Random notes

Managed to get in a bit of a walk; turned around when it started sprinkling. If I'd started a little before noon when I actually finished my lunch, I would have missed it.

Apparently my aversion to phones hasn't improved a whole lot. Unfamiliar people and unfamiliar tasks are still difficult -- in some cases next to impossible. And I still have trouble calling even people I know if I'm not reasonably sure they'll be unbusy and able to answer, or likely to call me back.

Post-song depression? Rainy-day blahs? The huge list of things I haven't done? Damned if I know.

Song: A Talk With the Middle-Sized Bear

No music yet, though I have a few vague ideas. Inspired by a number of conversations over the last year.

A Talk With the Middle-Sized Bear

© 2008 Stephen Savitzky. Some Rights Reserved.

You've had a rough journey; a hellish long day;
There's a fire in your throat and an ache in your head
And you long to be back in your own cozy bed.
But the world you grew up in has vanished away.
You're weary and sick and you're frightened by change
When something wraps 'round you like a swirl of warm air
For there's no place as comforting, gentle, or strange
As the mind of the Middle-Sized Bear.

    For the Middle-Sized Bear is a creature so rare
    He'll feed you on honey and tea in his lair
    And you don't think you trust him, but maybe you'll dare
    Have a talk with the Middle-Sized Bear.
( He's clumsy, forgetful, ill-tempered, and shy; )

The last repeat of the refrain may want to be modified or left off altogether depending on who's singing it. YMMV.

The Middle-Sized Bear is a character out of science fiction: the section ``Conversation With the Middle-Sized Bear'' in Cordwainer Smith's novella, Mark Elf. For several years I've used it to refer to the aspect of my personality that is, so people have told me, comforting to talk to and be around.

This song is very much a composite; the first verse is almost entirely out of Cordwainer Smith; the last two are more about the women in my life who have encountered the Middle-Sized Bear over the last year. The last refrain is mainly for anyone who may encounter him in the future.

o/` Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday.... o/`

Got word via this post by kshandra that my long-time friend meglimir lost her fight against cancer this evening at about 8:30EST, three years to the day after she was given two months to live. Damn, but she fought a good fight.

Robin Hilp; known online as meglimir, RubyMeg, Ruby Tuesday, rolybear... we met on alt.callahans years ago, probably the first friend I made online and later met in Real Life. Our older kids are the same age.

She is survived by her husband sammyd, sons grendies and ratlan, godson dajonjon, and an unguessable number of friends both online and off line.

sammyd's last set of posts are heartrendingly sweet and sad; you should go read them.

sammyd's announcement of her passing is here.

(Updated 2008-12-24 07:15)