I'm just coming off of a one-week vacation. We had relatives visit
for the first three days of this past week, so it seems like a
shorter vacation than it should have been. Still, we've had some
decent weather and have been able to get out for a hike and several
bike rides. I'm not looking forward to the hundreds of emails
awaiting me at work tomorrow.

I've been re-reading some of the books in my library lately,
including a few by Ray Bradbury. Currently I'm into one of his older
short-story collections, 'The Toynbee Convector'. Part of what I
like about his stories is that they are immersive - his descriptive
prose is poetry-like, and really lets you imagine being in the
scene. In today's world of doom-filled news, I welcome losing myself
in a good story. Also the short story format makes reading possible
any time you have a free 15-20 minutes. Anyway, this particular
collection of short stories is very good, and probably represents
Bradbury at the peak of his writing career.