Lyda Morehouse's Blog, page 76

Sleeping in Hell

From talking to my folks last night, it sounds like my dad got moved back into the nursing home without any hitches. He even got his old room back. I guess, too, the PT schedule has been really pushed up, because, with the new/temp hip, he can really start working on getting up and walking again.

So that's all good news.

As you know, Bob, it's been hot as hell here. Our house is going to be 100 years old next year, and doesn't have central air. We do have a window unit that we struggled into the master bedroom earlier this year. The entire family, including, at times, all four cats and both gerbils, have been crammed into this room at night to sleep. This has not made for the most restful evenings, alas. Especially since the cats, being cat-like, insist on going in and out all night, and I'm the one person in my family who sleeps light enough to hear their scratching and meowing. And the only one foolhearty and soft-touch-y to actually pull myself upright and stumble over every time they want to go in or out.

Also Mason is a bed hog.

Anytime I got up to let a cat in or out, Mason would instantly take six more inches of my space. I could, ocassionally, shove him back over in the direction of mom, but as soon as I settled back down, he'd wrap himself, octopus-like, all over me.

I can't WAIT for the heat to break. We've got to get that kid back into his own bed!!

Anyway, I guess Captain America opens this weekend. I need to call my Marvel dates and see when they want to go. I'm still very nervous about this one, because I love a particular Cap and it's not actually the silver age one. I did watch the bootlegged Avengers trailer that Gizmodo had posted, and that got me all happy.

A gentleman at kuk sool wan who was wearing an Avengers tee-shirt tried to tell me that the original line-up for the Avengers included Black Panther and Storm. I, however, insisted that it was: Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Ant Man and the Wasp. With Captain America joining in an early issue. (I thought #2, but Wikipedia tells me #4). I'm glad to see that I'm vindicated. After all, I REMEMBER reading Storm's introduction in an X-title during the 1980s, during the time of the great gathering (which brought us Colossus and Nightcrawler and Wolverine.) Again, Wikipedia corrects me that it was 1979 Claremont, but I DO remember this.

Anyway, I should make plans for this weekend. I hope Cap doesn't suck.

A book of interest, perhaps

For fans of mine, Boing Boing pointed out this awesome book: Encyclopedia of Hell (by Satan).

Morningstar would probably disapprove, however, having no interest in Earth or the humans that infest it (or so he says.)

Updatery

I just noticed that I have failed to update my blog since my dad went into surgery last Wednesday. The trip home on the train that night was absolutely lovely. The train was on time, and, thanks to the flooding in the Dakotas, St. Paul is its terminal stop. I walked home from the Amtrack station, which is six (LONG) blocks from my house. It's a bit of a hike, but it was a lovely night and I had traveled lightly (one backpack). It's always so strange to walk alone at night and I enjoyed the hushed, almost voyeristic sensation of dark streets and bright indoor lights.

My dad seems to be doing well. Today will be his first day out of the hospital, and he's returning to the Bethany Riverside nursing home to continue his recovery. He had hoped to finally be going home, but they need to continue an IV drip of antibiotics to fight off this tenacious infection. If they get this thing beat (and the doctor, the last I heard at any rate, seemed confident they would,) they'll be able to schedule his real-and-for-true hip replacement. That should be some time in September if everything stays positive. If not, my understanding is that they will just have to pospone things until the infection *is* finally cleared up.

My life, meanwhile, continues apace. On the train ride home last Wednesday, I had a kind of breakthrough moment with the newest novel and I like it a lot better. When I like a novel, it writes faster, so that's a very good thing. In fact, just today, while Shawn hung out with a fellow laid-off state employee, I managed to write nearly a thousand words in about an hour. That's my usual pace for a deadline novel.

I also FINALLY had the ceremony in which I received my yellow belt. (I'd tested earlier, but they've moved the ceremony to a later time now.) Turns out, the ceremony is now: "promotion and demo." I didn't know about that last part, so I was taken aback when asked to perform the white belt form in front of an audience. I think I did pretty well, and I was glad I wasn't all alone (an instructor and the blue belt candidate did it with me). Still, the whole time I was thinking, "ah, crap. I didn't take my inhaler because I thought I'd just be standing around" and it was like 103 and humid in the building.) But I didn't need it, even though later I also had to do a cartwheel AND a roll. I was pleased that I was able to do a "flying roll" (really, just a roll from a dead run onto a mat,) because, in all honesty, I like those better than having to start from kneeling or a crouch.

Mason, alas, was in charge of the camera, so, while he took a LOT of pictures, the quality on many of them is dubious. It's a really big shame that Shawn wasn't there with her telephoto lens skillz, because I would have LOVED to have seen myself "in action," as it were. Given how round I am in the one pretty good picture he got, I suspect I look a LOT like Kung Fu Panda.

Waiting

My dad is currently in the OR. My mom and I are waiting in the waiting room at Gunderson in LaCrosse.

Weirdly, it's been a fun morning. We met my dad at the hospital at 7:00 am, and fell right into chatting about life, the universe, and everything. We got the nurses telling funny stories in pre-op and generally having a lot of what my dad calls, "talking smart."

The procedure is that they're going to replace my dad's hip with a "spacer," which is a custom built bone that's been saturated with antibotics. He'll keep that in until they can make him a cyborg with a mechanical replacement six months or so down the line. This will give him back the mobility he's been missing. He'll have to use a walker or a cane for a while because the spacer isn't built to last (think: temporary crown for the hip.)

With any luck, if things go well today, he can actually do his recovery at home. If not, he can go back to the recovery wing of the nursing home and do all the PT and whatnot there.

Probably the funniest part of this trip so far was the shuttle down to LaCrosse. naomikritzer turned us on to this option. It's basically a long-distance hotel shuttle bus. They pick up at the St.Paul/Minneapolis airport and drop people off in Rochester, Winona and LaCrosse. Given the distance, I sort of expected more of a "bus," you know, with bathroom facilities. Nope. We were in an oversized minivan, knee-to-back, and the promised WiFi was quite spotty. I did manage to write a little on the way to Rochester, but when we changed buses the fun really began. The bus drive played polka music on the stereo and one of the other passangers ate stinky food in the front seat. The only good thing was that there were a lot fewer of us going the distance to Winona/LaCrosse, so I had a bench seat all to myself. I also had a long a very cheesy military SF novel called PRISON SHIP (these are all-male, man's men, doing manly things in space with other men). This added an extra level of surreal to the trip, especially with the polka music as background.

The other thing that kept me going was that the trip just isn't that long -- even with all the various stops at hotels.

So now my job for the day is to keep my mom company and be there when my dad comes out of it.

Other People Lead Fabulous Lives

The Internet has taught me that other people lead much more fabulous lives than I do.

I mean, according to Twitter and Facebook, a bunch of you are flying off to conferences, learning new languages, dancing the Tango, or are just plain clever.

I, meanwhile, am looking forward to a day filled with errands. Shawn has to go off to get her haircut around 1 PM. I need to change the big fish tank. Then, I need to pack an overnight bag, as this evening, I'm going to board to shuttle to LaCrosse so I can hang out with my mom tomorrow while my dad has hip surgery.

Not really Twitter-worthy, you know?

The only other thing I can report is that Shawn and I took advantage of a child-free house yesterday to catch up on "Dexter" (Season 3, I think -- anyway, the one that introduces the Trinity Killer.) We've been having trouble finding time to watch it because of the excessive swearing (and violence) and Mason's tendency to lurk just outside of the TV room. Predictably, I dreamed I was Dexter again last night. I don't quite know why, but my subconscious spends a lot of its noctural hours trying to figure out how to be a sympathetic serial killer.

As I was telling Shawn, I continue to really love the episodes of that show where there isn't so much of the killing as Dexter trying to grapple with human emotion and other baffling things a sociopath has to cope with. (Makes me think of the new Sherlock and his "high functioning sociopath!" Anyone know when those new shows will air? I'm a huge squeeing fan of the new Sherlock.)

Maybe I have a thing for sociopaths.

Fictional ones, anyway.

In Which Shawn Wakes Up...

... and realizes there's a government shutdown.

Shawn was terribly sick last week, so that, even though the MN State government was shutdown last week, she didn't really notice. She mostly just slept, coughed and blew her nose a lot. It was more like being out sick than being laid-off.

This morning, she's finally feeling better... and she remembered.

After the storm woke us up, she was awake much of the night worrying about everything. Shawn is a natural worrier, but, well, this situation is particularly worrisome.

Meanwhile, I'm getting ready for a trip down to LaCrosse. I'm going to hang out with my mom on Wednesday while my dad has the first of his hip replacement surgeries. The doctors did find more infection, so this is step one of a two step process. Since Mason is back at school, I've made plans to take a shuttle down to LaCrosse and the AMTRACK back. It should be quite the adventure. I'm most looking forward to the train ride, honestly, because trains are fun. The shuttle is a bus ride, so that should just be the usual yuckiness of a long bus ride. At least the bus offers WiFi.

I hope to get some writing on the stupid novel done. Wish me luck.

Yellow Belt

Yesterday, despite the 90 degree heat, I tested for my yellow belt. I passed! Whoot! It was a very grueling two hour ordeal, but I felt pretty good as I remembered all of the form and all but one of the techniques. (Ah, #11, my old enemy...)

Now Shawn and Mason and I are ensconced in the "cool room" aka our bedroom, competitively playing video games. We downloaded a PC game, Montezuma 3, and Shawn and I are taking turns trying to beat each other's high score. Right now, I'm winning, but I think that's partly because I thrive on competition. This used to happen when we did this with Bejeweled too. She'd be really good until I challenged her.

I'm also trying to work on the newest novel (the cow mutlilation mystery) and it's going slowly. I've had one of those moments when I figure I must be writing the dumbest book in the history of novel writing. (Like Kung Fu Panda says, "I probably sucked more than anyone in... the history of sucking.")

Anyway, hope you all have a good weekend.

Library Day!

Shawn is off visiting some other out-of-work state employees for a commiseration session and coffee, and Mason and I are getting ready to head off to the public library. He absolutely adores the WARRIORS series by Erin Hunter, and a couple of the *new* books that we ordered/interlibrary loaned came in, so we're going to hike up there to pick them up.

Last night I made it back to kuk sool wan, and that was fun.

What I really need is for Mason to be back at school (that starts Monday) so I can focus on the "new" novel, which is due in a matter of weeks.

Go 4th

By sheer accident I ended up doing a lot of the traditional Fourth of July activities with Mason yesterday. We saw some friends of Facebook were organizing an impromptu picnic at Swede Hollow, so we packed up the picnic basket (and, because Mason was involved, an entire EXTRA bag full of books -- just in case.) We arrived at the park ten minutes before our hosts, but we hung out in the shade and kept an eye out for them. After a lovely meal of ham and cheese sandwiches, pickles, fresh strawberries and a few Doritos, we took a stroll/hike around the park with our friends. It was hot, but the breeze was pleasant. Eagle Eye Steve spotted a deer in the underbrush, and the intrepid nature photographer Shari sunk up close enough to the beastie to get a pretty good photo. Mason was pretty good until near the end when the heat caught up with him and he got a little tired (and whiney).

I was thinking that we'd done all our 4th stuff with that nature adventure, but Mason said he really wanted to see some fireworks. Shawn, btw, is still pretty sick. She slept most of yesterday and was feeling pretty woozie in the evening. Thus, we were on our own for fireworks. Before passing out, Shawn noticed that Roseville has a celebration at Central Park. It sounded like it might be our speed, so after watching Mason's favorite TV show in rerun (Master Chef), we headed out. I'm glad we left early. Even though we were there two hours before the show officially started, we had to park several blocks away. BUT, we were with an early enough crowd that we found a really prime spot. Turns out our view was slightly blocked by a couple of tall pine trees, but really not in any significant way. I think there were really only a couple of the lower "shower" types that were somewhat harder to see. At any rate, it had a nice, small town feel -- us spread out on our a checked blanket, Mason reading from his pile of books, and me napping/people watching.

All and all, I'd say it was a pretty good 4th. The only thing we missed was an invitation from naomikritzer to have a Pokemon playdate with her daughter. ( naomikritzer , I tried to call, but your line was busy!)

Today looks gray and it's 10 am and Mason is still asleep. I'm hoping that means that I'll get some decent writing done.

Egos like Hairdos

I used to be a big Ani DiFranco fan, and, in particular, I liked "Egos like Hairdos" ("they're different everyday/ depending on how you slept the night before/ depending on the demons that are at your door.") It's a song that, though it's about rival musical performers, very much always spoke to me about writers and professional jealousy.

My ego was all bent out of shape yesterday, because I slept badly on it. The demon at my door was not the usual green-eyed one that I have learned many coping mechanisms to deal with, but the much less common spike-covered fraud. I've been feeling very much like I'm like I'm not one of the "cool kids" and this sense of "you don't belong here" has really been haunting me. It's especially strange because, if there's ONE place I *do* belong, it's at a science fiction convention.

I went to CONvergence last night around dinner time to join the signing of WHEDONISTAS. I've been sick, but I really want to go. First of all, the parking was a nightmare. There are so many people at CONvergence (it was like the old MiniCON, back, as they say, "in the day,") that I had to circle the Sofiettel (sp?) parking lot until some poor, unsuspecting schmoo pulled out. I didn't dress in my usual con attire, which is to say, in costume as Rob Callahan, so once inside the con hotel I got asked for my badge A LOT. To which I replied, "Where *is* registration? I'm trying to find registration."

The problem with all the convention history at the former Radisson South (now Sheradon?) is that I always think of where things USED to be a million years ago, so it took some time for the helpful directions to actually sink in. (I'd hear them, but I'd think, no, it used to be here, so they must mean....) I did eventually find where registration was and I was delighted that a badge was, in point of fact, printed up and waiting for me. Go CONvergence! Though I do think this added to my sense of being a fraud a bit. I mean, it's kind of awkward to say, "Um, excuse me, I was told that you would do something special for me because I'm going to be a guest next year..." Especially since I was dressed completely mundane: shorts and a tee-shirt (not even with a skiffy joke on it. Just a plain shirt!)

I started running into people I knew right away. Just by random wandering, I found where the Whedonistas were setting up (they were also selling Chicks Dig Time Lords) so I hung out with some folks were were only in that anthology as well. I sat next to Cat Valente who is, argueably, one of the coolest "cool kids" right now. Then I tried to weasle an invitation to dinner with rarelylynne and the other Whedonista cool chicks, which I managed to get, but then felt guilty about and so I bailed on them. Luckily, a phone call to naomikritzer found her and haddayr and friends just sitting down to dinner at the nearby TGI Fridays. This was probably my favorite part of the evening. I did NOT feel like a fraud, and we all chatted and gossiped about the con and writing and writers. I met some new people and generally had a good time watching the storm coming in.

Then I went back to the convention to crash the Whedonistas' panel, and the spike-covered fraud attached itself to my back again. Normally, on panels, I tap into my con personality and all is good. I'm relaxed and thoughtful, and this time I felt forced and weird.

I can't really understand it. Perhaps it's just the influence of the New Moon, which always draws me inward, or... who knows?

Anyway, all this was complicated by the fact that Shawn has contracted the flu-thingy that Mason brought home and which I also have. Turns out, last night, Shawn really needed me home and I totally misread her text as "go have fun" when it really said, "for god's sake come home now." (I know. Hard to imagine, but really, that's how I read it.)

So I was feeling like a fraud when I could have been at home. Ah well.