Out Of The Hole

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

In a hole in the ground there lived a writer….

I’m not going to tell you — and you’re not going to ask — about hair on my toes (are you? that’s so rude!) but…. it’s all very weird yo.

As I was getting ready for this micro-con (it really, really is) and freaking out internally. I no longer know how to pack. I feel a million years old. People — ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

So, we’re here. It’s fun. Mostly because well, all of the Texas troublemakers are here. So, you know, there’s a defense wall.

But mostly, being in con mode, looking around myself, the people I know….

I thought we’d all have aged 10 years. Because internally it feels like I aged ten years. I think that’s the effect of being put through the emotional ringer backwards and sideways for the last two. But … well, I don’t know about me. I probably do look 10 years older (So, my ear piercing closed. I found that out yesterday. I only wear earrings at public things. This has happened once before when I had infants. I’m going to have to have them re-pierced) but anyway, other people don’t. They look remarkably good.

What everyone looks is…. softer and calmer is not the right term. It’s a sort of “I’ve seen some sh*t and this ain’t nothing” which I’ve only seen before in people who came back from (real, combat) war or who had survived a very serious near-fatal illness.

Everyone is mellow, and a little…. softer.

Which didn’t prevent me from staying up till near midnight talking to friends. Because that’s what you do at cons. Something the last two years have made me very aware of: given all the friends I lost (Startlingly few of them of COVID) I’ll have fun with my friends while we’re both this side of the sod.

I’ll take the near-midnight as a sign I’m getting old. I used to collapse at two or three in the morning.

Anyway, I’m okay, will try to do promo post tomorrow morning, but no promises, depending on a ton of other things.

If not, will post on Monday.

67 thoughts on “Out Of The Hole”

  2. Woman, I’ll have you know that I’m yawning in my cups by 10:00, and snoring redwoods by 11. I’m 63, not 25. Wisdom comes with realizing when your body can’t write the checks you want to cash with it.

    1. This is the truth. For reasons didn’t get to bed until 1 AM and so stressed that am up at 5 AM. Problem solved overnight. But still couldn’t get back to sleep. Then dog needs up at 6 AM (I did try to go back to sleep). Sigh. (I’m 65.)

      What is the saying? “As a child I complained that 9 PM was bedtime. Now that I’m and adult apparently bedtime is 9 PM.”

      1. Depends on how late I can sleep.

        Then, if left to my own inclination I would live a twenty five hour day

      2. Last night was very interesting, unfortunately in the Chinese sense. Woke up with a nose bleed. the first since I was a little kid. Not the kind that stops with 5 minutes of pinching. More the kind where measurable blood loss comes into play..

        Woke up, feeling OK, took off CPAP mask, and noticed a drip. That’s usually a drop of water. Maybe two drops. This was continuous. WTF? Headed to the bathroom and saw it was a major leak, red. Oh My God… Picture Olde English Castle in a major rainstorm, with Alfred Hitchcock directing. Called the ambulance, $SPOUSE saw the blood, fainted, recovered, and would not tell the EMTs. Sore back and a bit of a lump.

        With transport time to here, then the hospital, got in at 4:30. Nobody really available. Emesis bags are useful for other fluids… The cleaning staff says they don’t mind bloody treatment rooms. Sweet lie, that.

        The sole(?) ER doc didn’t come up for air for a couple of hours, but was able to cauterize the offending bleeders. I now have a cute, uncomfortable balloon tampon in one nostril, and after more of the disgusting work got the other nostril functional. (How they get rid of excess clots best left for imagination. The reality is disgusting, even though fascinating.)

        Home at 1:30PM. Kat the dog is freaked out, taking it out on $SPOUSE mostly, though I got the puppy version of “You got some ‘splaining to do.”

        No obvious reason for it, though my blood pressure isn’t good today, stress over several relatives at a high (both sides, whee), and getting used to the new partials. (Funky taste from the setting plastic. Yippie.)

        God, I know you think I can take it, but we’d dearly love a break, preferably not a bone.

        We’re not doing the Sunday Night Team Pizza until Wednesday. I’m sleeping in the comfy chair tonight, though that might be aspirational…

        I’m OK. Really. I think.

        1. Sending prayers.

          I did get a nap, for a couple of hours, which all my bladder generally allows for “daytime naps” (I guess 8 – 10 am is a “daytime nap”).

          We changed phones. Naturally the most difficult one to setup was hubby’s. I swear. Every single time we have trouble with his new phone. Turning on/off fixed it. Then messaging was locked. At least the latter was on all 3 lines so suspect a porting problem. Now I’m having a Bank send code to message and message never shows up. At least I can use email instead. But dang it … Affects computer AND phone app. Will deal with Sunday. I think I was over conservative on what to block. Now I can’t find the settings to stop that.

          BUT good news! I found a tech company that actually is good with tech support AND is US based!!!! (other than the last company I worked at, and I can’t guaranty that since I retired).

          Then Pepper and I went to an Agility seminar. I was tickled pink with her performance (I dang near collapsed, not in any kind of shape to run on sand). But she drove hard the first round. Even willing to charge ahead. She hasn’t done that over the last 2 weeks. Second round she did slow down, showed being tired, but she was still having fun. Kind of confirmed that the regular arena the storms over the last few weeks and her sound sensitivity have collided … Standard Barn has a metal non-insulated roof. When it rains it sounds like it is pounding. Weather just as lousy to day, with same type of pounding rain, just no metal roof on arena being used. We’re a baby team (she’s 5, I’m old). I don’t know if I’ll ever compete with her. But classes, practice barn time, and these seminars, are a way to get me out of the house for something other than shopping. Less expensive than golf.

          1. Thanks.

            Slept in the Comfy Chair last night. Results OK, though my tail bone disagrees with Comfy–the ER beds aren’t built for that, and the chair hit the same spot.

            Slept a lot longer than normal, still groggy. We decided not to mention this to Elder_Brother. My tolerance for his snarky jokes isn’t up to it.

            Kat the dog gets her Cone of Shame off tomorrow. We’re all looking forward to it. She gets bitchy when things get weird, and yesterday pegged both scales for her. The imp has learned she can cause a fair amount of trouble with that cone.

        2. I can totally sympathize. About two years ago, I was driving to lunch with my wife when I sneezed and an awful nosebleed started and wouldn’t stop, leading to a hospital trip. Thus began a year-long medical and dental odyssey to get blood pressure and sleep apnea controlled. Ugh. I hope you feel better and everything works out well.

          1. Sleep apnea is pretty much under control, though I leak (air!) a bit too often. The home BP machine hasn’t come up with nice numbers, so I have to admit to myself that yes, I am salt sensitive, and the steak and chop rub (first ingredient salt) has to drop out of the breakfast spices. Got a lower salt variant of the Tamari soy sauce. (San-J has gluten-free varieties. Since gluten will try to kill both of us, that’s A Good Thing.)

            Already on BP meds; if I do my part, they usually work. Not sure about current stress levels.

            Protip: never need the ER on a Saturday. I’m 0 for 2 on that count this century.

            1. Can you do potassium OK?

              I know my grandmother was able to use the low-sodium “salt” (it’s mostly potassium) and kind of re-mix various spice mixes.

              1. Not sure on potassium. Dad had heart attacks in the ’60s, and we were a salt-free family for home cooking. I think the salt substitute was calcium chloride. $SPOUSE just cooks without it, using stuff like Mrs Dash for flavor. The rub spice is supposed to be used for the monthly grilled salmon. I stopped swiping it… I can do without it. Especially after God hits me with the clue by four. (With AFIB in the mix, I get nervous about changing much.)

                Wonders just how much blood I lost. Was guessing a half-pint, but there’s indications it was a bit more. My blood donation days are long over.

                FWIW, the EMT told me that fish oil can be a factor in nose bleeds. One FNP once wanted me to take a few grams(!), but I’ve been doing one per day. That’s on hold. Judging by tested clotting numbers, I can keep the ibuprofen for arthritis.

    1. On of the best from that pair, along with Search the Sky and Drunkard’s Walk. One of the things which most date it is the reference to $2B as a lot of money, enough to topple the market… 🙂

    2. Wabbit twacks? Are you going to kill da waaabit, kill da waaabit, kill da waaaaaaaaa-biiit wiv your speaw and magic hewmet?

      1. Heathen! Go forth and read the referenced story! (Summary at the link is adequate.)

        Gang call for kids’ gang in Belly Rave (Belle Reve, beautiful dream), a very-failed residential neighborhood.

        1. Very failed, about like saying the Pacific is a bit damp. The Wabbits, the Goering Grenadiers, the Itty-Bitties…

  5. Good! Have fun. Wish we were there to make friends.
    (We will be in that town in about a month. Good place to hang out).

  7. Hi Sarah, looking forward to seeing you at LC34! It’s not so much “softer,” it’s (as you say) more:

    “This ain’t nothing but a thing. I’ve chewed up and spit out worse than this without hardly noticing.”

  8. We’re here to have fun. I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself. And I am not snarling at people. Which is an improvement over parts of the day on Thursday.

    Have fun. Make sure to get your Troublemaker tag.

        2. Has he said what he’s up to? (I just finished Into the Light and am in serious need of a fresh fix).

          1. I apologize greatly. He was on a panel, and no matter what it was supposed to be about, they were wandering down the tangent that history rhymes, and he said, “like this one I just did for (my brain is blank here), I pulled it from… Oh, wait, that’s not out yet. Um. Okay, the Solarian League. They were always going to be a bureaucratic nightmare. Now, they were certainly informed by years of fighting with the INS to bring our children home, and the debacle our children were caught in because the INS agents would not approve anything even after it left 8 children dead!”

            …about that point, my back brain suddenly registered that David may have a head of white hair, and may be moving with a cane, but… he is over 6 feet tall, and the people responsible for the deaths of children should pray to their lucky stars they never meet him alone in a back alley. And completely forgot about the next book coming out.

          2. He did! At the Q&A panel. Where I completely failed to take notes. And I was a streak of light running by the booth, I was so busy lol

  10. Look at this as practice for LC (psst just a month and a half away don’tchaknow)
    As for those piercings given some of the folks I know to be there getting new holes in your ears free of charge would be just a trigger finger twitch away. So long as .224 will work, just make sure they use a suppressor, a really good one.

    2. I thought we used the air rifle for the usual piercings, the .224 for the folks who want those big ring-things in the lobes? (And that other one for the folks who insist on looking into the barrel and with a finger on the trigger to see if it is loaded or not. facepaw I thought that was a joke. Alas . . . )

  11. Just was able to go to my first con, post lock-down, here in the last, weak and wavering outpost of freedom on the Pacific. I’m contemplating going cross-country to Cons these days, but last I saw of LibertyCon, they were attendance limited.

    Maybe post-lockdown we’re all a little like Miller and Amos Burton in The Expanse–2 versions of the seen-it-all, lived-through-hell, but learned to survive folks whom you know may kill you without even blinking, but only if they deem it necessary.

    1. LC is always attendance limited. You can get on a waiting list, in case of cancellations. (I had to cancel for this year, so I let them know to call whoever is next on the waiting list.). You have to find out when the ticket sales opens up, and get in early.

    1. Yes, alas. There is no way I could take Friday and Monday off. This last week was a very, very bad time to skip town. Really bad time to skip town.

    2. I gave up cons when I got married, but I’m tempted by FenCon this year since my namesake will be GoH.

      Always had some interesting “trouble” every time I went…

  17. Hanging out with the Texas Troublemakers sounds like fun. I might have to add a couple of cons to the to do list when I have a bit more time. Maybe next year.

    1. We don’t set out to cause trouble. Really.

      Okay, some of us may set out to instigate, but totally not the same thing. And when I encourage people, it’s only on things they already wanted to do, they might just need a little advice, assistance, direction, a lookout… and I’m being helpful!

  18. One of these years, I’ll get to Liberty Con (fingers crossed that I can get a membership, lol).

  19. Have a great time!

    I’m looking at doing Fanime Con this year, first time they’ve been open since the Crow Flu hit.

    They’re requiring obsessive masking, and it looks like they’re also doing some Social Justice stuff.

    But…it’s a re-opened con.

  21. sigh I wish I still had hair on my toes. And more of it on top of my head, too.

    Gettin’ old ain’t for the weak.

  22. Please cancel my “subscription.” I am interested, but the posts show up on my own blog’s feed, which I do not want. And I cannot see, otherwise, how to stop it. Sorry.

          1. WordPress will find a way! The fact that his blog is also on WP is a tell. Does WP allow you to send an e-mail that it will use as a post, the way that it will allow you to reply to a comment as an e-mail rather than by clicking the reply button?.

            There are several issue tracking products that allow the admiin to set up an e-mail address so that when you send it an e-mail, it will flag it as a trouble ticket / bug reeport and create the entry and assign it to a teeam mailbox, or an individual. You can set it up with a particular subject / body layout / key words to process further. The one I am most familiar with is JIRA by Atlassian. I see now reason why you couldn’t program one to create posts.

          2. This is a comment I created by using “Reply All” instead of clicking the Reply button in the e-mail, or going to ATH.

    5. Rick, is your blog also hosted on WordPress? If so, then WP may be crossposting by mistake.

        1. Not having a WP instance I’m an admin on, I can’t think of how to find it. A DuckDuckGo search for something like “WordPress blog create posts from e-mail” might be useful.

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