Lately my writing has been limited to just thinking about titles. In the last month, I’ve thought up a lot of great titles for stories, books, blog posts, etc., but I’ve not written much. Not even the titles.
Writing and doing woodworking just haven’t been in the plan for a while. It’s been an interesting summer for me so far. The season changed and Heather and I were off to our wonderful European vacation. After a short rest, two of our teenage grandsons came for a two-week visit which involved lots of activity.
Last Tuesday they went home and things started to become normal – except for the little dental surgery I had on Thursday. It was a “routine laser periodontal procedure”, but it took three hours and I was sent home with an impressive amount of two different kinds of painkillers, plus the two ice bags. The post-op instructions were only six pages, so it’s working out fine.
For the record – my teeth hurt. All of them, but on the good side I haven’t needed to take as many pills as I’d feared and there is hope that someday I’ll be able to eat solid food again. Yesterday was a good day for food as I was able to eat an egg for breakfast. Tomorrow I am looking forward to some nice cottage cheese for lunch. Well, it will be a change from yogurt.
Speaking of titles, I finally read Andy Weir’s book, The Martian, where we find a lone astronaut fighting for survival on Mars. It’s been on my list to read for most of the decade. Interesting premise and as an engineer I found the story of astronaut Mark Watney to be believable and I was impressed with Weir’s research of the technologies involved.
One complication that was avoided in the book was, what if Watney had needed an emergency root canal? In the opening scene Watney does stitch up a serious wound, but could he have done a dental procedure on himself? Given the number of times I end up in the dentist’s office with some dental problem, I doubt I could survive on Mars much beyond my next cleaning appointment.
I’ve always wondered what it would be like to go into space and have an adventure in orbit. What would it be like to be launched beyond all we know and so different from our daily experience of the world? What would it be like to return from some exotic planet and return to this world?
With the river trip, kids, and surgery, I do feel a bit like I’ve been somewhere out there and am waiting for the final engine burn, the pull of gravity and
reentry …
Peace,
Andrew
Andrew's View of the Week 