Just Checking in, Mystery Appliance, Wayward Galaxy 6

"Just checking in to see what condition my condition is in." | Kenny Rogers

The season is progressing. We saw our first Krampus special in a foreign language and had two full-menu turkey dinners. It's about time for introspection and thoughtful thinking. I am looking forward to 2024. I like to set my New Year resolutions in September as if I were going to start school. This week, I got a song from The Big Lebowski stuck in my head. "Just checking in to see what condition my condition is in." It gave me the idea to do a check-in. I am stable. I celebrated a year without a stay in the hospital. I switched to long-term disability. In March, I had an appointment with a Social Security law judge who talked to me and looked at my medical records. My judge did his checking and approved my disability claim. Then, I spent a few weeks getting medicare insurance lined up. Now, I am semi-retired. Having been out of work for so long, I had already created a routine to keep my time occupied. So, as with The Big Lebowski, I can say the dude abides.

My condition covers a lot of real estate. It's always good to invest in real estate.

On reflection, my condition is more stable going into next year. I am investing my time in being healthy. I have dropped weight since June. I already have to keep track of what comes out of me. It's an easy add-on to monitor what goes into me. The extra tracking helps me understand the relationship between how I feel and what is going on with my health. "it's the water, stupid."

I secured federal disability in the spring, which gives me insurance and cash. The reduced stress has freed up energy I can put into healing. Also, it's taken the stress off my husband. He worried about how he would take care of me long-term. It's different than being simply sick and unemployed. I think it is more long-term now. I putter around our apartment building that we manage part-time. It makes me realize I have a long way to go before I can hold down a regular job.

Our new log cabin ambiance and night light.

We have toyed with getting an electric fireplace for quite a while. The options are to put one in the wall by cutting a hole, have it be free-standing on the legs, or hang it on the wall like a picture. This week, we finally agreed on a style and how to turn it on the wall. Although on legs was probably a better option for easier repositioning. I think it's now our grown-up version of a night light. It's LED so that the flame color can change from the authentic yellow-orange of a campfire to the ice blue of a winter wizard's lair. I would choose one with a fake fire sound. It could use a slight crackle to help sell the fake flames.

Mystery Technology

In my book this week, Wayward Galaxy 6, there is a ton of mystery technology that makes the imaginary world of the book work. Like AI, space planes, and moon tents that pop up out of a beer can. I had a run-in with first-hand mystery technology this week. I had to triage a dishwasher. The dishwasher is in my top three mystery household machines. It's top-rated as a mystery because you can't see it working. You can see inside the microwave, aka science oven, the gas range, and the Dyson vacuum. However, the closed door of the dishwasher gives it the veil of secrecy. Someone complained that the dishwasher was not working and that it stank. Like many people, they did not know one could open the door while it was running to see what was going on. I always do it to add one more glass or bowl to an already running load. Dishwashers only fill up so far that you can open the door, and water won't pour out. I opened the door of this unit to find a full water pan at the bottom, as expected. It was not draining. I scooped out as much water as possible and reached down to feel for the removable filter. I pulled it out, and a hair clog and plastic wrap came with the filter. The mystery machine clog was solved.

The confidence to reach down into the dirty water is brought to you, as always, by YouTube.

What am I reading this week?

Wayward Galaxy 6 | Jason Anspach & JN Chaney

First Takeaway: I can't believe I finished the whole thing.

I liked that the series covers a one-story arc of people starting and finishing the adventure. There was no jump in the timeline other than in the first book. Having consistent characters from book to book helped engage my short attention span. In this sixth book, the colonists discover that good intentions can have negative consequences. Or, good people do bad things. Also, the bad guys will love to point that out to throw you off your game.

While employing clever cyber brain hacks on enemy combatants in cryogenic sleep chambers, The Rupac communist bad guy leader discovers the American colonists. He has an overly complicated revenge & escape plan. It's diabolical. It includes atomic missiles and an android henchman because bad guys should always have an evil robot and zombie minions.

We don't see much about how the American colonists are progressing in book six. We can imagine they will acquire all the infrastructure on the new planet and its moon. It's a giant planet; as the population expands, there is room and resources to spread out. We are led to believe that the planets where Rupac had set up a space empire had lost control of the natives and were no longer a threat in book five. Book six does not provide evidence other than no more Rupac forces have shown up.

The Mystery Technology

In book five, there was a plan by some of the former Rupac to use the advanced technology of the American colonists to return to Earth and live under blue skies. That storyline gets a boost by the end of book six. The advanced technology was discussed earlier in the series. The Rupac call it "The Arlington Archive." It has plans to terraform new planets. We don't see any of it in action, but it gets built up as the holy grail of the story. The American colonists were afraid to share it because it could be turned into weapons.

We do get to see the most incredible moon tent in use. It pops out of a little can and creates a moon rescue bubble.