Friday.
Hello!
These Days …
At USPS we schedule our vacations for the year at the beginning of the year. This last week has been one of those “vacations”. I put vacations in quotes because, in my mind, a vacation involves travel to distant places and having new experiences in novel situations. We haven’t taken one of those sorts of vacations in years. Mostly we stay around home, catch up on chores and I get to spend more time doing artwork than during my working days. If we go anywhere it’s to road trip to friends who live less than 200 miles away.
We had planned one of those trips this weekend but …
On Saturday, Sarah lost a negotiation with gravity. She’s currently nursing a fractured bone in her upper arm and we’re watching her forehead change colors from a nasty bruise. We spent about 6 hours in, first, urgent care and then the emergency room. We went to urgent care first because we’re optimists, didn’t think she’d actually broken anything. and the urgent care we use is connected with our primarily medical organization. Unfortunately our urgent care doesn’t do CT scans on the weekend and, with the glorious lump on Sarah’s forehead, they considered a scan necessary to determine if she had a skull fracture or internal bleeding. Double unfortunately we waited about two hours to get that judgment. Everyone we interacted with was kind and patient. The emergency room had rooms available.
Sarah’s skull and brain were and are fine. Yay! But rest and healing is necessary for both head and arm..
So we didn’t go much of anywhere this week. Her arm is being kept immobile in a sling. It’s her left arm so, being as she is right handed, she’s not as incapacitated as she could be. We’re seeing an orthopedic surgeon this morning. I assume more x-rays will be generated. Hopefully they’ll show good news.
Transmission 8
Wilhelmina Grace felt the music as soon as she finished manifesting. It was glorious. It felt transcendent and overwhelming, so overwhelming that, at first she didn’t realize that she was not standing on a surface. She was simply positioned in space. Before her was a being. The music seemed to originate from it. Was it trying to communicate with her? Was it communinating with something behind or beyond her? She seemed to be locked in place and felt unable to turn.
She laughed. She felt tears running down her cheeks. She wanted to sing to the being nothing came from her lips.
(Note – I have a few copies of the original Transmissions minicomic available. Reply to this email with your physical mailing address and I’ll send you one. Or, if you’ve already got a copy and you know someone you think would like one, send me their mailing address.)
Power Dynamics: Stardust the Superwizard
Welcome to another edition of What The What, the podcast in which I interview some of the more unique personalities in our society. I’m Blane Walker. The last few weeks I’ve been speaking with superheroes, those folks with powers beyond the normal. This week we’re chatting with Stardust the Superwizard. As usual, I’m speaking to you from my home studio here in Portland, Oregon. Stardust is transmitting from his base on Venus’s moon.
Blane – Hello Stardust! Thank you for joining us today.
Stardust – Yes.
Blane – You’re communicating with us from a moon of Venus. Is that correct. I didn’t think Venus had moons.
Stardust – Venus has three moons. I reside on the largest of them. They exist in a metaphysical space that current terrestrial instruments do not perceive.
Blane – I’ve heard that you were originally from Earth. Is that true?
Stardust – My sense of self was formed via a terrestrial physical and psychologlical development, yes.
Blane – When did you become … Stardust. That can’t be your real name, can it?
Stardust – Names are designations used to identify specific objects or subjects. A name is real if the parties using the name agree on the identity of the subject.
Blane – Uh. Right. I guess I mean to ask, what was your name before you became Stardust? And when did you become Stardust?
Stardust – My personality is derived from the human Tomas Zhigalev. When I transistioned into this version of Stardust is difficult to pinpoint in the temporary construct that you use. By your perception I because Stardust before Tomas Zhigalev was born.
Blane – Are you saying that you exist outside of time?
Stardust – No. You experience time in a specific way that works for your evolutionary development. As Stardust I am not constrained by Tomas Zhigalev’s genetic and cultural limitations.
Blane – Do you still consider yourself an Earthman? Do you feel any attachment to Earth?
Stardust – No.
Blane – Really? Why have you been protecting us?
Stardust – I am a steward of the Ultimate Archive. The solar system is part of the existential matrix of the Archive in this part of the Universe. I am maintaining that matrix.
Blane – So you don’t actually care about humanity?
Stardust – Your tone suggests that you would prefer me to care more about humanity than the rest of the life in the solar system. That is understandable. I remember feeling that way.
Blane – So you no longer care about people? Should we be afraid of you?
Stardust – Fantomah was correct. You are annoying.
That 2022 Calendar …
is available at my zazzle store. Print on Demand isn’t an overnight process so, if you would like a copy for yourself or as a gift, please order soon. Fourteen illustrations featuring the Mighty Nizz!
And I’m out.
Be good to yourself and those around you. See you next week!
