and my tales of woe

I had a tough week because of my housing situation. My SSI disability will be cut off in April since I was $300 over the limit, even though it was saved for my move and I had informed SSI of that. Now, I need to spend my money down and bring my bank statements to my next appointment. Getting an appointment is hard because they don’t allow walk-ins anymore. I waited over 2.5 hours on the phone until I was able to secure an appointment for later on in this week. I’ve started to accept that I might not be able to move and tried to manage my feelings. I’ve lived in my place for 7 years and love it, so I told myself if it doesn’t happen, it’s okay. However, thinking about staying made me cry, and I felt sad all day. No amount of positive thinking helped. This reaction showed me how much I really want to move. I’ve noticed I often doubt my decisions until I realize what I truly want when I fear losing it. I guess that applies to many things.

I currently show I have no income, which makes it hard to pay for utilities and living expenses when moving in. However, I believe I can manage once my disability payments restart after I meet the requirement. I can inform the place about my situation and provide paperwork as proof.

BUT ANYWAY……

I’ve been distracting myself from this dilemma by reading sci-fi books roughly from 1965-1975, known as the New Wave of Sci-Fi. Sci Fi has been described as many things, but a short definition by Robert A Heinlein wrote “a realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present…” I will go into the full explanation on another post, for the full definition is a lengthy one.

It’s amusing how dramatic and cheesy some of it is, yet many ideas have come true, like moon travel, encounters with aliens, and the future of humanity. They discussed these things over 50 years ago, almost like prophecies.

The book I have is “Bill, the Galactic Hero” by Harry Harrison. The cover caught my attention and made me eager to read it. It seems to have the mystery and intrigue I’m looking for.

The book opens up to Bill plowing his field with a “robomule” and hears the big parade that is happening in his town of Phigerinadon II that is being lead by a 12 foot high one-robot band. Following is a group of soldiers and a sergeant that happens to notice Bill. Bill is described as “broad shouldered, square-chinned, curly haired chunk of electronic-cannon fodder.” A soldier in the sergeant’s eyes.

After Bill is drugged and ceremoniously dressed in a uniform and signing his life to the “Space Troopers”, he tries to explain his ambition is to be a “Technical Fertilizer Operator”, not a soldier.

However, against his desires he is put on board of the Empire Space Ship Christine Keeler to fight against the Chingers, who are rumored to be 7 foot reptilians. He meets other soldiers aboard, including Eager Beager, Bowb Brown, and Reverend Tembo. Tembo likes to preach relentlessly to Bill.

His drill sergeant is named Deathwish Dang, who happens to have large fangs. Bill also answers to a Sergeant Spleen.

An attack occurres on the Christine Keeler, resulting in Tembo and Bowb being killed. Bill accidentally enters the room where the gunner was fighting back. The gunner had died from an enemy’s dehydrator gun, leaving him light as a “corn husk”. Bill climbs onto the gunner’s chair and randomly presses a button on the gun, which unexpectedly destroys the enemy. An officer enters the room at that moment and announces Bill a hero.

However, Bill loses his left arm in battle. After waking up from surgery, he discovers that his left arm has been replaced with the right arm of his deceased friend Tembo, resulting in him having two right arms. Tembo was a black soldier, while Bill is white, making his left arm black and his right arm white.

Bill accidentally goes AWOL and has adventures in the underworld, occasionally falling asleep by shaking his own hands. His hands can also double salute any officer due to having 2 right arms.

Bill avoids his duties by shooting off one of his legs at the end.

This story was written in 1965 by Harry Harrison, and is absolutely hilarious with one liners and extreme wit. There have now been more stories added as a sequence to Bill’s adventures in the Galactic Universe, which I am very eager to seek out and enjoy.

It’s not available in regular book stores I believe, but can be bought on Amazon and found at used book stores.

This book helped me escape my daily struggles of the past week. I am glad to have stumbled upon this and encourage anybody, whether sci-fi fan or not to take a look at this book.

Unfortunately I’m back to reality and will have to wait to see what this next week will hold. I hope everything works out. At least I don’t have 2 right arms like Bill has.