Aftermath

So yesterday it seemed to be a cooler day but after about 5 minutes outside, it was almost impossible to breathe!  This morning, similarly — according to the thermometer it was 25, but it felt like 36.  That’s another difficult to breathe type of day!  I had ambitions of taking the little dog out around the block, but just a minute on my balcony and I had to rush back in to sit by the fan and use my inhaler.  I’d really like it if the humidity was lower!  Jerry was sitting on high alert, as my support worker was due, and he can tell the time, it seems.  He gets some of her days confused, but today he was guarding me from half an hour before her scheduled time, and was really impatient when she arrived!  He leapt off me, leaving a long, red scratch mark and raced over to her, not even giving her the time to put down her purse!  Don’s grumbling about the heat, but is settled in to watch one of those interminable baseball games.  He’s teasing me about why “soccer” is called football since they use their heads, and I argue that the NFL should be a handball game since they almost never kick… this is an old form of entertainment for us, and it goes on most of the sports season.  When we’re done with football and baseball, there’s an endless loop of hockey.  So as you can imagine, lots of teasing going on here.

I had my CT scan late yesterday afternoon.  Don was irritable, as he absolutely hates sitting in traffic, and my appointment was at rush hour in the direction of the traffic flow… a 12-minute drive took 45!  In 35C heat.  So I’m only surprised that he didn’t get into an argument with the hospital parking management for sitting in the car while he waited for me to come out the door!  The appointment ran a little late, as we needed to play “hunt the vein” 4 times — my hands and arms are bruised from being poked unsuccessfully.  I’m apparently a “hard poke” and we blew 2 veins, and missed a third before they found one that worked.  Now I wait, on tenterhooks for the results.  All of my fingers and toes and all appendages are crossed for decent news.  For those of you who pray, I’d appreciate a good word or two on my behalf, please.

Are there any books or movies that have affected you greatly?  Like, the story/a character resonates with you so that you dream you’re in the story?  I’ve got loads that I really enjoy, and I’ve often imagined that I’m part of some of my favourites, but oddly enough, the story that most affected me — both the book and the movie (highly unusual, as I generally hate the movie after reading the book) was The Martian by Andy Weir.  The book is not long, has a lot of scientific details, doesn’t do much for character development, but I found it to be gripping and haunting… then I watched the movie and had dreams about it for a few nights.  It reminded me of some early science fiction, from the so-called golden age in the 1940s/50s.  I don’t remember the name of this one particular story, written by one of the early masters — before Clarke, even — in which an astronaut was trapped on a parabolic asteroid and had to figure out how to get into a position to signal for help before his air ran out.  That story conveyed a sense of isolation, desperation and innovation in equal parts, even more remarkably for being a short story, not even a novella.  I had a similar, but stronger, reaction to The Martian.  I suppose because the technology in the earlier story was fairly basic — it was written before the first successful space flight — and it relied a lot on maths and physics (which I do enjoy, needling that I am) I found it so compelling.  The other pointed out some stark realities of space flight and challenges related to interplanetary exploration and even with comparatively advanced technology, there are still physical limitations to what can be accomplished.  I’ve always been a science fiction fan, and always dreamt of space exploration; as a child in the 1970s, it seemed that space was about to be explored and humanity was reaching for the stars, or at least the other planets.  Things like the shuttle program, Voyager, the early Cassini photos of the gas giants… all made it seem like we’d be expanding from Earth outwards.  The stories that I preferred didn’t have the “exotic aliens” from Mars or Venus nor the threat of relentless attacks from ETs (although I did enjoy War of the Worlds, and it’s probably due for a reread) but would instead focus on things like solving a water crisis on the Moon by mining the rings of Saturn for an ice asteroid; or travelling to the outer planets (2001 A Space Odyssey - book, not movie) and things like generating gravity through the use of centrifugal forces, etc.  Solving odd problems in space, as opposed to seducing aliens (no cracks about Captain Kirk!!)

I’m sorry that we didn’t live up to the dream of the Space Age of being able to establish a base on the Moon.  Or that we drifted away from space exploration for a long time, although it’s exciting to see images from the Webb telescope, and read about new discoveries and the growing understanding of the universe around us.  I know that the idea of colonizing extra-solar planets is a faint dream, one that’s been held since the ancient Greeks and Persians began mapping the skies.  The distances alone are beyond phenomenal.  At this point, more than 40 years since Voyager left Earth, it’s only now reaching the edge of the Solar System, where its light takes a day to reach that tiny vessel.  To get to Proxima Centauri, 4 light years away, would take almost a century, unless we can develop light-speed or faster than light speed travel.  Plus there’s so much emptiness… the sky is full of stars, but they’re all so far away and so far apart and in between there’s a lot of nothing.  Perhaps in my lifetime we’ll land humans on Mars and return them safely to Earth.  But I imagine that there will be several millennia before we leave the solar system and reach outwards…

OK, I’m fantasizing all sorts of impossible and improbable scenarios, and at this point I’m inclined to think that having a meal is what is needed!  We cooked today, some chicken and bokchoy, and some loaves of sweet bread, so I’ll just go make some noodles and have dinner before the little dog decides that he’s been neglected, is starving and needs to be petted!  Good night!