Holy Locomotive, Batman

I completely forgot how annoying the Historic Rail Fair at Ardenwood Historic Farm is. Our housing property is adjacent to the farm and the Historic Rail Fair is one of the noisiest annual events they put on at the farm. And bless them, they do it on Labor Day weekend so residents can enjoy 3 days of noise instead of 2. I'm so happy neither of us works the night shift and that we're not trying to get little ones down for naps.

The farm hosts a Train Museum and the museum includes track for an 1891 Baldwin steam locomotive that circles around the farm. Listening to the chugga-chugga as it motors along the track isn't so bad; it's the choo-choo part that's driving me loco. I swear the person driving the train waits until they're right next to the houses before yanking that whistle wide open. Hopefully, as in years past, there will be enough complaints (I've already called in with mine) that they'll start tooting their horn on the other side of the track—the side that runs along the already noisy freeway.

In other news, someone we actually know has the H1N1 flu virus. Scoob's boss' child was diagnosed with the virus around mid-week and the entire family is under quarantine for several days while anyone they've come in direct contact with is being notified and tested for the virus. Luckily, Scoob is a telecommuter and hasn't been in direct contact with his boss. Actually, I don't think they've ever even met face-to-face. His boss lives in Virginia (I think).

I've been struggling with One Fifth Avenue. I'm only about 100 pages into it because I can't seem to stomach reading about the trials and tribulations of New York City's social elite wannabes for more than a few pages at a time. There are one or two character lines that I find interesting enough, but reading the rest of it is nauseating. Which, now that I think about it, is probably why I lost interest in the Sex in the City shows as well.

Anyhow, a couple days ago I told Scoob I was going to give it about 30 more pages to suck me in and it didn't. I think it's time to stick a fork in it and move on to the next book. As my previous boss says, "Life's too short to read bad books. There are plenty of good books out there just begging to be read."

So then the question is, which book do I read next? Do I just grab the next one from the stack? Or, do I carefully select one, weighing the merits of each against the other? (Honestly, if that's the toughest decision I need to make today, then life is pretty darned good.) Here's what is in my stack, from top to bottom:

Fine Just the Way It Is, by Annie Proulx
Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
The Plague of Doves, by Louis Erdrich
Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating, by Mark Bittman

I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy the Erdrich novel as I've liked some of her other novels, which might be the perfect way to get the disaster of One Fifth Avenue out of my head. So yeah, I think I'll do that.