Wapsi Square Forum

Ah to be back on Earth for a while! Nothing like Earth grown coffee, and dairy coffee creamer. Orion sugar is chemically identical to the stuff from Earth but the fact that over 90% of the population is lactose intolerant means I only have ice cream when I'm on Earth.

But what I really miss is Becky's apple fritters. And Kona blend coffee. Might some of both be ready?

You have a notification on your com regarding "the room".

That's another thing, Terran-grown coffee is more valuable than gold on Ceres Station. Which makes economic sense, the coffee is one to 5 AUs away while tons of gold are relatively next door. I get literally a cycle's officer pay per kilo of whole bean coffee, making me even more rich than I was before with still nothing to spend it on. I either sleep on my ship or in the quarters of whoever I'm entertaining for the day. And I get fed for free or at the expense of the woman that I'm entertaining.

It has been expressed that I should invest in what passes for Orion "real estate", buying shares in building new habitats and stations. This also comes with the benefits of participating in Orion government.

OK, I'm now a majority partner in the construction of Penguin Station, a science platform located at a safe distance from Betelgeuse to get data in real time (or as close to real time as light speed will allow). I'm also a very minor legislator in the Orion Assembly. This requires in-person attendance once a Cycle (292 days) to read and vote on new laws and deleting old laws. My fluffy white beard and pinkish skin makes me visually stand out and my accent makes me a frequent interview for the local media.
I love Orion culture and their entertainment media tends to be actual video of events with voiceover dialogue. I forget what we call it here on Earth, but it's very popular with the Orions, about half of their videos are of the genre. There's already a comedy show about how I got my shuttle that has the former owner as the butt of most of the jokes. In particular jokes about buzzing the US Navy off the coast of California with the resulting order to get rid of the craft at no profit to a Terran. The fact that I put 930 cases of Shiner on it and went to Ceres Station with it was portrayed as a humanitarian gesture on my part and one of the reasons I was given Orion citizenship.

And now I'm a minor member of their ruling class.

One of the things I did with my Earth money was to make sure my wife is cared for since she has been bed-bound since the pandemic and needs constant care and support. She's getting an hour of therapy every day alternating between occupational therapy for her upper body, physical therapy for her lower body and one day a week of emotional therapy. Plus she now has a personal chef and dietician to prepare delicious meals tailored to her nutrition needs. She's as perfectly taken care of as money can buy.

Something else I did was to finally build my hot rod, the way I wanted it. Just 1550 pounds empty and fully SCCA legal in A/MOD autocross on slicks and still Goodguys,LS fest, and Power Tour legal on 200 treadwear street tires. And still street legal.

After doing my civic duty as a member of the legislature it's back to the routine of grocery runs to the ISS and deliveries and pickups from Ceres. Plus I have to get the periodic checkup and repair on my knees and hips. I appreciate the health care, but I'm stuck on Ceres for as long as 10 days after repairs. I really don't like being stuck in sickbay that long because aside from the new Orion entertainment there isn't much for me to do. Most of the Terran media I delivered is either in a language I don't understand or a genre I'm not fond of. And I'm not allowed to "entertain" in sickbay so I'm REALLY bored.

But after I get medical clearance I entertain a couple of women and load up a few tons of diamond dust for Earth use. And get back to my workout routine in the heavy gym. With as much protein as the Orion diet gets me and as much lifting as I do I could probably compete in the Senior Olympics in weightlifting. But I would rather be in space being useful. And delivering Earth coffee for importing to the Orion's main habitats where I still get a huge profit that's mainly been going to set up Wardhouses, the Orion equivalent of low-income housing and orphanages. Personally I think that concept is a brilliant idea, making raising the young a community endeavor and giving those who have lost their housing because of economic or physical disaster social contact they otherwise would not get and the orphans the kind of social contact that helps them mature emotionally. My Wardhouses are given names from Greek mythology, mainly so I remember which ones are mine.

When I get back to Earth I like to drive my hotrod and compete in as many autocrosses as I can and let guest drivers co-drive. The retired NASCAR drivers routinely kick my butt, but I'm generally a lot closer to the retired Indy car drivers because of how different my car drives compared to Indycars. My hotrod is front mid-engine with an H-pattern shift which is basically what NASCAR has been since the beginning, while Indycars have been rear mid-engine since the mid 1960s and paddle shift since 2005 for the Champ Car drivers and 2008 for the IRL drivers. One thing that both series' drivers have to get used to is the mad science project that is my engine. Autocross is unique in that peak power is not as important as average power. Between my intake tuning and cam timing my engine pulls hard from just off idle all the way to 8900 RPM and no other race car does that. I just went from first principles and went to the logical outcome based on manifold testing done by Richard Holdener in the Teens that he has forgotten about, but I haven't. Anywho the car is a tamed beast to drive and the powerband makes for the ability to not have to shift several times a run, both upshifting and downshifting which saves 0.2 seconds a shift which adds up on some courses. Some courses regular cars have to upshift twice in a single section of straight and then downshifting the same number of times, where my car just pulls strong out of the corner and keeps pulling up to the braking point for the next corner. Admittedly such courses require more room than the average parking lot course, so they are not common. But I run into them often enough to make it worthwhile to get it set up like that.