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Hitch-Hiking to Paradise before/after
Also wanted to have a moment of silence for Douglas Adams, writer and creator of The 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' trilogy. Of course, there's something like five books in the trilogy, but no matter.
He was a creative writer, who captured my imagination as a youth, reading of Arthur Dent, and Ford Prefect. Marvin the robot and his self-loathing. Or Zaphod Beeblebrox and his arrogant flair.
I named the one hamster I've ever owned Zaphod. I was a kid, you know.
I dug the hamster, but really, rodents don't make my sort of pet.
I did what I could for that fucker, and he still bit me. He tried every time I picked him up.
I need a little something from the animals for which I provide. Recognition is one. A lack of direct antipathy and open hostilities is second.
No matter what I did, if I picked Zaphod up, he wanted a piece of my ass. Badly.
And I was good to him, too. The indignity of it all.
Eventually, I got the last word in, though. It was a stunning heat wave, and Zaphod just sat n the corner of his cage, huffing. Looking suspiciously like a hamster masturbator'.
(mahster-BAH'tour...like sabatouer...a masturbatour' sabatouer)
However, he was simply respirating.
So I got the bright idea to put him in the basement, to keep him cool.
Bad idea. He caught pneumonia and died post-haste.
My dad, strangely enough, for once tried to show sympathy.
"Jay...I'm sorry your...small animal...died."
"Thanks, Dad."
"Go bury the little s.o.b., okay?"
Which wasn't a problem, because, well...hamsters are small.
But this is somewhat off the topic. Or maybe its not.
While it is a shame that Douglas Adams has passed on, and the world is poorer by being robbed of his creative light, however, the fact remains that this is all a part of life. People die.
It does not diminish their accomplishments, nor dim the esteem in which we hold them.
So, this in mind, I say, thank-you, for the hours of diversion and imaginative entertainment which I recieved from the Hitchhiker saga, and we should all be so fortunate to unwillingly scan the horizens for new adventure, and find the courage, confidence and wherewithal to succeed.
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