Shotgun City

I mentioned the pit bull episode, but I forgot to mention the gunshots around my Mom's house the last few nights. Tuesday night it was a shotgun (she found one of the shells in the street) and tonight it was more, down on the corner apparently. 'Down on the corner' on Lincoln St. is Waterloo's all night pharmacy, if you know what I mean. There's been too much violence here in town, murders upon murders (one of a young woman in the house right behind my mom's) and it scares the hell out of me. I've been telling her for a long time to get out of the neighborhood, and I think she wants to.

Despite finding a new problem every time they fix one, NASA OK'd Discovery to come back next week. I wish I were there to see it, because I believe it will be the last landing of a space shuttle, ever. I wish - hope - it were different, but the reality is that NASA cannot gurantee the safety of the orbiter, relative to foam-shed, and thus it would be thoughtless to send up any more.

I got back to the Angel Book tonight, after gathering a little research. I'm still frustrated with what little I've found on 14th century Ireland, but the fact is there isn't much because little survived from that period (Black Death took care of that). There is material out there, though, and I'd like to get at that, but it's not crucial to the book, so I'm moving on. I'm happy with this chapter, Chapter Six; any time you can go from a church in small town Iowa to 14th century Ireland, to 1920's Dresden and back (with time for tea with Audrey Hepburn) it's got to be fun. It may be schizo as hell, but it will be fun.

And proving that there is at least some justice in the world, CNN sent Douche Bag For Justice Robert Novak packing.

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