Coffee date

What an absolutely beautiful day it is!  It’s sunny, light breeze, blue skies with tiny puffy clouds and 19C.  Just needing a light scarf or jacket if you’re outdoors for any length of time.  Plus the lilacs, peonies and irises are all in full bloom so it’s just looking lush and pretty with the sunshine.  Gorgeous!  Jerry is sitting on the sofa, ears perked, looking at Don and myself as if to ask why we aren’t outside letting him dominate all the fields and bark at dogs… Don was happily watching a Willie Nelson tribute this afternoon, and enjoying listening to the music of the “red headed stranger” and the guest artistes, which included (among others) Snoop Dogg and Keith Richards… and a LOT of weed references! LOL I admit that I enjoyed it too, as I am constantly amazed at how prolific a songwriter he is.

One of my friends decided to “kidnap” me today and we went to celebrate her son’s team winning the Eurocup in waterpolo this year.  We had a lovely little lunch at a new cafe, with some very fresh pastries and good cappuccino.  It was nice to be out; the day is so picturesque, the food was good and the company was excellent.  My only frustration is that I’m having so much difficulty getting around and breathing easily… my nurse pointed out that my blood pressure is quite low, which would account for my symptoms.  According to the WebMD symptom checker (something I don’t use often, mostly because it finds a possible diagnosis of death for any symptom) I might have anemia (correct) or emphysema, heart failure or pulmonary embolism.  I stopped using Dr Google to explain symptoms a long time ago, since it just results in making me depressed, and instead I call my doctors for their advice.  I’m very pleased, by the way, to announce that I ate my sandwich (pictured), plus a cookie, a glass of water and my cappuccino, leaving only a few crumbs.

A friend of mine asked if I’d ever heard of the Foundation series; and I said that of course I had, and I’d read it as a teenager— and reread it a few times since.  That  got me to thinking about some of my favourite science fiction books, many from the “golden era” spanning the 1950s - 1970s. For your information, here’s a short list of a few of them, in no particular order.  Note that these aren’t my only preferences; I’ve got short lists in a variety of genres, although science fiction and fantasy are closest to my little literary heart! 

Dune by Frank Herbert.  Touches on themes of ecology, technology, religion and warfare.  I think that the series is strongest in the first 4 books (up to and including God Emperor of Dune) then it becomes a little too much.  It’s been expanded since by the author’s son to cover over 10,000 years of history and exploration of various characters.  But I go back to the original every so often, and I have copies of the book in English, French and graphic formats.  His other works, including The White Plague; The Whipping Star and The Green Brain are also excellent reading.

Federation trilogy by Isaac Asimov.  Also set in a far distant future where Earth is a mythological place and at the point where the Galactic Empire is about to collapse, it’s reminiscent of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire although the Federation was established to shorten the Dark Ages before the recreation of a new Empire.  It’s very cerebral, but absorbing.  I’m a HUGE fan of Asimov, and I’ve read many of his works, especially the Robot chronicles and his mystery anthologies.  I, Robot; The Gods Themselves and his novellas including The Bicentennial Man (loved the story and the expanded book, absolutely despised the movie) and Nightfall.

Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke.  Humanity is going through a transition to a new form, after encountering aliens.  I’d have to include a long list of his other works, like 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequels 2010, 2061 and 3001; The City and the Stars; Rendezvous with Rama… a long list!  

Friday by Robert Heinlein.  Dealing with artificial people and genetic enhancement. Also many of his others, such as Starship Troopers; The Green Hills of Earth and The Star Beast. 

John Wyndham’s novels are also favourites; these comprise The Midwich Cuckoos, The Day of the Triffids, The Kraken Wakes and The Chrysalids.  Some of these are hard to find, although I had copies of some of them… in school, my friend and I both won book prizes — she got the complete works of John Wyndham, while I got the complete works of Shakespeare — and we often exchanged them but had to keep our originals as our names were written on the fly leaf. 

I know that a lot of these stories are well over 50 years old, and some of the concepts are outdated — things like having a huge reference library or supercomputers with reel to reel tapes or vacuum tubes — but the stories themselves are timeless.  Every now and then I lose myself in one and it takes a few days to re-enter the “real” world from, say, Arrakis or the moons of Jupiter.  Sorry for the lengthy ramble; this is what happens when I start talking about books!  I’ll do a short list of my favourite fantasy books another time.

It’s meds time, and I’m going to get something to eat.  Before I go, though, I had to share this — it’s the latest video from my oncologist’s son’s band (with my doctor playing as well) here:  Vighkings “Sold to you”