Amazons and Windless Future

Despite my Cantankerous Friend’s odious and misspelled attack on my character yesterday for dreaming of a winter spent in the tropics I predictably ended up back in the driveway last night when I returned from work.  The one thing I can count on living on top of this hill are the winter winds, which can approach ferocious.  Those winds worked all day long to cover up the damage I’d done to the pristine snow cover, specifically the driveway.

There were several substantial drifts that taxed even the Highlander’s attempted passage.  Before we could think of heading out for our Zorba’s date I had to ply my newest best friend, the snow blower, across the drifts.  Luckily the wind chill had risen throughout the day so it was only 19 below zero and as it was dark out by this time, the effort was cursory at best.  This is one wimp who is definitely casting his gaze south; the Cantankerous One shall just have to deal with it.

The Driveway Showing the Forced Passage of the Highlander
This was Completely Clear When I Left in the Morning

This was our last Zorba’s date before my wife leaves for her two month winter sojourn in Panama on Tuesday. The owner greeted us warmly and my wife commissioned her to keep a close eye on me during her absence; so I’ve got that going for me.  The alluring and platonically worshipped Zorba’s waitress is safe from even fantasized predation.  

As always Zorba’s was a lot of fun and we had some pretty substantial conversations about the future.  We decided to put our house up for sale following my son’s marriage later this year. The house is just too big for just the two of us.  We hope to start construction of our winter home in Panama this December and I was looking through the listings of houses back in my hometown earlier in the day.  I saw several that might work.  I no longer want a condo right in the middle of town and we agreed a ranch was probably perfect size for us.  This would be kind of a nice cyclical life event as the first house I can remember was a ranch in Keene and that will hopefully be the last house I move into.  It will just have to have a room capable of supporting my television (and a garage) of course. 

My Zorba Date Sitting Over the Remains of Our Very
Non-Keto Dessert - Vacation Days Rule!!!

It will all be predicated on selling this house but it feels cool to have a glide path to start this next phase of life.  I’m most excited about moving back to my hometown.  I’ll probably need to continue to work for at least two more years but the cost of commuting from Keene to Worcester will be offset by the lack of sales and state income taxes.  Of course this whole plan has to survive contact with the enemy – namely reality; but it’s nice to have some direction.

In unreality I just finished my old Army’s friend book, The Amazon Legion which I rushed through because I enjoyed it so much.  I was a little leery because its science fiction with a female story line which doesn’t always work for me but this was certainly the exception.

The book continues Tom’s excellent Carrera series which follows events on a future world, Terra Nova, with countries that mirror our own world’s.  This gives Tom license to cast some very pointed barbs at the rampant political correctness/hypocrisy in present day European government and the logical progression of that after a few hundred years.

Carrera is leading the country of Balboa (read Panama) out from under the yoke of a military occupation by the European counterparts.  Severely undermanned he decides to arm and train some of Balboa’s women – who form the Amazon Legion.  Once again this gives Tom the ability to propose the right way of integrating women into combat formations without all of the attendant idiocy of political correctness.  It was very interesting in that regard as he takes all the problems of mixing the sexes in infantry units and knocks them down with realistic if extremely hard nosed procedures.  It points out the true sacrifice that would have to be made to fully integrate women into functional combat formations. 

These would only work in science fiction but it was extremely interesting none the less.  It makes a very cogent argument about the true nature of unit cohesion in combat units.  The story revolves around one female recruit and her journey through the war with the Europeans (called Tauran Union).  That’s what made the policy lessons bearable because they were presented over the framework of a very strong and compelling story.