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The one on the left is my original copy, a buck-ninety-five. Those were the days. I graduated from high school that year and bought it on the recommendation of a classmate. Dan and I were the two higest IQs in the H class as they called it - twenty cherry-picked kids in each grade beginning in the seventh. The way they shredded us out (a little military lingo for you) was the tests they gave us starting around the fourth grade. Each year we'd spend a couple of days taking tests, the ones where you colored in circles with a #2 pencil on the answer sheets. They'd send them off somewhere and a few days later they'd get the results back and give us a copy or our score. I was always in the ninetieth percentile which didn't mean much to me when I was ten years old. Still doesn't as it seems dumb people do most of running the world. My friend Dan wasn't in my school then - is pa was a retired Air Force officer who had retired to our little town when we were in the seventh grade. I suppose those test scores were shared even back then and he ended up in my class. We both had some of the social skills issues high-IQ types often have so we hung together a lot and talked about books a lot, especially SF. He was a little ahead of me and turned me on to quite a few good ones, Forever War being one and Stand on Zanzibar another. Anyhow I dug them out to read again in the next few days. I'm writing on some other stuff and want to refamiliarize me self. Haldeman didn't write the other two until the late 90s so there aren't any old copies of those. Actually I don't even know of Ballantine still publishes SF or anything, having been absorbed into one of the big companies. Back in the day they had a lot of the good stuff - I wore out a couple of sets of LOTR with the Barbara Remington covers. Got a copy of The Worm Ouroboros from that era. Haldeman is a favorite writer from way back. Buying Time and All My Sins Remembered are a couple of favorites, besides the Forever War books of course. A couple of short story collections, Dealing in Futures and Infinite Dreams are good.
Tried to sleep in until 0900 but no use. Fed the kitty cats and got back inside for the news then clicked on a Bud Shank piece. I never got into jazz that much but
got interested in Bud way back when I picked up a record in the bargain bin at a dollar store I stopped at on the way home from school on account of there was a girl
I liked and she worked there. This was back before dollar stores were all Dollar General or Family Dollar or Dollar Tree. Back then they were small stores usually
locally owned and they would have a little bit of whatever the operators could find a deal on and looked like they could make a buck. There were a couple in town,
one was pretty big and fancy and well organized. There was a
Sterling and
Ben Franklin
in those days there on the same street. I got a nice collection of
Mini-Lindys at the Ben Franklin
back then. Those would be worth a bit now. The other one was one of several, I believe about a half dozen, owned by some guys from off somewhere. Her mom was the manager and
I'd go in and hang out and see if there was anything new. So one day I picked up a Bud Shank record and liked it, got a handful more over the next few decades.
That patch of weeds is near a sewer pipe inlet for the old house. Could just bury it and put some kind of maker but figure I'll make a little garden patch around it. Already got a patch of Solanum carolinense, big and looking good. Little mimosa tree came up nearby, make some kind of a little fence or barrier around the pipe and let the horsenettle cover it. Tree small enough to train it the way I want. Okey-dokey, way I'm going may not get back before August. Asà es la vid. Z Text in images  |
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