Squirrels. Cars. Books!

[mckitterick]

First up, I want to tell everyone that Summit Racing is awesome. I spent a couple days last week working on removing the rear suspension setup for the Chevelle in preparation for installing modern, awesome-handling parts. Full write-up with photos here. Summmit comes in because I noticed I was missing something. See this photo:



You probably noticed that there's no new lower control-arm in this photo side-by-side with the old one, like with the upper control-arm and the cross-brace. You'd be right. I also noticed this. But not right away; instead, I only noticed when I was setting up this shot, six months after ordering the parts... and failing to notice back then. Oops. A few emails and some calls with Summit Racing resolved the problem, which was that the manufacturer simply failed to ship them! Now they're on their way, and Summit is even reimbursing me the $40 price-drop since when I ordered the parts. I love Summit! Not only do they have great selection and prices, but their customer service rocks.

Next: You know I love my squirrels. Here's Spot, one of my "outdoor pets," a charming and clever fellow who has taught me to feed him whenever he's hungry. How? By getting my attention like this. He's also fearless, and when I toss out a cup of seed, all the other squirrels run away. But not Spot. He gets dibs, so intelligence DOES equal higher survival fitness, at least in my back yard....

Finally, today is Hadley Rille Books' 7th anniversary, and they're celebrating with 99¢ Kindle and Nook e-books for a limited time! Hadley Rille's specialties are SF, fantasy, and archeological - check 'em out!

It's also publisher Eric Reynolds' birthday. As a gift to himself in 2005, he fulfilled a long-time dream of starting a publishing company with Golden Age SF: Tales of a Bygone Future, a fantastic collection of short fiction - and it's still available. This is one of the things I love about this publisher in particular but the small press in general: As long as there's still demand, the books remain in print. Because Eric is such a great guy and Hadley Rille is such a cool business, I went with him to publish my first novel - and several short stories in a variety of collections.

Not into e-books? Well, Hadley Rille offers even more great novels and collections in both trade-paper and hardcover. Books make great gifts. Just sayin'. For example:


Click the cover to see more about the book, links, sample chapters, and more.

Now it's back to grading. I seem to say that a lot. Friday will be an all-day The Galactic Adventures of Jack & Stella write-a-thon, and Saturday is slated for working on the Chevelle, at least for part of the day, and then maybe going to see the new "Life of Pi."

Chris

Comments

[jimvanpelt.livejournal.com]

My life seems to be grading. I feel your pain in the last paragraph.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Grading: The payment we make in order to be able to teach.

[ericreynolds.livejournal.com]

Great video of Spot. We also have an "outside pet" named Jeff, who is in hibernation now (at least I THINK it's in hibernation...). Spot and Jeff wouldn't want to meet since Jeff's a large rat snake that lives in the bushes by our front porch. We do like our outside pets.

Great words about Hadley Rille Books. Hm, I think I'll check 'em out.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Outside pets are much cheaper and easier than those who live indoors with us. I used to think they would also come with less heartbreak when they die, but I can now identify about four of our squirrels, and that means I'll be sad when they stop showing up. 'Course, it's easier to be in denial: "He just moved to a new neighborhood." Ahem.

[ericreynolds.livejournal.com]

"He just moved to a new neighborhood." Ahem.

Know what you mean. We hadn't seen Jeff for almost a year and were beginning to think s/he was a victim of the drought, but then there it was in October slithering across our front porch right in front of the door. Then back down into the bushes.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

One of the advantages of having moved to Fernley is that we are only 30 miles from Sparks, Nevada, which is Summit's west coast distribution center/retail store. So when Lisa needs a part for the Big Orange Van, it's something we can get the same day, rather than having to wait for shipping.

Icon LoVE!

[silverfae.livejournal.com]

Some of the most fun times of my 20-something years of married roughneck life were spent living in Fernley!

Re: Icon LoVE!

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Then you might know where I live: it's the sort of funny-looking house with a "granny hutch" on top of it on Front Street across from where the railroad depot used to be before it was moved over to US-95A.

Re: Icon LoVE!

[silverfae.livejournal.com]

It's been since the early/mid 80s when I lived there, but I think I do recall such a place. I'm sure it's all changed a lot since then. I lived in a double-wide back then, as the town wasn't keeping up with the needed housing from a geothermal boom (our reason for being there).

Re: Icon LoVE!

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, our house was built in the 1960s or earlier, we've been told. (We bought it right after Renovation, the 2011 Worldcon; if Worldcon hadn't been in Reno that year, we wouldn't have been able to attend, as we signed the papers the day after the convention at a title company a mile from the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.) It is down the street from the Celite plant in the Old Downtown. We're a couple blocks from where US-95A/50A turns south toward Yerrington at the center of Old Downtown.

You are of course welcome to have the icon if you want it. It's a picture of a sign that the city recently put up at the west entrance to the city after going under the railroad underpass on old US 40.

There are a number of photos of the area around us (including demolition of the old lumber yard on Front Street going on this week) in my LiveJournal, if you're interested.

Re: Icon LoVE!

[silverfae.livejournal.com]

I'll take a look at those, thanks!
We had some really nice friends in that town. A couple named Linda and Dorsey helped me through some rough times several years later, when I returned to the Reno area after a rough divorce. I'll always be thankful for my time spent with them.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

How convenient! Wow, that would be like living near the world's largest auto-parts store.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Lisa says, "Actually, that's in Ohio." Summit's main store is there, with Sparks being the regional distribution center, but it's still very convenient.

[hdsqrl.livejournal.com]

Ahhh!! Spot is ADORABLE. I'm thrilled he's found a kindred soul (who will share his food!) :D

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Isn't he, though? Today, I'm irritated that the bully squirrel has been chasing away the others, including Spot. It even chased off a Blue Jay - squirrels don't usually pay any attention to birds!