Dwarf Planet in Purple

More than a month since I last updated this journal. Aack! I didn't even get around to making a note on February 29th, that rare day.

The covid is long gone and I am back in the swing of things. Which is good, because I have a feature article due next Monday. Double aack!

Still enjoying the Blue and Green Cottage. The temperatures have been jerking up and down, but I am starting to get eager to plant herbs in the various five-gallon buckets that my landlady and landlord have been using as pots. Maybe even some veggies. Their semi-feral (spayed) cat, Peaches, patrols the property, so I'm not as worried about squirrels raiding our edibles.

Some good fortune dropped into my lap last week. On my 2007 trip to Hawaii I bought a $10 ukulele, but it turned out to be no better than a toy. I mean, it goes out of tune as soon as you let go of the tuning peg, before you even get a chance to play a chord. Still, I had hope, so the last time my church held a fundraising auction, I bid on some uke lessons and won them, and then I told the woman who offered the lessons that I didn't have a decent instrument to learn on. Fast forward to last Wednesday, when the woman sent me an email that someone had given a new ukulele to her uke group, and it was mine, free, if I wanted it. HELL YES!!! It seems to be of a decent quality for a beginner instrument and comes with a nylon bag, extra strings, etc. So as soon as I finish this feature article, guess what I'll be doing.... :-)

(P.S. On Thursday I'll be "six months to Medicare." Can't wait. Friday will be the 20th anniversary of my firing by the Frosty Lady and the Marathon Man. That publication was bought and sold a couple of times and no longer exists.)

I meant to include this in the previous post, but...

My church has sold its property -- the buildings and grounds. Closing date was January 26th (the day after my last post). There was one document that all of us trustees had to sign, but the board chair handled the rest of the paperwork for us. We now have a nice chunk of change that will go into a separate account; a group of Ethiopian Muslims have a new religious home; and we'll find out in a few weeks, during our annual pledge drive, how many of our members have taken a permanent hike.

The Ukrainian-themed SCA event was awesome! My breads were one of seven entries, and even though I didn't win, I got lots of compliments. Many of the activities and classes also had Slavic themes. My friend did a great job organizing the event!

Unfortunately, this past Tuesday I started feeling sick, exactly like the last time I had a virus back in August 2019. Well, that couldn't have been covid, right?? Finally I got around to swabbing my nose today, because I need to decide whether I'm going to dance practice tomorrow night, and ... dammit!! I have the damned covid!! I hope I didn't give it to anyone else at last Monday's dance practice before I felt sick.

First of all, I honor the anniversary of my mother's passing, 27 years ago tonight.

Now about the heading of this entry. At church on Sunday I stayed after the service to rehearse a hymn for next Sunday's MLK Jr. service. I kept my mask on while singing, but not everyone was masked. Late yesterday afternoon I received an email from our minister -- who tries not to work on Monday, her personal sabbath -- stating that if we stayed for the singing practice, we were probably exposed to covid. She sent it out BCC, so I'm pretty sure I know who the other recipients were but I don't know whose name was left off (and was thus the person who exposed the rest of us). So now I feel like a pariah. I skipped last night's dance practice out of an abundance of caution, and during tomorrow's errands I will certainly wear a mask. I need to find a non-expired covid test before Friday so that I can determine whether I can do anything this weekend (singing practice, Maugorn's birthday, church...).

Today my self-isolation was a no-brainer because a "winter" storm is blowing through. I put "winter" in quotes because the weather is not cold enough for water to freeze, so we're just having lots of rain and wind gusts. Fortunately, we still have power here in the little cottage, which is just outside the Pepco area in BGE's turf.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! If Hanukkah is your holiday, I hope it was a totally happy one.

This month has been fairly busy, with the usual activities. Unevent, the Kingdom of Atlantia's annual business meeting, is permanently online, which means it's easier for people from all parts of the kingdom to attend (the kingdom stretches from Baltimore to Hilton Head Island). Dun Carraig had a baronial investiture at a lovely site on the north bank of the Potomac River; they'll use it again for the 2024 Spring Coronation. I managed to convince R. to attend the Washington Christmas Revels; the parent organization cut back from two weekends to one this year, ostensibly because renting Lisner Auditorium is more expensive than it used to be. I hope the Revels will be around for many years to come.

I also wrapped up the Year of Many Vehicles by purchasing a new-to-me 2011 Subaru Forester. My first Subaru. Remember how I explained that I bought a Hyundai Tucson, but it couldn't ever pass inspection? Yeah, I kept on driving it without renewing the temporary registration and hoped the cops wouldn't catch up to me. Then I brought the Tucson to the Sunoco near where I used to live. I had thought, gee, maybe the first inspection station I used was acting all tight-assed because I'd never patronized them before, and the Sunoco has a good reputation for fair dealing. But the Sunoco fellow told me the exact same thing -- sorry, way too rusted out to pass Maryland inspection, ever. And as this year winds down, having a "23" sticker on my rear license plate instead of "24" or "25" will be a giant clue to the local constabulary. So I went to a *real* dealer and bought a car that PASSED inspection. It's a joy to drive.

(I am calling this the Year of Many Vehicles because I started out with a 1999 Toyota Corolla; then I had a rental Grand Cherokee for one weekend after the Corolla was totaled and taken from me; then I drove the CR-V belonging to my temporary housemates; then I bought the 2008 Tucson; and now I have the Forester. That's five vehicles.)

Despite the new wheels, I've spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day here in Maryland. I haven't heard from any of my Massachusetts cousins, so I guess they have gotten used to my not traveling up there, so they didn't invite me. *sigh*

So this is what 60 years feels like. November 22, 1963, is the first specific date that I can remember. As I recalled 10 years ago here on DW, the JFK assassination made a definite impression on me, even at the age of 4.

I didn't realize until I was an adult that my cousin Tim's birthday is November 22. He'd spent his 15th birthday at the dentist -- ugh. Today he's 75 years old.

Last week was rough: first my church's religious education director died, then a member of my Laydes Fayre singing group had a miscarriage, and then Devora's 1-week-old niece died of an infection. Horrible. At least the JFK anniversary is much more distant in time and thus less emotionally fraught.

I mean, once a month, really?

Anyhow, the highlight of the last few weeks was Fall Coronation, held in southern Maryland. I decided to camp over the weekend because I would be performing with the Laydes Fayre singing group in the morning and I didn't want to worry about traffic. I also didn't have to worry about futzing with my tent, because my friend Nellie from the dance group let me stay in her tent. We even carpooled together. I had a grand time, especially playing in the band for the dancing, and I received two roses and a small ceramic cup from our new Queen for my efforts.

Of course, while I was blissfully playing with the SCA instead of hanging around online, I didn't notice until I got home that Hamas had attacked Israel. Why does the world blow up when I'm having fun with the SCA?

OK, cut me some slack here, because I went to Pennsic and I don't mess around with DW on my phone. I write better when I can type with all my fingers.

So, yes, I got to Pennsic after all! Splitting the cost of the trailer with my new minivan-driving friend worked awesomely well. I had an absolute blast!

I still have not replaced the Hyundai Tucson. Church stuff has gotten in the way again. While I was at Pennsic, some people who do not want the Board to sell the church property amassed enough petition signatures to call a special congregational meeting to debate the issue for the umpteenth time. And we are having a congregation-wide vote on the matter, even though our lawyer has opined that the vote cannot be binding under the laws of the state of Maryland. Can you tell I'm getting tired of this issue already?

As much as I want to write more about Pennsic, my sudden need for sleep is getting in the way. Sucks to get old.

First of all, Happy Birthday, wookiemonster!!

I'm going to Pennsic! I wrote about it last night on my Lady Patricia blog (http://ladypatriciaoftrakai.blogspot.com/2023/07/pennsic-50-frenzy.html). The writing is not the best because I finished it rather late at night, after the boy toy made me some sort of coconut cocktail.

I also didn't go into detail about my latest vehicular travails. Remember that 2008 Hyundai Tucson I bought to replace my totaled Corolla? When I first got it, I immediately started using it to move into the new apartment/cottage, but of course that was more of a process than an event. And at first I didn't have the money to get it inspected. (If you buy a used car that doesn't already have a Maryland inspection certificate, you get a 30-day temporary registration, but you must get that certificate to acquire the permanent registration.) Finally, at the end of June, I had the money to get the work done and I found an inspection station about a mile from where I now live. The proprietor of that garage, however, informed me that the Tucson's undercarriage was way too rusted out to ever pass Maryland inspection, and that I shouldn't have bought a vehicle with 189K miles on it to begin with. (As if I wouldn't have bought something better if I could have afforded it at the time!) Fortunately, the tag-and-title place gave me a "7" month sticker instead of a "6," so, even though the registration expired on June 11, it looks as if it's registered until the end of July.

Obviously, I am *not* driving this rig to Pennsic, partly because I don't want to drive an unregistered car out of state and partly because I'm going to hit a bump or hole while the thing is fully loaded and really mess up the vehicle. Fortunately, I made alternate plans. I put a call out on Facebook and got a couple of responses and selected one. One of Patches' neighbors is taking her three kids to Pennsic -- first time for all four of them -- so we made arrangements to rent a trailer for her minivan and split the cost.

This will be my 13th Pennsic, but the first to which I am not driving. Should be interesting....

On this date SEVENTY-FIVE years ago, my parents were married!!

They had to hold their nuptials at 7 a.m. -- yes, THAT early! -- because, back then, Roman Catholics got hitched only on Saturday morning, and the first Saturday of July was especially popular because the factories traditionally shut down for the first two weeks of the month and everybody went on vacation at the same time. It wasn't until I was a college graduate that I knew it was possible to take a vacation at a different time.

And today it makes FIFTY years since my mother made me mow the lawn while my father did his Saturday errands. I was 13 going on 14 and I *hated* doing yard work.

But then Dad came home and he was carrying a white vase filled with 25 large red roses, which he presented to Mom for their 25th anniversary.

Later that day we went to a camp on Lake Shirley. It belonged to the family of a woman whom my Uncle Pete was dating (they would marry the following year and she would become my Aunt Bev). Uncle Pete had brought fireworks up from the Carolinas and I played with the sparklers while my older male cousins shot off firecrackers and Roman candles. I think we were there until three in the morning.

Obviously, as a younger teen, I wasn't in a position to arrange a fancy party for my parents' 25th. I was just starting to think about planning a 35th anniversary party for them when Dad died.

It was seven years ago today that I danced in the Lithuanian folk dance festival in Baltimore. I had such a blast, even though I didn't have time to journal about it while it was all happening.

And, speaking of journaling ... TWENTY years ago today I made my first LiveJournal post. Who would have "thunk" it would have triggered many other events that shaped my life. And who would have "thunk" the site would end up in Russian hands? The world of today is indeed strange.

I wish I could post lots of photos, but I don't feel like doing all the linking. I am tired and I want to go to bed.

Wow, I don't think I've had a two-post month on DW since October 2022.

The boy toy and I are settling in at the new place. I think I shall call it the Blue and Green Cottage, after the colors of the interior walls and trim. We still have stuff in storage, of course. We probably will until after Pennsic, because the previous occupant's belongings are still piled in the bedroom closet, and the remnants of Chessiecon's material goods are stacked up along the bedroom walls.

For a one-bedroom apartment, it's not too small. The kitchen is about the same size as the combined kitchen and dining room in the lost condo. The living room has roughly the square footage of the living room in that place. The bathroom is noticeably bigger than its counterpart in the previous home, although it is somewhat oddly shaped. There is no space-wasting interior corridor; all rooms are joined to the kitchen, which reminds me of a lot of the century-old homes in my mother's hometown.

It's just that this place has one bedroom instead of two, and the bedroom isn't quite as huge as in my old condo (there, the "master" bedroom was bigger than the living room). Still, there are some nooks and crannies that can be utilized more efficiently, especially once the former occupant's stuff travels elsewhere.

Little by little, it's starting to feel like a place where I might be living for a while.

In other news, Balticon is coming up in a few days. I always have such mixed feelings about the convention. On the good side, this year makes 20 years since I met cz_unit and his wife ("phoenix_glow" on LJ) at that convention, and that is something to celebrate. OTOH, this year's Balticon weekend makes a full decade since the untimely death of Lord Pedro de Alcazar and eight years since the untimely death of a fellow science writer who had met her husband at Disclave 1985, exactly 30 years earlier (and the first con I ever attended, and the first time I set foot in Maryland and DC, etc.). Memories....