sci-fi story

 

Today someone sent me a spoof: Carrot Juice Constitutes Murder which I find pretty funny, in its own way. It reminds me of a story I read once. Wish I could remember the author or title, or even a good plot synopsis...

It was 1994 or so, and the book was large, old and dusty. It was a science fiction collection from 1989 or earlier. The dust jacket was gone. The story was near the front of the book; it may have been the opener.

A group was sent on a prolonged space mission. They had a substance --a food, maybe, or a drug-- with them whose function wasn't fully revealed to them. It made them smarter. The story was told from the point of view of the mission's "control," back on Earth. The astronauts began disobeying, began taking more of this substance, and got smarter than their control (this is what was feared). At one point they got so smart they were insane. They cut off their limbs just to watch them regenerate.

The line I remember, perhaps not verbatim because I've googled it and variations on it with no result is one of the astronauts saying:

"It's a sin to eat a carrot, but the radishes rather enjoy it."

***

Today it rained most of the day, as predicted. Bob went to town and returned with a new giant flat-screen monitor for me! I didn't realize how old and clunky my monitor was (and how much space on my small desk it took up) until I set up this one. The cats will hate us for a while though -- it's hard to sleep on top of a flat-screen.



Later in the day a pizza was ordered, delivered and devoured (and in the process I learned that our pizza delivery guy will deliver beer if asked to), the compressor fan on the refrigerator was examined and a new one ordered. The dog killed something, rolled in it, ate part of it, and now wants to come inside and sit on the furniture. Nuh uh, no way. We think it looks like it was a small hawk. Hopefully it wasn't the neighbor's rooster. Still later the dog got a bath, the bird got bagged, and life goes on (except for that bird).

9 April

12:31 AM 4/10/2009

When I was twenty, or twenty-one, I fell and twisted my ankle, or rather the top of my foot. Larry (my son's father) and I were play-wrestling, and we just landed wrong. We didn't know any better and foolishly soaked my foot in hot water that night. The next day it was swollen huge and very sore. Called for an ambulance (?!?) --I guess we thought it was broken, and anyway, we didn't have any way to get to the hospital other than by bus, and I couldn't walk-- and I remember the EMTs carried me down the narrow stairs sitting on a kitchen chair.

Now, many years later, every now and then the top of my foot rebels, hurts like hell, and I limp for a few days. I think it happens when I first start working in the yarden in the springtime, sitting on my heels, barefoot. Whatever causes it, I seem to try out an ace bandage on it every year, then realize that just makes it worse and take a pain killer instead. Eventually the soreness goes away and the limp with it.

***



Today, after two days of cold nights the temperature climbed back into the mid fifties and I again brought the potted plants from the stove room out to the back porch. Tomorrow we're supposed to get "severe" storms from 1PM to 6PM (according to weather.com's hour-by-hour forecast), so I may bring the pots inside one more time, or at least slide them further onto the porch, out of the rain.



Today Bob ran the tiller over the garden again --he makes it look so easy, just walking beside it with one hand on the handle, while whenever I till I fight it as if it's a jet ski and I'm keeping it from sinking-- while I dug roots and rocks out of the space south of the cellar and planted my asparagus rootstock there. Finally we have an asparagus bed! Hopefully tomorrow's storm watch is exaggerated and they won't be floating away mid-afternoon.



I also turned the entire compost pile and put a couple pieces of particle board up against the woodshed uprights, so I don't have to be quite so careful where I sling the compost when I'm turning it. Maybe this year I'll finally add some manure to the pile to make it really "cook." It's not really a compost pile at all without manure, is it?



***

I'm a hundred pages into a Rosamund Pilcher novel. I like her books as a change from my usual reading - whatever that is! Nothing much happens, life just goes on, quite interestingly and comfortingly. Conflicts get resolved. All is calm. Reading Pilcher is soothing.

disjointed thoughts

I've been up since fourAM, so what I write may not be entirely coherent.

Last night I finished a book, David Baldacci's Saving Faith, which I began way back last summer when I was "living" in Charleston and working at the John Amos plant. Now I think I put it down for good reason, but in the 2009 spirit of finishing what I start, I've been slogging through it.

Don't get me wrong; it's not a bad book. It just badly needs editing. The storyline is fine --Washington D.C. political intrigue/CIA/FBI/romance-- but there's so much extraneous material that distracted from it. The "romance" scenes are written so goofily that after the first bit I just skipped over them. It's like someone surgically injected a Harlequin into a Tom Clancy (and then had a novice rewrite it). Ouch, that's pretty harsh. I finished the book, okay? I just probably won't read any more by this author.

Day before yesterday I finished knitting the scarf; still have to weave in ends (a ten minute job, tops) but have felt like knitting, not weaving in.

Last night I finished the first ball of yarn on the sweater. This gets me almost through the shoulder leaf pattern.

This morning I'm knitting the heel flap on the 2nd sock. I'd like to turn the heel today and finish the pair before Feb 1, just to be able to count them as "January" socks. Otherwise all I have are a couple pair in large gauge, and although both sock challenge groups say that's acceptable I feel I should offer socks, not socks as my entries.

I've decided my February firsts will be finishing the SKP2008#5, Olympic Medal socks, which I put down after getting stuck on the short-row heel instructions (something wasn't making sense). Then maybe another pair of the gansey socks. I'm thinking about adapting the design to use a thicker (less stitches per inch) wool.

Speaking of wool, I am longing to try out some Cascade220.

Speaking of trying out, my little bag from Knitpicks is here on my desk, tempting me also.

Speaking of my desk, there's also a cross stitch I started last year sitting here, patiently waiting for me to get over the yarn already.

I still have visions of a fair-isle potholder (mitten-type) dancing in my head. Last night after unsuccessful attempts at something resembling a frying pan I charted a spiral (to represent stove burners).

I'm also thinking about that entrelac curtain a lot.

And, although I have no money to spend, I pre-ordered two books from Amazon.com:



The first is the result of a recommendation on Queer Joe's knitting blog, the 2nd came to my awareness from a comment on Franklin's blog. Am I easy to influence or what?? It's a good thing I don't watch TV. Think of all the yummy commercials.

Speaking of yummy, there's another new thing: a birthday resolution to "get in shape." That means diet & exercise, however you slice it. I tend to exercise just till I get results, then I call it "done." Then a week or a month later I wonder why I'm missing all the clothes I threw out because they were "too big," since now everything I own is "too little."

So a few days ago I hauled the stationary bike in out of the garage, where it had been awaiting disposal. The best (also the only) sister-in-law gave it to th'Mr for Christmas 2007. He used it for a week, decided he was done, and out to the garage it went.

For several days now (three?) I've biked at least five miles a day. I'm thinking of giving up butter (whaaaah!) and half-and-half (WHAAAH!), or maybe restricting it to once a day instead of slathered on at any excuse. My first cuppa tea in the morning thus will have the real thing, subsequent ones get lite non-dairy powder. Excuse me while I go toast and butter an English muffin.

Oh yeah, the BIG news is a few minutes ago I beat Zuma's level 3-4 for the first time ever. Now I go into the uncharted waters of level 4-1.