not in the background.  From the pub we walked to a mural seen in the show before returning to our hotel.

Day Ten - 21 September

Miner's lamp.

We put on our Wrexham kit and went to breakfast.  Turns out the opposing team was staying at our hotel. The Wife humorously confronted a couple in opposing colors.  We all smiled without starting a fight.

We walked to the stadium and went to the new Fan Zone that was recently added and was included with our tickets.  We got some drinks, listened to some music, and chatted with the locals.  One guy, a retired miner from Wrexham, was carrying a miners lamp.  Turns out today was the day before the ninetieth anniversary of the Gresford mining disaster.  The wife was checking out the line to the special appearances (players would show up to get pictures taken).  While she was gone I was chatting with the miner.  He asked where I was from and what was my Wife's name and stuff like that.  When the wife came back he said hello to her by name and asked about Nebraska.  The Wife was all WTF?!?  He was a funny guy and everyone we met in Wrexham were friendly.

The Futball match was fun.  The wrexham fans are a rowdy bunch and songs were sung throughout the entire match.  Wrexham won 2-1.  In the last fifteen minutes of the game it started to rain.  During the last minute or two the skies opened up.  The Wife and I had our raincoats on as we walked back to our hotel through what we would call 'a gully washer' back home.  Up until now we'd had near perfect weather.  This rain would mark a change in our weather luck.

The first goal of the day - Wrexham of course.

The next day we would leave for a more Shakespearean destination.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Great Britain 2024 - Part Three - Champing

Day Seven (cont.) - 18 September

We arrived in Rochester and taxied to our hotel the Ship and Trades in nearby Chatham.  The fifteen room hotel sits on the waterfront with views of the marina.  The rooms are above a pub with outdoor seating.  It was a very nice setting.  We spent time outside eating, drinking, and, after talking to the front desk staff about transportation options, arranging our transportation for the next couple of days - Rochester/Chatham have Uber.

The view out our window at the Ship and Trades.

Day Eight - 19 September

Rochester Cathedral.

We ordered an Uber and went to the Rochester Cathedral.  In the cathedral we were met by a docent who was half history scholar and half comedian.  He was hilarious.  (To get the idea about the caliber of his humour: He pointed at something across the room and asked "Do you know what this is?"  When we said we didn't know he said "It's my finger." - non-stop dad jokes)  We walked around the church and went down to have lunch in the crypt ... yes there was a snack bar in the cathedral crypt.

We walked from the cathedral to Rochester castle located on a hill overlooking the cathedral and city.  The castle is hollow, the wooden floors between levels long gone.  We climbed the stairs to each level until we reached the top.  We admired the view before returning down the stairs and exited through the gift shop.

We took a taxi back to the Ship and Trades where we checked out and had some drinks at the pub.  An Uber picked us up and took us to the nearby town of Cooling.  We'd expected it to be a long drive out in the country but, while it felt like it was out in the middle of nowhere, it turned out to be a fifteen minute Uber drive.  We were dropped off at the Saint James church where we would be spending the night.  In the graveyard surrounding the church there is a cluster of children's graves.  This church and these graves were one of the inspirations for Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations".

Inside the Rochester castle.

This night we would be champing - CHurch cAMPING.  There are around twenty-four retired churches no longer being used.  The churches are maintained/renovated by the Churches Conservation Trust.  They pay for the maintenance by renting them out for the night.  It is a popular cycling tour from church to church.

I expected someone to meet us but we were alone when we arrived.  There was an outhouse next to the church entrance.  We used the code from an email to open the outhouse and another code to retrieve the church key from a lockbox inside.  We put our bags in the church next to the camp cots we would sleep on, locked the door with the key (the key was big enough to be a deadly weapon), and walked the block or so to the village pub - the Horseshoe and Castle.

Saint James Church, Cooling, Kent, UK.

We made a reservation for dinner and went outside with drinks while we waited for our time.  We chatted with a local couple about traveling and champing until it was time to go inside for dinner.  The food was pretty good and the place had a nice lived in feeling.

We returned to the church and explored it.  The walls of the vestry were covered in shells, the symbol of Saint James (and on the Camino).  There was an organ but it could not be played.  We locked ourselves in and we went to bed expecting it to be cold overnight and it was chilly but we brought what we needed to keep warm (our sleeping bag liners and warm clothes).  I slept surprisingly well.

The next morning our Uber came and picked us up and dropped us at the train station.  Are you ready for some Futball?!?

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Time Moves On For All Of Us ... Again

Thirteen months ago we lost my Uncle Jimmy.  Two months ago my Mom passed away.  Just over a week ago we lost another wonderful person, my Aunt Betty (Uncle Jimmy's wife) passed away.  I always liked Betty.  She was such a nice person.  You can read about her life here.

I knew that, as I aged, there would be more people passing from my life but this has been a crazy twelve to thirteen months.

Aunt Betty's Memorial service is today.  May she be reunited with Jimmy.

Weekly Ephemera #116

This Weekly Ephemera post is coming out a day early as I will be busy on Sunday.

• I wrestled with our insurance company about our hail damage claim from July.  They still need to pay us for some of the damage and they are being less than responsive.  Very frustrating.
• We went out and bought a new bed for the guest room.  After some minor grilling of our British friends we discovered that the bed is terrible.  The Wife's experience sleeping on it when I had COVID was the nail in the coffin of the old bed.  This new mattress should be a bit more comfortable.  We would like to apologize to everyone who has ever slept on our guest bed and I hope you all come to visit and try out the new one sometime soon.
• I walked three times this week and I pushed for longer distances.  My legs are getting used to the eight to nine mile hikes but haven't quite gotten used to the over 10 mile (16 km) ones.  That will change with time.  My total distance this week was 29.3 miles (47.1 km) - the longest weekly distance since March.
• On the TV front I finished the second season of "Rings of Power".  I enjoyed it.  I started, and caught up on, "Agatha All Along" the latest Marvel tv show.

The Eleventh Caminoversary Of The End Of My Second Camino

Today marks eleven years since I completed my second Camino.  I still remember sitting on the rocks and watching the sun go down.  At that time I doubted I would walk it again but now we are planning to go back to finish the Wife's Camino.

Originally we were to walk about three weeks this year and another two or three in 2025 to finish it. Circumstances got in the way this year so the Wife and I are now thinking about finishing it all next Summer.  It all depends on how the Wife's feet behave.  We are both getting older and we both think we need to get it done sooner than later.

I can't wait to see the sunset over the Atlantic once again ... this time with the Wife at my side. 

Great Britain 2024 - Part Two - Another Friend, Cliffs, and A Bit Of English Literature

Day Five - 16 September

Our friends N_k and J_n dropped us off at the train station not far from their home and we headed east to Brighton.  We took a cab from the train station to our harbor front hotel where the Social Democratic party was holding some sort of get together.

We walked to a restaurant where we met with another friend who we'd met on the Camino in 2023.  E_a was one of the first people we met  at the start of our Camino but, since she had a deadline, ended up walking a bit faster than us and, unlike the Wife and I, had finished the whole thing.  That's a good thing for her since she didn't miss her boyfriend's proposal in front of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.  Still, in the few days from our first albergue we'd stayed at to just before Puente La Reina, we still managed to overlap our stages with hers and a friendship was formed.  That's what it's like on the Camino - friendships form quickly.

We had a great lunch and reminisced about the Camino.  E_a told us she felt like her Camino wasn't finished.  This is interesting since mine felt incomplete after my first one too.  I told her about how I'd felt and how my second Camino had finally brought some closure to me.  We invited her (and her now fiance) to join us next year when the Wife and I went back to continue out Camino.  She said she would consider it.

The Brighton Royal Pavilion.

After lunch E_a walked us to the Royal Pavilion.  As we approached we were joined by E_a's fiance who had managed to get out of a meeting in time to say hello.  He seemed keen on the Camino idea.

We visited the opulent Pavilion which was built for George IV when he was only a prince.  It was opulent like many of the royal residences we would visit around Britain.

Day Six - 17 September

We left Brighton on the train and headed for Dover.  Our original plan was to stop along the way in Canterbury to visit the cathedral but we couldn't figure out what to do with our luggage (it was heavy with three weeks worth of clothes).  911 has put a damper on lockers in train stations and the like.  Instead we went straight to Dover.

The white cliffs of Dover.

After checking into our hotel we took a taxi to the Cliffs of Dover national trust (the national trust is the UK equivalent of the national park service in the US).  We walked along the cliffs and got some nice views from a few viewpoints.  You could take boats out to get better views of the cliffs but their season ended in August and were no longer available.

Back at the gift shop I tried to call a taxi but my phone thought I was in France and I couldn't understand the error message I was getting.  Fortunately the person at the gift shop counter helped us by making the call for us.

Day Seven - 18 September

There was only one place else in Dover to see - the Dover Castle.  After considering our options we decided to take another crack at Canterbury first.  We left our bags at the hotel and took the train to Canterbury.

Inside the Canterbury Cathedral.

It was a short train ride and a short walk to the cathedral from the train station.  We took a tour of the cathedral and its gardens.  Unfortunately there was a graduation ceremony in the nave of the cathedral so we couldn't go in that part.  As compensation the tour opened up a couple places normally closed to visitors.

The Dover castle ... maybe next time.

We trained back to Dover and, after very little thought, decided to skip the castle and take an earlier train to our next destination.  We ate lunch at the hotel, called a taxi (Dover is a major cruise ship port so the wait for taxis was significant), and headed back to the train station.

Our next destination was Rochester.  Not far from there we would be doing something relatively strange.  We would be Champing.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Great Britain 2024 - Part One- Getting There And Visiting With Friends

We took a Lyft to the airport and caught our afternoon flight, via Denver, to London.  We were going to be picked up by friends so we picked flights that would get us there shortly after noon.  Our friends N_k and J_n, who we met on our Amazon Cruise in 2016, picked us up at Heathrow and took us to their home in Stubbington.  We would be spending a few days with them as they showed us around their part of southern England.

Days Zero and One - 11 and 12 September

I'm not sure about the Wife but I didn't sleep much on the flight despite it being a red eye from Denver to London.  I was a bit tired but uplifted a bit by the adrenaline that often comes with traveling to a new part of the world.  Not much was planned for this first partial day and I was grateful for that.  We mostly talked and caught up on things.  We got some needed movement in with a short trip to our host's favorite beach where the conversations continued while we stretched our legs.

Spinnaker Tower.

We had a home cooked meal and chatted until my adrenaline finally faded and I excused myself and went to bed early.

Day Two - 13 September

After a lazy morning we drove/ferried to Portsmouth where we walked around the harbor and explored the history of the city.  We saw Spinnaker Tower, walked along the Portsmouth city wall along Hotwalls Beach to the Round Tower, and ate lunch at a pub overlooking the harbour.

That evening we were joined by the host's daughter for another excellent home cooked meal and more interesting conversation.

Day Three - 14 September

We left Stubbington and we drove to Stonehenge.  We got there as it was opening.  The weather was crisp but the skies were blue with fluffy clouds.  Perfect weather.  We ate a snack at the visitor's center and then walked across the cow pastures to see the famous megalithic stones.  Despite all the people it was easy to get good pictures as we walked around the structure.  It was pretty cool.

Stonehenge ... the stone points toward the solstice.

We took a bus back to the visitor's center, did some shopping as we exited through the gift shop, and drove to our next destination, Bath.

Our hosts had picked a nice hotel in a good location.  Everything was within walking distance.  By coincidence there was a Jane Austen festival going on - an annual affair in Bath.  As we walked through the street women and men (mostly women) in period costume were roaming the streets.  There were so many you could forget it was 2024 at times.

Pulteney Bridge.

We visited the Bath Abbey, admired the architecture of the Circus and Pulteney Bridge, and had a pint or two (diet coke for me) at a pub (or two).

Day Four - 15 September

We toured the namesake of Bath, the Roman Baths.  It was an interesting part of British history.  I always forget the Romans were once there.  They don't allow you to even touch the water in the pools.  This was due to deadly bacteria that once killed a girl back when they allowed swimming in the baths.

The Roman baths.

We returned to Stubbington.  The drive to Stonehenge and Bath gave us a good idea of the British countryside.  It's nice to see things other than cities.  We had our last excellent home cooked meal in Britain.  Visiting with friends was the best way to begin our Great Britain travels.  It was a nice  way to ease into it.

Tomorrow we would be leaving on a train to our next destination.  This would be the first of twenty trains we would take around Britain.  Onward to Brighton and points east.

Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.

Weekly Ephemera #115

• 
  We received our ballots for the upcoming election in the mail this week.  We filled them out on Friday and I dropped them in the  ballot drop box yesterday.  Nebraska is one of two states that divide their electoral votes by how the political districts vote.  The district where Omaha is located is known as the blue dot as, in past elections, it often goes to the Democrats.  The rest of Nebraska is as red - i.e. Republican - as they come.  There are scenarios where the Democrats win the presidency by one electoral votes - Nebraska's blue dot - but I hope it doesn't come down to one district in the middle of the country.
• I resumed walking this week.  I walked three times totalling 26.3 miles (42.3 km) so I walked a very slow, five day long marathon.  I'm happy that I was able to restart so easily.  Now I just need to do this next week ... and the next  ... and the next.
• I started to watch the second season of "Rings of Power" on Prime.  It's interesting even though the Lord of the Rings books have never really interested me very much.
• We will be have our first frost/freeze over the next few days.  Glad to see Fall finally arriving.  We brought our plants in today and I'll be turning on the furnace (it was checked out earlier this week and everything is working per specifications) later tonight.
• The first Great Britain post will drop tomorrow.

Weekly Ephemera #114 - Post Travel Recovery

• It's been nearly forty-eight hours since we got back from our Great Britain trip and I think I'm starting to recover.  I keep waking up around 4am but that will change with time.
• Our trip was fun.  We only had a couple deviations from our original plan I listed here.  We saw and did a lot over the twenty-four days of our trip.  It was odd to be in an English speaking country for once.  I expect to start documenting our travels later this week.  I have to look at all the pictures the Wife and I took and I need to draft the posts.
• I haven't maintained my low carb diet as I traveled so the next few days will be consisting of trying to walk off some of the carbs and detoxing my diet.  I hope to continue my walking where I left off before our trip.  Fortunately we did a lot of walking on our trip including some six to eight hour walking tours and walking around several of the cities we visited.  I didn't keep track of how far we walked but there were a few days with multi-mile hikes.
• This week will be full of catch-up.  While Fall weather really hasn't kicked in yet I need to start prepping for winter.  Our furnace needs to be inspected.  Sprinklers need to be blown out.  Sadly, I am still wrangling with the insurance company about the hail damage from July and that wrangling will restart this week.  Homeowner life goes on.