"Aren't you hot, lying in there?" I asked.

"Sure," he said. "But it's good practice... eventually I'll be living in Hell,
so this... this is a tender prelude."

Dot and Sam 44

All was chaos in the house. With the forth of July conveniently occurring on a Thursday this year, those that could stretch the holiday into an extra-long weekend did so. Thus Chris and Sandy, a modern couple with demanding jobs, chose to leave their teenage children home to fend for themselves and spend four days backpacking in the woods. Naturally, this occasioned some acerbic comments from Melissa – age 13 – and Carter – age 15 – concerning the decrepitude of their aging parents and doubts as to their ability to survive without Cable, Internet and Fast Food.

Diva in Disguise Chapter 9

Understandably, it was with a few misgivings that I set about readying myself for my first evening as a bar hostess. I had no real idea what that role might require of me. I’d made myself a light lunch, but I was too keyed up to have much appetite. All afternoon I was on tenterhooks, half-expecting the cop to show up. By the time I began my preparations for the evening ahead he still hadn’t done so. Perhaps I wouldn’t encounter the officer again.

Discovering New Mars

After hundreds of years of space exploration, we finally located signs of civilization out there. Mankind had had about 8 generations of space telescopes of increasing power, culminating with placing stations all over the far side of the moon to act as a virtual telescope almost as large as the moon itself. This scope swept across the plane of the Moon’s orbit for two weeks each lunar month and then shut off to recharge when the Sun’s light blinded it the other two weeks.