Rosalie and Rosalind

by on November 30, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

There were more Ageless growing up in International Falls than just me, Rosalie, and Rosalind. More than there should have been. Only one-in-a-million of us are Ageless, and International Falls numbered in the thousands. Me alone was outside the curve. Me and the girls? We BROKE the curve. Then there were the Arnam of Rainy Lake. And… others. I can’t say how many, even here and now. Official secrets, doncha know? But there was a whole group of us Ageless who grew up together, stronger, faster, and more durable than most people. And as time went on, we got all the shiny side effects of the Peloran Treatments that made us just like the Peloran. I didn’t notice how abnormal that was at the time. Because it was normal to me.

 Comment 

Recycling, Scarcity, and Economics

by on November 29, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I’ve been brushing up on new skills to repair one of my favorite jackets lately. That put me into an interesting mood, because I knew I was doing it because I’d rather spend a few hours over a few hundred dollars on a piece of clothing I liked. It got me thinking about scarcity and the economics thereof. And then on Sunday I did my normal weekly wrapping up of food for my day job. So I can just grab a packet of aluminum foil out of the fridge and take it to work. Where I unwrap it, eat the food, and throw the foil away. Because of course we all do that. And it got me to thinking. Are we all going to find out why our grand parents recycled aluminum foil, just like they recycled bacon grease? By God, I hope we can avoid that.

 Comment 

I’m a Night Auditor, Not a Seamstress

by on November 28, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I’ve been growing some new skills in the last few months. I’ve been in tech for so long that my skill set is fairly narrow. I’m a Night Auditor, not a Seamstress, but I have a particularly good and useful jacket that has been falling apart in recent years. Wearing holes in cloth, ripping seams, and stuff like that. Stuff that my mom would have fixed when she was younger. But she was doing badly for at least the last couple years, and little things like repairing clothing passed our notice. Well, in the last few weeks, I’ve taken to needle and iron-on patches to repair the good and useful jacket that would cost me hundreds of dollars to replace. It’s not a perfect repair job, but it should give the jacket some more years of life.

 Comment 

Rosalie and Rosalind

by on November 27, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Rosalie and Rosalind were ageless, like me. Kinda. They stopped aging in their senior year of high school. A bit early for us Ageless, not that we realized it at the time, you understand. We had so many other things on our minds. All of us trying to graduate. Me trying to get over losing Julie and Alex. Them trying to keep me going. Forcing me to keep going. I’m not sure I would have made it through all that without Rosalie, Rosalind, and a few other close friends. Those that could take a punch and not go down. Bench press a car. Wrestle an angry timberwolf. The little things like that. There weren’t many of us, but there were more of us than a town our size should have had. Not that I noticed it at all.

 Comment 

Rosalie and Rosalind

by on November 26, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Rosalie and Rosalind dragged me out of bed each morning after Julie and Alex left. They even proved they were totally willing to dress me up if I was too lazy. Always in clothing that made me look silly. Their way of making me want to dress myself. And they dragged me to school. They saw me at my worst, and they dragged me out of it one day at a time. Those two girls did not give up on me. That pretty much forced me to start trying, if only to stop putting them out like that. I started wanting to live again because they didn’t give me the option of the other choice. I owe them a life for that.

 Comment