"Scottie, I need that power!!!"

Last week was my birthday. The week before, Sue and I had been around the Bay Area and the whole family took me by surprise with an early celebration, during which I wrestled with one of my nephews and easily won. Okay, so my nephew is 4 years old... This year has been my best birthday ever, because of all that and not just because Sue gave me the monumental anthology The Space Opera Renaissance by Hartwell & Cramer, and the third season of Star Trek. (I broke down and asked for it because, while it had dismal episodes like Spock's Brain, it also had the sad and beautiful Requiem for Methuselah.)

My actual birthday was a quiet celebration, with just Sue and me here in New Mexico. We went to my favorite Mexican restaurant then saw the movie Hollywoodland. (It didn't really work as a mystery, but the flashbacks were quite good, with Ben Affleck playing actor George Reeves, and thus Superman, and what more can a comic-book fan like Affleck ask for?)

Before that, my birthday being my first free time in a long time, I took care of some weeding, and of the longuish lawn. I somehow managed to run the mower over its power cord, which upon being severed tripped a breaker and left parts of the house without power until our electrician neighbor showed me how to reset things. Quite an embarassingly easy procedure. I look at it as a learning experience. Besides it allows me to truthfully say that Serge, on his birthday, caused a power surge.

Ba-da-bing!!!