It's pretty bad when re-lighting the furnace pilot is about the most productive thing you do all day, but that was it for me today.

The mail had a book in it, and I spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon reading it. It's a Harry Turtledove--the first in his Crosstime Traffic series. It was a fast read, and based on its content it's really a YA book. I plan to pass it on to OGD. It's set in a universe where the Roman Empire never fell, but it also never developed high technology. (It takes military competition to drive advances.) The mother in the family develops appendicitis and goes back to her timeline. The two teenaged kids are left on their own for what should have been only a couple of days. Meanwhile, a war comes to the town where they are.

Bad Cat slipped out this morning when I was going for the paper and mail and she managed to elude capture for several hours. Her stomach drove her back inside. I was going to put the food down on the porch (which is screened) and let her howl in anguish and frustration, but she came inside just in time.

While I sort-of watch the NFL playoffs I'll go back to reading the Xmas gift book about how the Chinese discovered America in 1421. About ten years ago I ran across some information suggesting that was the case. At that time I was too busy trying to absorb enough general information to teach World Civ that I wasn't able to really follow up on it. I'm glad I got this book.

(I think this day is almost a 10 for Unremarkability, on a scale of 1 - 10.)