Varland Story - Chapter 31 Grimmy

I'm too old for this.  I'm burning out.  It's making me evil.

There's no good reason I couldn't have waited to let her replant the flame fruit.

 

And use the loo.

I really do feel bad about that.

I'm sweating small stuff like traffic jams.

And obnoxious relatives.

I'm sorely tempted to go in for a bit of premature ejection.

It would be such a pleasure to take this one out right now but I dassn't get written up this close to retirement.



Hmmm...Canary Islands or Aruba? Or perhaps Fiji?

Varland Story - Chapter 30 - Jody

Whatever shall I do with that boy of mine? I suppose I should have left my prototype at the lab, but I couldn't resist bringing it home to tweak it a bit.

Now he's gone and swiped it and tried to zap the Grim Reaper!

And then challenged him to a boxing match.  This cannot end well.

He's still devoid of any sort of career ambition.

 

Jeri is still very much in evidence.

 



 

Though he doesn't seem sure of what to do about her.

 

 

I didn't have any good advice for him.

 

So I sent him to his father for a man-to-man chat.
 

Which seems to have helped.

Meanwhile, Absalon's music is improving.

His little girl is adorable.

 

As for her mother, the less said, the better, I suppose.
 



 





Varland Story - Chapter 29 - Grimmy

It's seldom, nearly unprecedented, that a Sim makes a difference in the lot of a Grim. Nonetheless, this Sim has made a great deal of difference to Sims and Grims alike.

Let me explain. Grims have always had more bargaining power than Sims.  While our trade union hung in, albeit by a thread, the disaster rolled Sims' labour conditions back to the 18th century.  

 

This Sim's provocative series of essays ignited a collective effervescence that's brought Sunset Valley back into the 19th century.  This progress for Sims put teeth back in the brotherhood of Grims; we now have health care, profit sharing and a retirement benefit.  Sims have a court ruling that unions have the right to exist.

 

Her favourite quote was "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity". Although she knows only the tip of the iceberg of her achievements, I can take her unashamed.

 

She was the kindest-hearted, quickest-witted, clearest-eyed, most courageous journalist I have ever had the honour and the good fortune to know.  My hat is off to you, Sonja Baughman Varland.



 

 

Varland Story - Chapter 28 - Sonja

 

Widowhood is absolutely and unequivocally wretched!

 

Of course there's no such thing as funeral leave in Sunset Valley.  Then again, there's no such thing as a funeral.



I don't know how I'll keep on keeping on, only that I must.

Jody's completed her magnum opus and it's been released to the public.  She earned a big promotion to match it.

I'm ambivalent.  Happy for her, of course, and proud of her as well, however...I'm already out of sorts that this younger generation has it too easy...that they take healthy bones, green plants and roomy houses for granted...that they don't appreciate the decades of toil that went into these things.  I daresay that telly and video games will not improve this.

Speaking of being grumpy with the younger generation, just as I'm ready to snap and throttle my daughter-in-law, or at the very least, box her ears...

She's managed to redeem herself.

 

Elke is a lovely granddaughter.  I wish Harald could know her.

 

I miss him always.  He was my best friend.

 

As well as the love of my life.  Being without him is the most difficult thing I've ever had to bear.

Varland Story - Chapter 27 - Grimmy

It's been a while since I've done this.  It wouldn't hurt to check the SOP.  Do things by the book, so to speak.

It wouldn't do to get gigged on a technicality.

The routine cases get farmed out to the new kids these days.  Once in a great while, though, there's a high-visibility project.  That's where yours truly comes in.

Sports legend, at the stadium, with the scythe.

Damn I'm good.

At the top of my game, so to speak.

Varland Story - Chapter 26 - Sonja

Ah, sweet moment of solitude! I'm sure it's not possible for me to be as grateful for this moment as Zeline and Elizabeth were to have the first showers in four generations.  Nonetheless, I am grateful. 

Moments alone are scarce, with seven of us in the house.

 

Not to mention the occasional ghost.  There are nine that I know of.

 

We've had birthdays galore lately.  Absalon's 21st...

 

Eyvin's thirteenth...

 

 

Jody's 65th...

And Bjarne's...

And mine; we won't mention numbers on that one.

And now our household is about to grow.  Absalon is to marry Marcia.  Yes, that Marcia, the one I've been sending home for the last fifteen years.

It isn't easy to accept her, try as I might.  She has a conniving way about her that I fear will make Absalon unhappy in the long run.
 

This is in addition to an abrasive manner that makes her difficult to like.

 

If Absalon is happy, that's the important thing.  I pray that I'm wrong about what will and won't make him happy.  I remember how warmly Mamma Zeline welcomed Jody and me to the family; she's a tough act to follow.

As for Eyvin, Jody should have been more careful what she wished for.  Eyvin has learned to focus. Her name is Jeri.

 

Yes, I suppose I have become a grouch in my old age.  With Harald's achievements in conquering the muscular atrophy and physical malaise that's plagued the last few generations, and Bjarne's in ending the rationing of all manner of things, and Jody's electronics work coming to fruition any time now, it's hard not to ask "Where's mine?"

 

For decades I've expounded economic justice from my bully pulpit.  Not only is upgrading working conditions in Sunset Vally the right thing to do; it's the sensible thing to do.  The gains in productivity in the years before the disaster would not have been possible without the gains for labour in the previous century.

Meanwhile, here and now, our labour laws have not improved in over two centuries.  They remain as draconian as in the days of martial law.  There is no minimum wage, no eight hour workday, no overtime pay, no family or medical leave, no disability pay and no retirement benefit.  Of course any attempt to unionise and remedy these circumstances meets with violence at the hands of the Alto stooges.