Wilco Robotronics Inc.

     Part 2

            I wasn’t used to being around that much salt water. It smelled different here. Back in Watertown the dry warm breeze blew over miles of wheat. It has a scent. The wind  here was dank, moist, and cool. I thought of this air as supporting moss, ferns, and forests. All exotic to me.
            It was good to be up and walking around. Right down the block on the same side of the street there was an old bakery. Mike’s. I entered cautiously. Curious. There were three booths and the usual display case of pastries and cakes and cookies, and some loaves of bread. There was an espresso machine.
            A middle aged lady with a twinkly smile, in a white apron sold me a 16oz latte, and a cherry Danish. I took a seat, and tried to sense the vibe in this town.
            Well, time would tell, and speaking of time, I figured it was time to go find Bob Davis, HR guy at Wilco for final negotiations. I couldn’t help but wonder if I would end up living here in this town on the bay, listening to gulls scream, and smelling Port Gardner Bay.
            The doors to Wilco were department store doors. Double and heavy.
            Inside, a six foot tall tabby cat wearing a pinafore welcomed me. “Bob is waiting for you upstairs. Follow me.” Her tail hung out of the back of her pink striped pinafore as she walked before me. Visions of the animated toys in Blade Runner danced in my head.
            “This floor is our display room. It gives prospective customers a look at what is possible,” said she. “Oh, I’m sorry, Mars, my name is Felicia.”
            “Nice to meet you, Felicia. Charmed!” I answered her.
            I glanced around the display floor. A seven foot Sasquatch smiled amiably, behind a computer monitor, working at a desk. He waved and said his name was Lance. “Hi, Lance!” I called out, “Hey, good ta meet ya!” It was too. My mind was being slowly blown. Seeing these creatures in person was a whole bunch different from watching them on video.
            Hello Kitty ran a vacuum over the carpet. Dizzying. ‘Is there really a market for this?’ I wondered. “Excuse the noise,” said the kitty.
            “No problem,” I said.
            How did Felicia know my friends call me Mars? I didn’t ask her. But, I hadn’t told her either.
            They hadn’t redecorated the old store. It was dark, full of wood, rather cute.
            Felicia ushered me into an elevator, followed behind, and pushed the number 2 on the control panel. I noted that there were two more floors above that. The second floor was hushed. It didn’t look like the second floor in an old department store. This was upscale, in modern business style. As I followed Felicia down the hall, small lights located every ten or so feet apart on the right side wall lit up with a green glow. I guessed that meant we were expected.
            At the end of the hall, facing the elevator, was an office door. No sign disfigured it. No window gave any hint of the room’s interior.
            “He’s here, Bob,” Felicia said as she opened the door.
            I stepped inside the room. There was a big desk facing the door, and behind that desk sat Captain James T. Kirk.
            “Come on in, Mars,” said the captain. “I’m Bob Davis. Let’s talk!”
            His smile seemed genuine enough.
            My head was spinning. I’d seen the old TV show and somewhere in the back of my mind I could hear the theme music playing.
            I was ready to boldly go where no man had gone before, more or less.
            But I had some serious reservations.

A Truly Soggy Day

 

 
            Midspring in the Great Forest can be a misty watery time that stretches out for what seems like weeks. The clouds come down among the tops of the firs and hang around there, dripping or just pouring the water that runs downhill into the rivers. All the forest and lowlands depend on this water, but it can seem pretty grey after a while.
            Forest People are pretty weather proof, it’s true. But even they start looking to the sky after a while wondering when the light will come back.
            Ramona threw a few more sticks on her almost eternal fire, stood and wiped the smokey rain out of her eyes. Even that soul of patience, herself, sighed. Cherry sat near the fire. Next to her feet, Blue slept with her white fur full of raindrops which gathered and ran to the ground. Steamy smoke rose up through the dropping rain, creating a ragged column in the air. The light was low and diffuse.
            Even Ralph seemed a little quiet. Coming into the Home Clearing from the direction of the Silver River, he carried a gunny sack half full of gullible trout. Water ran down his coat from the top of  his head clear down his beard, off his belly, and down to his feet.
            “Mona,” he said, “There isn’t a whole lot of difference between being in the river and being outside of the river.”
            He gave her the bag of fish, and she dumped them, wriggling, into her five gallon bucket half full of river water to keep them alive for a while.
            “I’m thinking of that little stove Ooog, and you put into the Alder Tree House, Baby. I wonder about cooking inside on a stove sometimes,” said Ramona.
            Ralph wiped his eyes and shook water off of his head, and grinned. Water flew off all directions.
            “Oh, you do, do you?” he said. “Would you like a garden and a skirt too?”
            “We’ve been through both of those ideas already,” she said, “haven’t we?” The memories made her smile a little.
            Into this bucolic but soggy scene, a familiar voice called out from high overhead. Maeve drifted down out of the mist silently on wide black wings. She looked kind of like a harbinger of doom, but she wasn’t. She just really liked to make a dramatic entrance.
            She landed right beside Cherry and wrapped the child in one of her long black wings.
            “Is it spring yet?” said Maeve.
            “Yes,” said Cherry, “because the days are getting longer.”
            Even Maeve sat dripping. The rain ran off of her shiny black feathers and dropped around her on the log.
            “Let’s all just go inside and be dry for a while,” said Ramona. “Maybe the storm will blow over if we’re not keeping an eye on it. You know how the wind is about things.”
            “I do know,” said Maeve, with a sharp look in her black eyes.
            “I know too,” said Ralph.
            So, everybody went inside the clever green door. Ramona lit a candle, courtesy of Thaga, and everybody found a seat.
            One of the three singing stones was still in the cave where Ralph had put it. It was usually quiet, but today it was murmuring a little.
            “Maybe I should go get the other two?” said Ralph.
            “Alright, if you think so,” said Ramona.
            “Evermore,” said Maeve from the headboard of the bed, because she just couldn’t help  herself.
            “I wonder what will  happen,” said Cherry with wide eyes, looking at her father.
            So, Ralph went out into the rain storm again and fetched the other two singing stones. They were already ringing when he came back through the door. He set them down on the floor.
Ramona, Cherry, Maeve, and Blue watched as he put the first one with the other two. He arranged them into a nice triangle, but not very far apart.
            Once more the stones sang, but not so fiercely as before.
            “The song is about the sun,” said Cherry. “I can hear it! It says that the sun is shining!”
            “How can that be?” said Ramona.
            “Maybe we should just go look,” suggested Maeve.
            “I hear the wind!” said Ralph.
            Blue could hear it too, but didn’t say anything.
            Ralph went out first, followed by his Ramona. Then Cherry and Blue. Maeve hopped out last of all.
            Outside the wind was sweeping away the last tags and ends of cloud. The sky was at least half blue, a blue that looked like it was as deep as Heaven. The sun was up there burning away for all to see. It almost hurt to look around; the light was so bright!
            Water dripped off of every branch. But there was steam too, rising up from the ground. It rose and drifted away to windward as if in apology for making a fuss.
            Birds called, as they do after a storm.
            Berry and Bob came back from romping in the meadow near the Alder Tree House. They were soaking wet, but there small white petals on them too. They had been too busy playing to get any hunting done. So they had only their secret grins and themselves to show for their morning.
            “Where have you been?” Ramona said to Berry.
            “Oh, running about! Talking to bees! The bees have come out of their little Twigg House!” said Berry. “They are looking for flowers!”
            “Beulah told us a secret,” said Bob.
            “Who is Beulah?” said Ramona. “Is it a secret to tell or to not tell?”
            “A bee! One of those B’s. She’s too young to remember Twigg, but she’s heard the story and Bernadette, the Mother Queen of B’s told her!” giggled Berry.
            “Every B in the Twigg House knows!” said Bob.
            “And so do I,” said Ramona. But she was smiling at the bros and the sun shone down on it all!

🌷🌞🌷

The B.Y.C. Day Report

 💟

            Suzy had a few quiet moments to herself to contact her good friend, Toots. It had been a long day. Suzy has some important responsibilities, as you can imagine, and she has been a very busy girl lately.

          “Toots, are you there, Honey?” she Purrjected™. She was getting better at this. No need for a gazing surface, unless of course, she needed to actually see Toots, and the other way around.
            “Yeah, Suzy dear, I’m listening!” she sent back immediately.
            “I just needed to speak to someone who isn’t a kitten, or a Fluffbag!” said Suzy. “Though I must admit that he has been doing some heavy lifting around here too!”
            “Mrrrrh! Sounds interesting,” said Toots. Suzy could hear Toots’ light laughter in the background.
            “So, Suzy, how have you been helping the kittens?” said Toots.
            “I watch. Mostly. I make sure they don’t strangle themselves on some rope, or string, or bag with loop handles! Fortunately, they take very long naps, so I can rest up a bit in between bouts. It makes me dizzy. I never had any children of my own, you know?” said Suzy.
            “Well, neither did I,” said Toots.
            “Uh oh, here comes Sweetie!” said Suzy from the top of the piano. “Hey, kid, say hi to Toots!”
            “What? Yeahyeahyeah….! Hi! Who’s Toots?” said Sweetie. He was confused because he didn’t see anyone to say hi to. “Where is she?”
            “In Texas. Don’t ask, just shut your eyes and listen,” said Suzy. So, Sweetie stopped and closed his eyes, like a good boy. He seemed to be listening to something. He squinted with effort.
            “She said I should always mind you and Mr. Baby. Is that his name?” said Sweetie. “I didn’t know he had a name.”
            “Of course he has a name. A weird name, I will admit. You have a name too,” said Suzy.
            “I do?” said Sweetie. “What is it?”
            “You know that word they keep saying to you? Sweetie? That’s your name,” said Suzy, rolling her eyes a little.
            “What’s a name?” said Sweetie, getting back to basics.
            “It’s a special word that is you and means you. For one thing, so we all know who we’re talking about. Nobody asked me. They named you, well, she named you. She has a strong predilection for naming. She called me Suzy, and now I’m stuck with it. If she had asked me I would have said Inexorable. Better name!” said Suzy. She smiled for a moment.
            About then Toots spoke up, “Where’s the other one?”
            “Sleeping in his chair, Toots Ma’am. He sleeps a lot,” said Sweetie. “I have to wake him up sometimes! I lick him! And I bite him, until he chases me, then we chase that big tail around and around!” enthused Sweetie.
            “Well, go wake him up, Sweetie. I want him to meet Toots too.”
            Sweetie headed for the living room where the chair sat and where Booker was sleeping peacefully, not bothering anyone.
            Soon rapid pawsteps could be heard heading for the back porch. Booker then Sweetie hit a big piece of brown paper they had been messing with earlier and both slid into the glass doors!
            “Tell him what his name is, Miss Suzy!” said Sweetie, all excited to be the bringer of knowledge to his bro.
            “My name is Booker,” said Booker calmly. “Booker is my name because I told her that my name was Booker the very first time she listened to me.” He sat quietly; tail wrapped neatly around his feet.
            “I could hear you and Miss Toots talking while I was still out in his chair. Hello, Ma’am. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Booker. “I’m a student of philosophy, Miss Toots. What is your main area of interest?”
            “Recording. I watch and record,” said Toots in amazement.
            Booker laughed, kindly, and said, “Are you an angel, Ma’am? I have heard of recording angels.”
            “I don’t know. I don’t think so. But then, would I know?” said Toots. “I only claim to be a very Cautious™ little grey tabby.”
            “We just don’t know everything,” said Suzy. “But I bet someday we will!”
            “You’re probably right, Miss Suzy,” said Booker, the student of philosophy, as he peeled off to chase Mr. Baby’s big provocative tail with his brother. There was a lot of scampering noise, and protesting Brrrts! From Mr. Baby.

"Brrrrrt!"

            “You see what I mean, Toots?” said Suzy. “Quite dizzying!”
            “Quite, indeed,” said Toots. “Well, you have your paws full, My Dear! May it all go smoothly. We must Purr™ for them. What fine fellows they are! You must be very proud of them!”
            “Well, yes. I wasn’t sure at first. But they are growing on me. I think they will be a credit to all the world of cats,” Suzy said, rather proudly, after all.

😸😻

💛

A Whole Lot of This, Open Thread

 It was one of those days.

Lots of kitten business.

It's Toots' own day again, and a fine thing it is!

Suzy says, "Meow!" IOW, "Hi!"

Booker, feels a little shy, but friendly.

Sweetie feels very enthusiastic about Tootsday.

Anything could happen, he feels.

Mr. Baby feels that raising children is a big job. Who knew?

Have a wonderful day!

🤍🌸🤍

Interview With Ralph

            

            “Hey, thanks for fitting me in, Ralph. It’s a privilege!” I said.
            “No, Tsatta, I’m happy to meet you,” he said, with a little smile. He seemed to be sitting on a log. Not his own great log, but a different one in some neutral location.
            “Why did you call me that? Do I have a name in Saslingua?” I was confused.
            “You do now! I just named you. In our language, which by the way, we don’t call Saslingua, Tsatta means Small Sister. It doesn’t mean younger like Little Sister does in English,” he said. “We are always impressed by how very small and delicate you people are!”                                                                   
            His legs were crossed and his hands were laced together over the upper knee. He looked rather professorial at the moment. He smiled encouragingly.
            “I’m sure you heard that story this morning. The one told by Chris about Johnny being rescued by someone like you in Colorado on a mountain in a snow storm,” I said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if that was you. I know you get around. But I’d guess that it was actually someone like you.
            “No, that wasn’t me, but I know him by two or three removes. Friend of a friend deal, you know?”
            “Your friend of a friend was extremely merciful to that young man. He would surely have died if he hadn’t been carried to his Jeep by your friend’s friend,” I said.
            “Well, yes, he is a father you know? When he saw that the young fellow wasn’t going to make it, he stepped in, as surely any father would,” said Ralph. “And since Johnny, at 200lbs was an easy load, he just carried him to safety. You people die so easily!” he said. “It’s a wonder to us that there are so many of you!”
            “I could turn that around on you, Ralph. It’s a wonder to us, those of us with eyes to see and ears to hear, that you people live so long and are so strong. It seems almost extra-natural!” I said.
            He grinned enigmatically. Those big old brown eyes, so profoundly deep, twinkled.
            “OK, some of us were saying that we thought you had rescued at least a couple of human people from sure death yourself. I wondered if you might talk about those rescues a little. If you don’t mind, that is,” I said.
            “Let me think,” he said. “I remember one guy. You know I don’t want to make myself sound like a hero. I used the tools I had. That’s all it really is.”
            “That makes sense to me. What happened to him?” I said.
            “It went like this,” he said. “You can read the whole story if you want to, but at the bottom of it a young guy named Bruce was wandering by those two big boulders on the riverbank when he fell into the Mouth of the Mountain. I happened to  hear him down there. I was able to sing her power off of him and lead him out. He was pretty darn happy to be out of that gullet I tell you!
            “It was a rescue, but not like a regular rescue, huh?” said Ralph. “Not like carrying a guy out of a snow storm,” he said.
            “Hey, I rescued Maeve once! I found her in an old fire tower. She had been zooming around after bats, crashed into the tower and broke a leg and a wing! At her age!
            “Well, I brought her home, but Ramona and Thaga did the work of patching and nursing my birdie. Sometimes a so-called rescue is just part of living life.”
            “I bet Maeve felt that she had been rescued!” I said. “I also suspect that you are sitting on stories I don’t even know yet! Spill it, Ralph!” I laughed a little, expectantly.
            “You want the biggie? The story untold?” he asked, eyebrows up.
            “Yes, please!” I said.
            “Alright, my Tsatta!” he said. “I will tell you. Probably you should keep it under your hat.”
            I don’t wear hats.
            “One night after dark,” he began, “During a walloping thunder and lightning storm I happened to notice a light where no light should be way up on the mountain side. Naturally I was curious. What could it be?
            “I told Ramona I was going to go up there and find out what was going on. It was a tough hike, even for me. There was rain pouring down. It didn’t improve traction any. There was a lot of lightning, and the higher I went the louder the storm got.
            “But I could see the source of the light just a bit higher. I kept climbing. You’ll never guess what I found! But up there, wedged between two big rocks in a kind of crack there was a machine. It was totally stuck. It was what you guys call a saucer. And it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
            “I could see that the source of the light was a handful of blinding white orbs buzzing around this object like they wanted to help, but there was no way!
            “When I arrived on scene I called out to the people in the craft, stuck there in that crazy position, to see if they were alive. I got an answer too! Oh, you know, not verbally. Unspoken language. They, two of them, said they were alive, but their ship, thrown off course by the lightning affecting their propulsion system, don’t ask me how, I don’t know, had embedded itself in between the rocks and they didn’t know how to move it.
            “I told them that it looked pretty good, just scratched a bit and that I thought I might be able to move one of the rocks holding it there. They said that they would be really happy if I tried that. So, up there on the mountain with the storm crashing all around I put my hands on the nearest rock, hoping that it was not fastened down to the bones of the earth. I called upon the Maker of all for strength, and I pushed. At first it didn’t move, but slowly slowly it began to tip. I kept pushing. Suddenly it fell crashing and rolling down the slope of the mountain.
            “The saucer instantly righted itself. The orbs spun off into the sky, and the ship waited, poised there in the air. I could see the details in the flashes of lightning. It was quite a machine, almost like a living thing. It looked grown as it was,” Ralph said.
            “Did you get a look at the occupants?” I said.
            “Nope. They stayed in there; I sure didn’t go in!” he said. “That’s about all there was to that rescue. I pushed a rock off the side of the mountain, to free their ship.”
            “Did they say anything to you after you freed them?” I wanted to know.
            “They were pretty happy. There was a lot of thanking the Power that made the Universe, and praise for my kindness, etc., etc. Then the little saucer shaped ship developed a kind of blueish haze all around and zipped off to the north. Then I walked back down the way I had come to tell Ramona all about it.
            “So, how’d you like that story?” he said, grinning again.
            “It’s a doozy, Ralph! Thank you!” I said.
            “Sure thing, Tsatta!” he said, laughing.
            In a moment, I was back in my office chair, looking at my screen, with my fingers tapping away on the keyboard. 

🛸

Speaking of Ghost Towns & Open Thread

 

October 6, 2017

Navigator and I explored Tonopah, NV that day.

Board and Batten Miners Cabin

The Board and Batten Miners Cabin in Tonopah, Nevada was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It is significant as one of the few remaining, and best preserved, miners cabins extant in the Tonopah mining district.

In May 1900, prospector James L. Butler discovered silver in Nevada's San Antonio Mountains. His discovery marked the end of a twenty year depression for Nevada's mining industry, which had grown so dire that some questioned the continuation of Nevada's statehood. By the end of that year, the town of Tonopah was established to support the mining district. Within just two years, Tonopah became the second-largest town in the state, and by 1906, was the largest town in Nevada.

The townspeople worked quickly to establish two newspapers, a post office, a power plant, a school, telegraph and telephone service, and an organized miners union. Residents lived in sturdily-yet-quickly constructed homes that were often designed by architects, and constructed by skilled craftsmen.

The Board and Batten Miners Cabin was constructed around 1905 at the base of Mt. Oddie. The cabin, which was the home of a miner, would have been one of hundreds at the mining site; most other examples of miners' cabins have been destroyed by fire, degradation, or development. While these homes would have been more simple and utilitarian than some of their counterparts in town, all residences tended to share an attention to symmetry, understated ornamentation, and gabled or hipped roofs.

Tonopah's boom period ended quickly, sparked by the economic Panic of 1907. Thousands of residents moved out of Tonopah and other mining towns in Central Nevada, marking the close of the west's last major frontier mining rush. Today, Tonopah is home to 1,500 people who are supported by renewed mining interests, nearby military facilities, and moderate tourism.

 🌵

She Was Four Years Old

 

🐜

I am always willing to post poetry.

Not a poetry safe zone!

🤍