It was a dark and stormy night

Well, it wasn't all THAT stormy at night, but during the day it was pretty bad.

My weather station recorded 3/4 of an inch (19 mm) of rain in the past 24 hours. About half an inch (12.7 mm) fell in under 15 minutes just after 1 PM yesterday.

It was also quite windy, with gusts up to 23.4 knots (26.9 MPH, 43.3 KPH or Beaufort Force 6) and a wind run of 128.6 Nautical Miles (148 statute miles or 238.2 km)

And we really only caught the tail end of the storm, Northern California was hit much worse.

Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read

My (somewhat late) New Year's Resolution is to read more. I've got a sizable library, which has been growing steadily, but alas, has also been sorely neglected. I have scores of books I have been "meaning" to read, "when I get around to it".

I got started tonight by devouring C.S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew, the first (and most commonly forgotten) volume in The Chronicles of Narnia. It was quite delightful, and I found it much more enjoyable than sitting around mucking and watching some meaningless reruns on TV.

When I was younger, my mother wouldn't let me watch TV, so I would read. Anything and everything I could get my hands on, I would read. I spent one summer reading the encyclopedia because I'd exhausted everything else. As I've gotten older, I've gotten lazier, and gotten into the very bad habit of turning on the TV just for company. It's going to be a hard habit to break, as one grows accustomed to the constant companionship the Magic Box provides. Even if it's just the Weather Channel, it's another human voice, assuring you that the world still exists outside your four walls. Take that away, and the world becomes a quiet and frightening place.

I shall endeavor to read at least one of the remaining 6 Narnia volumes each evening. After that, I've got the latter 2/3's of Lewis' Space Trilogy, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. And after that, I really should see about finishing Olaf Stapleton's Sirius, yet another book I started but never managed to finish. And there are dozens more books to be read after that. I have the entire Redwall series, but have never read anything beyond the first. There are a couple more Spellsinger novels I haven't read. I've only read the first volume in the Sholan Alliance series. And I have the entire mammoth History of Middle Earth. And that's just the start.