A BK breakfast ache

Went to breakfast at Burger King today. Yep, a fast food english muffini with cheese, egg and sausage for $1, and a cup of coffee. Not the best thing to start the day with, but I indulge once a week for that price. I sit and eat and read and relax for 15 minutes before going onward to work.

I am reading "Fallen Angels" on my Kindle as I eat. I feel the tears swelling in my eyes and the ache in my heart as I read one particular passage.

The story is basically about the downfall of America/the world. It is set in post downfall times. The "greenies" have taken over and stopped technology and what they think is messing up the Earth. The Ice Age cometh because global warming doesn't hold it back. By stopping technology they have also stopped the thinking of new technology and science fiction is outlawed. Oh, fairies and magic and fantasy is still okay, but no real science in the stories is allowed.

Up in space is an American/Russian space station. Humans living in a confined environment and trying to survive. Two of them go out to cull some much needed nitrogen for air and their ship ends crashing on Earth.

Now, if you are a science fiction fan, you will love the book. The fen (as the fans are called) learn of the crash and go to rescue the spacemen/Angels before the "greenies" or the military can get to them. The book is about their travels and the other fans in the country that help them out along the way.

At one point in their travels they come to stop overnight in St. Louis. They are greeted at the Arch and taken into an enclave of fen that are also a medevil reenactment group. The reenactment group gets by because they are more 'fantasy' orientated.

The scene happens that evening when the Angels are telling their story. One of them talks about his trip up in space when he was 6 yr's old with his mom and dad. It was the last trip up.

The last flight. Doesn't that sound familiar. I think something connected in my brain then and started the ache.

He talks about when they were loading the ship, there was a riot starting. People wanting to stop it. People defending it. How could people want to stop these flights or this program. An older man said he was there and described the fight when they tried to break into Mission Control and how the ground crew gave lives to give time for the ship to get into space and to stop the precious controls from being destroyed.

I did cry a little at this. The space program was closed soon after and the space station was on its own.

Could this happen in America now? Maybe not. In the future? maybe not either, but to think that this story, a fiction could come true - it made me sad to think about it. A vision? A prophecy? just someone thinking the worst that could happen to our country and hoping for better.

Now, don't take this as the tone for the whole book. The story has a great feeling of hope and a show of comaradrie as the Angels travel thru the country getting help and support from groups along the way.

It was just a somber moment in the book and because of what has happened recently, an equally somber moment.

2012 starts!

I missed the whole month of December. Whooosh. It went on by.

There wasn't much to talk about anyway. I really dislike the holidays. They remind me of how out of touch my siblings and I are. I refuse to whine and moan about it anymore. I have tortured others with my tales of woe. I am going to move on to something like a new year and hopefully force myself into a different path of thinking.

I am swimming laps and enjoying it and saw that I have lost some weight. I am very happy about that. It makes the effort worthwhile. Not the effort of the swimming, but the effort to get there, change, and then after swimming the showering and changing to go back out and drive home. The good is outweighing the bad so it's okay.

I cleaned the laundry room/pantry out and found that I must be stocking up for the end of the world on Dec. 12th. Way too many cans of soup, spaghetti sauce, veggies and pineapple slices. No Spam. Must buy some Spam.

With the help of others I rearranged the bedroom and cleared some old furniture out. I also went thru the books. I got rid of a lot of ones that I had read and weren't worth keeping. By getting rid of, I mean, donated to a local bookstore where the books are free. You drop them off, you pick some up. Looking at organized shelves for the first time in years is nice. Nice enough to try and keep them that way. So, two rooms down, three to go.