X Things Make a Post

[akirlu]

Seattle is serving up a glorious week of Indian summer, and while the skies are bluebell bright and the sunshine is gold and emerald as it filters through the tree canopy, I can't help feeling a bit melancholy. It's September. There are red and gold leaves among the green on the cherry trees. The blackberries are finally ripening and the corn is in at Carpinito Bros. The evenings are noticeably shorter every day now as we plummet toward another equinox, and I'm already waking up in gloaming dark. Mornings are not really light until well after 6:00 now, and I want my long days back, only too bad, they'll only be getting shorter from now on.

Also, I'm mourning Mom's Mercedes. We collected it at Christmas, and put a bunch of money into catching up on deferred maintenance that the folks hadn't done since who knows, and it was looking like it would be a tank for years to come, and so we didn't grudge that, or not much. Then right around the anniversary of Mom's death, all three cars went burp, one after the other. The Volvo sedan broke its muffler in half, and so I swapped over to the Volvo wagon, which promptly developed a truly terrifying leak in the brake system, and after spending a week in the shop diagnosing the specifics of the leak, came back just in time for the fuel pump in the gas tank to go tits up the very next Monday. Conveniently, while I was in the left turn lane five blocks from home. Through all that the Mercedes kept right on puttputtering along in that diesely way it has. Or had.

And then Rudy Blue caught the automotive flu too, and out of the clear blue gasped and stopped on the side of the freeway when Hal was coming home one evening. Praise ghu we upgraded our AAA memberships this time around -- we were averaging a tow a week for a while there.

Then after we got the new muffler on the sedan I was eyeball deep in the mad scramble to get ready for Worldcon, all the madder because I said I would work facilities staff for Suzle and was herding cats for the Chesleys, and in the middle of that dropped not one but two unexpectedly just-pre-Worldcon houseguests and then, whoosh, Worldcon itself. We only last Friday finally got Rudy in to our Mercedes mechanic and I was still hopeful that he was just in need of a fresh air filter or something equally simple. Oh no. Best they can tell, Rudy has thrown a rod. It would cost more than the car is worth to either rebuild the engine or swap in a donor engine from another diesel. Even if we had the money to spend, I don't think I could justify it. But we both liked the old monster, with his sunroof and ridiculous amenities and his German language manual and all. I was sort of dreaming we might find an old camper trailer to hitch up to Rudy, since he even had a tow hitch. Farewell to that dream. I feel like it's Mom's last gotcha, in some ways. Hi, Ma.

And while I'm waxing all cheerful and upbeat and all, have you ever known someone with the uncanny ability to sandpaper-grate on the screaming last nerve you didn't even know you had? The sort of tedious, prating, argumentative bore who simply will. not. shut. up? Did you ever find yourself wondering, is there any known way to get [redacted] to shut the hell up? Jesus Christ on a steam-powered pogo stick. I suppose I should just be grateful that she's taken most of her endlessly unhelpful wittering over to the smofs list, which I don't absolutely have to read, rather than droning on all over the Renovation staff list, which I do, but O Holy Hell can that woman be wrong, and annoying, and not at all interesting all simultaneously and at amazing length. I mean, I love to argue for its own sake as much as the next self-important fangirl, but at some point I lost all sympathy, and now I'm giving serious thought to self-service lobotomy with an ice pick.

All right. I'll stop now. Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Wow that photo is luminous!

And sympathies on the fatwit. That makes volunteer work ten times harder.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

If I actually had to work with her, that would be hard. As it is, I just need to learn to scan for her name in the sender field and just scroll past without slowing.

[miramon.livejournal.com]

I wondered why she'd suddenly started being so much in evidence again on SMOFs. Somebody bunged up the Renovation pressure release valve. I feel my killfile may suddenly double in size, from one name to two.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, she's sharing with a wider audience since the moderator got shirty about off topicality on the staff list. Gor bless us, every one.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Ooo... super curious now :)

On second thoughts... nah...

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

No. Just no. Seriously, you must be in procrastination mode or something, because honest to Pete, this is even less interesting and more futile than your usual games of Libertarian baiting. You may have heard me talk about he Nebula award weekend where they got John Shirley so wound up that he made Norman Spinrad sound like the voice of reason? This is a bit like that, only with the serial numbers filed off.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, it's Tuesday now and my birthday is Friday and I'm taking another day off...

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the cars.

As for Massively Annoying Person, just be glad you don't have to deal with her in person -- her local fandom went to the extent of having secret parties just so they didn't have to invite her but she'd find out and show up anyway. She's the biggest conversation killer in person I've ever had the displeasure to meet and as you know, in fandom, that's saying something.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can believe that. I'm pretty sure I have had to deal with her in person, back in my egghood in fandom, and I don't have any happy memories of her from then, either. But I'm indeed glad and grateful as hell that she's not running around my local fandom, now. It's for people like her that the secret aftermeeting was invented.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I think I'll give this FanPolitics bit a pass (despite a certain abstract and morbid curiosity), and just mention my awe at at all that green plant stuff that exists without irrigation sprinkers spaced every x-many feet apart. (As a sometimes-Southern Californian you must know what that feels like.)

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, the impossible fecundity of Seattle is part of what I love about it. Green things grow wherever you don't suppress them hard enough. Even the weeds are often pretty or produce food. But the dirty little secret is that even here UW does have to water to maintain those verdant lawns through the dry spells of August.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Indeed, our lawn is a delightful bright yellow colour and has the consistency of straw.

The *good* thing about that is that I'm not having to mow it every week like I was in June...

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Indeed, my favorite time of the year is when the lawn finally turns brown and I can stop mowing. Actually, the rainy July meant I had to mow once in August. Bah!

I feel your pain about cars

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

We;ve had a car that we swore was dating the ATM because we'd look at our bank balances and go, "WOOT we can put some money away" and then the car would do something stupid that cost just about exactly the amount we wanted to put into savings.

And I know who you are talking about but taking their name in whatever is foolish and scary. There is one other pair of fans I dislike as much but they did something else in front of me at a worldcon (while I was sort of a captive audience) that made me want to clorox my brain and body. they aren't persistent offenders, they just squicked me out totally.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm glad I got myself removed from the Renovation lists about 20 seconds after I got back. Whew.

That is a lovely, lovely photo.