Odds and Ends

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

The time has come to talk of many things, but I’ll stay off cabbages and kings, if you will. Even if every time I finish a story I wonder if it’s cabbage.

First, I figured out why things have been so unproductive since February. I mean other than getting repeatedly sick. (It’s better than last year. I find there’s a period of acclimating to the new place’s viruses and peculiar allergies. Used to be a year, but I keep forgetting I’m old now, and past warranty. (To be fair, I don’t think this body ever had a warranty. I think it was in a bin, as is, a dozen for ten cents and dad walked by and thought “A baby, that would be nice.” Anyway…))

The problem is that it’s been pretty much 2 weeks recovering from some trip, then preparing to go out again. Most not cons, really, just …. things we had to do.

And the next two months aren’t any better.

October 13-14-15, Dan and I will be guests (With guest of Honor M. C. A. Hogarth — take a bow, Maggie!–) at Son of Silvercon, in Las Vegas.

Mid November, we’re heading to San Antonio TX, to pick up a batch of kittens. We think we have homes for all of them (though slap me silly and call me Edna if I know how to get a little white girl to Ohio. It might come to a same day there-and-back flight with kitten as carrier.)

The batch of kittens in question:

See, how it happened — sigh, is that in April we got two adorable little fraternal twins, Indy (then called Pollux) and Helena. But for reasons we don’t understand, though we have suspicions, Helena died in boarding while we were at Liberty Con. We miss her terribly. Her twin had already got renamed Indy (We named the cat Indiana) by Dan due to his tendency to explore everywhere. He’s healthy and adorable, and the smartest, most engaging cat we ever had. (And we’ve had a lot.) However our hearts were broken losing our little girl.

Also, to be absolutely honest, Indy needs a friend his age. He’s made friends with our elderly (15) Havelock-cat but Havey doesn’t have the energy to run and play with Indy for very long.

Anyway, in a moment of insanity I asked Celia Hayes, who owns Indy’s parents, to allow them to have another litter before fixing them. I thought this time for sure there couldn’t be another six kittens. I was right, there were seven.

As I said, I think we have homes for them, but yeah, if you desperately want a writer’s cat, kin to Indy and Cedar Sanderson’s Toast and Becky Jones’ Marshmallow, we’re taking applications for back up homes, just in case.

For us, we get to keep Circe, the little orange girl, who so far looks a lot like Helena though she somehow comes across as more timid even if I’ve just seen her in pictures.

Hopefully Indy likes her. (EVERYTHING crossed.) And hopefully she’ll be happy with us.

So, the rest of the year, through November, is a bit crazy with Son of Silvercon, picking up kittens, and then driving (and sigh, maybe flying) around like a deranged Kitten fairy.

Despite that I want to finish Dyce’s 4 and 5 and maybe Rhodes. I don’t know HOW but I’m sick at how low in productivity this year has been.

And then we’re quite fixed at home, until I’m…. clears throat, guest of Honor at Confinement in Lebanon TN March 1-3 of 2024!

(Yes, it’s the most arrant nepotism, since my younger got engaged to his eldest daughter. But what are you going to do? And no, I’m not sure about the sanity of letting the children of science fiction writers breed, but they didn’t listen to me. I think the bio-ethics committees are going to show up at my door any day. Not Mike’s likely, because even the bio-ethics committees won’t take on a guy who has a bigger arsenal than most first world countries.)

Anyway, come and see me (that announcement above is a link and I’ll put up a flyer in a minute) if you are around there and can. It’s the only time we’re going East for a while, other than G-d willing (Who knows. Next year presents weird. There’s at least one kid move in it, and it might overlap) Liberty con. (Though Dan is sure that in a few years we’ll move to Tennessee. I have no idea why he thinks that.)

149 thoughts on “Odds and Ends”

  1. Oh, I suspect that you had a warranty. Unfortunately, it was the standard warranty but your Dad should have gotten you the extended warranty. [Very Big Crazy Grin]

    Sadly, they weren’t selling the extended warranty in Illinois when I was born. (69 years ago last June). 😉

  2. I realize that I am strongly biased as an individual of Felinity, but does anyone else think that “if the revolution comes,” the Bidens’ dog Commander will be one of the first to go? Apparently it took a piece out of another Secret Service member. We’re up to 10 people who have been bitten just by this dog. Major bit others before he was relocated. I feel sorry for both the dogs and the humans involved (but not for whoever failed to properly train the dogs.)

    https://www.npr.org/2023/09/27/1201984073/biden-dog-commander-bites-again

    1. When I’m aware of dogs, especially more than one, biting people, I conclude the owner is one nasty piece of work who should never be allowed around innocents.

      3. Agree.

        I breaks my heart. Biden’s got Commander as a puppy. After they ruined their last dog, they got as a puppy. Last dog was rehomed away from the White House. Surprised Commander hasn’t. What I really want to know is what they threatened Commander’s breeder with to allow that puppy to enter that septic household pool? (I know projecting what it would take for me to release a puppy to those alien slim.)

      4. Just look how the kids turned out. I have to wonder if leaving the dairy and laptop with incriminating info on it was a cry for help.

        1. The laptop was standard junkie behavior. After all, this is a guy who left his dead brother’s lawyer badge, along with drugs, in a rental car that he returned. He does something that requires subsequent action, but then completely forgets about it either because he’s high, or he’s looking for the next hit.

          The diary? I’ve got no insight on that.

          1. He wants to be caught. Or, he wants to take Dad down – or have others do it. A lot of anger and bitterness there.

            1. If you’re talking about the diary, that’s Ashley. So ‘she’, not ‘he’. 😛

              If you’re talking about the laptop, again, it’s standard junkie behavior.

          2. You know, I don’t want to defend Hunter Biden, because his scumbag behavior is indefensible but I have to wonder if he became such a strung-out junkie in the first place because his daddy diddled him, or he heard daddy diddling his sister in the shower.

      5. Yeah, Commander appears to be a German Shepherd or similar. They can be a bit aggressive but with a good owner and training they are excellent animals. Sounds like Commander has had lousy training and does NOT know he is not Alpha of the pack so bites those who violate his warning, or perhaps is protecting someone. Eleven bites would have gotten him put down in most states or transferred to another owner. As noted given the state of Biden’s children I am not shocked that their animals are not well trained and vaguely neurotic.

        1. As an owner of or adjacent to livestock guardian dogs for the better part of a quarter-century, totally agreed. Germans Shepherds need a firm but steady hand and lots of socialization. To be honest, that’s probably a terrible environment for a dog like a GSD anyway. So many people coming and going, I can see where an untrained big dog is going to be nothing but trouble.

          1. Yeah lots of strange people in and out all the time not great for a dog designed to guard/protect. Probably also bored as heck stuck up in the residence all day because he is aggressive and that keeps him out of the way. They need a SMALL goofy dog not some giant masculine bundle of aggro that they they fail to properly train and handle. I’d suggest a large cat but I would NOT want to expose a Maine Coon or Norwegian Forest to that environment and those owners. Probably shouldn’t have a small dog either, but I have less empathy for small dogs 🙂 .

      1. “Clearly, that those rabid dog dogs living in the White House needs to be put down.” FIFY

        It isn’t Commander’s fault.

      3. Big ass super masculine aggressive animals? Third rate lying Politician? Mr. Fleming I suspect you have a point here. And he also has a rather phallic 70’s Corvette… If he didn’t have a D after his name the assorted psychologists would be having a field day…

          2. Dad was in the 8th AAF in Okinawa (Very late in the war…), and he alluded to such goings on. That and the one guy who refused to shower who got a group cleaning with a scrub brush. Apparently the sergeant didn’t see a thing (though he appreciated the better smell).

            1. Had a guy in my division on board my ship that wouldn’t shower regular like. He slept in the bottom bunk. They trussed him up in his bunk with his funk for a day, he started bathing after that.

              1. It’s also harder to drop the soap during a navy shower. You wet yourself, turn off the water, soap yourself up, then turn on the water and rinse off. It needs to be done in three minutes and you damned well better be turning the water off. A Hollywood shower is any shower that the water is not turned off or longer than three minutes. Ya and what the hell is hot water?

    4. I’m pretty good with soap. Maybe this convention is for me.

      Though it’s been a long time since I’ve done any all-night gaming. Oh, decisions, decisions.

      1. Soap is good. So is soup. So is sleep.

        Forgo the soup only if you replace it. The other two have no replacement

          3. I think I’ve seen that Little Rascals short. Or maybe it was the Three Stooges. Or maybe it was both.

  4. I have promised Sarah and Dan a personal guided tour of the Alamo, when they are in San Antonio for the Itty Bitty Kitty Pick-up Road trip!

    1. I remember the Alamo though I haven’t been down that way for well over forty years.

      I’d suggest taking them to Dick’s Last Resort as well, such a quiet cozy little public house where they can relax after a hard day’s reviewing the 1836 battle.

      1. We actually are thinking of taking them to Shilo’s Deli, which is just down the street and around the corner. The root beer at Shilo’s is almost worth the trip alone.

          1. Root Beer Float, with old fashioned vanilla bean ice cream. Of course being a diabetic I have to watch someone else eat/drink it and drool all over the table, but we all have our crosses to bare. Maybe just a small one…

      2. Hmm, a bit longer that that for me. 64 years, though I remember very little of the Alamo.

        Uncle was training in T-33s in Laredo (he ended up as a navigator) and the security rules were rather looser at the time. Pretty sure we got to walk around the planes.

          1. It’s OK – but what is really nice, is the new Museum Reach – all the way up to the Pearl Brewery district. You can walk it, or get a day pass for the water taxi that will take you up and down the Riverwalk network. It’s not the same as the tour boats, but you can get off and on at all the various stops.

    3. I was at the Alamo – about 1955? IIRC, it was nearly full of desks with typewriters. Some kind of insurance operation I think I was told. Maybe displays around the edges?

      I hope it’s a bit more historically oriented these days.

    4. I could be a substitute kitty momma if a long haired one needed an alternative home in the Phoenix area; can be an oasis if one needs a safe place to stop by…

  5. Sarah and Dan, maybe we can trade cat stories at Son of SilverCon. That would keep everybody else away. We had 2 cats for many years, then a very insistent 3rd one showed up. Trust me, she knew what she was doing. 60 days later we had 6 kittens. We tried to adopt them out, but the only person interested wanted to ‘borrow’ one to show a friend that she hoped would like her. We just decided we had become officially eccentric and for a few years had 9 cats–all indoors. Logistics were fun.

  6. Since the cons is in Tennessee and Tennessee is in the South, I suspect there are no prohibitions on nepotism. Caveat emptor: family are the ones who have to take out the barn on Saturday morning so you can put in tobacco Monday morning. (And my daddy would often remind me of having to take one out on Sunday evening by lantern light because it was borrowed.)

  7. We might be able to make ConFinement, especially since my beloved does NOT intend to work in the tax office. (His former employees have not treated him well). We shall see.

      3. Part of my brain goes ‘OOOHHH Kitties!!!” and the other part goes “Where the heck do you put all the cat boxes and how often do they need to be cleaned?”

  9. Oh, I would happily adopt one of those furballs. Unfortunately, that would require Sarah to actually triangulate around Ohio and Arizona.

    (Besides, I think that Artemis is firmly in the “I am the only child around here! No sharing!” attitude. Even glares at the wife when she comes into the office to interrupt the hourly belly scritching.)

    2. But you could pet shoes, if you were odd enough, and at least politely address a ship, but talk about ceiling wax is as far as I would go.

      Yes, I know Dodgson wrote ‘sealing wax’, though why he thought catching seals involved wax I don’t know.

      1. I have used sealing wax. Yes, to seal. With imprint.
        Then, Ancient creature is Ancient.
        Hrm, I wonder the imprints are. I am fairly sure I still have them… somewhere.

    3. Absolutely nothing stops you from petting your cabbage, unsatisfactory though the experience may be.

  15. And don’t tempt me with a cat, either. I’d love one…but have two parrots. Although one is getting old for a conure, he’s about 24.

    1. (Sigh) Family friend. Barrett the Parrot.

      “Shutup Merce!”

      “NUT!”

      And

      “Here Kitty kitty kitty.”

      Their Siamese cat (ginormous) liked to sleep on Barrett’s covered cage.

    2. MomRed says the next cat will be an adopted adult, because the kitten trip hazard et cetera are too great. (High energy kitten + slightly fragile and slow-moving adults = potential for problems.)

      1. Had Tj take out my knee when he was about 3 months old. Decided my foot needed attacking as it was in motion. I didn’t want to step on him. My knee took exception. Now they are all big enough to take me out running into me. I can take one, on the shin, barely, when 3 of the 5 (other two don’t partake of the races) come sliding through on the kitchen floors, it gets interesting.

      2. Cole rubs on my ankle as I am walking and does so hard enough to make it a challenge to not trip or smoosh cat. It’s like he read Dave’s Tom and amplified almost all the annoying cat things.

      3. My senior citizen, gone even more gray Miz Kitty, who is at least 12, is constantly darting underfoot. Joyfully.

        Step. Push aside cat. Step. Push. Step.

        Plays fetch. Pursues laserdot! with gusto.

        Another example of avoiding old age by refusing to grow up.

        1. Crazy frikkin cat! Woke up from a nap to dash across the room, and jump in front of me and do stretches!

          Goofy (censored)(deleted)(omitted)(various languages)

          My beloved Miz Kitty. And the bitch knows it. (Grin)

          1. She is a heavily gray tabby over almost-hidden rust-brown. In the last two years, she has gotten much more grey of a light shade.

            She looks “senior” now but plays like a cat of two.

            Grateful for her.

            1. Depending on the cat and how their history before we acquired them, we start seeing old age start creeping in around 14 – 17. Usually with chronic renal issues.

              Younger we get them, bottle feeding required (and yes we use KRM), or feral and half starved (as in so emancipated, that once he got weight on him, discovered “she” was a “he”), we tend to lose them around 15 to 18. Get them between 5 weeks (still too young) and 8, healthy (if still full of fleas), our oldest we lost at age 22+ (a few months). Only lost 2 early from sickness/cancer. Sample size 10. Current 5 are ages 2 – 9. None are in the high risk for early loss (not even the most recent who is at least 3, he, and the ones with him until they disappeared, were well fed by a number of regulars; 10.9#s at his vet visit morning after he was caught).

                1. Ours have all been generic domestic tabby. A couple of the larger ones we suspected some native wild cat input (really large, OTOH not Maine Coon size) hunks. So probably no bobcat input.

                    1. mini golf course
                      ……………..

                      Mr. Gray (of no official name, yet) came from a local golf coarse. Sibling and two older cats fell prey to predators bigger than them.

              1. Still hurting after losing our last ginger, Thump. The one I found at 2 – 3 weeks old, abandoned (whether by despicable human or mom cat is unknown) alone. He lived 5 years to the month I found him and brought him home. He suddenly got sick. Even odds whether it was slow from tiny kitten-hood or environmental. We will never ever know. Most likely the latter, OTOH neighbors all swear, on their pets lives, that the highest percentage causes were not left out for him to get into. But at least we got 5 years with him. Helena you got a whole lot less time with her.

                I refuse to let hubby let our youngest 3 outside to roam unsupervised. I’ve come up with excuse after excuse. Right now I’ve said “okay, a door from the room over the garage onto the roof, can be their access.” Guess what has not gone in. Not encouraging or nagging about it, just refuse any other options. Now we have the new feral that still has to settle in and learn “this is home now”. He won’t have outside access for at least a year. That is the rule. Even the older cat, who is used to roaming a “few minutes” (30 – 60 -ish) is getting less time. As far as I am concerned letting cats roam is not happening (and we chose our neighborhood because it seemed to be cat friendly/safe).

    3. Co-worker had two cats and one African gray parrot. The cats were afraid of it, because it would fly around the room meowing at them.

      1. (ex) Co-worker has a number of parrots and Great Danes. Great Danes are reportably terrified of the parrots.

        1. Was once in a lively discussion of geese in which someone mentioned that in his neighborhood park, small children and dogs often found that the geese were of the opinion that if a chase was to be had, the geese were not the one being chased.

          (In the context of discussing how a D&D deva’s wings looking like a goose when she attacked was actually quite reasonable.)

          1. One fantasy story had a winged demon fighting a giant beast with an on-looker being reminded (by himself) of attacks from swans. IE The demon was attacking with his wings just like swans attack with their wings.

  16. Geeze…

    Newsome signed 23 gun (and related – one prohibits body armor if you’re also prohibited from owning a gun) control bills earlier this week, all on the same day.

      1. One of the laws is apparently particularly insidious.

        California has what’s called the Handgun Roster, which is the list of approved firearms for sale. Guns need to pass the drop test (which they should be able to do anyway for basic safety reasons, of course). But depending on the kind of gun, they also need to have a chamber load indicator (CLI), magazine disconnect mechanism (MDM), and microstamping to be added to the roster. A case currently in the Federal Court System – Boland v. Bonta – is challenging this, and the Federal judge hearing the case found all three items violate the Second Amendment earlier this year.

        The State appealed the CLI and MDM rulings, but didn’t appeal the microstamp ruling. The hope was that this meant that the state had finally given up on microstamping, which simply doesn’t work. Because of this, up until this ruling, no new handguns had been added to the roster for a very long time.

        Well, guess again. One of the bills that Newsome signed puts microstamping back on the list of roster requirements. But enforcement of the microstamping requirement doesn’t begin until 2028. Why the delay? Suspicions are that’s when the Dems calculate that the US Supreme Court will finally issue a ruling on Boland v. Bonta, overturning the current unconstitutional requirements for the handgun roster. And when that happens, the new microstamping law will put things right back at square one, with a new lawsuit to overturn this law that will need to work its way through the court system.

        Also, I suspect that there’s a hope that one or more of the pro-2A justices will have been replaced by then, which could generate an anti-gun majority. Though afaik, Thomas is the only pro-2A justice that’s getting up there in years, and he looks like he’ll be around for a good bit longer.

    2. Another California gun control oddity –

      The “High Capacity Magazine Ban” (aka “normal capacity magazine ban”) in California was just overturned again by the trial judge. The next stop ordinarily would be to appeal it to a three judge panel in the 9th Circuit. However, the 9th Circuit has taken the rather surprising and extraordinary step of moving it directly to the en banc panel, even before the state filed for a stay on enforcement of the decision, and appeal of the decision. Based on what I’m hearing, this is basically unheard of within the circuit, and some of the 2A-friendly judges in the circuit are basically saying, “WTH!?”

      Current suspicion is that the 9th Circuit is concerned that the appeal might end up in front of a sympathetic three judge panel. Presumably there’s a concern that such a panel might not grant the stay of enforcement even if it hears an appeal.

      1. It was Discord as a whole, evidently they had “unusually high traffic” (were under attack?) and many had that for a while. It was weird as one machine was blocked, another was not – and they are behind the same firewall, etc.

        1. On the same machine, I got a Cloudflare block on the app but the website worked fine.

          My phone seemed fine.

          I heard of a lady that couldn’t access on the browser…..

        1. Let’s give the Gestapo nightmares. The democrats being what they are will have a large splashy Hollywood wake, they have been doing this since Sen. Wellstone Mn. In most cases it backfires. It’s where all the good little commie democrats will gather in one place. So many little commies, One big soft target….. Bwahahahaha. Pleasant dreams Gestapo, pleasant dreams.

          They almost have to have one, if they don’t they’ll be called sexist for not having one. Then they will have to chase all the homeless (Drug Addicts) away from the venue and parade route. Then of course if they secure the site like they have to the massive police presence will make the attendees uncomfortable. Democrats hate the cops all crooks do. The Gestapo will show up in their white shirts and khaki pants to protest and try to incite the crowd to riot. Then there is the thousands of unvetted terrorists who have crossed the southern border. As I said pleasant dreams Gestapo, pleasant dreams…

    2. I was just told that. This just stopped the Senate Judiciary Committee from pushing anymore judges through (which is why the Dems were insisting that she was fine, even though she was clearly suffering from dementia over the last several months). I’m curious how Schumer is going to openly violate the rules to resolve this issue for the Dems.

      2. Noisome will appoint a replacement quickly. The only question is which of the declared Senate candidates it will be.

        1. I can’t remember the details, but apparently McConnell is expected to be able to block any new appointments to the committee.

    3. Anyone wanting to tell me how crass this is can ALSO apologize for how The Iron Lady, Savoir of Britain, was treated. I shan’t be holding my breath. Ox slow. Ox not damned (communazi) fool!

    1. If the pile of money was big enough to conceal a Thermonuke, missed opportunity.

      “What is that beeping noise?”

    2. Oh bloody marvelous, there was a reason folks panicked over Sputnik long ago and it wasn’t that there was a beeping sphere overhead. I suspect Israel is preparing one operation Opera/Babylon special for each Iranian nuclear development site it knows of. And the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will look the other way as this is their nightmare too.

  21. The Gestapo will be encouraged to go after all the Maga groups and blame them for any violence/protests. (At least the ones they didn’t organize) They will also be forced to go after all the Maga groups to hear for any chatter. (There will be none or almost nothing, this will convince them we went underground) In doing so they will ignore the 5% of nutjobs and the other 5% of real terrorists who might plan something. (It always happens that way) The most amusing thing of all is, we don’t do that stuff, while they are watching all the wrong people, the people they should be watching will go on their merry way to do whatever they will do. It doesn’t matter who does something, we will be blamed anyway, until the real identity is revealed and then the story will disappear. (That’s what happens to stories that don’t fit the narrative) There will be no retraction of the lies they first spread. (The truth never natters to them in the first place so why apologize for lies)This is the lefts playbook and it is no longer working. As I said, pleasant dreams Gestapo, pleasant dreams…

  23. Sarah, you belong in the Volunteer State. We do have our share of allergens, but you might be okay. You should have some idea based on your time in these parts.

    If you decide you are not happy in your current area (I am guessing Nevada but it’s your right to keep it secret), think about it. We need more conservatives coming here. Most of us do not want to end up as Californicatia East.

    Michelle Rogers

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