Chet The Dog

Archive for April, 2012

Friends of Chet Reminder

“Is it really the end of the month already?” Spence says.

“Time and tide wait for no man,” Admin says. “There’s also a tide which taken at the flow leads onto fortune. The Friends of Chet tide is flowing now. All you out there have to do is upload your friend to the friends gallery. The random number generator – “

“A Rube Goldberg castoff.”

” – does the rest. The winning friend photo is displayed for the entire month in the prominent place over on the right where Sierra is now. And the winning friend’s human companion gets a free signed copy of the latest Chet and Bernie mystery, in this case The Dog Who Knew Too Much.”

“And scrolling through all the friends is just plain fun.”

Asteroid Mining

“The Google guys and James Cameron are going into asteroid mining?” Spence says.

“They’ve already formed a company,” Admin says. “Planetary Resources. This is a very long-term project, but so was – for example – the exploration of our own planet.”

“What about people who say all our efforts should be focused on earthbound problems?”

“Earth’s resources are finite. If we hope to go on for a long time, we’ll need resources from somewhere else. That’s the practical side. There’s also a spiritual side.”

“Spiritual?”

“I’m talking about the human spirit. Isn’t curiosity a big part of it?”

“I’ve never thought about that,” Spence says. “Sorry – just a joke. But how do we know there are minerals on the asteroids?”

“A lot of the heavy minerals on earth came from asteroid hits,” Admin says. “The planet’s own supply got sucked to the core back in the molten ball days. The asteroids could also be a source of water.”

“What about mining the moon? It’s closer.”

“It’s another possibility, certainly for water. But I don’t know about heavy minerals there. There’s a lot I don’t know about this – but I suspect there’s one Plunderer out there who’s an expert on space mining, the legal side of it for sure.”

Welcome Henry and Barney; two patient waiters.

The Thread: From The Dog Who Knew Too Much

Women of a certain type have an effect on Bernie. This was that type of woman, easy to see just from the way Bernie’s mouth fell slightly open. Curvy shape: check. Big blue eyes: check. Face tilted up in his direction: check. Poor Bernie: that was all it took.

“That’s me,” Bernie said. “And this is Chet.”

She backed away. “He’s so big. I’m not comfortable around dogs.”

Not comfortable around me? True, I’m a hundred-plus pounder, but she had nothing to be uncomfortable about, unless she pulled a gun or something like that. I watched her hands, square-shaped, a little plump, with bright red nails.

“You can be comfortable around Chet,” Bernie said.

“Why is he looking at me like that?”

Bernie glanced over at me. “Uh, not sure, actually. But he means well.”

Of course I did! But I kept my eyes on her hands, just in case. Funny how the mind works: mine was making some kind of connection between red nails and guns. Then I started thinking about the way women paint their nails – I’d seen Leda, Bernie’s ex-wife, do it many times – and men never did. Next I thought about what human nails were for, so small and dull-edged. And after that I lost the thread.

Welcome Amy Mae.

Tomorrow: asteroid mining, pros and cons.

Skyping

“How did it go?” Spence says. “Skyping with those high school kids in Oklahoma?”

“I was too low down,” says Admin.

“I’m sorry?”

“In the chair. But I didn’t realize until it was over. All they could see was the top of my head.”

“Didn’t they say anything about it?”

“Too polite.”

“Well – now you know for next time?”

“Next time?” Grump.

A Cat Was Involved: We’ll have the pub date and more news soon.