Books, health and haiku

 

Tuesday night quiz we finally broke our run of coming second and managed to win, if only by two points.  We might have done a bit better if our sports man was there but 89 is a pretty good score.  The TV & Cinema round was only so-so;  I might have done better if they dropped the questions about shows that have been or will be on Netflix or Apple TV !

Wednesday I spent quite a while musing on my plans for next couple of months.  My cousins are meeting up for a lunch in Melbourne and I'm invited.  I haven't seen them for a while - our last family reunion was the year before Covid.  If I can work it out, I may go over.   Hopefully this time I won't get lost in Melbourne airport.

Haiku for the feline: 

Cats are like the clouds,

Ever changing and graceful, 

No two quite alike. 

Dedicated to Olivia, who sat on my knee until I finished writing this.

*

Facebook is often hard to fathom.  This year I've been seeing a lot of updates by or about Cynthia Rothrock, an American actress known for her martial arts roles.  I don't remember ever mentioning her or liking a post about her.  Still, it's better than a couple of years ago when I was deluged with photos of movie star Salma Hayek -- 90% of which were obviously fakes produced by AI.

*

The woman behind the counter at the local newsstand is getting to understand me.  When I went in today for one of the magazines I buy every week, she said "Have you read last week's yet?"  I just showed her the Kindle I had in my jacket pocket and said "I'll get round to it as soon as I finish the novel I'm halfway through."  She gave me my change and didn't comment further.  I have had some people in similar situations say "You buy a lot of stuff."  The temptation is to reply "I can buy less if you'd like me to" but so far I've resisted.

*

The book I'm reading at the moment is PLANETS FOR SALE by … well, that' s complicated.  It was first published in 1954 as by E. Mayne Hull... who happened to be Mrs A.E. van Vogt!  For years, he was asked about it but always answered it was written by his wife.  However recent research suggests that he needed a pen-name for some extra stories he was asked to write for "Astounding Stories" and for some reason he signed them with his wife's name.  Of course it's quite possible she may have typed them without necessarily having written them!

*

I had a phone call from Keith Curtis to say he wouldn't need a lift to the Op Shops on Thursday. Apparently he bought so much stuff on Wednesday that he

(a) doesn't have any money to buy more,

(b) doesn't have any room in the house to store more, and

(c) doesn't have the time to catalogue any more items.

*

Now reading ORBITAL, one of only a handful of novels set in space to have been nominated for the Booker Prize over the years, and is the first space-set winner. At 136 pages, it is one of the shortest ever Booker Prize winners.  Samantha Harvey's lush prose style takes some getting used to at first;  after the first few pages I thought "She makes  Ray Bradbury feel like Ernest Hemingway" but gradually I warmed to it.  After all, if you can't wax poetic about the view from the Space Station, when can you be?

*

A few weeks ago I had lost my health card, but I hadn't worried because I was due for a new one in April.  However two weeks ago my doctors office told me they needed the card or they couldn't bulk-bill for the ultrasound my doctor had ordered.   I phoned the Health Department straightaway and they said it would be with me in ten working days, the same date as my ultrasound.  I crossed my fingers and waited.

This morning I looked in my mailbox and there were two identical envelopes.  "I wonder....." I thought to myself.  Inside I opened them.  The first one was the replacement card with an expiry date of 2025.  The second one was an identical card, except the expiry date was 2027.   From not having a card at all, I now have two of them.  :)   I wonder if this entitles me to twice as much medical care for the rest of the month?

*

Haiku for Possums....

  Like furry ninjas, 

  throwing themselves into space

   twixt branches and roof.

Summer marches out

My Kindle tells me I have read for 83 weeks without missing a week, but I did miss a couple of days when I was in hospital last month.  Now it seems I still have four chapters of Russell's THE SPARROW to read, which is annoying because I had planned on finishing the novel by the start of March.  I am almost tempted to take Wednesday off and just stay home till I finish the damned book.

*

Tuesday I was tired and did little.  At least I was able to go out to the quiz night this week after taking last week off due to ill health.   We didn't do so  badly, finishing in second place.   Probably my favourite moment was the Acronym round where I was asked to say where the word Taser came from;  you should have seen my team mates when I confidently wrote down "Tom Swift's Electric Rifle" !

*

Well, I carried out my idea of staying home on Wednesday and finishing the novel THE SPARROW.  After the last chapter I put the book down and stared into space for a while.  It's certainly an intriguing book, with echoes of Jack Vance, Philip Jose Farmer and Harlan Ellison (three of my favorite authors).  Because of the way the story jumps around in time, place and character, you aren't absolutely sure where the plot is going -- as you get closer to the end, you have the feeling that something bad is going to happen soon.  But unless you're psychic, you have no idea just how bad.   I don't think I've had this sort of reaction to a book for decades.  If this was a TV show, it would be freely decorated with warnings about "mature themes".  I didn't start reading anything else for two or three days - it took me that long before I could face a new story.

*

Thursday attended the FOM annual general meeting.  Travelled in by car instead of bus for once, so I wasn't quite as tired as I sometimes am afterwards.  But still felt happy to get to bed on time and clock up a full eight hours sleep.  Don't often remember my dreams this year, but I do recall that night's.....

I was back home at our old place in Liverpool Street with the family.  I was getting ready to go out, and my sister happened to ask me whether there was anything worthwhile on TV tonight.  The morning paper was in front of me so I picked it up and started glancing through it to find out.  Then I stopped and groaned.  My sister asked me what was the matter.  I stared down at the newspaper.  "There's a full page of comic strips," I said glumly.  "They haven't had comics in Australian paper for years.  So if ever I see them, I know that I am still asleep and this is all a dream."  She looked at me, plainly baffled.  When I looked through the rest of the paper, I found a big lift-out full of comic strips I'd never heard of.  A disconcerting experience, knowing that you are dreaming and not being able to do anything about it.

Plainly my subconscious has not forgotten the sixty odd years I spent reading the comic strips in the local paper.  Apparently it knows that I miss them, and tries to make up for it by providing them in my dreams.   I'll bet Freud or Jung never had a patient with these sorts of dreams !

*

Tuesday quiz night we came second yet again.  I thought 81 points was a good score but the folk at the next table got 85.  However in the movie round I  was the only person who recognized the film clip from THE WILD BUNCH  😳

Wednesday I was leaving a meeting in Sandy Bay to drive home and not only did it start to rain but we saw a lot of silent flashes in the sky ("dry lightning").  Between that and a couple of crashes on the highway, it seemed a long time before I got home.  Heated up something for dinner and ate while listening to a Maigret audiobook.

* 

A Warning !   Went  out  to do the weekend shopping on Friday.  When I started on the trip home, I  noticed an unfamiliar warning light on the dashboard - it looked like nothing so much as one of those signs by the roadside that warn you of dangerous driving conditions in case of ice or snow.  [see above]  I drove home carefully while the light stayed on, even though ice or snow would be unprecedented at the end of summer in Tasmania.

It took me about fifteen minutes paging through the car manual before I found the right section.  It turns out the DSC may be turned off  -  that's the Dynamic Stability Control.

I couldn't help it, I had to laugh.  Anybody who has watched me walk more than a few steps knows that it's not the car that needs Dynamic Stability Control, it's the owner !

[The light must have healed itself;  it did not come on next day.]