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Vets of Fire
Oct. 15th, 2015 08:11 pmThis evening, I scratched a longstanding itch. I went online and ordered e-books of the first three (out of five) of James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" series.
I originally read the books in their British editions; they were slim volumes with titles like It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet and Vets in Harness. (I bought them during my first trip to UK, back in 1978. They vanished during one of my parents' moves; I had left them there while I was in grad school.) The USAn editions consolidated them into five fat volumes, the first four of which took their titles from a hymn. Every so often, the idea of getting new copies and rereading them has occurred to me, and I finally acted on it.
I also bought a few more e-volumes of the Ring of Fire series, getting caught up (at least as far as the novels are concerned; ain't no catching up with the Gazette volumes). A Vogues album ("Five O'Clock World" was the attractor) and first-season DVDs of "The West Wing" rounded off the order. (I saw a handful of late-season episodes of TWW and enjoyed them, so I'd like to go back to the beginning and see the whole thing. "LA Law" and "The X-Files" are also on the to-get list, although I probably won't get the last few - post-Hamlin - seasons of the former.)
Otherwise, the status is quo. My calculus and advanced geometry courses are proceeding apace; I've got two Senior Project students - one working on the Simson line construction, in triangle geometry, and the other on the Sylow theorems, which are major mid-level tools in understanding the structure of finite groups. (This is group theory, not to be confused with group therapy....;-)) The dogs are well; Buster has rediscovered one of his squeaky-toys, and has been rambuncting, a lot. As the icon suggests, I've begun growing my winter pelt - rather early, but we had a cold snap a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to go ahead with it. The "pork pot roast" has turned out to be good, but not great; the flavors took two or three days to meld, and the Brie doesn't really sit well with the rest of the components.
Meanwhile, the state is still screwing us over; our health insurance provider does not presently have authorization to spend money, and as a result many health providers are asking for cash on the barrelhead from state employees.
Ah, well. I'll survive - as long as I don't, y'know, get sick or anything.
I originally read the books in their British editions; they were slim volumes with titles like It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet and Vets in Harness. (I bought them during my first trip to UK, back in 1978. They vanished during one of my parents' moves; I had left them there while I was in grad school.) The USAn editions consolidated them into five fat volumes, the first four of which took their titles from a hymn. Every so often, the idea of getting new copies and rereading them has occurred to me, and I finally acted on it.
I also bought a few more e-volumes of the Ring of Fire series, getting caught up (at least as far as the novels are concerned; ain't no catching up with the Gazette volumes). A Vogues album ("Five O'Clock World" was the attractor) and first-season DVDs of "The West Wing" rounded off the order. (I saw a handful of late-season episodes of TWW and enjoyed them, so I'd like to go back to the beginning and see the whole thing. "LA Law" and "The X-Files" are also on the to-get list, although I probably won't get the last few - post-Hamlin - seasons of the former.)
Otherwise, the status is quo. My calculus and advanced geometry courses are proceeding apace; I've got two Senior Project students - one working on the Simson line construction, in triangle geometry, and the other on the Sylow theorems, which are major mid-level tools in understanding the structure of finite groups. (This is group theory, not to be confused with group therapy....;-)) The dogs are well; Buster has rediscovered one of his squeaky-toys, and has been rambuncting, a lot. As the icon suggests, I've begun growing my winter pelt - rather early, but we had a cold snap a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to go ahead with it. The "pork pot roast" has turned out to be good, but not great; the flavors took two or three days to meld, and the Brie doesn't really sit well with the rest of the components.
Meanwhile, the state is still screwing us over; our health insurance provider does not presently have authorization to spend money, and as a result many health providers are asking for cash on the barrelhead from state employees.
Ah, well. I'll survive - as long as I don't, y'know, get sick or anything.
