
&quot;What I Think About That, with Hal Grumpkins&quot;

Dearest Readers,

A new couple moved in next door. I heard they were in one of those new-fangled &quot;short term&quot; marriages, so I invited Brian (the tall one), and Mark (the skinny one) over for coffee to chat. 

Now readers, you know I'm no bigot. But I <em>am</em> something of a believer in traditional family values. In my day, when two men fell in love, they went and got <em>proper </em>married, settled down, and started thinking about raising a family. In other words, they acted like <em>men. </em>They didn't put some kind of time limit on the whole thing. That's just how <em>I </em>was raised.

So they came over, and Rodney poured those boys some coffee, and I climbed up onto my high horse. Well readers, as you can imagine, I put my foot pretty far in my mouth.

It turns out that Mark (the skinny one) is one of those colonist-leaning folk: wanting to go off and see the stars or whatever it is they do. Brian (the tall one) isn't so sure he wants to. So Mark says to Brian &quot;Alright, we'll stay right here for a few years. If i can't convince you to come with me, I'll stay on Earth and marry you for real. But if you come with me, we're getting married on that ship like real traveling folk, 'cause that's where our home's going to be.&quot;

I'll be honest, readers; I haven't always had kind words for Colonists, and I can't imagine a young couple would do too well all jammed into one of those cramped ships. But the way those two boys looked at each other, I'm pretty sure they'd do just fine anywhere in this universe. Maybe an old man like me should learn when to keep his trap shut.

And that's just what I think about that.

Hal Grumpkins
