Now that I'm (mostly) keeping track of what I read through Goodreads, I'm going to steal borrow the_other_sandy's annual list of works read. I adjusted the categories to match the types of materials I read, however, and I left off the page counts.

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Our cat Keke has been battling kidney problems for well over a year now. Last weekend, she developed an abscess that brought on more problems. If she had been in better health, we would have had more options. However, without being able to anesthetize her, there wasn't much the vet could do. Rather than making her suffer longer, we had her put to sleep yesterday. awfulhorrid has more information on his LJ.

When we adopted Keke, she was already past her prime, but we fell in love and wanted to give her a chance at a good home for as long as we could. She graciously allowed us to spoil for a little over three years, with awfulhorrid as her primary person and me as the emergency backup human. We both miss her, but we're glad for the time we had with her.

For our summer reading club, my library is doing bingo cards. Each square has a different book-, library-, or technology-related task. We get raffle entries for completing book-related tasks, getting five squares in a row, and completing the whole card. I'm having fun with it, and I'll probably get through most of the squares easily.

Unfortunately for me, one of the tasks is "Like the library on Facebook!" I thought that I wouldn't be able to finish the card because I'm not willing to sign up for Facebook just to mark off a square on my bingo card. :< However, the head of reference said that I could ask a friend to like the library on my behalf. Would any of you be willing to do that for me? The Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/WaukeganLibrary. (tarrestrial said that she would send invites on Facebook, too. Thanks!)

For a sociology class, awfulhorrid's group is doing a survey on language use. The survey is available here. It's open to anyone who wants to participate. They're trying to get a broad response set, so please spread the word, too.

Yesterday, a semi backed into my car. Both drivers are fine; the semi is fine; my car is currently at the shop.

I was driving home from work, running later than normal, so it was right at sunset. Both vehicles were heading west towards a T intersection, with a Citgo gas station / truck stop on the right. We were both in the right-turn lane. I was planning to turn right at the T; it turns out that the semi driver was planning to turn into the Citgo. We both came to a full stop. Then the semi started backing up. I was honking my horn, trying to get the driver's attention, and he just backed right into the front of my car. When the semi started moving forward again, it pulled into the Citgo, and I followed to find out what the heck had happened. The driver claimed that he stopped to see where the curb was to turn into the Citgo, that he never backed up, and that he had video to prove it.

Fortunately for me, the local sheriff who pulled up a few minutes later to handle the accident had seen it and knew that the driver was lying.

I took today off from work to deal with insurance and auto repairs. The nice people at Allstate have been very helpful, and I was able to drop off my car at an auto-body shop and get a rental this afternoon. Other than the accident itself, there have just been two downsides (so far). One is that when we were going over my car at the auto-body shop, marking what was damage from the accident and what was pre-existing stuff, we found damage that I can't account for. The semi backed straight into my car -- all of the damage that I knew was from the accident was to the front bumper, hood, grill, etc. (It was still ok to drive, thankfully.) However, the back driver's-side corner was badly scraped up. I don't remember the damage being there before the accident, but I know that the semi didn't cause it. It's possible that another car was behind mine and clipped me getting away from the craziness. I don't remember one, but I was pretty focused on Semi Backing Into Me. I'm going to call the Allstate agent handling the claim, but I suspect that they're going to say that it wasn't included in the accident report so it's not part of the accident.

The other problem is the rental car. I had expected to get a Speck. However, Enterprise was low on cars, so they upgraded me. It's a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's freaking huge. Going from my nice Honda Civic sedan to this is making my head swim. I feel like I need a step-stool to get in and out of it. I shudder at the thought of its mileage. If I'm going to need a rental car past the weekend, I'm tempted to call Enterprise and ask if I can downgrade again.

So that's been my excitement for the week. (Really, that's enough excitement, thanks!) I've been remarkably lucky on a lot of it, but now I'm ready for that "rewind to exactly the way everything was before the accident" that they show in commercials.

I'm participating in National Readathon Day on January 24, 2015. Reading is an important part of my life -- it connects me to both history and the future; it lets me travel the earth, the oceans, the skies, and even other planets. I can't imagine not being able to read, but 40% of American adults are either at or below basic reading proficiency, and 14% are fully illiterate.

Through the readathon, I'm joining people across the country in supporting the National Book Foundation and its efforts to educate, tutor, and create and sustain a lifelong love of reading. Since I'll be at a friend's party that day, I'm also joining several friends in reading great books!

If you would like to support me during the readathon, you can donate to the National Book Foundation through my First Giving page. If you would like to participate, it's easy to join or host an event. Whatever you do, remember to take time to read!

Thank you very much for your messages and support!

Dad's memorial service has been set for October 11 (Saturday) at 2pm. It will be held at Wesley United Methodist Church in Elgin, with reminiscing to follow in the church fellowship hall. There won't be a visitation; he's being cremated.

The address for the church is:
Wesley United Methodist Church
1070 South Street
Elgin, IL 60123

My dad died in a plane accident Sunday night. Mom called early Monday morning, and awfulhorrid and I spent most of the day in Elgin helping to figure out what needed to be done. We're all still kind of in shock; I'm not sure how much it has really sunk in that Dad is gone.

If you're in the Chicago area, you may have read something about the accident in the newspapers or online. Most of the family is avoiding the news coverage. My brother-in-law is acting as a buffer, passing along information that he thinks we should or would want to have.

We don't know a lot of details, beyond the fact that the small plane Dad was flying crashed around 8pm on Sunday. Fortunately, it was in a field, not far from the Aurora airport. No one else was hurt. Dad was flying home from visiting his older brother in Carlinville (outside of Springfield, IL), and he was planning to land at the Aurora airport. He was an experienced pilot and had made this trip many times.

We're still working on plans for the memorial service, but we should have a date set in the next couple of days. I'll post more information when I have it.

I appreciate any well-wishes and questions, but please understand that I may not have time/energy to respond for several days. I'm probably going to be out of the house quite a bit over the next few days, so don't worry if you have trouble reaching me. I have support, and I'm doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances.

It's ok to share this information with other friends.

Lee and Low Books is doing a series of reports about diversity in their blog. They have looked at children's books, US politics, the Emmy Awards, and more. The latest post is on diversity in popular science fiction and fantasy movies.

Apparently, Hollywood thinks people are more likely to believe in aliens and magic than Hispanic and gay heroes. I wonder how many of even the movies that have female protagonists would pass the Bechdel Test.

I know that minority representation is also an issue in science fiction and fantasy books, and in fandom, but I don't think it is as extreme there as it is in blockbuster movies. Also, writers, publishers, and fans are talking about the need for more diversity in print sff, which is a big first step. I don't have a great solution or recommendations that will bring sweeping reforms, but I do want to spread the word and make sure people are thinking about this.

This is the last day of National Poetry Month. Thank you for joining me for a poem every weekday! I had fun, and I hope you did, too.

Today's poem is Puck's ending monologue from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

You can read it ( behind the cut-tag.Collapse )