Work-mate of mine came in to the office about six weeks ago and told us why he missed work the day before.

“We spent the day at the closing of purchasing our new house,” he said.  It had been a while since my boss and I had undergone a similar experience.  What made us sit up and pay attention was when the co-worker said “and we don’t pay off the mortgage until 2044.”

Two-thousand forty-four?

First thing to pop into my mind (and Betty’s!) was … isn’t that, well, pretty far off into THE FUTURE?

Like, don’t most the science-fiction movies we’ve all seen happen BEFORE then?  Isn’t Total Recall set to occur maybe ten years from now?  I, Robot?  Ender’s Game? — well, this happens sometime around that year.  Radio Station Albemuth?  (Rent it, it’s a sleeper, story by Philip K Dick) — that happens like … maybe a couple years from now.  Minority Report?  Hunger Games?  Guardians of the Galaxy?  (well, that too, might be after 2044).  You get the drift.

Old people like me ‘n Betty will not only have expired, we might be embalmed as mummies in the tribal/family/local book club’s group sarcophagus.  And, finally, flying cars.  Semi-affordable space tourism.  And like in the movie Sleeper, everything we now regard as healthy won’t be, and smoking and lots of hair spray and unleaded gas and rare steaks will be back in style and vogue.

But more importantly, what will Bongo Fury be like then?

Bongo Fury won’t, I believe, fundamentally change.  Bongo Fury is a constant.  Bongo Fury will be, always, what it is, has been, and ever will be.   Though recently I stopped in front of a music store and marvelled at the eclectic eccentric collection of wildly colorful drums displayed there.

Aside from that, there will be major changes, as we all inherently not only suspect, WE KNOW.  Most of us will be doomed.  People such as myself will not be doomed as much, as what difference will that make?

Just tonight (Jan. 14, 2015) I did something new for this senior citizen.  I played the nashunull anthem (on the harmoneekaw) before the start of the local college’s ice-hockey game.  (I had never played before a collegiate sporting event before, and might again tomorrow).  So there is a continual font of potential new weirdness, if one is not only ready, but makes some effort to seek it out.  I digress …

Recently my website has seen an upsurge in what are called ‘visits’.  Since there are practically no comments nor likes — and the same pattern of posts are viewed most days, I think the Robots are dropping by.

All of us on WordPress got our “Year end statistical report” recently.  The few I looked at for other bloggers had such “factoids” as … “10,000 visitors stopped at your site during 2014.  That would be like a bus with 30 passengers stopping at your house every day.”  In my case, I did some figuring, and WordPress could have sent the message that I could row our canoe across the pond to the neighbor’s garden with two, sometimes three, passengers, every day.  (Fitting three besides myself in the canoe would be a tight fit).

But in the past two weeks I’d have to row the canoe across the pond ten through fifteen times a day to the garden on the other side.  Yes, not only have the North Koreans sabotaged the American movie industry, they’re prying into my site in their never-ending effort to fathom the unfathomability inherent therein.  Of course they’re wasting their time, as I spend enough time for everybody in that endeavor.