PDX

Let’s see if this link works… It’s CaliforniaCoastline.org’s aerial views of the CA coast, the link should take you to Santa Cruz. Our house is about 4 blocks out of sight… and it turns out Atticus and I were were at Shark Tooth Beach, among other places yesterday.

was about to blog but i’ve just heard that dinner’s ready. I’ll leave the computer uploading some pix from yesterdays amble round the quantocks.

Ed’s got some envy-inducing shots up of his travels round the bottomest parts of Latin America on his latest entries. I recommend you head over there. Although the tag line “This week I lost my towel” needs work…

Things going well as per usual as we cruise on into the weekend. Jose & Fernando are coming over for a few chelas before heading off to the pub. Possibility of a gig tomorrow evening.

Have I mentioned it’s getting hot round here… gotta go sita’s just arrived.

Friday’s Ocio is usually Guadalajara’s events listing, new reestaurants, gigs, exhibitions, etc. This week an article caught my eye on home chemistry and DIY. It’s gearing up for a thunderstorm right now and hopefully I won’t ever have to mix up this concoction:

Tiempo de lluvias, tiempo de frescura. Pero no todo es felicidad, porque algunas veces las goteras invaden nuestras casas y entonces llega el tema de impermeabilizar. Si no se cuenta con mucho presupuesto la solución más recomendable es la cal. La fórmula es simple: 70 litros de agua, tres jabones Lirio y un kilogramo de alumbre. Acto seguido, hay que hervir los jabones y el alumbre de manera separada en un gal’n de agua. Luego se diluye la cal en los 70 litros de agua., y después se revuelve con el alumbre y la cal. La mezcla se aplica sobre el techo (dos o tres manos mínimo) con una escoba y listo. La cubierta lo protegerá por lo menos seis meses.

(translation:) The rainy season, a season for freshness. But it’s not happiness all the way… because sometimes the rain gets into our homes and that’s where the whole waterproofing issue comes up. If you don’t have much in the way of a budget then the best solution is lime (calcium). The formula is simple: 70 litres of water, 3 Lirio soaps and a kilo of alum. First thing to do is boil up the soaps and the alum separately in a gallon of water. Then dilute the lime with the 70 litres of water and then mix it together with the alum. The mixture is applied to the roof (A minimum of 2 or 3 pairs of hands will be needed) with a mop and Bob’s your uncle. The covering will protect it for at least 6 months.

I worry most about the thousands of “roof dogs” across this vast metropolis though…

Books that come with endorsements from Oprah’s book club tend to receive very little of my attention, rightly or wrongly. Luckily I saw a clip of the author being harassed by Oprah for passing fiction off as fact and then striking him off her ‘approved list‘ so I mentally peeled the sticker off and dived right in.

23-year-old James is admitted to a drug rehab centre in pretty poor shape, covered with a colourful selection of his own bodily fluids, missing his front teeth and with a hole through his cheek. He’s been at the chemicals for a good few years and has hit rock bottom. The book takes you through his six weeks at the centre at breakneck pace in first person, present tense and it’s hard to put down from the very start. I have to admit there is one section I didn’t read though; When he’s having root canal work done with no anaesthetic I had to skip a few pages there. Rest assured what I pictured in my head had to be worse than whatever he actually wrote there. Jesus…

You find yourself admiring him for his rebelliousness and steadfast refusal to follow the 12 steps and the self-delusion necessary to follow them. For someone who’s at his lowest ebb, he presents a heroic character. He is resolute and uncompromising, obviously quite a contrast to his former self. Despite not following all the rules in the center, he makes progress and even offers others a chance for the same salvation.

This story is about personal choice, responsibility and offers a logical, braver and God-free alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous. Whether it’s all true or not only matters if you’re reading it as a self-help guide. As a literary work, it’s deserves to be up there and above with Dave Egger’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius another first person memoir with interludes of fantasy.