The Christmas Mutiny, Now Available

My novel, The Christmas Mutiny, is now available for download at Amazon.

I hope people read it, and like it.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "They will, John. It's good."\\

Where Does It Hurt?

On my right side, near the lowest ribs, when I take a deep breath.

My left shoulder aches some days.

My right knee hurts occasionally, when weight-bearing.

My right shin hurts some days, with or without weight-bearing.

Both wrists ache occasionally. It doesn't feel the same as the hand pain that led me to have to wear hand braces at night and eventually to having surgery on one hand.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Watch and see how it changes."\\

Another Minor Loss

Awhile back at some web site or other, Kathe and I saw people discussing the moral blind spots of previous generations, and speculating on what our descendants might be appalled at our tolerating.

I'd like to nominate our persistence in pretending that dental and optical care somehow aren't health care, and shouldn't be covered on the same plan, or even at all.

Just the other day, Kathe told me that I couldn't have any more dental problems until she'd had some deferred maintenance taken care of on her own teeth. Alas, I woke up at 5:30 this morning with a toothache that hadn't gotten the memo.

A root canal and crown would have cost a thousand dollars we didn't have, so I got to have an extraction for $80. We didn't have the $80 either, but we might get it sometime relatively soon.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "At least it's over."\\

Another Small Sacrifice

Without my beard I look less jolly and ingratiating.

But more respectable. And younger.

I really dislike shaving every day. And I don't care much for having stubble.

Oh, well. Maybe this will help me get a new job. Something's got to do it.

Oh, wait, no it doesn't. Maybe I just won't get another job, ever.

Still, if I quit trying, I definitely won't.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "It does make you look younger, though."\\

Camelot 1:16:48 -- Look Familiar?

In 1967, even George Lucas didn't know who C-3PO and Princess Amidala were -- so what gives?



And how on Earth did it take until 2012 for someone (me) to notice?

Oh, also: We made it to Aumsville today.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Sometimes a coincidence means something really profound. Other times, it's just this thing that happened."\\

Bit Wet

We awoke to a drip from the ceiling. The pan that was supposed to catch the drip had overflowed due to very heavy rainfall.

We went out so Kathe could serve some papers and were first amused by swollen creeks, then annoyed by water crowding the lanes, then alarmed by overflow running right over the roadway, and finally blocked by flooding that cut off one route and then another.

We never did make it to Aumsville.

Oh, and in a non-rain-related matter, our daughter Mestowet called from Georgia. It was good to hear from her. I also noticed something that I hadn't before: whenever I hear from one of our kids, I think of how grateful I am to Kathe for making it possible for me to know them. That's true of each of my kids, as much as if she had borne them: I wouldn't have known any of them if it weren't for her. Thank you, Kathe.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "I'm glad you made it back safely."\\

Lights Out

This site is observing the Internet Blackout.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "-------"\\

New Web Site Coming Soon

Soon, if all goes well, the link above these words will be live, and my web site, designed by Kathe's son Jake, will be up and running, offering my stories for sale.

Jake asked me to write summaries of some of my stories for the site:

The Christmas Mutiny, a Young Adult novel of alternative history, about 50,000 words.
Several young people are present at the famous Christmas Truce of 1914, in which for a brief moment enemies lay down their arms and enjoyed a moment of peace. History says that after the truce, they went back to killing one another for another three years -- but perhaps there are other worlds than ours...?

"Rattler Lil", a Western fantasy, about 4,000 words
An adolescent boy finds a surrogate mother, as do many other strays in a frontier town. Miss Lillian Clay seems to be a good person to have around, especially where children and rattlesnakes are concerned. And there may be more to "Mama Lil" than the neighbors suspect.

"The Right Man", a story of alternative history, about 2,000 words.
It's the fall of 1932. The Great Depression is at its worst. An army of unemployed men are occupying the Mall in Washington. How will President Hoover remove them? He needs to find the right man for this job.

"Frankie", an incident at a 1930s candy store, about 1,500 words.
Is Frankie really that Frankie? What race is pulp magazine her Dusty Ayres? Why doesn't Frankie listen to The Romance of Helen Trent? None of these questions will be answered.

"Secret Identity", a writer's thoughts at work, about 1,000 words.
What makes a man a hero? Can we always tell? Do we need to?

"Gandhi Versus Hitler", a story of alternative history, about 1,000 words
Everybody knows Gandhi could never have stopped Hitler. Everybody knows that....

"The Salmon Cage", a science fiction story, about 5,000 words.
An old man ties his boat to a salmon maturing cage while it drifts across the Pacific from Macao to Canada. A silent boy stows away. Much against the old man's wishes, they gradually bond during a very difficult crossing.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Good. Now go make some money with it."\\

List of Defunct Automakers

Could be useful for writing historical or alternate-world fiction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_United_States_automobile_manufacturers

And while I'm at it, here are links to fictional car companies:

http://dictionary.sensagent.com/list+of+fictional+companies/en-en/#Automotive
http://www.coloradostangs.com/auto-news/24985-auto-autoline-after-hours-holding-first-annual-automotive-fantasy-draft-%5Bw-video%5D.html
http://nerowolfe.org/htm/tidbits/tidbits.htm#heron

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Have you driven a Heron lately?"\\

The Year Ends

Was it a good year for you?

Yeah, me neither.

No job, acute emotional depression, dubious prospects for the new year.

My father died, my grandmother died, and other things were difficult also.

The first post in this blog was titled, "It's Easy to Get Discouraged". It still is.

I am taking antidepressants, and they help some, but not enough, really. I wish I could go back into therapy, but we really can't afford it, and my former therapist has moved away. I am looking for a support group for the long-term unemployed, but there doesn't seem to be one. Maybe I should start one.

On the other hand, we did get the water out of the oil tank so the heater runs again. And we got the mud out of the kitchen sink drain so water runs through it again. I finished my first novel, and possibly it will bring in some money. That'd be good.

And the new year...will be a new year. Anything could happen.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says: "Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat."\\

Corvallis From Above

Here and there around Corvallis, there are aerial photos and aerial views of the city:

At the OSU Registrar, a painting dated 1932.
In the lobby of the Park Plaza Apartments at 124 NW 7th Street, a painting from the 1960s.
Upstairs at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, a photo from 1999.
At the city water department, a photo from the 2010s.
At the historical museum in the old Philomath College building, a painting of a speculation of "Corvallis in 2057" which was, fortunately, quite inaccurate in most details.

//The Magic-Eight-Ball says, "Perspective helps."\\

Peace On Earth

I have just read Nate Powell's Any Empire, and I like it rather a lot.

It tells, in a non-linear fashion, about how children's "missions", the play which they approach in absolute earnest, shapes their choices in adult life.

I am especially reviewing it here because one of Powell's young protagonists is deeply impressed by the classic cartoon "Peace on Earth", which deeply impressed me, and remains one of my own holiday favorites.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "People say war exists because of 'the nature of the beast', and they are right, but the beast in question is not Homo sapiens but Leviathan."\\

No American Blackout!

In honor of American Censorship Day, I am turning my blog black.
Sorry if it hurts your eyes.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says: "I'm a good deal more conservative than John, and even I think Federal online censorship is a bad idea, much less giving corporations veto power."\\

Boy, Does My Back Hurt

It started hurting on Friday afternoon, and it hasn't stopped yet.

At times it has been really, really bad. Naproxen helped. So did Cyclobenzaprine. A shot of Toradol at Immediate Care helped a whole lot. Also an electric heating pad and frequent hot soaks in the tub.

Kathe is taking good care of me.

Mostly, though, I'm just waiting for it to get better.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Don't despair. It will get better."\\

Occupy Corvallis

I told people attending tonight's meeting in Corvallis's Central Park that by the time they got home they'd be able to view http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OccupyCorvallis and http://OccupyCorvallis.blogspot.com, and here they are.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Don't forget the already-existing FaceBook page."\\

Questions From Sierra

My niece Sierra sent me an e-mail:

Could you please answer some questions for my family history project? here are 5 questions.


1.What was your life like when you were young?
My parents were college students, living in rented accommodations until I was six years old. I didn’t really understand what all of that meant, other than that Daddy went to “the school” every day to collect “day-da” for his “diss-ree-tation”, and that this was very important work.
Spending my childhood in an academic setting, I learned a great deal, and developed a large vocabulary from an early age. I absorbed concepts like cultural parallax and the need to test an hypothesis. I also absorbed an intellectual snobbery that I didn’t notice for the longest time, making it all that harder to discard.

2.What were people afraid of when you were young?
People talked a lot about pollution and about social changes that seemed to threaten civilization, but above all about the threat of nuclear war. Although my parents tried to divert me from thinking about it, I lived under the threat of destruction until I was twenty-nine years old. I went to school suspecting I would not live to grow up. I joined the Navy because I thought it might be safer than being drafted into the Army when Ronald Reagan inevitably went too far. I got married and had a child still under that shadow, because life did have to go on. It was not until Kathe and I saw the Berlin Wall being demolished that we really believed it was over.

3. What is a story from your childhood?
One day, Dad had been working on an old radio, the kind that was the size of a cabinet and stood on the floor, with a huge green light like an eye at the center of the dial. He talked about how much fun he and his siblings had, listening to old radio shows. He turned it on, joking that since it was an old radio, perhaps it would bring in an old radio show…and it did.
We listened, rapt, to an episode of Chandu the Magician. When it ended, the announcer came on and told us we were listening to the Old Time Radio Hour on KEX 1190 AM. We wound up listening to KEX every night, and recorded episodes on cassette tapes. But I will never forget the eerie experience of hearing those voices and sound effects coming through the radio just as Dad had predicted.

4. What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done?
Bicycling home from work after a night shift, I came upon a group of men standing over a fallen jogger. None of them seemed to know what to do. She had a pulse but wasn’t breathing, so I dove in and started giving her mouth to mouth. I gave her breaths until I couldn’t find a pulse, and then started CPR. To spare the others from the risk of infection, I gave her all of the breaths while they took turns giving chest compressions.
One of the men peeled back her eyelid and said, “There’s no pupillary response. I don’t think we need to bother.” I heard the voice of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon shouting, “We will continue until we are relieved!” – and it was me. That’s literally how it felt at the time.
An ambulance came and took over. I went home and went to bed. I heard later that the woman had died, but I knew we had done our part.
They always tell you at CPR classes that the person in charge at an emergency was whoever spoke up first, but I never thought that would be me.

5.What is one thing you’re proud of?
I am very proud of whatever role I have played in how my children have turned out. Some of them were half-grown when I got them, and none of them were related to me genetically, but I did what I could for them. They had many difficulties to overcome, and some of their problems could not be solved, but all four of them have faced and are facing life on their own terms with tremendous courage and persistence.


//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Teach the children well."\\

OMTA Meeting

Kathe and I just got back from the Eugene edition of the annual meeting of the Oregon Massage Therapy Association. The theme of the meeting was keeping your business afloat during the current difficult times.

I noticed that in addition to the meeting being divided into Eugene and Portland editions, almost everything else at the meeting was oriented to either Portland or Eugene. No big surprise, since those are the largest centers of massage activity, but as Kathe put it, there was a distinct lacuna, and we were in it.

So now I am thinking about setting up a mid-Valley chapter covering the Philomath-Corvallis-Albany-Lebanon area, extending maybe as far as Salem and Sweet Home. I will be contacting local LMTs to see what they think of the idea.

I Suspect This Is Not Going to Feel Good Either

Carpal Tunnel Release surgery in the morning.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Adulthood. What fun."\\

They Broke It

I used to be a free-market anarchist, but that was back when the free market hadn't been broken.

Now? The rotters have broken it as thoroughly as they broke the Code of Honor.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "This is why we can't have nice things."\\

Now, This Does Not Feel Good

I have had chest spasms and pains on rare occasions for years, but every test and exam indicated that my heart was in fairly good shape given my overall physical condition, but after today, I am wondering.

Chest pains, a vague sick feeling, no energy -- it does not feel very good at all. I took one of Kathe's nitroglycerine tablets and it seemed to help a little. A few hours later I took another.

I do not feel good right now, no I do not.

Dying right now would really stink.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "It usually does."\\