A Halloween Jump Scare

Just when you thought it was safe to take down the window boards:

Yeesh.  At least the Gulf's cooled down a good bit:

Hurricane season is not over until it's over,  officially on 1 December but really... at New Year's.

A Creepy Tale for This Halloween Evening

The Voice in the Well, by Justin Patrick Moore over at his site.

Yeah, it's about everything you'd want or expect for a good ghost story on Halloween.  At around 1300 words (unlucky 13! and a hundred of 'em!), it's a quick read.  Enjoy your shortening days.  I mean, shorter daylight and crisp autumn weather, not, um, you know, the other meaning of that last sentence, but take it either way you wish.  Boo!  Scary, huh?

Two New Tasks

 We've all heard of "Herculean task" and "Sisyphean task," but today I found two new terms:

• Icarian task: When you have a task that you know you're going to fail at anyway, so you decide to have some fun with it before the tenuous wax of ideas holding it together melts and the whole mess crashes back to  Earth.
• Cassandrean task: When you have to deal with people who you know won't listen to you, despite your having accurate information on and/or extensive experience in the matter, and then having to watch them fumble around after you told them the solution from the start.

Huh.  Useful terms.

Holy Cosmic Bat Nebula, Batman!

At yesterday's APOD, the Cosmic Bat Nebula.  Usually these things are 'squint, and you can sort of see it' representations.  This one however looks like it's been carefully rendered in:

A very fitting image for this Halloween season.

Still want it to cool off enough for a real hike, grumble-grumble.

Site Mention: The Manual Gearbox Preservation Society

Link here.  It's not just about performance.  It's about driving the damn car, and driving it well.

This Banner...

...makes me want to go take a hike and play radio.  Still about 10degF too warm though.  In the meantime, go visit the site.  Also for a bonus, there's a lot about Hurricane Helene's effects on western NC there; here's the link to just that tag.

Phil Lesh Checks Out at 84

Article at Stereogum.  Of unspecified causes, but after surviving hep C, a liver transplant, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and the 60's while leading – not just running with – his crowd, 84's a mighty good run.

I'll sit down with a bottle of red whisky and toast Phil and the rest of his band later this evening.  Not playing any cards though.