Tag: conventions

Like a bird on a distant mountain

What went before Part One:  Spoke to the hospital billing office, which, predictably, blamed the insurance company.

Spoke to the insurance company, which originally said, “$X? You should owe +$X!” I asked if they would please look at the previous incident of my going to the walk-in clinic a week before to see how much I had been billed for that. She did. The insurance company has Opened A Case. I may, for 30 days at least, ignore the bill. Insurance company will call me when its investigations are complete.

Went out to get the mileage on the car so I can call the dealership.

Part Two:  All of my phone calls are made; all of my reservations are finalized.

As our navigator, Steve of course used to do all the route planning and hotel reservations. Even basing my route on one that he had refined, it’s exhausting.

I am now free to heat up and eat my lunch. After which I will perform my duty to the cats and possibly take a nap.

Part Three: No writing today. I am completely wiped out. Into the blanket fort with me!

Tuesday.  Gloomy and already nearly as warm as it was yesterday. The ‘beans tell us we’re looking at 44F/7C today, and rain.

Trash and recycling are at the curb.

Breakfast was oatmeal with dried cranberries and walnuts. Lunch will be the rest of the chicken pie.

Tali and Rook are chasing each other around the house. Firefly is on the back of the comfy chair in my office, and Trooper is in the copilot’s seat.

I do need to go out this morning to get my meds from the pharmacy. Prolly should get cat food and milk while I’m there. Maybe drive past the car wash. Surely, people won’t be getting their cars washed on a day when it’s going to rain? Heh. Heh.

For those who collect such things, my headshot and short bio are up at the BaltiCon 59 website.

BaltiCon is very organized; I’ve already heard from the Guest Liaison, and this morning have a letter in-queue from the head of programming.

I know it’s early days, but could I see a show of hands — who thinks they’ll be coming to BaltiCon?

raises hand

For today — I have the above-said errands, one’s duty to the cats, answering the programming letter, and writing.

Tali is now standing on my lap and nibbling my fingers — and off she goes.

What’s happening with you today?

Today’s blog title brought to you by The Blue Jays, “I Dreamed Last Night”

 

Big Time

What Went Before: The snow has stopped, and the town plows are out in force.

1000 new words written today. I really need to get my head back into what’s happening on the station, after spending two consecutive books on Colemeno. I was also very gratified to find a place to step back to, where I could begin from a different angle, and that we had been smart enough to leave a gap I can use for some Fun Stuff that we didn’t get to include in Salvage Right because then it would have been 500,000 words long and Toni would have murdered us.

I’m not going to give a running total for the current WIP, because I still have to revise, disassemble, reassemble, contract, and extend what I had already written.

I have an Itinerary for my May wanderings. Steve always used to do the trip planning, because he was good at it, and I — am not. However, it occurred to me that I could use the trips to New Jersey and to Westminster last — no. In 2023. — as models to get me to Baltimore without killing myself. So! Waterville to Cooperstown. Cooperstown to Baltimore. Baltimore to Corning. Corning to Rutland. Rutland to Waterville. Easy-peasy and all (except for the trip to Corning) well-known routes. Thank you, Steve.

I did make my reservation at Corning. Tomorrow, I’ll try to get Cooperstown and Rutland taken care of, and then I’ll realio trulio be committed to this thing.

And, yes, I do know that New York State is the carousel capital of Planet Earth.  It’s tempting to just take, yanno, four months off, have nothing but fun, See All the People and Do All the Things, but I really do have to get some writing done this year, too.

And that’s all I’ve got. In retrospect, a busy day — and that multigrain loaf from the (King Arthur) kit is delicious. I may get another one or two of those, to have in reserve, because I do not normally stock All the Grains, not to mention the seeds and other yummy, crunchy stuff.

All that said — onward!

Friday. Intermittent sunshine. Not so warm today, and snow predicted on the overnight.

I have come to the conclusion that the snow is targeting me. Yesterday, it snowed out my first ASL class; tomorrow, I have an appointment to get my hair cut. Pfui on you, snow. I pick my teeth at you.

What else? Oh, breakfast!

Breakfast was a tomato and cheese sandwich on two slices of the multigrain loaf I made yesterday. Lunch will be the last of the store-bought quiche, which was … OK. But my quiche is better.

Today, I have Chores. The first load of laundry is washing. I need to set the vacuum working, make some phone calls, finish with the reservations for the Big Trip, do the banking, catch up with a couple pieces of correspondence, perform my duty to the cats, and maybe take a walk. Eeek. Feast or famine. Fire or drought. If I don’t fall asleep, Actual, yanno, Work is scheduled for after lunch.

I have been remiss in telling you all about this wonderful new timer I have put into use. As is the case with so many very simple things, I have a really hard time using kitchen timers. Lately, I’ve had Google to yell at to set a timer, but Google sometimes loses the plot, and sometimes I forget to yell. Mostly, I’ve been setting the timer on the Big Microwave, which is old enough to drink, vote, and run for president, and I’ll be blunt — I live in fear of the day that microwave dies, because I Have No Idea how the one that came with the house works.

Anyway (yes, I’m still talking about timers, but I got bored with the above paragraph and decided it would look nicer if I introduced some white space), the Big Microwave has a chicklet keypad, and I’ve become worried that I may wear the keys out and poof! there goes my access to the second most-used item in my kitchen. So, I bought a timer, and I want to tell you, it’s so simple even I can use it, and the bell is loud, so if I — not that this ever happens — forget that I set a timer for my tea and go to the back of the house to do something, I can hear the bell go off (just like the microwave timer), and go rescue said tea before it climbs out of the cup and begins a pilgrimage to the Old Country.

Here’s the timer.

What else? OH! BaltiCon. Yes, you — yeah, even YOU — can come to BaltiCon; it’s not a closed club or anything. Guests of honor this year are Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Sebastien de Castell, Stephanie Law, Marc Abrahams, Joanna Fang, Blake Collins, and (my favorite, though I shouldn’t say so) the Baltimore Gamer Symphony Orchestra. Plus, yanno, the Heinlein Award winner, and a cool three million writers, artists, costumers, and filkers. Really, you should come if you can; it’ll be a great time. That’s BaltiCon 59.

I should mention that BaltiCon is a Very Important Con in my personal life.  I met Steve Miller for the first time at BaltiCon 10, in 1976.  While we were still living in Maryland, BaltiCon was our “home con.”  We were Writer Guests of Honor at BaltiCon 37 in 2003, and attended the big BaltiCon 50 Guest of Honor Get-Together in 2016.

And I really do think that’s all.

How’s Friday treating you?

Today’s blog title isn’t brought to you by Peter Gabriel, but it’s a good song, anyway.  “Big Time”

Friday morning cat census:

Last Saturday of the year

Saturday. Cloudy, warmer, and heading for the giddy high temp of 35F/2C.

Breakfast was cream cheese on rice crackers with cherries. I have the second mug of tea and the last two sugar cookies here with me at the desk. Lunch will be spaghetti (yes, yesterday’s lunch was supposed to have been spaghetti, but then Plan B went into effect. As it does.).

Today, there will be writing. Given yesterday’s experience, I make no predictions whether or not this will produce a finished draft. I also have a roll of cookie dough in the fridge, so there may be cookie baking, ref “last two sugar cookies” above. P’rhaps a blog post. At some point, I need to Seriously Look At the tax packet, but today is not that day.

Several people have asked me now if I’ll be at Boskone in February. I thought I had answered this, but, in the interests of clarity — No. No, I won’t (will not) be at Boskone. There are several reasons for this — the Actually Getting There being one, and the fact that I’m not much good on panels anymore, between the whole Old thing, and being out of touch with Current Enthusiasms. I’m always happy to read to people, but it’s a long, heartbreaking trip for 30 minutes of pleasure.

I do hope to read to people, and possibly even to chat, online next year. More on that, pending productive thought.

And that’s all I’ve got, on this, the last Saturday of 2024.

What’ve you got?