A Minefield Made in Heaven
- Robert has a medical check-up to make-sure that his bionic implants are working. Okay, we're kidding about the bionic implants, but really they are doing some crazy stuff to fix his old man body.
- For instance, Robert is super-surprised that he can see not only the shirt of the physician's assistant, but every thread of it (9).
- The physician's assistant, Reed Weber, explains that just about all of Robert's medical issues are solvable with modern medicine.
- And also, Weber sets Robert up with a computer, which is an amazing little sheet of paper that can run lots of different types of programs and operating systems. (This is how Vernor Vinge spoils our fun with our neat phones and tablets.)
- Robert is so old that he makes his computer run WinME, which is from the year 2000. Ugh.
- Weber also catches Robert up on some things, like the fact that his ex-wife Lena died two years ago.
- We also get to hear how great Robert Gu was—from his POV. He was a very famous and great poet, so maybe now he'll start writing more poetry?
- As the days go on, Robert gets better physically (even beating Miri at ping pong) and mentally (though he's still a jerk).
- Robert learns a lot of the world through Miri, including the whole virtual presence thing (where people can tele-conference in from just about anywhere).
- Miri also explains things like wearable computers—they have contact lenses that connect to the internet, etc.
- Not everything is sunshine and teleconferencing for Robert, though. For one thing, he can't find his ex-wife thanks to a pro-privacy group called "The Friends of Privacy."
- Also, Robert thinks that Bob, Jr. is engaged in a military mission in Paraguay, looking to stop weapons of mass destruction. Robert isn't so worried about Bob, and mostly just disapproves that his son went into the military.
- Also, also, Robert isn't getting the respect he deserves as a great poet.
- Also, also, also, he's not as good at poetry as he once was.
- In fact, now he's weirdly gifted with technology, which is not what he cares about.
- And so he decides to do something his daughter-in-law suggested: go to high school to take the classes for regular kids. (Meanwhile, Miri is taking the smart classes.)