Lovliness

Yesterday was a quietly awesome day.

Sunny but a lot cooler – in the low 70s.  My pal Jenny in Arizona recently posted that summer’s starting out there. This means they’ve gone from highs in the 80s to, this Saturday, a blistering 118º. I would NOT survive that shit! Yup, I've got to wait until late autumn before I see her again. *sigh*

In any case, I motored down to Nantasket early for a beach walk. Magnificent. Beach season here in Massachusetts is still budding so, while never empty, it was mostly just me and the seagulls.

Hey, don’t these boids put Cézanne’s Bathers in your head? OK, mebbe that’s just me

I could sit, still even, watching the surf (and the gulls) for hours. Alright, sorta, kinda but, rilly, not so much still. Me and my trusty Canon are in action, trying to capture every last little thing we see. To be fair (to me – the camera doesn’t give a shit about dispassionate even handedness), I do manage a moment or two of calm, motionless, meditative being. Not many but they’re there. Honest!

Later, back in Valhalla, I curled up on the porch with John Scalzi’s latest in the Old Man’s War series, The End of All Things. It came out in paperback over the weekend so, naturally, I snapped it right up.

Scalzi’s a storytelling magician. The very first sentence had me hooked like a kitten on her first catnip/tuna bender.

So, I'm supposed to tell you how I became a brain in a box.

Oh yeah! OF COURSE I’ve been binge reading! Just noticed that I’m a piddling 40 pages from the end. *GASP*

In case you’re unfamiliar with the series:

Humans expanded into space…only to find a universe populated with multiple alien species bent on their destruction. Thus was the Colonial Union formed, to help protect us from a hostile universe. The Colonial Union used the Earth and its excess population for colonists and soldiers. It was a good arrangement...for the Colonial Union. Then the Earth said: no more. (source)

I think my fave part of the entire series is the whole business of being able to get your consciousness dropped into a new body – a clone of your own self but better, stronger, sensory enhanced and new. Also green. Green is good.

The G from Nerds of a Feather Flock Together has a tremendous, pre End of All Things, take on the series. While I don't agree with her on every last little bit, I do on most.

Later, Hillel pulled me away from my reading to hit 1546 Fuji for sushi. We’d never been there before. It was way awesome. Yes, a little loud (so says Hillel – obvs I didn’t notice) and I would’ve preferred different, cozier seating. Booths – every restaurant should have booths! Or snugs. Yes,now that I mention it, EVERY pub and diner should have snugs.

I leave you today with some Scalzian wisdom and supporting evidence of why I read him near religiously.

Never anger a sci-fi writer. These people destroy entire planets over lunch. Imagine what they'll do to you.

The failure mode of clever is “asshole.”

 and from his book The Sagan Diary

Fear is a scavenger who feeds on the future; on what may be and what is possible, extending down the line of our lives.