Eagles Over the Kennebec

Last Wednesday, early, O! early, Steve and I left the Cat Farm in the capable hands of the housesitter, and started out for the Albany-Rensselear train station. The first couple of hours were somewhat of a strain on my nerves, as the driver.  It was raining, slightly.  Just enough, in fact, to encourage the snow to sublimate, creating the ever-popular Snow Fog, which is an interesting and rather pretty weather phenomenon, so long as you don't have to drive in it.

But, drive in it, we did, and eventually arrived at the train station, parked the car, gave our luggage into the hands of the baggage checker and boarded, all in good time, and so off we went to Minneapolis and MarsCon 2017, where we had a terrific time.

Mickie Erickson is a Hero of the Convention.  She provided transportation to and from the train station, schlepped boxes, and made sure we were more or less on a even keel throughout.  This involved not only physical stamina, and a whole lot of patience, but the power of will to get up at 6:00 am on her day off to get us back to the train station for our return trip.

We arrived back at the Cat Farm this past Wednesday, and got back into the social whirl of doctor's appointments, and gym excursions, with sides of doing the laundry and catching up on email.  Yesterday, I got out the manuscript of Neogenesis and am giving it a cold(ish) read.  So far, so good, and a pleasant surprise to this fond author.

Despite the thaw which was underway last week, it turns out that winter is not yet done with us.  The weatherbeans are calling a snowstorm starting Tuesday morning and continuing in to Wednesday.  In the meantime, just to get us ready, the temperatures have taken a nose-dive back into the low teens for daytime and below zero at night.

Variety is good, I guess.

One thing I did discover on our recent trip is that -- the holes in my ears have entirely closed up, which means I can no longer wear earrings.  Not that I was wearing earrings much, obviously.  So I am faced with a dilemma.  Do I get them re-pierced, and if so, do I go with the conservative one-hole-in-each ear, or should I do what All the Cool Kids are Doing and get multiple piercings in one ear -- say three in my right ear, in which I shall set three diamonds, each symbolizing a decade of being a published writer?

Or should I, as Steve suggests, Respect my Immune system and acknowledge that I am so old that I'm cool even without earrings?

First World problems. . .

So!  What did y'all do while I was away?

Oh.  Today's blog title comes from The Princess Bride.

Here's your link.