Tch, it's Friday already. Haven't really done much this week though it feels like I haven't stopped. Heh.
Hasn't been a complete loss, I've got a new pair of shoes to replace the ones that are falling to pieces on my feet. Though those haven't done too badly considering they're my only pair of shoes - besides some slip-ons - and I wear them just about every day. Managed to find another, identical pair as well which is all for the good cos I know they'll work with my special needs feet. I'm all for trying new things except when it comes to footwear - I know what will and won't cripple me and I have to shop accordingly, alas. <sigh> I used to have some lovely boots and shoes, though they're probly what killed my feet in the first place. Ah well, live and learn/adapt or die...

The school site's almost clear, the last bits of the building have come down and even the old wooden climbing frame next to the Liquid Amber has gone. I suppose now all that's needed is to level the area then they can begin construction.

I'm almost half-way through a book, The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson. The blurb on the front that caught my eye says "The Great Plague destroyed Europe. It made the world a different place..." It's an interesting premise, certainly, but it's taken me a while to get into the story which is by turns compelling and tedious. Some of the details of the different cultures tend to make my eyes glaze over but for all that I'm enjoying it. I thought at first it would be a fairly straightforward tale about a set of characters as they move through their lives but it's so much more. Yes, there's a central cast but we're following them through their different incarnations. I love this approach! Previously I've found books/series that cover a vast amount of time irritating because just as I get comfortable with one set of characters they're left behind as the story progresses and I have to make friends with a new bunch. (Asimov's Foundation Trilogy is a prime example. Undoubtedly it's a master work of sci-fi but I've never been able to finish it because I get frustrated with being unable to connect with the narrative emotionally. Anyway...)
I was a third of the way through the book before I realised the author was using consistent 'markers' to keep track of the characters. The teacher/mediator has names beginning with 'B'; the belligerent, flame of change uses 'K'; and the terminally curious questioner's names begin with 'I'. It's a great idea - though I was having fun trying to work out from their patterns of behaviour who was who. <g>
It's fascinating watching their karmic progress, especially 'K' who thinks they're 'reacting decisively to injustice' without realising, or refusing to realise, that revenge isn't a way forward. They've been bumped back to animal form once already, I wonder if it'll happen again?

<satisfied> Although I haven't written much SFSG this week I've been doing a lot of pondering about it. I've got an idea now where and how it's going to end and I've straightened out in my mind the progression of events that will get my girl there in one piece. I think it's plausible, too, and not just a string of convenient coincidences. Oh well, if it doesn't hang together I trust someone will tell me if I don't pick it up myself. : )