Bookshelf:

Hiking on Skyline Ridge

Playing a little catch-up. You can read my review of Tim Powers' Dinner at Deviant's Palace by clicking on the link to the left.

Also as noted left, I read Richard Paul Russo's Ship of Fools. This was a promising book of a wandering generation starship's internal struggles and how they're disrupted when they encounter a huge and seemingly dead alien spaceship. There's lots of good stuff in the early going: Interesting politics, a dead human colony, the mystery of the alien ship, and so forth. It all falls apart in the last quarter, as it seems clear that Russo doesn't really know what the alien ship is or what it's doing; it's all treated as a test or a foil for the humans, which is such an old, tired SF cliche (c.f. Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama with John E. Stith's Reckoning Infinity, to name two) it was nearly deserving of throwing the book across the room.

Russo is a capable writer, and he's striving to say something about humanity's spiritual or emotional nature in the humans' reactions to the ship, but yet another story about mysterious alien stuff which doesn't have a payoff explaining at least a few of the major mysteries just doesn't work. Give this one a pass.

Sunday Debbi and I went for a hike in the Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve. That is, we did once we got up to the ridge after being stuck behind a very slow driver on Page Mill Drive who apparently didn't understand the purpose of turnouts. Snore.

It was very warm, sunny, but largely pleasant. We hiked from Alpine Pond over to Horseshoe Lake, and once we got over the crest it cooled off considerably. Different wind currents, I think. Debbi chopped some strawberries and brought them with us in the backpack.

Many flowers are in full bloom this time of year, and we kept stopping to look at them. I took a number of photos which I hope to present here when I get around to loading and editing them. Mostly there were zillions of buttercups, but there are also lovely purples, blues, whites and yellows all along the ridge. And the grass is finally turning golden-brown, now that the rain is behind us.

Turns out the lizards were also out in full force; we saw dozens of them scampering out of our way on the trails. Lizard are pretty cute, actually. Though, as with baby snakes, I wouldn't want to live with one.

I estimate we hiked a little over 4 miles in 2 hours. Not a fast hike, but fun. I did develop a headache in the evening, which I suspect was due to heatstroke. I never do take good enough care of myself in that way. But, no harm done.

Then Sunday evening I got to pay most of my bills for the month. Oh, frabjous day. May wasn't a good month for my budget. But, well, it all evens out. Assuming I don't spend too much, of course.