May 1st, 2024

I took a little break over the past month and a half. I guess it was time for a tune-up. My doctors did a little re-plumbing of my ticker. Sitting in front of a computer and tapping on keys while scarfing down fast food is not conducive to keeping a human heart from clogging up. I calculated that having time to rest and recuperate would allow me to do a lot of reading and writing. Oops, that didn’t happen. The hospital is not a place to relax. They’d wake me up at three o’clock in the morning to be sure I was sleeping; then again, at four, they’d wake me to take my vital readings. Yep, I was still alive. Five A.M. was when I had to stick a sharp probe into my finger so they could check my blood sugar. Medications followed around Six, and breakfast came at about Seven. After that, it got busy until the visitors arrived, as I was still choking down the minuscule lunch of tasteless glop on dark brown bread that was supposedly chicken salad. How can glop be so dry? I guess dry glop is healthy.

Anyway, as the visitors finished lifting my spirits, they said their heartfelt goodbyes and set off to do whatever they had abandoned to make me feel better. Leaning back in the physiologically correct recliner I assigned during my waking hours, a uniformed waiter arrived bearing a tray of food I had no recollection of ordering around the lunch hour. That’s okay because I didn’t recognize it as anything I would usually have eaten.

Oh, well. My wife usually visited around dinnertime, and I was glad for that. I missed her. She is a retired nurse, and I needed her old-fashioned bedside manner. You know, “Quitcherbitchn n’ be quiet you're drive'n the nurses up here crazy. It ain’t their job to cater to your every whim.” That would permanently settle me down for the night. That is after two more vital sign checks and another blood test or two before the shift change at eleven.

I survived, and I’m back. Well, I was five minutes late because a motorist made a right turn on red and slammed into my van. But that’s another story.

 

Without an agenda for the meeting, and our co-host was nursing a bad cold he did not wish to share with the group, we went directly to the meeting’s reading portion.

 

Bruce Haedrich opened the readings with what he proposed to be Chapter Four of his extended version of Gaia. Gaia introduces us to the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. After the reading, a discussion ensued. Several members suggested changes and adjustments that might allow the Gas Giants story to be a stand-alone book. Bruce acknowledged that he considered that and was still open to taking that course. Regardless of how he chooses, we know the story will be fascinating.

When Slade Culp took the floor, he explained that his piece was independent writing without named characters that explored the philological relationship between the pair rather than telling a story—Slade’s insight into what is happening borders on invoking a personal feeling in the reader. Readers might adopt a physiological symbiont with a loosely defined character in this piece. It may require some refining, but it works as a stand-alone essay.

 Reading a piece he refined and edited, Gary Conkol brought the opening to his sci-fi story, Join Us, Chapter 1–Invitation, A Mysterious Courier, Remembering Al, The Glass Bead. A courier delivers an Invitation from an acquaintance from years past named Al to join him and several others on a mysterious journey to an undisclosed destination for a week, all expenses paid. Included in the envelope was a glass bead once launched aboard a space probe, never again to return to Earth. How did Al come to have this bead?

 Richard Cope is a fan of Andy Rooney, a former commentator on the television show 60 Minutes. Richard humorously recalled our television reception efforts before we had cable, from the use of tinfoil on rabbit ears to the twisting and turning of tall antennas outside the house. Richard took us back to the days of television reception and the attempt to view a picture free of electrical ‘snow.’

 Strategic Deception is the title of Ursula Wong’s latest book. Ursula gave us Chapter 2 to read and make suggestions on. An adventure thriller, Ursula leads us into Lithuania with this character, Anna, as her native Russia tries to force its rule on the Ukrainian people. How does the story unfold? Having heard some of Chapter 1 and having the privilege of listening to and reading Chapter 2, I am hooked and look forward to reading the finished work.

 After reading two of his poems, Don Westerfield allowed us to sail with him on a moonlit night as he rode the waves and wind. We went Sailing To The Moon, which rested upon the ocean’s dark water. After reaching the moon, we embarked on a journey down The River Of Time again, recalling the joys and disappointments of a life lived to its fullest.

 

I’m happy to be back with our group and hope to see all of you at our next meeting on May 15^th here at the firehouse. Until then, read, Read, and READ some more. Then, Keep on Writing.