HermitShell of Simmer
Aug. 25th, 2017 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoYesterday when we were packing up to leave our rented house (yesterday! Was it really only a day ago?)--Raptor said "I want to stay in our Kansas house!" So I tried to explain gently to him that we all wished we could stay longer, but now was the time when everyone needed to go home to their own houses. Tears came to his eyes, and he curled up unhappily. "But I will miss you so much," he said. Me too, Raptor. Me too. We got to stay together a little longer, though. We were on the same flight with Raptor and the Nipper from KC to Minneapolis. I had tucked a couple of extra granola bars into their bags. Raptor was eating his, and told the Nipper there was one in his bag, too. The Nipper pretended astonishment. "No way! How did that happen?" Raptor said, "Grandmom put it there. She is kind to you." We were very happy that we could trade seats with them so Raptor could have the window seat. It's hard to explain how foolishly happy it can make you to be able to do just one more thing for someone you love, and how sad it is when you can no longer be there to do those things. Earlier in the trip, Raptor had commented suddenly, while we were all sitting around the table, "My people are here." The Nipper was intrigued and asked him, "And who are your people?" "My people are pretty," Raptor said. My people are pretty to me too, and I miss them very much.
One good thing about all this traveling has been that I've done a lot of reading in transit. Earlier this summer, I found Kim Stanley Robinson's "Forty Signs of Rain" trilogy on the used books shelf--all three volumes in nice hardcover. I read the first one on the plane. It's 358 pp., nicely typeset in readable font size and leading. I wished I had the second one, "Fifty Degrees Below" with me, because I finished the first book off with time left over. When I did pick up "Fifty Degrees Below," it seemed a little heavier. Hmm, it has 405 pp. Well . . . not THAT much longer. But then I opened it! The type was a lot smaller, and the leading proportionately reduced. A LOT of words packed into this thang.
I don't think it will be too spoilerish if I reveal that the trilogy is about climate change, and that the climax of "Forty Signs of Rain" involves Washington DC being inundated by a confluence of major weather systems. So it's been weirdly art-imitates-life-ish to return home to news of Hurricane Harvey. I'm wishing I'd read these when they were published, a decade ago, but they're still pretty interesting and contemporary. They keep making me sad, because I feel that we're losing this fight, and the people who have the power don't care. Anyway, I hope the people in harm's way from Harvey will be able to get out safely, and not imagine that the power of prayer will be enough to stop three feet of rain.
One good thing about all this traveling has been that I've done a lot of reading in transit. Earlier this summer, I found Kim Stanley Robinson's "Forty Signs of Rain" trilogy on the used books shelf--all three volumes in nice hardcover. I read the first one on the plane. It's 358 pp., nicely typeset in readable font size and leading. I wished I had the second one, "Fifty Degrees Below" with me, because I finished the first book off with time left over. When I did pick up "Fifty Degrees Below," it seemed a little heavier. Hmm, it has 405 pp. Well . . . not THAT much longer. But then I opened it! The type was a lot smaller, and the leading proportionately reduced. A LOT of words packed into this thang.
I don't think it will be too spoilerish if I reveal that the trilogy is about climate change, and that the climax of "Forty Signs of Rain" involves Washington DC being inundated by a confluence of major weather systems. So it's been weirdly art-imitates-life-ish to return home to news of Hurricane Harvey. I'm wishing I'd read these when they were published, a decade ago, but they're still pretty interesting and contemporary. They keep making me sad, because I feel that we're losing this fight, and the people who have the power don't care. Anyway, I hope the people in harm's way from Harvey will be able to get out safely, and not imagine that the power of prayer will be enough to stop three feet of rain.
