"Hello Organlegger! Approved today - Merchant Services" This is straight spam, a legitimate promo for small business services. I'm gratified to find my second career is recognized as legitimate, and Merchant Services is willing to help my distribution problems, in case my imagination ever fails.
This is generic, an update on my life. Marilyn ran the Art Show at Westercon over July 4. I did some of the work carrying and putting up and taking down structures. Now it's July 12th and she's nearly finished packaging unsold artwork to be returned. She's sworn: "Never again." Maybe. Meanwhile our air conditioning is misbehaving and so is our satellite services company.
It's too hot to hike. It's not too hot to play racquetball with Peggy Little because the MidValley Club is air conditioned. That's good exercise. We run each other ragged. Last year at 4 July, with a party going on at my place, I swam for the first time since crippling myself. My leg, considering, is in great shape. I beat Peggy thrice on Wednesday; then I told her her serve was too wimpy; then we practiced. I fear she'll beat me next time. BURNING TOWER is into the short strokes. It's been more than two years since I published a novel--both were collaborations--and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms. It's 28 years since I won a Hugo, and 15 years since I smoked a pipe, and months since I played a computer game. I'm cured of all addictions. Right? But I'm hooked on diet supplements.
My sister threw a marvelous 60th birthday party--in Hawaii, on Lana'i. We had a wonderful two days there, and a miserable two days of traveling. Marilyn gets claustrophobic in Tourist seats, and hey, airports are a lot less fun since 9/11. But I love snorkling over a reef.
I continue to be lousy at doing eulogies. This year we all got some practice, and I'm still lousy. So stop dying already.
I think having my leg immobilized made me more gregarious. I'm in a hiking group and a try-a-restaurant group. Harry Turtledove lives nearby; I bet I can talk him into hiking with me. But I got mad when representatives of Washburn U and Pacific Legal Foundation both felt they could waste my time ad lib. Maybe I overreacted...but even the self-employed have to work sometime.
I had dinner with Tom Doherty at Westercon. He had a scheme for solving the Iran problem. Thus:
Most of the oil is in the north, in territory that belonged to the family that now rules Turkey. Turkey was tossed to them when Iran was snatched away. It was a dubious legal decision. Let's reverse it. Give North Iran to Turkey. Turkey has the guns to protect it, and they seem to like us. Prolem solved. It strikes me that the opportunity for bribes would be awesome, on the oriental scale rather than american tradition. That should get Washington behind the scheme.
Larry Niven