The locals are quite aware that my brain has been pretty thoroughly eaten lately with my planned new car purchase. If everything is going the way it should, there’s one of these on a boat on its way to me as we speak. Amy and I are both pretty serious Volkswagen fans.
modified 29 June 2024 (by JHM): I’m about to add a comment to this post that ties the text in the post to the Apollo 12 Mission Transcripts.
Amy is gradually getting better. With that, life begins to get back to the normal routine. We watched a bit of TV Saturday night, and the anniversary of the Challenger disaster meant that the History Channel was running a lot of space-related programming. We watched part of a program we had both seen before about the Russian space program. I set up TiVo to record the next program, which was repeat of one I had somehow managed to miss. It was a 2-hour special based on Gene Kranz’s book Failure Is Not An Option. The special is all about Mission Control at NASA from the beginning of the space program all the way through the Apollo missions. I was riveted.
This has just not been our year so far. Not 2 weeks after I recover from the flu, Amy is now sick with some kind of virus (doctor says probably not flu, but symptoms are similar). For those that already know, she’s doing okay. She’s resting a lot, drinking plenty, and ibuprofen is keeping her fever and aches under control pretty well. I’m just hoping I don’t pick this one up. After already missing a week of work, the last thing I need is to miss more. Anyway, the important thing is that she’s doing okay.
Wow. I think I just found one of the most efficient ways to lose a week of your life: catch the flu. To be honest, once I went to the doctor and got meds, it’s not like it was that uncomfortable, but I sure didn’t do much other than sleep. That, and I drained the TiVo dry enough that I actually was starting to figure out when shows came on again. That’s scary all by itself. 🙂
Thank you to those that called and checked on me. I’m much better now. More importantly, it looks like Amy dodged it altogether. It’s one thing for me to take some sick time from work, but can you guys imagine if Amy had gotten sick the week before PHE? *shudder*
Oh, and the doctor said that the flu shot I got probably was useful. He was actually surprised how much kick I had left when I showed up at his office. So, yes, I will be getting the shot again next fall, thank you. 🙂
Amy and I were eating on our way back from Atlanta today when I noticed a minor commotion. Someone was bugging one of the other diners – apparently for an autograph and picture. It took me a second or two to recognize him (and IMDB to look up his name), but it was Wayne Knight. The poor guy was just trying to get some food, and he looked like he wasn’t really in the mood to sign an autograph. Amy and I felt sorry for him.
However, I think this counts as another on my list of inconsequential brushes with celebrity. All the others so far have happened as part of my tech staff job at Dragon*Con. I once set up a fan to help keep James Doohan cool. Traci Lords spoke to some other people at my table at the awards banquet one year. I’ve personally handed microphones to Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Virginia Hey (got a “Thank you, darling!” for that last one). Finally, I inadvertently provided comedic assistance for Robert Picardo.
This one is actually a bit scary. I’m not the kind of person who tends to accumulate true enemies, but there are certainly people out there who could relate some unpleasant memories.
Stolen from Joyce:
If you read this, even if we don’t speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be either good or bad. I promise not to come after you with a spatula, either way. When you’re finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.
I’m not going to put any explicit restrictions on what people post, but please be somewhat considerate of the other readers.
When Amy “outed” me yesterday in her post, it served as a good reminder that I should post about one of my newest interests: contra dancing.
If you’re a long-time reader of Sliding Constant, then you might remember my last “Favorite Music” post, which covered my love of vocal harmony. This one is about vocals as well, but this time I’m going to share some of my favorite lead vocalists.
I got this one from Jessica. It was pretty amusing. It actually came out fairly close to what I thought. I figured I had a 50/50 shot of being on one side or the other of the Democrat/Libertarian line.
(edited 7 May 2024)
It occurred to me that most of my first comment was actually part of this post, so I moved it (mostly unmodified). Look at the end of this post to see it.
I was cleaning out the truck this evening, and I found The Tape. I can’t believe it. Over 21 years ago, I was passing the time on a summer afternoon recording songs off the radio on my dad’s cassette radio. Basically, if a song sounded interesting, I kept it. I ended up filling up most of one of those good old cheap “low noise” C-60 cassettes.