Old Favorites

Like a comet I have a long tail, elements of my past, following me. Mostly these elements are my memories, sometimes there are artifacts. The most common artifacts are books and recently I’ve been digging out of storage books I started reading when I was in high school. Started reading because periodically I reread them. I’m a comet who turns around and loops through their tail more often than pursue a straight course.

My extracurricular reading interests in high school were science fiction, archaeology, and old and middle English. I’ve branched out since then but those are still pretty much a large part of my core. There weren’t many back then with the same interests, hard to believe considering how popular science fiction is now.

I have 18 gallon bins full of science fiction paperbacks. Simak was a favorite author as was Panshin.

I read a lot Heinlein back then. The books I end up returning to are The Door Into Summer and Double Star. Ace Science Fiction Specials with their distinctive covers by Leo and Diane Dillon were sought after.

With the libraries closed in our area I’ve increased the numbers of stacks of books in our home with piles of science fiction favorites alongside other new piles of books of other genres. There’s a lot of comfort in having a good reread.


Woodpiles

It’s March and I have been cutting and stacking firewood for the next heating season.

All the trees I’ve cut this year are windfalls from the past two years. This is wood from a large red oak snag that had been dead for years next to a road on our property. Last spring it blew down over the road and I finished cutting and stacking it this year. Since the tree had been dead for so long the wood has dried out quickly and shows a number of cracks on the ends of the split pieces.