a shameless plug 3

I am currently reading a book called 'The Sword of Mohammed' by Hale Meserow.

The back cover description is as follows:

"What would you do if suddenly your car didn't run, your lights didn't work, your furnace and air conditioner were disabled, your refrigerator became a warm storage cabinet for rapidly decaying food? How would you survive? Where would you go? And suppose on top of that there came a horde of marauders riding swift horses into your city intent upon killing you for your beliefs and stealing your property?
"In this fanciful but not far-fetched page turner, Hale Meserow portrays a world where the ultimate weapon of mass destruction has instantly propelled the United States into a vicious, dog-eat-dog, stone-age madhouse of chaos. This weapon IS out there, and the government fears it's coming!"

Right now I'm only halfway through and I think it's good. It's no Stephen King but this is only Meserow's first published book. The first half is a little dry with some extended sections of explanation, something like the political style of Michael Crichton. After the halfway mark the story starts to get exciting. I recommend picking up a copy.

hungry, in pain, irritable

A few days ago I was eating some jelly beans, not being particularly careful, and I chomped the inside of my cheek. Normally this isn't a problem because it's in an out-of-the-way spot between the upper and lower jaw or at least toward the front of my mouth. This time however I bit with my back teeth and, I'm finding out, harder than I thought.

Instead of easing up and letting my mouth heal, I continued with eating as usual thinking the nagging discomfort would go away. Well here it is three days later and my mouth still hurts. I've been subsisting on Slim-Fast and milk-and-yogurt since yesterday in the hopes that limited jaw movement will speed the healing process. Hopefully this pain I feel is just because it's an open and irritated sore (which is what it feels like when I dare to poke my tongue anywhere near there). I think so, if it was infected and festering I think I'd be in a lot more pain.

On the way over to Mom's for the weekend we passed a Burger King and the flame-grilled smell just infiltrated the car even through the closed windows. Then earlier tonight I had this sudden craving for buttery garlic bread. And all I get is vanilla Slim-Fast, liquid yogurt and a lot of stale spit.

the 35W bridge

You've probably already seen the news, but I figured I'd post about it anyway.

Today at just after 6 pm the highway 35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River just north of Downtown Minneapolis collapsed.










This is what the bridge looked like before when it ran from Northeast Minneapolis across the river.








This is what it looks like now.




(For more photos and reports go to www.wcco.com or www.kare11.com)



So far as I know, no one I know was involved. I called my dad first thing and made sure he was alright because he was out working. My mom works in the southern part of the city and has no reason to have been anywhere near the bridge so I'm not worried about her. With Nikki in TN and Matthew in Seattle (visiting the Messengers director's sister and niece) the only family left to worry about is my Dad's mom, his sister and my older sister. My older sister already checked in asking about Dad. My grandma I'm also not too worried about because she's not out and about much (my other grandma called and asked if I was watching the news, so no worries there).