StarFleet Carl: Blog

Now that something's out of the way, here's an update on how I'm plugging along. Plugging is appropriate - for the last three plus weeks, I've had a very difficult time writing, or much of anything that required sitting and holding my head up.

I have severe spinal stenosis between C3 and C7, with a disc protrusion between C6/C7. Lots of bone spurs and degenerative disc disease. Not a big deal, other than it hurts like a mother fucker. Enter steroid shots directly into the spine. I had the procedure done four years ago, so I know it works, it just wears off after time. Well, that time was three weeks ago, and it took a little bit of time to get things approved by insurance and scheduled.

Net result is that Tuesday I got a nice steroid shot under what the doctor calls conscious sedation. My ass - he shot the Verced and Fentanyl into the IV, and it was lights out. I woke up in recovery. Now, the report SAYS I was talking and everything during the procedure. My wife just says I don't remember any of it. Yeah, sure.

Anyway, I'm over that now, back to exercising and eating healthier. Oh, and writing again - I couldn't write squat for almost a month, it hurt too much to sit in the chair for the hours needed. Chapter 7 is halfway done. In case anyone is curious, it's a pain in the butt making sure you have calculations for nuclear shaped charges, if not correct, then at least believable. One of my editors is sick with Covid right now, but I think we're still good for Halloween - Christmas release. At least I'm not shelving it like they did 'Batgirl'.

D.T. Iverson has a new story out on here, 'The Angels of Bataan.' Go read it. Then vote it as a 10. If not for him, then for the women. My wife is a nurse and I've read a couple of books about those women he's talking about.

It's Saturday morning for me, just eating breakfast and browsing the online news. I often read papers from the eastern shore of the pond, the bottom island in the western lake, and Al-Jazeera because they have an interesting take on America that we never get from the drive-by media.

Yes, it's in the Daily Mail. Get over that. It's a very insightful article about a new David Mamet film on the Kennedy assassination. As it mentions, the Warren Commission said Oswald acted alone, but the House Select Committee ten years later said it was 'probably the result of a conspiracy'.

Everyone, including the Warren Commission, knew that Jack Ruby had ties to organized crime. I did my own research for ATH, of course, and came to my own conclusions, which are in the book. Then I read this:

"As noted by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Oswald was connected to the Mafia through various people, notably an uncle, Charles Murret, who was not only a father-figure to him but a key lieutenant to the powerful New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello.

Some have argued that Marcello was the real brains behind the Mafia plot to kill JFK. Celozzi, Giancana’s great-nephew, accepts Marcello may well have been the one who suggested Oswald, whose admiration for Fidel Castro opened up the delicious possibility that the Cuban leader might be blamed for the president’s murder."

I'm just thinking of the line from the book, when Cal asks who CJM was, and Elroy says, "The Cajun Godfather, Carlos Marcello." DAMMIT! Can't I make stuff up, based upon my own research, without reality stepping in?

(This is a little tongue in cheek, but almost feels like Twilight Zone material.)

End of quarter, Laz transferred the Bookapy funds, so my new recumbent exercise bike gets delivered tomorrow. According to my doctor, I'm morbidly obese. I'm 6'2", and I weigh 300. I'm also 60 years old, and while I don't have a barrel chest, I do have a bit of a gut. My knees don't let me walk on the treadmill, but sitting on my butt and pedaling a bike with resistance is something I can do for hours.

I needed a recumbent because I also have severe spinal stenosis - meaning basically nothing between C4/C5, C5/C6, and C6/C7. The cool thing on a recumbent is I can use my laptop. So, thank you all for the tips, and you've done something to help get me back into shape and stick around a lot longer. (Isn't round a shape? :) )

I know, I'm pointing out the obvious. Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get. In our case, everyone knows it gets either warm or hot in the summer, depending upon how close to the equator you are. (Well, except Greta, but hey, that's another topic for discussion.)

I'm at 35.42N, basically Kirkuk, Iraq, or Tehran, Iran. It hit 106 yesterday (41.1 for those of you on the other side of one of the ponds), and it's going to be in that vicinity for the next 10 days or so. So, my public thanks to Willis Carrier.

Oh, and I'm almost done with Chapter 4. (Edit to add - Book 5, Chapter 4 - so a long way to go.) I'd be further along but I'm like everyone else - Rollie posted that he'd put up a cleaned up version of 'A Fresh Start' so I had to spend three days reading that (again) and Phil Brown posted 'Lightning in a Bottle' and I had to take a day to read that.

Now to get back to destroying UCLA on the football field.