Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Monday motivation has arrived. Yes, it’s Monday, October 18, 2021, the third Monday in October. Monday is often thought of as a new week and a new start. That works for me, part of the inculcation process begun with school and continuing with my work existence. I now work every day, writing, so there’s no new start to that process. Yet, Monday still starts a new work.
We’re trending toward winter. Winter weather warnings. Snow on the mountains albeit still mostly above four to five thousand feet. Colder and colder at night. Night will come after sunset at 6:24 PM tonight. Sunrise came, sluggish through the gray miasma, at 7:27. Precipitation isn’t forecast for our area today but showers arrived yesterday and hung around through the night. Dampness rules outside. The cats are displeased. Besides the cold and damp, the street cleaner made its regular journey over the roads, much to the cats’ disapproval. It’s like a giant vacuum cleaner to them, I think, circulating the neighborhood with its infernal noise.
The morning mental music stream is featuring U2 with “With Or Without You” from The Joshua Tree. The album was released in 1987 and I was immediately enamored with it. I was stationed in Germany at the time, where weather often seemed a damp, cloudy, and chilly. Neurons connected today’s weather with that German experience and brought the song forth. Yet, “With Or Without You” does fit with a sullen day that seems chilly and ambivalent about rain. The song begins introspective and searching but then expands and explodes.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax when you can. Here’s the music. I’m off for a coffee break now. Be back in a few. Cheers
I’d arrived in a foreign country, traveling as part of a group of men, except for one pre-pubescent boy. We were white, except for one black. I was neither leader nor follower. We dressed down a little, in jeans or khakis, and shirts or sweaters, as American tourists. We were going through a large gift shop and museum, killing time, stalling, building our cover. Every now and again as we walked around, I’d look out the large plate glass windows at a flat, featureless landscape under a flat diluted gray sky. Small features, hints of tall buildings and industrial smokestacks, hinted at the world. A few lonely black birds winged through the sky.
Inside, we walked around, gawking like tourists, murmuring at displays of giant stuffed brown bears, cut geodes, and pieces of fossils, evidence of the life that was here before humans took over and dominated. I remember bending down to the young boy to point out a display about a volcano that once erupted in the region.
Then, time for us to move on. We separated. I got into a rental car and drove down a wide, empty road, again killing time until we were to rendezvous. At this point, it becomes a little obscure. I drove across a large, arched bridge to an intersection and parked off to one side by a food truck. I went to the blue food truck where I purchased two chicken sandwiches in flat bread from a swarthy, friendly man. Ice covered the chicken on the sandwich. I met with a small, blond woman and furtively explained to her my theory that the sandwiches being sold at the truck were being used to pass code between foreign agents.
I returned to my car to await the rendezvous, holding onto the sandwiches as my evidence. But I was hungry, so I heated one up on the car’s heater. After tasting it, I thought it was warm enough and was pretty good, so I ate one, and then, as I was still hungry, heated up and began heating the second one. But then I realized that I needed to hold onto it as evidence, so I stopped after two bites. Examining that sandwich, I concluded that I still have the evidence.
Dream end.
Au Floof (floofinition) – An animal who helps cares for children or does domestic work for a family in return for room and board.
In use: “She adopted Lucy as an emotional support dog, but Lucy was so smart, she became an au floof, fetching slippers, the newspaper, mail from the carrier, and numerous other tasks, as well as providing security.”
I was at some way station among people who I know, including a young child. It was a cozy place, a little dim inside, rain beating against tall narrow windows, mild rain battering them. A crowded place. Tables, overstuffed chairs, bookcases, brook stone fireplaces with fires going. Noisy.
Meanwhile, I’m giving the little girl a gift: a small cat. This cat is purple, white, gray, and pink. Really sweet little critter. About ten pounds. Of greatest interest, the cat has a set of controls in its side. See, the cat is a radio. It’s a live animal and it’s also a radio. I’m telling her, “Look at this. Listen.” Showing her the controls. But you can also lightly tap the cat to increase the volume, or tap it in another place to change the song.
The little girl is fascinated. Runs off. Comes back. Time and again as the cat hangs with around me, rolling around on the ground, being petted.
But there’s more! Besides the little cat, there’s a larger, almost identical purple-white-gray-pink radio cat. This one is much larger: forty to fifty pounds. And not as friendly. Or playful.
I’m playing with the little one. It’s on its back. I’m about to rub its belly. The little girl comes running up. “No! Don’t rub its belly! It doesn’t like to have its belly touched.”
I’m petting the belly, though. The little one makes a distressed meow. The big one comes running over through the crowd. Gives me an angry look and some serious tail switching. I leave off petting the little one, who gets up and rubs against me.
It’s time for me to go. I get up and dust off, look for the door, and make my way across the room.
Dream end.
Salutations, my fellow travelers on this space ship called Earth. Shipday is Sunday, October 17, 2021. Sunrise in my ship sector took place at 7:26 AM this morning. They had the area thermostat set on fall chilly, with an overnight low of 42 F. Showers are planned for this area, limiting the high temperature to 56 degrees F in accordance with ship seasonal doctrine. Sector sunset will take place at 6:26 PM. You will note that they continue to reduce the hours of sunlight in our sector and the sun’s warmth level here. They have scrubbed the air. The AQI remains a healthy 13.
Several days ago, some deviant neuron started playing Tom Cochrane’s “Life Is A Highway” from 1991 in the mental music stream. Although the song is popular with the neurons, many did not want it repetitively played and shut it down. Enough neurons wanted it that the song kept being resurrected. It’s overwhelmingly strong in this morning’s mental music stream today. I think the only way the neurons are going to let go of this is if I release it to the net. So, here you go.
Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as necessary, and get the vax, if, when, you can. The neurons inform me that it’s coffee time. I will acquiesce to their demands. Enjoy the music. Cheers
Interfloofent (floofinition) – Things sporadically or erratically done between and around taking care of animals, or pampering animals.
In use: “There were always things to do but things became more interfloofent because being with his dog, a rescue — walking with him, talking with him, napping with him, etc., because the dog seemed to care about him and understand — became the most important and enjoyable part of his life.”
Michael Seidel, writer 