Four
Forest
“OK, Jenny, just like I told you. Sight on that chunk of wood.”
Jenny Aggruder hauled the ancient Remington to her shoulder, still unused to the nine-pound weight of the old Magnum rifle. She lined up the sights as her father instructed her, placing the front sight blade in the notch of the rear sight, and placing her target – a large chip of wood placed on a stump a hundred meters away – atop the front sight blade.
“OK, honey, now take a deep breath. Let it out. Take another in, let it half-way out, and squeeeeze!”
The Remington discharged with a roar. The .338 Magnum bullet hit the wood chip a centimeter to the left of center, blasting it into fragments.
“Good shot!” Paul Aggruder exulted. “Andrea, this girl’s a natural!”
“As long as we can all eat. Wood chips don’t stew up very well, Paul.”
“I bought six boxes of cartridges, honey. Jenny needs to learn to shoot. You should too, you know.”
“I’m perfectly content to let you do the hunting, Paul.”
“This thing kicks, Daddy.”
“You get used to it,” Paul assured his daughter.
On their arrival a year and three months earlier, Paul Aggruder had paid for the use of a retrieval droid to transport the family to the limit of its range – about fifty kilometers – and then they’d walked another ten klicks north.
On their second day of walking, carrying everything they owned, they’d stumbled on a beautiful setting. A small fern meadow nestled in a semi-circle of huge pines, with a tiny creek wandering along at one side.
Now, fifteen months later, a three-room cabin nestled in the semi-circle of trees, surrounded by four fields planted in corn, sorghum and vegetables. The Aggruders settled quickly into the life of a frontier family.
A bandy-legged little man carrying a bulging pack and an enormous 20mm semi-automatic Krupp cannon had visited them once, six months earlier. Their sole visitor to date, he’d spoken almost no English, but had cheerfully accepted an invitation to supper, during which he’d grinned from ear to ear and answered every question with a cheerful, “Da! Da!”
“He doesn’t look Russian,” Andrea Aggruder quietly observed to her husband.
“Sure is a cheery little fellow, isn’t he?” Paul replied.
The funny little man spent the night snoring in the ferns against the cabin’s rear wall. In the morning he’d bowed, grinning happily, in front of Andrea and Jenny, hugged Paul and kissed him on both cheeks, and inquired, “Logger? Logger?”
“What’s he mean, Daddy?”
“Remember the briefings, honey?” Paul answered his daughter. “Loggers are those great big, armor-plated critters that live on the savannahs east of here. I guess this fellow wants to hunt them. That would explain the cannon.”
He nodded at the little hunter, pointing east. “Loggers that way,” he’d stated, slowly and clearly. The little man burst out laughing, hugged Paul again, cried out “Dosvidanyia!” and walked off to the east, the morning sun on his back.
“Well, there goes about the happiest man I ever met,” Paul observed.
Life was good out on the edge of nowhere, even Andrea had admitted. Jenny’s education proceeded by a hyper-wave terminal purchased at the sprawling Mercantile in the main town of Settlement. The family had little by way of income, but they ate well, between the grain and truck crops from their four fields and the occasional boser Paul killed with the ancient Remington, also purchased at the Company store in Settlement.
The evenings were peaceful, the days long and hot but satisfying. There was one issue, though, that worried the elder Aggruders.
“Paul,” Andrea Aggruder whispered to her husband late one night as they lay on their mattress of ferns. “Do you think we’ve done the right thing, bringing Jenny all this way out here?”
“What do you mean? I thought you liked it out here!”
“I do, Paul, but that’s not what I mean. Jenny’s almost eighteen, Paul. We’ve seen one other person the whole time we’ve been here, and he was at least our age, and he didn’t even speak English! Paul, Jenny’s a healthy young girl. She’s going to want to meet someone, sooner or later.”
“Well, I don’t think we’ll be able to afford to send her back to Earth to go to Harvard, honey. Hey, this is a growing colony, you know. More people are coming in all the time. When Jenny’s ready, she’ll probably want to get a job in Settlement, and live in the Company dorms there.”
“Oh, Paul, I don’t want her taking up with some grubby service droid repairman in Settlement.”
“You’d rather she married some ragged-assed dirt farmer, eh?” Paul chuckled.
“Oh, you hush. You know what I mean, Paul.”
“Look at it this way, honey. What would her prospects have been in Armstrong City?”
An image of the grubby, dusty Lunar mining colony popped into Andrea’s head.
“Remember what it was like there? The gangs of punks wandering around in the passageways? The dust all over everything? The drug problem? Andrea, leaving there was the best thing we ever did.”
“I suppose so,” Andrea answered. “I just worry about Jenny, Paul. I hope she finds a good husband when the right time comes. At least,” she hugged Paul hard, “at least as good as the one I found.” “She will, honey. She has her mother’s good taste in men!”
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
Sorry for early OT – busy schedule.
Overdue update from Italy…read most of last week’s posts during my last 4 shifts at work, but obviously wasn’t going to log in there.
I’ve got a temporary parking situation that seems to be working well when I’m on shift – assuming no surprises or last minute schedule changes – which isn’t a sure thing when assigned to the watch floor. I’ve got something a little closer that might hopefully work out – particularly if I shift from 12 hour watches to 8 hour watches. At least I’ve lost about 15 pounds the last month or so, and the new gym I’m walking to looks like a great fit too. Also picked up a take-out pizza after shift on Friday…for 11 euros (ready in about 10 min)…right around the corner from my place – so that’s not too bad. Going to try and do a starter tour for the Royal Caserta Palace on Wednesday this week – probably go ahead and buy a year pass – and that might give me some good pics for an article too.
Getting a couple A/C units installed tomorrow – hopefully a quick, not-to-messy job. I’ve gotten a nice new light set up for my hobbying, got my compressor, now just waiting on an airbrush to get here from the US…need another transformer too. Not a bad office setup really.
A couple notes for folks.
TOK: Have your daughter check with her husband about the status of Nimitz. I’m pretty sure this deployment is leading into a homeport shift for the defueling/decommissioning. As an Engineer, he may be assigned to the ship for that entire period resulting in an effective PCS to the Norfolk area, but he may also get reassigned to another PacNW ship instead. They should be putting out that info pretty soon if they haven’t already.
Regarding the discussion earlier in the week about full service gas stations….not gonna lie. I’m paying for the full service here in Italy…mainly because the payment machines aren’t necessarily standardized and it’s easier to just have them fill it up (only 1 octane of gasoline here – 93 IIRC) and use my gas card in their hand-held payment device. They do often do the windshield cleaning, etc. The costs are definitely higher, but for the moment, it’s a lot more convenient – the gas cards can only be used at ENI or AGIP gas stations anyways. At this rate, I definitely won’t be blowing through my 300l/month anytime soon. (at the discounted rate…I’m paying about 1/2 price or less with the currency exchange).
Much as I would like to see the OHP return…there are essentially no Oliver Hazard Perry class FFGs still in mothballs. From what I’ve seen, they’ve all been sold off overseas or sunk as targets.
A good piece this week on “affordable housing” being blocked…by unions. https://www.nationalreview.com/news/scottsdale-was-about-to-sign-off-on-a-billion-dollar-development-then-a-california-union-stepped-in/
This one is a little tougher. Much as I enjoy the dunking on the migrant deportation flights to El Salvador this past weekend….Charlie Cooke’s comments here (https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-editors/are-the-houthis-getting-what-they-deserve/) starting at 43:30 or so do make sense in terms of the bigger picture constitutionally….and I would prefer that things were squared away more professionally when it comes to getting rid of dirtbags.
Someone approved the entry of the TdA men. That someone needs to be identified and held accountable.
More on Axon/Scottsdale, with virtually no mention of union influence (unless it is well buried under pretty run of the mill NIMBY opposition).
Wow you’ve been busy! I think about my kid having to do some of this stuff at 19 and every day she impresses me.
She’s seen that Truman has been extended, and Carl Vinson has been moved to the 5th Fleet, so she’s worried the deployment might get extended, or the Nimitz will be sent to 5th, but for now the official line is it will be doing its routine deployment in 3rd Fleet (Pacific). I pointed her to reliable web sites like USNI News that has official press releases. No sense listening to rumors.
There are tons of articles out about this being its last deployment. My son-in-law already has orders to move to Virginia with the ship in 2026, first to Norfolk and then to Newport News. He could still get moved to another ship, but for now that’s what they’ve told him. He gets to sail around the tip of South America when it’s relocated. I hope this kid realizes how lucky he’s been so far, he’ll have some great stories to tell.
3rd fleet isn’t a routine deployment. 3rd fleet is only for training between the west coast and Hawaii/date-line more or less. If they’re going to Indo-Pacom/WestPac, they’ll “Chop” into 7th fleet after they pass Pearl Harbor.
https://www.cpf.navy.mil/Newsroom/News/Article/4132122/nimitz-carrier-strike-group-departs-bremerton-for-regularly-scheduled-indo-paci/
Glad they’ve got the orders notification…it’ll be a hassle moving by herself, but I guess you’ve got family and can support her with that too – they probably don’t have too much stuff yet.
I didn’t know that about the 3rd. I learn something every day.
She is a bit worried about how the move will go, but yes she’s got help, and yes they live in a small place so they don’t have too much. A lot of it was picked up for free from other Navy families, and she’ll probably give it up and pick up more things in Virginia. I’m just happy it’s a much closer drive for us.
Military move are…fun. Band together with the other spouses and someone will take her under their wing for the move.
Im sure lots of folks here have their stories and tips and tricks
She has a best friend who’s husband is a nuke on the same ship. This woman looks like she’s 12. But she’s been a big help.
Good to hear!
“I would prefer that things were squared away more professionally when it comes to getting rid of dirtbags”
I would, too. I’d also love to have immigration laws that put the “general welfare” (in the original sense) of American citizens as the only priority. But I’m not getting those, so I have to ask myself, “given what is realistic, what should be done?”
Perfect, enemy, good, you know the drill.
“Loggers are those great big, armor-plated critters that live on the savannahs east of here. I guess this fellow wants to hunt them. That would explain the cannon.”
Makes me wonder what the hell the predators are like that go after loggers.
Some animals get big enough that they don’t have predators. Like Blue Whales. Or Elephants.
I figured the need for armor plating meant their size wasn’t sufficient by itself.
Now I’m wondering what eats Galapagos tortoises, or would if they were unshelled.
So it might be an evolutionary holdover that hasn’t been shed?
Humans. Galapagos Tortoises were a major food animal for sailors in the 17-1800s. Hawks, Boobies, and land iguanas would go after eggs and hatchlings.
I believe the babies/young of every species are prey for somebody – lions, orcas, sharks, etc.
Fiction I have watched:
SS-GB. Good. Best ending I’ve seen in a long time.
The City & The City I’ve only watched the first episode. I have serious misgivings about the artistic direction and while I’m currently enjoying it, I have a gut feeling the series is going to piss me off before it ends. Fortunately it’s a short series.
I’ve started a project of watching those works in my collection that I have not previously watched. I’ve written six reviews so far… out of more than fifty.
I want to get a good buffer going before I start submitting them so I don’t get a gap in release schedule.
I can’t say I’ve seen either of the two you’ve mentioned. But I’ve got a lot of stuff to watch.
Have to figure Jenny is going to meet a strapping young man from Idaho, which leads one to wonder just how long the horizon is on this story arc.
Or she marries the Russian guy and they live happily ever after because they can’t understand each other.
@TOK, pulled forward from dead thread.
@RC I hate that stuff, but this is an extreme case.
There are dietary interventions that can increase GLP-1 activity; but probably not at the level necessary here. With the caveat the GLP-1 agonists shouldn’t be relied on absent lifestyle interventions, especially at the doses prescribed for weight loss (which tend to induce those nasty side effects), with knowledge of the implications (e.g. lean mass loss, potential for worse weight issues if discontinued without having made the lifestyle choices, etc), they might be useful for long term resolution at the more therapeutic doses. I’ve not seen a better, more even handed review than this one
I did a quick look, that is a great video. I hope the new doctor is more like this. Mrs. TOK is in a constant struggle with her weight, and she knows the American tendency to look for a magic pill, but her best success has been following 75 Hard. No drugs, just being strict and consistent.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/75-hard-challenge-and-rules
And of course I find an article critical of 75 Hard. She has completed it multiple times, it’s difficult but well worth it.
Just reading it makes me “Hell no, that’s make me throw the plan in the trash and binge eat junk”
For my wife, this works because she’s stubborn, and when someone tells her she can’t do something, she wants to prove them wrong. When you throw a challenge at her she takes it personally if she doesn’t complete it. She’s figured out how to hack her own personality. For her, it works, but of course it’s not for everyone.
I’m lazy. I have leveraged that in my career in terms of process automation. I look for better ways of doing things, but when there is only one way, I get despondant at the amount of work in front of me. A ‘fix’ that requires maximum additional effort will not stick with me.
I suspect exercise for the sake of exercise will always be a pipe dream. There needs to be some additional purpose. I have begun to wonder if actually getting a forge set up might allow for me to move more, since I’ll be able to go “I made that” and it’s not just expending energy. Taking care of a plot of land would also be beneficial in a similar way. Movement that feels productive is more likely to stick.
Despite (my wife) paying for the full Peloton membership, I’ve ended up just doing a random hill ride most afternoons, while I catch up on the afternoon links and do Duolingo.
Now that it’s back, I’ll also be catching up on F1 races.
I got a holder for my tablet that attaches to the bike.
That works for me – combining exercise and other stuff, especially stuff I was going to do anyway. Yes, it’s exercise for exercise sake, but I don’t mind it since I’m multitasking.
Slummy, I do something similar when I go to our local rec center – I get on the recumbent cross trainer and either surf the web on my phone or watch one of the TVs in the front of the exercise equipment area. It’s usually evening news time, so if I watch news, I’m selective about the source for the sake of my blood pressure. 😠
I should note that I’m wearing a HRM and keeping an eye on both my heart rate as well as the resistance, so I’m not just phoning it in – I’ll be 60+ resistance and up out of the saddle at a few points and it’s usually good for ~ 400 kcal per session (not that I’m counting calories).
Between the regular bike use in the last year and returning to low-carb eating in January I’m noticeably down.
I do need to sub in some weight work; was just chatting with my wife, again, about the strength gym that’s not too far – but it’s just far enough I know it’d be too easy to skip when the weather’s bad, etc. I’ll start with the dumbbells and go from there.
No alcohol?
PASS.
A co-worker just completed the 75 hard. He was quite pleased with the results. He said he might also give up alcohol permanently.
AI generated nightmare fuel.
https://pub-3626123a908346a7a8be8d9295f44e26.r2.dev/generations/0-231696dc-a8c7-4eca-a236-6881c9fe2a04.jpg
NSFW.
Modern medicine
Is the health care system just making things up? No, it’s more insidious than that. The definitions have changed to broaden the market. Autism and ADHD used to be “Yes-No” diagnoses. Not anymore: now there is a “spectrum.” Just stumble over a couple of key metrics and you’ve made it onto the list.
——-
Far fewer children have been herded into the world of transgenderism, but that world is much more profitable. Surgery can cost up to $75,000, and that’s not including puberty blockers, hormone treatment and counseling.
The transgender world is also worse because of the evidence-free contention that gender is a “social construct.” In other words, you can be anything you want. Of course, you can imagine yourself a different gender, but you can’t imagine yourself with different genitals — you have to pay for that.
Diagnosis and treatment are not standardized. The fact that some people detransition calls into question evaluation procedures. Although detransition is claimed to be a low number, that may not be the case. A 2022 study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism pointed to an “increase in numbers of persons presenting for gender-affirming care [and] reduced proportion of [transgender] people receiving an adequate mental health evaluation” as reason to believe that “low reported rates of detransition and regret in previous populations will no longer apply to current populations.”
We’re a long way off course.
Do suicides count as detransitioning because there are a lot of those and both are probable expressions of regret and/or hopelessness. For a lot of people it’s easier to stick one’s head in the oven than to face the demonization that the detransitioners face and that’s just what they do.
The definitions have changed to broaden the market. Autism and ADHD used to be “Yes-No” diagnoses. Not anymore: now there is a “spectrum.” Just stumble over a couple of key metrics and you’ve made it onto the list.
A little bit of sleight of hand by the author. Autism used to be on a spectrum with separate Asperger’s, High Functioning Autism, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, and autism. Now they are all grouped into one yes/no category of autism.
It’s been a few years since I reviewed the diagnosis criteria, but the stumble over key metrics is (was?) also bullshit. An actual diagnosis required using either a validated measure like the ADOS or multi-professional team to evaluate. Not something you just check off with the PCP like ADHD.
I suspect exercise for the sake of exercise will always be a pipe dream. There needs to be some additional purpose. I have begun to wonder if actually getting a forge set up might allow for me to move more, since I’ll be able to go “I made that” and it’s not just expending energy. Taking care of a plot of land would also be beneficial in a similar way. Movement that feels productive is more likely to stick.
This is essential. There has to be a real positive feedback and enjoyment or the best laid plans fizzle out. I saw the discussion about TOK’s daughter earlier. Maybe she likes working in the garden. That could be a lever to at least get her outside in the sunlight.
I exercise by walking, but I loathe doing it for its own sake. I have to have somewhere to go for some reason to be there. I usually just park at the back of a parking lot.
Do suicides count as detransitioning because there are a lot of those and both are probable expressions of regret and/or hopelessness.
Let’s face it. Eradicating your former self is a form of suicide.
The perfect symbol for transformation: death’s-head hawkmoths.
Jenny Aggruder
Now I have visions of Jenny Agutter in my head. That’s not really a bad thing.
She was 23 when Logan’s Run was filmed; she is 72 now.
Forever 2
13Ferrari Just Patented Pill-shaped Pistons and Siamese Connecting Rods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiZbjAuKk4A
Ferrari Just Patented Pill-shaped Pistons and Siamese Connecting Rods
I watched that yesterday. He mentioned Honda’s oval pistons, but not Harley Ferguson’s “Siamese twin” rods (which came from aircraft engines, I believe).
They did. I think Porsche or Volkswagen also previously experimented with connected rods.
Perfect.
That’s an old video. But I approve heartily.
https://phl17.com/phl17-news/allentown-city-hall-employee-planted-noose-at-own-desk-police/
EVERY
DAMN
TIME