Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 188

Turning Things Around

The rest of the house still looks like a screaming disaster zone /construction area, and for that matter so do I, from weird bruises and cuts to the fact that my hands look like I’ve been wrestling something with fan-blade hands. I was telling my husband I have performed sacrifices of blood on every inch of every new floor. I don’t know if he was impressed or appalled. The expressions are so similar.

BTW you’re not looking at the side of a refrigerator on the right, but at the side of some very...

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike and Book Promo

*Sorry this is so late. The GOOD NEWS is that I am almost done setting my office up. YAY! – SAH*

Book Promo

*Note these are books sent to us by readers/frequenters of this blog.  Our bringing them to your attention does not imply that we’ve read them and/or endorse them, unless we specifically say so.  As with all such purchases, we recommend you download a sample and make sure it’s to your taste.  If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com...

What Lurks In The Mind of Writer

It is highly unlikely I’ll write a full post today. You see I’m still putting the pieces of my office back together.

Yeah, I spent yesterday at it, and I’m still working at it.

Part of it is that I haven’t yet unpacked the boxes from the last house, even though we moved four years ago. I wanted to get to work, so I shoved them in the closet and carried on.

Part of it is that I suspect some of the boxes are from Manitou or even from Cache la Poudre…. (calculates) 26 years ago.

Sometimes I wonder...

The Mark of COVID by Dr. TANSTAAFL

The Mark of COVID by Dr. TANSTAAFL

We wear masks at work.  Surgical masks were originally used to keep us from contaminating a surgical wound.  Nowadays, we wear surgical masks to supposedly keep us from unknowingly passing on COVID while we are not having symptoms.  I wear a mask for a few patients, then get a new one, because it gets moist and contaminated.  Masks do not keep me from getting the virus, it’s too small for the common surgical masks.  N95s possibly could keep me from catching th...

Old Story

Image by Comfreak from Pixabay

Lately I’ve got interested in stereotypes.  Oh, not racial or cultural. Not gender either. More like the old stereotypes of our field, the stories you think you know where they’re going (the stereotypical — or should I say archetypal) characters and stories are so old you mind starts filling in stuff just from reading a few lines.  Which btw means the author needs to do a lot less work…. and more work, at least if we don’t want to make it paint by the numbers borin...

The Trap of Noblesse Oblige

Of all the traps a culture can fall into, the fact that Americans tend to fall into Noblesse Oblige traps says very good things about us. It also doesn’t make the trap any less dangerous.

Noblesse Oblige, aka “nobility obligates” was a way that the excesses of a hierarchical society was kept in check.  While the peasants were obligated to obey the nobleman, the nobleman was obligated to look after them/not put extreme demands on them/behave in certain paternalistic ways. (One of these days I ne...

Shattered – A Blast From The Past From October 2015

*Some perspective for 2020- SAH*

Shattered – A Blast From The Past From October 2015

Many years ago, in a library sale, I came across a booklet of … well, science fiction scenarios.  From the context — not being absolutely stupid — I could get that it had been commissioned before the election in 80, and had probably been distributed for free by the Democratic party.  I am afraid to look it up, first because it’s the sort of quest that could take me something like three years (and be lots of fun...

Stay Frosty

Making predictions is hard, particularly about the future, but the fourth of July heartened me greatly.  It appears that in most places we the people looked at prohibitions of celebrating and displays of patriotism, giggle-snorted and headed for the fireworks stand.

We didn’t, because we were busy with flooring (the never ending story, though at this point I think we’re halfway through the house.  I’d prefer to hire someone to do the main staircase (as opposed to the one to the basement, which ...

Happy Fourth

It is an odd fourth of July.  Colorado has banned fireworks, not an unusual event, except for the fact this Spring, while not the wettest we’ve had, has been wet enough that I mowed some mushrooms in my lawn yesterday.

More disturbing is the fact that this is the first year I haven’t heard “practice illegal” fireworks going off.  Then again son says he heard them a week ago, so it could be my hearing which is increasingly bad.

But here and across the nation, a lot of gatherings, parades and oth...

Life Went Sideways

I was going to write a post I was, but life went sideways, as it will in 2020. Only maybe not, as it’s not bad, precisely. It’s just annoying.

You see, I had a sequel to Have Spacesuit dictate itself to me in my sleep. All of it.

So? says you.

So, of course I can’t sell it, so it’s sunk costs. I resisted as much as I could, but it was broken sleep, and I finally woke up enough — kind of — to roll to the computer by the bed (I being displaced form my office, just now, since it needs painting and ...