Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

Where does the time go?

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 23:47:42 GMT

Friday we drove to Chicago for Windycon. Where we had to reg at the door, because I thought J had pre-regged, and he thought I had. Oooops. J had stuff for the GT Room (celebrating 50 years of whatever GT is), I had thrown in a few party-hosting bits at the last minute, all of which were used. WindyCon was a good time, as usual. I actually made it to programming, but only because it was the GT Anniversary Panel. There was birthday cake and pony rides and champagne toasts and champagne cocktails and lotsa stories in the GT room.

Then Sunday, I drove home in the snow. The roads never got worse than 'wet', but there were some areas with limited visibility due to blowing snow.

Monday, I went to a (oh so very Catholic) funeral in the town I grew up in. I haven't been back there since Mum moved out of the farmhouse in 2007. I haven't used my maiden name that much in *decades*, but no-one there would know my married name. We were doing the secondary introductions at at the lunch table I was at (the one where you give your relationship to the bereaved family), and mentioned that my dad had gone to grade school with the widow, and from the table behind me, I heard "he went to school with me, too, because she and I were in the same grade". So I turned around and said "I'm Dimitri's daughter", and the people at the table who'd gone to that school remembered the name. Had a good time chatting with people whom I haven't seen since Dad's funeral. Then it was off to Farmington for rehearsal.

Tuesday was back to work, where we discovered that stuff that should have been saved to the thumbdrive was not, so I had to input the voter history by hand. (only 200 voters, so it took 90 minutes, once I figured out how to do it. It wouldn't have taken that long if the barcodes had printed at a scanner-legible resolution. J has suggestions on how to find the stuff on the EPB, which I will do tomorrow.) The new Deputy Clerk started on Tuesday as well, so I have given up the "clerk" side of my duties, and my new title is Election Specialist. oooooooh. (right now, it's more work, because I have to show her how it's done rather than just doing it, but it will get better.) Then off to LCCB rehearsal, where the TSax player who had thumb surgery in October has been released to play the concert. Section leader says to me during the break "can you swap back to bari? He's got this, and we're down a tuba so we need more bass line...". sigh. yes, I can. Three rehearsals til the concert? I can do this!

Today I spent doing errands and laundry. Tonight is officially Later, so the things I've been dumping in the living room to deal with "later"? That time is now.

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tired.

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 15:17:30 GMT

did a lot of stairs/hauling boxes/sorting paperwork at work (but the election infrastructure is mostly put into the basement so that we don't have to move it again in a month!; all the documentation we'll need should our number come up in the random post election audits is assembled; the files from the May 2023 election are in long term storage in the basement, so that August 2024 files can go into that drawer and the November 2024 binders can go onto the shelf).

Then Friday morning we left for Chicago and WindyCon. The second year in the new hotel went much better than the first year did. There were still hotel issues, and there were some very annoying con issues -- no printed programs/program books at all - the first run of pocket programs was apparently so incorrect that they were binned, but AFAIK no replacements were ever printed. There was an online version, but fandom is greying and resistant to change, and many just want a program book to read, even if they'll bin it as soon as they get home. Info desk had printed a few copies of the pocket program on the hotel printer, but those were not for taking away. There were also the oldies who had expected actual *food* in the consuite.

The GT room was crushed on Saturday night -- we had toasts for two old friends, and many stories were told. MA and I poured out nearly 3 full-sized bottles of gin/whiskey and two bottles of fizzy apple juice before the toasts To Absent Friends.

The cats were annoyed with us when we got home. The people who come over to feed/water them are "not us", and the cats do not approve.

I need a day off. Maybe Wednesday?

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same ol' same ol', for the most part.

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 22:12:01 GMT

Rehearsals two days a week. Both going reasonably well, but I think DC at Farmington is feeling a bit like he's over-extended us. He was pushing a bit harder in rehearsal than he usually does. To be fair, it's (almost) all new music that neither he nor us has seen before, and some of it is in a vernacular that we're not used to (not many of us have played at HBCUs, f'rex). (the one piece we've seen before is Sleigh Ride.) Livingston would be better if it wasn't the day after Farmington. And if my tenor would actually play a BFlat that was somewhere close to the note. I need to go in early next week and figure it out, or remember that I need to do that sometime when J isn't home and I don't have other things to do

Church peeps really wanting me to do more -- "committee meeting Monday evening" "nope"
"Pastor can't make Monday, how's Tuesday" "nope"
"can you do this thing after rehearsal on Monday sometime in the next couple of weeks" "nope. I have to be in the NW 'burbs at 1830. Must leave no later than 1715, what with construction/traffic."
"can you do this thing after service on this day?" "nope. set-up call is 13:15 so I need to be on the road by 12:15"

We wandered off to WindyCon last weekend. It was fine. Saw many people whom I don't see often enough; did a lot of stairs as the elevators were, um, suboptimal. Unfortunately, one of the things that annoys my hip is (all together now) Stairs. whee.... There were at least some decent chairs in the GT suite, so the "weekend of least bad chairs" aspect of the con went pretty well.

Warm this week (through tomorrow). I should probably go out tomorrow and cut back things, but I have errands to run in A2. I should probably run them in the AM, and then do yardwork in the afternoon.

The grey floofball caught the attention of one of the adult sandhill cranes this afternoon, and got herself wing-spread and fluffed at. She was appropriately cowed by this, and went and hid under the evergreens on the other side of the pond until the cranes wandered off. At which point she trotted toward the house and pawed at the door....

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that was nice....

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 14:51:00 GMT

I did wind up going to Capricon. I _did_ spend the weekend looking for the 'least bad' chair, but as the GT room was on the business suite floor, there were a lot of very nice upper management conference chairs in the room, so my back is no more cranky than it was when I left. Perhaps a bit less, as I didn't spend a few hours every day moving things in the workroom....

I did keep up my tradition of not going to programming, but as it's been a decade since I've gone to any, this should not be a surprise.

It was a very small con, for fairly obvious reasons. There has often been a large 'out-of-region' contingent for the con, and many of those people decided they didn't feel comfortable flying, and who in their right minds wants to drive into the upper Midwest in the winter? (some people with memberships were snowed in!) In addition, the convention has been out in the northern suburbs of Chicago for decades, and it was the first con in a (huge) downtown hotel. Lotsa Chicago peeps decided they didn't want to come downtown for a convention, so we missed them. (J was talking to his walking group from work, and said 'we're driving to Chicago to hang out with people who live 20 miles from us' and he was not entirely wrong.)

The cats were frantic when we got home. It's been *YEARS* since they've been left all alone. Usually when J and I went somewhere together, at least one kid stayed home for Reasons. And we forgot to put out an extra bowl of food when we left.... But they survived, and have (for the most part) stopped giving us the evil eye.

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3 things make a post?

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 19:50:08 GMT

Capricon was last weekend. We went over Friday AM, and returned Sunday PM. It was a con, as one would expect. Saw people we knew, met others, got to chat with people we don't see often enough, etc. I was unable to duck a GT key this time, but as I've been closing the room for the last four/five cons, it's not really a problem. Just meant that there was a better chance that the commuters could get their stuff out of the room if they were leaving after midnite or so -- when the last-to-bed keyholder is gone to bed before 1am, it's hard on the commuters. (We closed the room shortly after 1 on Friday night, when the last of the commuters got their stuff out; and it was closed about the same time on Saturday night as the 'last person out, close the room'. Then KN and I (we'd been doing the hall party thing) went in to clean and people showed up and so we didn't "officially" close it until after 3.)

No FCB rehearsal on Monday due to school holiday. Someone who was out on Monday night said it was pretty slippery getting home, so I'm not sorry I was able to stay home. Last night's LCCB rehearsal was pretty hard - one more rehearsal before the concert on Feb 29. I missed the fall in the first run of UP because I missed a page turn. Got it every other time we ran that portion, and he didn't go back just for me.... DS (the other bari player) hasn't got the timing on it right, and is playing it with the tubas, who have it right after we do. To be fair, I was playing with the tubas too, until DM (the director), who has the score, pointed out that it was BSax on 3-4, tuba on 1-2; not the 'everyone on 4-1' like we'd been playing it.

The mystery of the work trucks has been partly solved -- while we were gone to Chicago (and in the days since we got home), they've put a few more of the isolators on the lines, added the pulleys to all of the south side topline wires that I can see, and put orange warning wrap on the residential service lines so they don't get hit by work trucks. Other than that? still don't know actually what they're going to be doing. The topline pulleys are spinning, so they're pulling some wires there, but dunno why they'd put isolators on only some of the actual power transmission lines.

Chilly, but sunny, so the black cat has been outside quite a bit today. He's inside now, as the wind has come up, and it's not *that* warm in the sun.

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Safely returned from Chicago

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 02:55:04 GMT

Left at 11am CST, with over 4 inches of freshly fallen slippery snow (the air temperature was warm enough that the snow was slightly clumpy, but the clumps are smooth and so they slide on each other). 30 minutes out, the roads were wet but not slippery, 40 minutes out they were dry. Then we dropped SS off in Kalamazoo and caught up to the snow. From 5 miles east of K'zoo to home (85 miles or so), it snowed. Visibility ranged from 100 feet to a half mile, which is very tiring. Got home about 5:20 EST, so only a bit slower than usual.

We were in Chicago for Capricon, which is just a fun weekend. GT gets a really nice room, there are people that I only see at Capricon, and lots of conversations. Friday night I party hopped, as one does, and Saturday night I worked TC's cocktail party. That was fun.

I have finally shaved enough excess fabric off the palm area of the neoprene splint that I can wear it without getting pinched. Which is good, because my thumb was sore (tired sore, mostly) this morning. And driving is hard on it.

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