Back in 1979 or 1980 (the dates are liquid in my head at this point), I was delighted to discover a Space Invaders machine at a local pizza parlor, called Chico's. Even though I needed to stand on a chair to see the screen well enough to play the game, I was still MESMERIZED... This was before I'd ever seen Pacman or Donkey Kong, because arcades up to this point, had been filled shooting galleries and pinball machines and skee ball---stuff like that---but this game, Space Invaders, was different. It was awesome...
It was THE FUTURE! (And now it's the past....) (Time keeps flowing like a river...if The Alan Parsons Project was correct...)
Not much more to that story, really. Just a flash of nostalgia.
PART TWO of Today's Adventure:
I am currently sitting in my older daughter's car in a parking lot in Portland, Oregon, USA. I TRIED to go shopping with the family, but there were SO MANY people in there (who seem to have ZERO concept of personal space) that I started to panic. (Claustrophobia and agoraphobia don't mix well with hyper-kinetic bargain hunting barbarians.)
When Mariah realized that I was starting to go south, she sent me to get a hotdog that I was supposed to bring with me to the car to eat, but the lines for people waiting for food were really long and disorganized and noisy, AND you were supposed to order your food using some stupid touchscreen computer bullshit----BUT I used the bathroom when we first got here and saw TWO different people (while I was lathering my hands in the sink) just walk in, relieve themselves, and walk out without washing their hands at all, so there's no goddam way I'm using those touchscreens and then eating food, knowing how disgusting the other humans are who used the screens before me. Maybe I'm neurotic (just maybe), but I'm also not going to get hepatitis from a discount store hotdog transaction...
So there's my sad story of attempting to go into public (once again) and having to retreat before the day was over...
---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)
P.S. - The magic of the Winged Serpent is taking this experience and making it into a story. Defeat becomes fuel for self-expression, which I think is good, even when it serves no purpose but to amuse...
P.P.S - It's too goddam hot...