2004-08-16 - 4:13 p.m.
Damn it's been a while. You have all missed so much, I'll try to fill you in.
First I went to an ultimately cool con. We stayed in the hotel. Ursula Vernon was there, and you should look her up, if you are unfamiliar with her. We saw Erin Lindsey, too. She was awesome. We hung out with her a lot. The guests at the con in general were awesome. I highly recommend Lee Martindale to those of you interested in short fiction. We played in a civil war set LARP. I got to watch DVDs of Vampire Princess Miyu. We saw the worlds greatest gaming room, which comes with a games library. We ate at a pub that had really good food, and played good music: Dylan, Blues, etc. We unfortunately didn't make it back there again. The dealer room was really small so I managed to come home with a little bit of money. After the con was over, there was a huge, post-con pizza party, with lots of free food.
So I came home from this, and promptly fell ill: Sore throat and general malaise. So I stayed at home, resting, and playing Morrowind.
While still ill, I helped two of my friends get handfasted in a ceremony that went off beautifully. It was a good day with stiff winds, and cloudy weather and rain.
Returned to work on Tuesday, and was worked thouroughly all week. Love also had started work. Shadowedge finished her job, and was at home at last, having left us at the end of the con. I was unsociable for a while. I don't remember anything that happened the next weekend, other than cleaning. Monday was pretty normal, as was Tuesday.
Wednesday I heard that Charley was headed for a visit. So we start making plans to go inland, to be safe from the hurricane. We get all packed up and leave on Thursday evening, so that we'll be settled in. So we are nice and inland, and the storm turns to head straight for us. The house we are in has two stories, which is good. It, however, has lots and lots of windows. It also is surrounded by trees. So the storm comes, and we get settled in the hallway (which has no windows). The storm gets bad. Then it gets worse. The radio is providing no useful information. We only know the storm is headed our way because cell phones and relatives in Ruskin are good things. The storm gets worse. We can see a window from the hall, and the trees start competing in a windy limbo contest. Most of them lose. The two real adults are upstairs looking after what is up there. A window breaks. They come down for plywood and myself. I hold the plywood against the storm as the other fellow sinks nails into it. Please don't think I am stupid. I was helping, and thoroughly ducked behind the wood should any of the other windows break. Shortly after this we notice that the top of the roof is scattered across the backyard, and water is leaking in. So a huge tarp is fetched, and nailed to channel the leaks toward one part of the floor that will not drip on any important parts of the house. I am finally returned to my hallway perch, listening to the inane radio describe TV images I can't see, or talk about politics that have no impact on my fate at the moment. The storm passes, and we use the marvels of cell phones to find out that we actually are not in the eye. We look at the damages out side. Five cars were parket in the tree covered driveway. One has been destroyed. The others, mildly scratched. Power was taken very early on in the storm, and while the place has a well, it has an electric pump. All the trees are bent and broken. Many will die completely in the days to come. Bamboo has been shattered in places, though the majority of it is merely sideways now. Several Australian Pines laid across the drive way as well as an oak or two. The next day we cleared the driveway in the early morning, and my entourage returned home, where we fixed up our apartment, putting back out all the wind hazards. Eventually I stopped working.
Sunday came, and I woke up around 10. Watched Manchurian Candidate, and then went to school to move in first years. I took it easy and only moved in 15-20. I forgot my sunblock again though, so I am a bit red.
So a bit of excitement and work. On a side note, I think I have been seasonal conditioned. Fall has just begun, and my feelings of paranoia are way up. I feel like something horrible has to happen just because. I do not see any avenues that trouble should be arriving down though, which I think just makes me angsty. I am hoping that it is simply because last fall was so traumatic, and hopefully I will eventually get over that.
I was very lucky, and continue to be lucky. I hope it is a staying trend.
