In Common with Humans

Movie Meme, or, do I have a life?

When I got up this morning, it was snowing quite hard, and it was cold–18 degrees. But there was only a couple of inches of snow on the ground, and I decided to try and make it to the transfer station. It’s only 2.3 miles from my house and there were sanders and plows out–I could see them going down the road.

The driving sucked, but I was trying to be careful. I didn’t realize that a band of very heavy snow (1 to 2 inches an hour) was just moving down from New Hampshire exactly as I left! But I got to the transfer station, deposited the trash and recyclables, and headed back the same way, instead of going around on Oak Hill and Park Street as I sometimes do if I’m going to the post office. I had abandoned all thoughts of additional errands and was just going straight home.

That was my second mistake (the first being to go at all, *sigh* It’s not like the transfer station is an emergency). As I came around the last curve where Blood Street dips down by the brook, I saw two absolute fuck-headed shit-brained assholes stopped in the road up ahead. Just stopped, facing opposite directions, drivers’ windows open, obviously having a little gabfest right in the middle of the fucking road! Blood Street curves and slopes right there, and there was a lot of snow on the road right at that point. I braked–not hard, and I wasn’t going fast–and my car fishtailed, turned 90 degrees and chunked into the snowbank on the right–nose pointing straight into Sucker Brook running under the road beneath me. The stupid fucks blocking the road both just drove off, ignoring me.

I tried backing up, but couldn’t extricate myself because the left front wheel had gone over the hard frozen remnant of old snow bank under the new snow and was caught on it. Of course, I hadn’t put one of my snow shovels into the back of the car before I left–it was such a short trip! (Yeah, I know, most accidents take place within five miles of home…*groan*). There wasn’t any damage, I hadn’t hit anything, in fact, technically I never even left my lane of the road. I’d just turned sideways and stopped at the snow bank. I’m lucky I didn’t wind up in the brook, which is good-sized although not big enough to be life-threatening. It’s down a steep six to eight foot bank, though.

Two guys, and a lady who was walking, stopped and helped me, the guys pushing and the lady sitting in the back for more traction. That was extremely kind of them, and we did finally get my car out. I guess it’s a sad comment on the times that all I did was worry that someone was going to get hurt and sue me. 🙁 But I’d do the same thing, if our positions were reversed! (I once ran out to get something at the convenience store and ended up helping a lady try to jumpstart her SUV! We were running back and forth with jumper cables and guys kept stopping to kibbitz. *wry grin*)

When I got free of the snow bank, I was pointing back the way I came, but I wasn’t going to try and turn around. Thanking the helpful people, I headed back north on Blood and went around on Oak Hill (even though there is a dicey spot there where it goes uphill and they’ve been doing road work) and Park Street.

I got home fuming: irritated at the fuckheads who blocked the road and caused me to skid, angry with myself for being unable to handle the car (I virtually never lose control of my car and I’ve driven in all kinds of horrific weather) and embarrassed that I’d needed help. Then Dad called! Long story short, he was getting his computer set back up and couldn’t get it to connect to the Internet. We went over various things, rebooted, checked connections and didn’t have any success. After multiple phone calls, Dad called his computer technician and got connected to the Internet, but they couldn’t get the router figured out. Now I felt incompetent and stupid because I couldn’t help Dad resolve his computer dilemma.

So, that’s 2008’s final farewell to me: a thorough ego-bashing. I gained half a pound, got stuck in the snow, and failed to help Dad with his computer. Bleh. Saturn turns retrograde today, although not in orb of aspect to anything in my natal chart. It’s a bitterly cold night, 8 degrees out now with a wind chill of -15 degrees. I’ve been huddled by the fire since sunset! I’m very glad I didn’t have any New Year’s Eve plans–mostly I’ve been relaxing. My next door neighbor who plows my driveway came by this afternoon after the snow stopped, and we only got about six inches of snow altogether–but I have zero motivation to go out and shovel. It can wait until tomorrow!

For those who are following this saga…yesterday, I went right up to the lake to help Dad move things around in his library, and to take Jill back to Manchester airport for her flight home. Normally, Tuesday is a busy day when I get a lot of chores and tasks taken care of, including a trip to the transfer station with the trash and recyclables every other week. But holidays and family visits take precedence.

Jill was a bit out of sorts when I got there, partly because of her cold. Her laryngitis was much better but she was congested and sneezing, and thought she was having allergy attacks on top of everything else. But she was also getting some of the attitude from Dad that I’ve been getting. Jill is a lot pushier than I am about trying to get Dad to do things in certain ways, and he was testy and snappish, especially when we got started moving stuff in the library. Then he was somewhat remorseful when we grumped at him. Jill said, “forget it, I’m over it,” and I told him I’d just blog about him. He thought I was kidding. *evil grin*

I came home with more loot, because Jill always gives me the leftover food that Dad won’t eat on his own–mostly fresh produce. But some relatives in Florida sent Dad a big gift box of Florida tangerines. Dad just won’t eat fruit and vegetables, without a gun to his head, whereas I eat huge amounts of them. So I now have several pounds of gorgeous tangerines in my fridge.

Jill and I got to the airport in plenty of time, but not without a couple of adventures. No sooner had we pulled out of Dad’s driveway, onto the tiny, narrow, heavily wooded East Monomonac Road that runs around the lake, than we were nearly run off the road into the ditch by a huge semi that pulled out of a cutting into the woods. Where the heck that semi was going on that tiny little road beats me, but I was not impressed! It barely skinned past us–and I have a very small car!

Then, we were trundling along Rte. 101 in Wilton, New Hampshire, and all of a sudden, the panel truck ahead of us came to a screeching halt. I had to floor the brake pedal and nearly rear-ended the truck. I’m probably lucky that I didn’t get rear-ended myself! The truck, after a second or two, went on…and immediately it became apparent why it had stopped. A half-downed wire of some kind was drooping across the road, and now that wire was flopped across my windshield!

I just sat there blinking at it–I had no idea what kind of wire it was, phone or electric, it definitely wasn’t cable–and I said to Jill, “what should I do?” Jill, focused on airplanes, said, “Can you go under it?” So I moved ahead cautiously and cleared the wire without difficulty. Jill pulled out her Blackberry and called 911 and reported the wire to the Wilton police. I couldn’t hear their side of the conversation but it sounded like a major “duh” factor was involved on their end. :-p Finally they told Jill they’d send a cruiser out to investigate. The car behind me hadn’t moved, and clearly wasn’t courageous, or foolhardy, enough to try to pass under the wire the way the panel truck and I did.

Jill kept saying “I’ve earned a smooth flight home.” But she was shell-shocked enough by her last three flying experiences to accept my offer to park and go in with her and make sure she got on the flight. She even paid for the parking, which I didn’t ask her to do ($2–this is Manchester. 🙂 ). We had to wait for what seemed to me a ridiculously long time to check her bag, but her flight was listed as on time. I monitored it on the airline’s website when I got home and it actually was almost exactly on schedule. Jill texted me an e-mail from her Blackberry to let me know she was home, too. Whew!

Meanwhile, I got back to Pepperell from Manchester in amazingly good time, fast enough to get the the post office before it closed. When I got home I did all the chores I usually do on Tuesday morning, and hoped I could get to the transfer station today in spite of the snow. And therein lies my next tale…

Happy New Year!

I’ve just gotten my schedule for Arisia:

Fri 8:00pm Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading

Sat 7:00pm Book Publicity 101
Sat 10:30pm Author Reading (this will be the first reading ever from my forthcoming book, The Longer the Fall)

Sun 12:00pm Bad Contracts and Publishing Scams
Sun 1:00pm Harry Potter and the Lawsuit of the Lexicon
Sun 3:00pm The Future of Online Community
Sun 6:00pm Secret Societies in Fiction

Mon 10:00am The Perils of Looking Up From the Keyboard
Mon 11:00am Vampires in 21th Century Fiction (moderator)
Mon 1:00pm Intellectual Property Rights (moderator)

Add to this the By Light Unseen Media/A Novel Friend Room Party, time TBA!

I was hoping not to be on anything before noon, but I don’t really sleep at these damn things, anyway. This is my first Arisia, I’m pleased to be assigned such great panels and I’ll make the best of it. But…could someone please give me a wake-up call on Tuesday the 20th so I don’t miss the Inauguration? *wry smile*

In heaven, there are no advertizing fliers… Continue reading →

My sister’s second rebooked flight on Friday night arrived at the “delayed” time the airline announced, 11:15 p.m. I am getting much too familiar with Manchester Airport in the middle of the night. We had to wait for Jill’s checked bag to come up on the luggage carousel, and then we headed for Dad’s, a full hour’s drive.

We didn’t get there without a hitch, however. the REST of the story…(long!)

My sister missed her rescheduled flight, and now she’s on another flight that arrives in Manchester, after all–but at 11:00 p.m. tonight. Gods, poor Jill! She has to try and wrangle with the airline when she can barely talk, and she’s having the day from Hell. And tomorrow we’re all supposed to be up and out early for the ballet whose tickets definitely can’t be exchanged.

I was about to leave for Logan Airport, though, so I’m glad I wasn’t already on the road when Jill called me. I have “survivor’s guilt!” She keeps apologizing, and she’s the one going through all this crap, I’m sitting here comfy at home with nothing more strenuous on my agenda than driving to the airport to pick her up! 🙁

Of course, she’s flying on, as I refer to them, Untied Airlines…I’m not sure why, she usually flies with Southwest. This is just between you and me, however, I am NOT going to comment on Jill’s choice of airlines. That’s her business.

Happy Boxing Day, everyone! I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas had a very nice one, and for everyone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, that you had a nice Thursday! 🙂

I had a very productive day yesterday, since I completely finished the bathrobe I made for my niece, plus hemmed the velvet pants I’m wearing to the ballet tomorrow (I can’t even wear Petite off the rack) and finished the last gift wrapping and decorating. I’m working my way through the unabridged audiobook of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and it’s good for a LOT of projects and workouts!

I can’t tell you what I got for Christmas presents, though, because I haven’t opened them yet! And at this point, I’m not sure when I will! My sister was supposed to be flying in from Chicago this afternoon for a four-day visit at my dad’s, and I was going to be picking her up at the Manchester, New Hampshire airport. I noticed when I checked the ‘Net this morning that icing in the Midwest was causing a lot of problems, including with airline flights. I checked United’s website and it didn’t indicate a problem with Jill’s flight. Then I got a really short e-mail from Jill. She wanted to know if my cell phone accepts text messages, because she has laryngitis!

No sooner had I replied saying yes, my cell phone should take text messages, than Jill called. Her flight was cancelled! She’d scrounged around and gotten a non-stop flight later this afternoon–but into Logan airport in Boston, rather than Manchester. Jill was saying she would get on the commuter rail from the airport and take the train out to Fitchburg, and I said, “No! I don’t want you on the train when you’re sick and have two bags* to hassle–I’ll come get you! It’s not even on the table!” (*She’s bringing our presents out and taking her family’s presents back home with her.) And it’s not that big a deal, at all, except for the timing–the last time I picked up someone at Logan, I had to drive in at commuter rush hour on a Friday, and, yowsers. OTOH, it is the Friday after Christmas which many people have off. But I’ll leave early, and take stuff to work on in case I’m waiting around the airport for a while.

Then I called dad to let him know the change in plans, because Jill is staying with dad and we were going to open all our presents when she arrived tonight. It turns out that dad is perfectly agreeable to taking the T and cabs around Boston tomorrow for the ballet and restaurant outing. Whew!!! That’s going to make things SO much easier! But it’s a good thing I’m way past any kind of suspense or excitement over what I’m getting for Christmas, sheesh. *wry smile* And I’m very glad I filled the car’s gas tank when I ran errands on Monday, too!

Now I just need to hope that Jill’s rescheduled flight arrives without cancellations or long delays. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

the bathrobe I made, if you’re curious

A Blessed and Merry Christmas Eve to all of you who celebrate it!

some general updates from the heathen…