Last Day Of The Year

I ran across the words ceteris paribus, which means "all other things being the same", pretty much, in a comment thread digression discussing the merits of direct impingement cartridge case extraction vs. gas piston , the original topic being the number of National Emergencies declared by each president since 1976 and how many are still in force.

I am about 75 pages into Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, and I think I'm gonna give up for now.  Eight hundred pages is too much to handle in a paperback, the print is too small and the margins don't allow me to see the end of the sentences down there deep into the gutter without splaying the book, which is an anathema to me.  So I think I am going to return it to the library today, unfinished.

I love the rain today, but I hear it's a mess on the 8 through the mountains.

It being the end of the year I guess I'll have to do all my statistical calculations soon, books read, miles ridden, caches found.  

Best wishes for the new year!