We do now have a nice, up-to-date and (more importantly) safe electrical system—the house wasn't grounded, for instance, and we now have wiring that will take an electrical surge or lightning strike out of the house to a grounding rod where it can dissipate safely. We've had a couple of lights replaced because they were becoming dangerous, mostly through age where fittings had loosened over the years, which meant that any attempt to put in a new bulb would twist and rub the wires together. This was causing new bulbs to blow in one light, which is what started this whole shenanigan in the first place.
We have a new fuse box. One of the old fuses had at some point had the fuse wire replaced with some other wire the thickness of a coat-hanger, which explains why it never blew and why the master fuse for the house tripped out instead.
In between, I've been trying to dig out old scans, pitch a few book ideas and I'm working up a pitch for an even bigger project. I'll have to leave you with that teaser for now.
The review below contains spoilers, so if that's something you dislike, jump to the end of the column.
Its origin is a 2012 novel by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge, who have collaborated on a dozen novels and a Manga-style comic book, although I have a vague memory of reviewing Ledwidge's first solo novel (The Narrowback) for Crime Time twenty years ago. The review was not brimming with compliments. As I'm no big fan of Patterson, this doesn't bode well.
I can't speak for the novel, but the TV series was recommended to me and I picked it up out of curiosity because the premise sounded interesting. Across the world, animals are starting to act aggressively and attack humans. More, their behaviour appears coordinated: a pride of male lions seems to have developed a long-range communication; bats attack electrical transformers and settle on solar panels; domesticated suburban cats cluster in trees; and birds bring down aircraft.
A small team, made up of Jackson Oz (James Wolk), a zoologist, his friend, safari guide Abraham Kenyatta (Nonso Anzie), a French intelligence operative Chloe Tousignant (Nora Arnezeder), Mitch Morgan (Billy Burke), a veterinary pathologist, and investigative journalist Jamie Campbell (Kristen Connolly), begin to piece together clues that lead them into a battle with a huge corporation, Reiden Global.
Jaimie is convinced that something in their pesticides is behind the outbreak of deadly animal behaviour, although she has personal reasons that might be clouding her judgement. She meets Mitch, brought in to investigate an attack on zookeepers at Los Angeles Zoo, and convinces him to help her investigate. Meanwhile, in Botswana, Jackson rescues Chloe but almost loses Abraham in the process. The three are introduced to the other two by a Mr. Delavenne, who tells them that a pandemic has started.
A bizarre turn of events happens in a prison, where guards are attacked by wolves. One prisoner seems to have control over the pack, which allows him to escape.
By this point I was hooked. It's one of those shows that's the TV equivalent of a page-turner novel. Breaking up the group so that multiple investigations can be carried out at once means that the storyline cuts from one team to another, keeping the plot and the pace flowing. Although the whole thing was shot in Canada, the storyline has a global scale and British Columbia stands in for everywhere from Alabama to Africa. The high action quotient also means that you don't get much of a chance to pick the plot apart... you just go along with notions like the "defiant pupil" that make beasts look like coke addicts and the "mother cell" which is the main McGuffin for the 13-part first season.
For sheer entertainment value, you can do a lot worse. Now I have to find season two...
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