I've spent much of my time this year living in 1987, plowing through old slides and sharing old memories. That's been fun. But it's time to take a pause on time travel and catch up on more recent happenings. In this edition of Notes from the Lab are a few updates to much earlier posts.
Music Night (8/6/2012, Last Update 9/29/21): In my original post I shared the basic idea of our Music Night club, launched in 1991. We get together every few months for an evening of food, friends, fun and music around a pre-selected theme. We then create and package CDs of the evening's music and distribute them to club members as a party favor.
In my 2021 update I described the impact of the COVID pandemic on Music Night. We had continued but virtually, which meant muted mics, buffering screens, (not so) snazzy venue backgrounds and very little if any live music. I also shared that thanks to the miracle of vaccination, we planned to resume face-to-face gatherings with our 2021 Christmas party.
I am happy to report that our plan came off without incident, and we have been back to normal since. Want proof? These are our 13 (so far) post-COVID collections.
Our most recent Music Night was a couple Saturdays ago. The topic was Tributes. We will meet next in December to celebrate Triumphs. That one will be our 164th. Anybody have a good suggestion for me? I'm always looking for fresh perspectives and new artists.
Labor Day Renewal (9/10/12, Last Update 10/23/18): In my original post I made the argument that it was Labor Day - not January 1st - when the new year, or annual renewal, really takes place. In my 2018 update I confirmed that even after six years of retirement, my sense of renewal was still strongest in the fall. This despite no direct impact on my life of a work routine or school activities. My personal obligations, my travel plans and even my medical cycles were largely intact.
Gazebo (spring).
I've now been retired 12 years, and I have to report things have changed. I no longer consider renewal or anything else in annual cycles. I am aware of seasonal changes but even they present only a minor sense of renewal. I think that's because aside from weather, very little of my daily routine changes throughout the year.
I would sum up my seasons as drink patio (fall).
Fireside (winter).
And beach (summer).
These are the spots I most like to spend time, depending on the season. Of course, it's not all fun and games and sitting around. I do chase leaves in the fall.
Blow snow in the winter.
Restore/upgrade the yard and garden in the spring.
And cut grass in the summer (at the lake).
And go do this.
But other than these exotic activities, my cushy life is pretty consistent year round.
However, periodically I still get that tingly feeling of renewal. It comes over me whenever I insert a new month of day pages into my Franklin planner. With a sense of adventure I pour over the family events, visits with friends, hobby activities and trips to the cottage slated for the upcoming month. It's quite a rush. True, there are usually a few medical appointments mixed in, but I ignore those until the day of. Then take "sick leave" for the rest of that day and pamper myself even more than usual.
I've never been one to obsess over achievement or take unnecessary risks. I have no bucket list. And I've found that a smaller but regular shot of renewal each month is sufficient to keep the batteries charged and the groove smooth. So, yes. I'm living the dream. Or you could say, I don't get out much. Either way, I like it.
Reading (10/2/12, Last Update 10/23/18): Since my last update on this topic six years ago (is that even possible) I've continued my plod, mainly through the fantasy worlds of Stephen King and the fantastic world of evolving science. Here's a summary of some recent reads that may pique your interest.
My recent King books included short story collections Everything's Eventual, Full Dark No Stars and If It Bleeds. The first two are okay in my opinion, but for me not as gripping as his earlier short story work. If It Bleeds is better. The main story in the collection, also entitled If It Bleeds, picks up and continues the saga of one Holly Gibney. I'd better back up.
Holly Gibney is an important character in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy. The title Mr. Mercedes refers to the story's villain who used a stolen Mercedes to run down a crowd of people. Holly is the niece of one of the victims. She is a painfully shy, insecure young adult woman with at times debilitating OCD. But, Holly is also smart, tech-savvy and in her own unique way courageous when she has to be.
Bill Hodges, the main character in Mr. Mercedes, is a retired police detective who is still haunted by the horrific mass murder case he never solved. Through twists of fate, Bill and Holly meet and eventually find a measure of solace in each other over their respective losses. They end up partnering to solve the original murders. There is of course much more to the Mr. Mercedes story. But the important thing for my own little short story here is that Holly emerges from the trilogy as a full-fledged detective running her own small-scale agency, carrying on the work of her mentor. And she has now become a recurring Stephen King character.
Holly next appears in King's very spooky novel The Outsider. In this story Holly becomes aware of a bizarre murder in a neighboring state and out of curiosity, and with insights gained from her ordeal in Mr. Mercedes, joins the team working the case. Before it's all over she has an encounter with evil, Stephen King style, and survives.
Now finally back to If It Bleeds. In this short story Holly believes she has discovered another being like the one she dealt with in The Outsider. This time she's pretty much on her own to prove her theory and deal with the monster. Of course, we know she gets through it all because in King's latest novel, Holly, she's at it again. This time chasing down a couple of aging college professors with strange theories on human nutrition. It's been lotsa fun following Holly through her evolution. The Holly Gibney stories are all good reads.
Before leaving Stephen, I can also recommend a few of his other recent works (recent being since 2018). There are The Institute (child telepaths as government hit men), Billy Summers (likeable hit man on the run) and Fairy Tale (enterprising teen doing odd jobs for an odd duck discovers a hole in the ground that leads to a bizarre fantasy world - and lives to tell the story). Of these my favorite is Billy Summers. Very little supernatural. Mostly the tale of a sympathetic character who struggles with a no-win situation.
Now for the really exciting stuff - non-fiction. A little science, old and new. First the old. Zecharia Sitchin - The Earth Chronicles. A seven-book series written over a 30-year period (1976 to 2007) explaining what Sitchin believes the writings of ancient civilizations record about Earth's (and humans') origins. Sitchen, a Russian-born archeologist and master of ancient languages, presents a unique interpretation of these texts and the history they suggest, including off-world (yes, alien) involvement.
Sitchen's theories are a radical departure from traditional archeological thinking, but they are not totally without foundation. He has his detractors of course, but also many equally credentialed followers. His ideas are if nothing else intriguing. So, if you have an open mind and an interest in alternative approaches to understanding our world and its distant past, I recommend Book 1 - The Twelfth Planet. It lays out the basics of Sitchen's beliefs including the creation of Earth and the solar system. A real page-turner. The remaining six books go into greater detail on various aspects of ancient history as framed by The Twelfth Planet. I found them interesting. But, I'm a hopeless history nerd.
Now the new - immortality. Sort of. The book is Ageless by Andrew Steele. The basic idea is that aging is largely due to the death of cells in the body. New cells are generated all the time, but the old non-functioning cells mostly remain and clog up the works. The theory is that if the old cells could be removed, rejuvenated and/or replaced with healthy cells, aging could be retarded. Perhaps indefinitely.
Steele provides several examples of scientists who have already achieved some rejuvenation in lab experiments with various simpler (than human) life forms. Ageless is a pretty technical read, but lays out pretty exciting possibilities. Steele notes that if each year science learns to extend life by at least another year, those of us wishing to live forever would have a fighting chance. But I'm not cancelling my life insurance yet.
On another biology-related front, I've read two other books by David Quammen (the Song of the Dodo guy) that I recommend. The first is Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. Ring a bell? It outlines the major factors that contribute to the spread of new viruses, like the popularity of exotic animals as food and virtually unlimited global travel. The book was written in 2012. It's a painful read given that having fore knowledge of pandemic processes wasn't enough to head off COVID19.
The other book is The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, published in 2018. Here Quammen explains how recent discoveries in molecular biology have changed our understanding of how evolution works. The writing is hyper-technical but stunning in it's content, discussing discoveries as revolutionary as horizontal gene transfer. Fascinating stuff, but not for people in a hurry.
And I have a final recommendation - Carol Leonnig's Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service. Have you noticed how often the Secret Service has been in the news in recent years, despite their preference to work behind the scenes out of the public eye? The author has covered the inner workings of the Secret Service as a reporter for years and cultivated numerous inside sources. In this book she lays out the agency's history and challenges, its problems and its efforts to right the ship. It's an eye-opener. If you're a student of government and politics, I think you'll find the book to your liking. It's a pretty quick read.
That should do it for now. I hear my new Stephen King book (You Like It Darker) calling me.
Until next time.
Grosse Pointe Charles
The books commentary section is terrific!
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