2002 Story Set
| September 18, 2002 I took an evening to play catch up. It is necessary to do this on occasion. On occasion that my son is home from the hospital, although still off his feed and coughing up a storm. He is breathing on his own. I am working full time in the office (except for Thursdays when I am offsite). So tonight, I fed him soup and ran off to do errands. I ignore the house, which resembles a war zone. Not being home, I have not done housework. Just the bare essentials (dishes, laundry and garbage). And I have four bags in operation - office, gym, hospital, and purse - all stacked around the door. Contents are dribbled everywhere. The room detritus from bringing him home spills across the floor. I am ignoring it all. I can do that. I can ignore mail, email, phone messages, piles of laundry, and piles of magazines. I am inured. There is no elevator at the office so I have to lift things up stairs. No roller bag. The roller bag goes to the hospital. Lifting bags up the stairs led to discovering that my asthma inhaler was NOT working! Because I was gasping when I climbed the stairs and was waking up over-breathing (gasping like I just surface from a deep dive). The emergency inhaler I used woke me up. At home, I used the old ones (different brand) and felt immediately better. I had wondered why I was so tired at the hospital. Now I know! No Oxygen was getting in! For a week! So first stop was Long's and a complaint. They replaced the defective Advair inhaler. This is not funny. An asthma patient could die. I also bought hair dye while I was there - on sale as 2-for-1. Good, because my roots are pure white in front. I look very strange when I push my hair off my face. Strange to me. My self-image is 122 lbs and YOUNG! Which, at 60, I am neither! I also keep thinking that I have a flat abdomen. I lost that again recently. Still looking for it. It went to join my waistline. Which has been missing in action for months. Then on to the bookstore, because he wants the Count of Monte Cristo, and I will buy him any book he will actually read, and I want Regencies. I also bought a Martha Grimes, an Anne Perry, and three books from Marion Zimmer Bradley about Darkover - stories I loved and had drifted away from following. I love the Sword and Sorceress series too - must look for those. I have been slogging through the Best of Science Fiction - name authors - many of whom I have met - writing "hard" science fiction. Hard science fiction means that the author has spent lots of time finding arcane and obscure scientific terms or making them up, creating their own science and overwhelming the reader with their prowess. They vie to outdo each other in an adolescent binge and end up writing stories that are a slog to read with little character development and the lightest of plots. I used to read the old stories in the 1940, 1950 periodicals - my stepfather's stash in the basement. I am a sci-fi I buff (don't let these guys hear you call it that - they would pitch a fit - they want "science fiction"). I love technology. I write about real technology all day long. I am disappointed in today's stories. "Hard" science fiction is an excuse not to write a story with a plot line. What is worse, they only consider that another one of their kind is fit to comment on their work. I used to love Ray Bradbury, Asimov, Ellison, Larry Niven, and the list goes on. As I read through novel after novel, I drifted into the women writers. The Dragons of Pern. The Darkover series. The science (or the elaboration of the fantasy world) does not bury you so that you cannot follow the plot in these books. The greatest compliment I got for Jettison was that my use of technology was an aside or in the background and did not stop the story. It just occurred naturally with out detailed 6-12 page justifications for each object or planet or ship motion. Non-science fiction readers loved it! I will probably not finish reading the "hard" collection, choosing to be entertained when I read, not bored to death. I stumbled out of Barnes and Noble with about $88 (after discount) in books and headed for Petco. The dog has shed her collar so I got her a new one (license tag was reordered too). And dog food. Dog food is what had driven me out of the house in the first place. It was the last thing I got. I am so happy to be home and not driving to the hospital to sit for hours on a hard plastic chair that I am beside myself. I will make veggies and soup for my sick boy and make sure he drinks and moves around. His birthday party is Saturday. The stripper is coming. This should be fun. My hair will be dark. |
www.Donnamaie.com home page
For information about this file or to report problems in its use email dew@Donnamaie.com