Hard to focus...

All day has been firecrackering crap, and once night was set it got even crazier. One asshole decided to shoot some off directly in front of my building, where they exploded next to my window. Freaked the hell out of me, the first time, because I was at the kitchen sink. I yelled down at him and I think others went outside to ask him to go elsewhere, which he finally did. That or he ran out.

All along the horizon I can see bursts of bright colors, like dandelions, or streaks of white and red shooting skyward. I tried to record it but what came out was really soft in focus. Oh, well, iPhones ain't all that great in the darkness.

I did manage to get through to the point where Léon becomes a Blood Angel vampire and does his first kill, a Viking marauder. He's visited by one of the Oiym, who lets him know the rules...and things are already starting to get complicated for him.

But the one thing that's really going for him is, Blood Angels are not bound by the same rules as regular vampires, giving him a great deal of power. There aren't many of them, and they're interconnected by a psychic sense so that if one is in trouble the rest know, so I'll need to be delicate about presenting this.

I also managed to read more of Did Ye Know Mammy Died, for APoS before the insanity with the firecrackers started. It's not a bad book and gives me some insights into the Derry character, but it really takes place much later than Brendan's story, so his references to stores and some slang have to be met with care.

After this, I'm rereading Bernadette Devlin's biography and then Eamonn McCann's tract about the Troubles, that was printed in 1973. I'm finding a number of the books I have are more centered on Belfast than Derry, and those two towns have something of a disdain for each other. Like sibling rivalry.

Tried to make something new with a single packet blueberry muffin mix -- putting crumbled brown sugar atop it as it baked. Not a good idea. Tasted all right, but a real mess and somewhat chewy...