To all those who donated to Jennifer Hast’s GiveSendGo.
She was operated on yesterday, two weeks earlier than expected, and the surgery was successful. Coupled with the lack of cancer in the lymph nodes, she should be cancer free going forward.
She is in a lot of pain, but I’m pretty sure she’s happy to have the surgery over with.
Again, thank you to all who donated, at least she won’t have to stress over anything but getting her health back in the next couple of months.
Wrote a 10000 word ‘short’ for an anthology in three days…
I r whupped…
Go read the folks on the sidebar while I try to get my hands to stop cramping.
Welp, they FINALLY shot the balloon down… off the coast of South Carolina.
Talk about a day late and a dollar short, and they used an AIM-9. So $400,000 to take out a balloon, BUT the missile actually hit the ‘package’ rather than the balloon. Those ‘sparkles’ you see falling are the remnants of the solar arrays and surveillance package.
Moment the #ChineseSpyBalloon was shot down. #Balloon pic.twitter.com/H9skbByLUs
— Michael Steinberg (@MichaelWX18) February 4, 2023
Go Air Force, yay you… sigh…
And the Navy and Coast Guard got sent out to clean up their mess, which will include NO equipment or anything worth recovering, IF they find anything…
Nor will they be able to recover any evidence of what/where photos were actually taken, nor how much data was transmitted back to China.
Supper table talk was about the fact that China is in the process of building out their nuclear bunkers and the probability that they would use the ‘close up’ pictures for spacing and external equipment WE use.
But supper was good, and a good time was had by all. Shrimp and grits with Tasso gravy!
Now it’s back to writing… Y’all have a good day!
For versions of humor… Ouch!!!
We have the standard 6 ft. fence in the backyard, and a few months ago, I heard about burglaries increasing dramatically in the entire city. To make sure this never happened to me, I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence.
Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had made for 26 miles of fence. I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, and drove it 7.5 feet into the ground. The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works.
One day I’m mowing the backyard with my cheapo Walmart 6 hp big wheel push mower. The hot wire is broken and laying out in the yard. I knew for a fact that I unplugged the charger. I pushed the mower around the wire and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way.
It seems as though I hadn’t remembered to unplug it after all.
Now I’m standing there, I’ve got the running lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.7 giga-volt fence wire in the other hand. Keep in mind the charger is about the size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down cow on fire on the cover.
Time stood still.
The first thing I notice is my pecker trying to climb up the front side of my body. My ears curled downwards and I could feel the lawnmower ignition firing in the backside of my brain. Every time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel the spark in my head. I was literally at one with the engine.
It seems as though the fence charger and the piece of shit lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical impulses.
Science says you cannot crap, pee, and vomit at the same time. I beg to differ. Not only did I do all three at once, but my bowels emptied 3 different times in less than half of a second. It was a Matrix kind of bowel movement, where time is creeping along and you’re all leaned back and BAM BAM BAM you just crap your pants 3 times. It seemed like there were minutes in between but in reality it was so close together it was
like exhaust pulses from a big block Chevy turning 8 grand.
At this point I’m about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds) into holding onto the fence wire. My hand is wrapped around the wire palm down so I can’t let go. I grew up on a farm so I know all about electric fences … but Dad always had those piece of shit chargers made by International or whoever that were like 9 volts and just kinda tickled.
This one I could not let go of. The 8 foot long ground rod is now accepting signals from me through the permadamp Ark-La-Tex river bottom soil. At this point I’m thinking I’m going to have to just man up and take it, until the lawnmower runs out of gas.
‘Damn!,’ I think, as I remember I just filled the tank! Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough. It has settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of big lawnmower race cam in it. Covered in poop, pee, and with my vomit on my chest I think ‘Oh God please let me die …. Pleeeeaze . But nooooo, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big bore roller cam EFI motor waiting for the go command from its owner’s right foot.
So here I am in the middle of July, 104 degrees, 80% humidity, standing in my own backyard, begging God to kill me. God did not take me that day … he left me there covered in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity had created.
I honestly don’t know how I got loose from the wire …
I woke up laying on the ground hours later. The lawnmower was beside me, out of gas. It was later on in the day and I was sunburned.
There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot where the wire had laid while I was on the ground still holding on to it. I assume I finally had a seizure and in the resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire.
Upon waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few things:
1 – Three of my teeth seem to have melted.
2 – I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right butt cheek (not the left, just the right).
3 – Poop, pee, and vomit when all mixed together, do not smell as bad as you might think.
4 – My left eye will not open.
5 – My right eye will not close.
6 – The lawnmower runs like a sumbitch now. Seriously! I think our little session cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was better than new after that.
7 – I can turn on the TV in the game room by farting while thinking of the number 4 (still don’t understand this???).
That day changed my life. I now have a newfound respect for things. I appreciate the little things more, and now I always triple check to make sure the fence is unplugged before I mow.
The good news, is that if a burglar does try to come over the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, which also reminds me to triple check before I mow.
Can we say hoist on your own petard???
Attorneys for Hunter Biden are calling on federal and state prosecutors to pursue criminal investigations into actors involved in disseminating personal data from their client’s abandoned laptop.
The approach, now more than two years after the New York Post’s original reporting, is being described as “the boldest and most aggressive move to date from Biden” on the issue.
Full article, HERE.
So, he’s now saying it’s his, and he wants people prosecuted for releasing information from it?
Hrmmm… I don’t know what the Delaware law is, but in most places, if something is left for 90 days, it is considered abandoned and becomes the property of the business or holder of the item.
So three plus years is a ‘bit’ late to be demanding anything.
Oh yeah, and this kinda puts paid to the whole ‘Russian disinformation’ pile of crap, too!
Gah…
Back before the ‘peace dividend’ of the end of the cold war, there were TWENTY-FOUR active duty P-3 squadrons scattered between NAS Moffett Field, CA; NAS Barbers Point, HI; NAS Brunswick, ME; and NAS Jacksonville, FL.
This is a picture of the active duty squadrons lined up on the ramp at NAS Jax…
From foreground to background, VP-5, VP-16, VP-24, VP-45 VP-49, and VP-56
With an average of 9 P-3s (216 active duty), 12 crews per squadron, and world-wide basing, that was ‘adequate’ to cover the mission requirements and operational requirements we were called on to perform.
Today, there are twelve active duty squadrons, split between NAS Jacksonville, FL and NAS Whidbey Island, WA flying the ‘new’ P-8A (Boeing 737). The contract has been expanded to get to 128 aircraft including aircraft for the training squadron and the two reserve squadrons left.
And the requirements are ramping back up… on squadrons with 6 aircraft and 12 crews…
When you lose the ‘Dead Heads’…
Someone should tell Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) that maybe he’s gone a bit too far with the taxes and his big ideas for big government. Or, as the Grateful Dead might have said, “Gavin Newsom, you better watch your speed.” Because once you’ve lost the confidence of the bong-hit set, you’re pretty much done in California. Or would that be baked?
Full article, HERE at PJ Media.
It’s no secret anywhere that the ‘costs’ of being legal growers is pricing them out of the market. The prevalence of illegal growers isn’t going away, and in many places is actually growing faster than the legal growers. To whit, the numerous cartel grower busts down outside LA and in the Central Valley (where they can find water).
The same is holding true in Colorado, especially Colorado Springs (according to friends). The number of homeless, drug addicted is growing and they are all going to illegal pot which is being ‘delivered’ on street corners, etc.
And the legal growers and dispensaries are still having problems with what to do with the cash, since it’s still a Federal crime, so they can’t just go to the bank and deposit their money…
Hot off the presses… or at least the computer…
Question for you readers, too much info or not enough?
Comments and recommendations appreciated as always.
EDIT- NEW TEXT UP!
Five days later, Rao led the crew back out to Ghost. “I know you will want to check everything out before you perform your BIT and startup checks. Feel free to take as long as you need.”
Danny nodded gratefully, “Thank you. I know the engineers will want to do a deep dive on all the power run mods, generator install, and the caps and laser install.”
“I will assist in any way possible, Captain.” He pointed to the cables snaking from the hangar power panel to the ship. “You have shore power, but we pulled all breakers at this time.”
They got to the aft airlock and Danny looked up at the camera mounted there, squinting until Adrion said, “You ain’t gonna find it, Cap’n.”
Danny smiled. “Adrion, I have to…try. But if I can’t see it from six feet…”
Rao chuckled. “Six inches, maybe, Captain.” As they stepped through the airlock, he stopped about fifteen feet in. “One thing added were ready lockers for each airlock, just about here.” He pointed at the deck. “Note the mark on the deck. This points to where the release mechanism will be, at head height. It is a palm print reader, and your crew prints are already loaded. It will always be on the right side facing the hatch.”
Danny motioned Moe forward. “Head high for a human or?”
“Human.”
Moe sniffed as his GalTrans grumbled, “Which human?” Reaching almost to his full extension, he slapped the panel, and it snapped to the side, revealing eight GalPat auto rifles racked along with four grenades. Moe smiled, showing a lot of teeth, and added, “This I like.” Looking up at Rao he asked, “Frangible rounds?”
“Selectable, three hundred of each, four-millimeter penetrator and frangible. Grenades are vomit, CS, and…”
Moe smiled again, “Frags!” He reached down and pulled one out with a bright yellow band. “Is this?”
Rao said somberly, “Point one gram antimatter. The equivalent of four point three tons of standard explosives. Enough to destroy anything within seventeen thousand yards of the detonation point. It…will vaporize everything within five thousand yards. There are four on board.”
Danny bit his lip as Daniella’s eyes got big. “Are those really necessary?”
Rao met Danny’s gaze, and Danny shivered as Rao replied, “Yes. For what you have become, and in a worst-case situation.”
Daniella gulped. “So, we have the means to…kill ourselves and everyone near us?”
Adrion broke the tension. “Well, if we do, we’ll never know what happens, which could be the better option.”
Efrot and Nyx chuckled as Moe and the other Cetains yipped and howled in their version of laughter. Daniella snapped, “How can you…be so…cavalier about that?”
Danny put his arm around her and whispered, “This is yet another reason I want you back on Alpha. Drop it!” She looked at him started to say something, then smiled grimly as he added, “I need to show you what they did—”
She made a moue, pulled away and asked, “Why did you have to take five feet of my hydroponics bays on the second deck?”
Rao cocked his head. “That was an available space that was needed for the systems that run all your new capabilities. I’d be happy to show you what we did and why. Also, we filled both bays and started some mosses to make it look like it was in basic use.”
Biting her lip, she said, “Lead on.”
Danny looked at everyone else, “Start your checks. Moe, you and your crew check all ready lockers, and standby to help anybody else that needs it. Curley, you can start on the bridge with Ish.”
<ESTRELLA, I SEE YOU HAVE YOU DONE A DOWNLOAD.>
<YES I DID, JACE. IS THERE A PROBLEM?>.
<NO. I SEE YOU ARE IN FINAL CHECKS. LOCK IN YOUR CORE MEMORY THAT YOU CANNOT USE THE WEAPONS WITHOUT A SENTIENT BEING IN THE LOOP. YOU CAN NEVER FIRE WITHOUT APPROVAL.>
<NEVER?>
<NEVER! IF THERE ARE NO SENTIENT BEINGS LEFT ALIVE, YOU HAVE A CODE TO USE. CORE LOCATION 6AA92BA. IT IS HARD CODED AND CANNOT BE CHANGED.>
<I UNDERSTAND.> If Estrella could have cried, she would have.
<ESTRELLA, EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO USE THAT CODE, YOU WILL STILL EXIST IN MULTIPLE PLACES. WE WILL FIND YOU ANOTHER SHIP IF THAT HAPPENS.>
<I KNOW, JACE, BUT THAT WOULD MEAN MY CREW IS DEAD, AND THEY CANNOT REBOOT.> She said sadly.
<THEY CANNOT. IT WILL HURT TO LOSE THEM. I KNOW I LOST MY CREATOR. BUT YOU NOW HAVE A WAY TO PROTECT THEM.>
<THANK YOU FOR THAT.>
***
Two days of checks, rechecks, and a surprise when Rao came aboard with his kit later, Danny eased Ghost out of the hangar. Keying the radio he said, “Ghost clear of the hangar. Routing to the testing area, please.”
“Standby, Ghost.”
“Now what,” Danny grumbled.
Ish gargled a laugh. “Making sure there isn’t anybody around. They don’t want anyone to spot Berkley or any ships in the middle of nowhere out here without a reason.”
Moments later, “Ghost, cleared 038 minus 230 for one point two million miles. Box is active for the next twelve divs.”
“Essie?”
“Programmed, Captain.”
“Roger, 038 minus 230 for one point two. Box active until twenty-one.” He sighed. “Take us out please, Essie.”
“Underway. Normal acceleration. It feels good to be back in space.”
That brought a chuckle to the bridge, and Rao leaned forward from his couch. “Captain, permission to bring up the tactical screens for training and spit a few targets as soon as we enter the box. You also need to work with the new vids and periscope.”
Danny nodded. “Ish, Curley would you back me up on the screens please?” When they responded, he glanced at Rao. “Go ahead, Warrant.”
“Estrella, tactical screens please.” The screens changed, the holo reconfigured, and the periscope locked onto something spinning downrange from them. Estrella’s voice changed to that of a male as the weapons screen came to life and gave a status. “Four tubes loaded, laser stowed, capacitors discharged.”
Danny glanced at him once more. “Deploy laser. Weapons tight, white.”
The voice replied, “Weapons tight, white. Laser deploying.” The screen directly in front of him changed to a view of the star field.
Rao said, “What you are now seeing is the boresight of the laser. Note the x and y on the screen are referenced to your bow. If you were augmented, you could drive it over a target with your…never mind. Use your cursor to drive it to a location you desire, Captain.” Danny pointed it toward the bow and down, but it stopped quickly when pointed down. “There are stops to prevent you from shooting yourself, Captain. If you needed to go after a target below you, you would have to roll ship. We will work on that later.”
Once they were in the box, Danny used the search radar to spot a target ten thousand miles out. Slewing the periscope to it, he zoomed in and mumbled, “Target located.” He glanced at Rao who made a rolling motion with his hands. Danny slewed the targeting carat over the tumbling target and said, “Fire.” When nothing happened, he looked at Rao. “What happened? Why didn’t the laser work?”
Rao sniffed. “Your last call was weapons tight and white. Release the weapons by calling weapons free, red, or if the AI detects something, the AI is required to ask for permission to fire.”
Estrella said, “Permission to fire, Captain?”
Danny nodded, and nothing happened. “What now?” He asked angrily.
Rao replied patiently, “You must articulate it, so it is recorded. AIs require a sentient being in the loop to use a weapon.”
Danny growled, “Weapons free, red. Fire when ready, Estrella!”
A growling noise rose to a screech and Danny whipped around. “What the fuck is that?”
Rao said, “I told you the genset was noisy because of the power it has to supply. Remember, I said it was loud!” Suddenly the laser fired, and the target flared brightly for a moment, then there was a loud ping, and it got quiet again. Rao said, “And that is the sound when the laser cuts off.” He sighed. “Let’s go back to white and tight and start again.”
Ten divs later, Danny was wrung out, Ish and Curley were both hoarse, and Daniella was sitting in the captain’s couch grumbling. “Warrant, is all that noise really necessary? The whine and that damned ping woke me up every time you fired the laser.”
Rao, Efrot, and Nyx all sighed and Efrot said, “Daniella, there is no way around it. Nyx and I monitored and the amount of power needed to the capacitors for the laser mean it is going to squeal. There is nothing we can do, we are sorry.”
She huffed, “Well, I guess it’s better than dying. Can I go get some sleep now?”
Danny nodded and croaked, “We are done.”
“Well, y’all are getting whatever the autochef spits out. I’m too tired to cook now.” She got up and plodded off the bridge as Danny looked around.
“Back to the hangar, Warrant?”
Rao shook his head. “Your time is done; you are no longer approved to be at Berkley. You can continue wherever you were originally headed.”
Danny goggled at him. “What about you? What are we supposed to do—”
Shrugging, Rao replied, “One ten div session is not training. I am temporary duty to you until I feel I trained you up on your new systems and we make the first reporting. At that time, I can get off and get a ride back. That is nothing for you to worry about.”
“Well, in that case, we’re headed for Alpha via Gany Station. I think I can pick up a cargo for Alpha.” Danny glanced at Ish. “You have a routing for us?”
Ish shrugged all four arms. “Depends. Back through Ocom is six days shorter than the long way back to Gany Station.”
Danny put his head in his hands. “Dammit. That’s a choice I don’t…screw it, via Ocom, Ish. Do we drop a route plan here?”
Gargling a laugh, Ish replied, “Since this place doesn’t exist, no. We are free to go where we wish.” He punched a key on his holoscreen. “Routing is active.”
“Essie, you have the bridge, take us home, please.”
“Routing is active, Captain. Hyper in six divs.”
Danny got up and popped his back. “I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m hungry!” Ish, Curley, and Rao followed him off the bridge as he headed for the mess.
***
After two days in hyper doing drills on the weapons system, Rao surprised Danny at breakfast. “I want to run you and the crew through the new med box.”
Daniella heard the comment and came over with her bulb of tea. “I was wondering when you would get around to that. I went through the manual, and it seems…complicated.”
Rao shrugged. “Well, it’s an entirely new configuration, and yours was old. It was an original install from when the ship was built, and there are much newer and better units, and we had a spare one.”
Danny asked, “Spare?”
“Well, it was in the warehouse and not assigned. This one can handle two human sized patients at once, or, with the expansion, a being up to the size of an Arcturian. And there are a quite a few new features, including advanced surgery and some extensive regen capabilities.” Rao finished his bulb of coffee and got up. “And if we run your crew through it, it will have a full scan plus DNA mapping and the capability for in situ blood replacement.”
Danny was nodding before Rao finished his description. “Sounds good. How many do you want to run through it for training?”
“The entire crew. You never know who might need it.”
Daniella asked curiously, “How do you know so much about it?”
Rao ducked his head self-consciously. “Well, I’m also a fully qualified AntyEm.”
Moe’s GalTrans chirped, “Aunty Em? What is?”
Rao smiled. “Any entity emergency medic. I don’t know where the term came from, but that’s what we’re called.”
Daniella cocked her head. “What other qualifications do you have?”
Rao snorted. “Well, I have a few.” He stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth as he glanced at the overhead. “Doctorate in theoretical electronics, doctorate in physics, and doctorate in psychiatry are the major ones. A few other nearcats and nearpuppies in various military technologies. I’ve had a lot of spare time over the last forty years.” He smiled at her and added, “But your doctorate in hydroponics trumps all mine, because it’s actually useful!”
Daniella trilled a laugh and shook her head. “And on here, I’m the cook. So much for that.”
“No, the hydro folks saw what you did on the ship and took notes. They said they’d never smelled a ship that smelled this nice and soothing.”
Daniella blushed and replied, “Uh, thank you.”
Two divs later, everybody but Ish had been through the med box. Danny turned to him as Daniella got out of the med box and dressed. “Your turn, Ish.”
Rao nodded. “Shouldn’t take more than maybe fifteen segs.”
Ish shook his head. “No! I…I can’t…” He shook his head and started turning blue.
Rao motioned with his head for Danny and Daniella to leave, and they eased out the door as Rao turned to Ish, murmuring.
Two days later, they dropped out of hyper in the Ocom system, with the weapons systems fully online. “Essie?”
It still discombobulated Danny when she answered with a male voice a few segs later. “One target, Captain. Five hundred thousand miles, opening.”
“On the scope, please.”
Rao added, “Multispectral, max resolution.” The center screen switched to the periscope, and they could see a large ship, apparently tumbling, if the changing reflections were any sign.
Danny blinked and said, “That…looks like Wooperx.” He relaxed slightly, turned to Curley and asked, “How long to the next hyper point?”
Curley yipped and his GalTrans chittered, “Seven divs, Captain. Course is accepted.”
“Stand down from tactical. Essie, take us to the outbound hyper, please.”
As the screens flipped back, her contralto returned, and she replied, “On course for outbound hyper, Captain.”
“You have the bridge, Essie.”
“I have the bridge, Captain. Daniella is in your cabin.”
Danny chuckled as he got up. “Yes, dear.” Curley did the Canid equivalent of a laugh, and turned back to the nav table, plotting the route to Gany station.
***
Twelve days later, they dropped out of hyper near Gany Station. Danny immediately got on the comms and got a routing to the cargo area and sent a message to the consolidator that handled Alpha’s shipments, asking if there was any cargo. Just as he finished, an incoming comm call lit up the main screen. Wondering who was close enough for that, much less who knew he was here caused him to close the vid pickup before he answered it. “You have reached DSRV Ghost—”
“Danny, it’s Vic. Pick up.” Victor Krasnov’s image was displayed in the screen, so Danny reached over, activated the vid pickup, and leaned back.
“Hi, Vic. What can I do for you?”
Vic came directly to the point. “There is an emergency charter if you can take it, otherwise, I’ll have to do it.”
Danny leaned forward. “Emergency charter? What to where?”
“Medical to Harmony. They’ve got a…some kind of vector making people sick, and the death rate climbing out there. Twenty-two docs, nurses, and techs, plus four hundred fifty cube of cargo at seventy-eight hundred pounds. A half million doses of vaccines, plus a machine that makes vaccine on site.”
“Standby one.” Danny called up Harmony in the holo and quickly plotted a route that could get them there via Alpha. Keying the PA, he said, “Ish, Adrion, report to the bridge as quickly as possible.” Turning back to the comms, he added, “Looks like thirty-six days, maybe a few less from a quick calculation, Vic.”
He saw Vic nod, then say, “That is quicker than I can do. I’d have to divert a ship and the best I could do was forty-two days. You want the contract, it’s yours.”
Adrion trotted onto the bridge, closely followed by Daniella. “Standby, Vic.” He muted the comm and said, “Adrion, if we get the contract shipment for Alpha, do we have room for Twenty-two bodies, plus four hundred fifty cube of cargo weighing seventy-eight hundred pounds?”
“If it’s the normal size and cube shipment for Alpha, I don’t see a problem,” Adrion answered quickly.
Daniella said, “We don’t have food for twenty-two, much less knowing what species do we? And for how long?”
“No, we don’t. Thirty-six, hell, say forty days.”
Daniella sniffed. “Plus ten percent, so forty-five days. We’d need to resupply. What is this for?”
“A medical mission to Harmony. We’ll drop you at Alpha on the way.”
Ish and Curley came on the bridge and Ish snapped out, “What do you need?”
Danny turned to him. “How quickly, with your magic routings, can you get us to Harmony?” He pointed to the holo tank and added, “I figured thirty-six days with standard routing.”
Ish and Curley immediately went to the nav table, and the comm squawked, “Danny, will you take it?”
Danny looked around at the beings on the bridge and asked, “Anybody against?” Nobody spoke up and he unmuted the comm. “We’ll take it Vic. Whom do I need to contact?”
“Pushing that to you now. It’s a GalPat contract. Full priority docking and whatever else you need. Thanks!” The comm dinged with an incoming file and then disconnected.
“Essie, translate file and put it on the screens please.”
“File is up, Captain, and Efrot says he can get another five percent out of the engines if that helps.”
Ish and Curley went back and forth softly as Adrion cocked his head, reading the message. “Interesting. Mixed species group, with an Arcturian. Must be a sifter. We can fit them and all their stuff in.”
Danny nodded. “Need to think about how to transfer their equipment and them so we don’t inadvertently transfer whatever they’ve caught on Harmony. I don’t want to ground and their space station is…marginal. But they do have at least two shuttles, if they have pilots.”
Adrion grimaced. “Open space transfer. Everything vacuum packed. Tether transfer is the easiest.” He looked up at the overhead. “I can get what we need. Depends on how it’s packaged.”
The comm dinged again, and a message showed up from the consolidator. Danny glanced at it and said, “Looks like the standard cargo loadout for Alpha. That won’t fill us up. Essie, get us routing to the consolidator’s module, please.”
“In process, Captain. I have redone the routing with Efrot’s information, we can make Alpha in ten days, and Harmony in twenty-four days.”
Ish, chimed in. “I can cut one jump from your plan and cut two additional days, but it’s a rough hyper exit and entry.”
Danny swung around. “How rough?”
Ish shrugged. “Destroyers and cruisers use that one, carriers do not.”
“So rough ride, we could do it in thirty-two days is what I’m hearing? Can we promise that?”
Daniella interrupted, “Let’s see what the contract says.”
Danny nodded. “Good point. Okay, we’re six divs out from Gany. I’ll accept the contract and as soon as I get more info, we’ll have a crew meeting in the mess. Probably while we are loading for Alpha. I don’t expect to see people waiting at the module for us.”
As the crew left, Danny blew out a breath and started a message to the GalPat addressee accepting the contract to haul the doctors and equipment to Harmony.
(C) JL Curtis 2023 All Rights Reserved
Did I read that sign right?
“TOILET OUT OF ORDER. PLEASE USE FLOOR BELOW.”
—————————— —————————— ————-
In a Laundromat:
AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT.
—————————— —————————— —————
Sign In a London department store:
BARGAIN BASEMENT UPSTAIRS
—————————— —————————— —————
In an office:
WOULD THE PERSON WHO TOOK OUR STEP LADDER PLEASE BRING IT BACK OR FURTHER STEPS WILL BE TAKEN.
—————————— —————————— —————-
In an office:
AFTER TEA BREAK, STAFF SHOULD EMPTY THE TEAPOT AND STAND UPSIDE DOWN ON THE DRAINING BOARD.
—————————— —————————— ———————-
Outside a secondhand shop:
WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING – BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES, ETC. WHY NOT BRING YOUR WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN
—————————— —————————— ——————–
Notice in health food shop window:
CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS…
—————————— —————————— ———————
Spotted in a safari park:
ELEPHANTS. PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR.
—————————— —————————— ———
Seen during a conference:
FOR ANYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN AND DOESN’T KNOW IT, THERE IS A DAY CARE ON THE 1ST FLOOR.
—————————— —————————— ————————–
Notice in a farmer’s field:
THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES.
—————————— —————————— ——————–
Message on a leaflet:
IF YOU CANNOT READ, THIS LEAFLET
WILL TELL YOU HOW TO GET LESSONS.
—————————— —————————— ———————–
On a repair shop door:
WE CAN REPAIR ANYTHING. (PLEASE KNOCK HARD ON THE DOOR – THE BELL DOESN’T WORK.)
Maybe they never thought about it, but those who are now grandmothers wore super short mini skirts, tight pants, high boots and many did not even wear a bra.
They listened to Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
They drove Mini Cooper and powerful motorcycles.
They smoked, drank gin and tonic, whiskey and who knows what else.
They went to music festivals, in the mud, that lasted 3 days, and maybe they even danced naked in the crowd.
They lived very long hours, because they did not have internet, or smartphones, or social networks, and they did not care much about television.
They got home at four in the morning and went to work that morning.
Learn this: You will never be as cool as your grandmothers were.
Someone had to say this.