Pemmi-Con Day 2: Back and Forth
This morning, after breakfast, Lisa and I walked from the Delta Hotel to the shop where the Astro is being worked upon. It's not a long walk, and goes past Winnipeg Central Park.
Here's a nice view looking back over the park toward downtown.
When we got to the mechanic's shop, we explained that we needed to get things out of the minivan. Lisa got the tripod and also the small WSFS banner that we hang from the front of the table where the Business Meeting happens. The owner explained the situation. The good news, and this really is good, is that the compressor and electrical system all are fine. The bad news is that there was no coolant in the system, and when he tried to recharge it, it wouldn't hold. He said he'd search for the leak and get back to me.
Skipping ahead a bit, later that day he called me and said that he'd found the leak: one of the coolant lines had failed, with a hole worn in it. However, he so far as been unable to locate a replacement line that matches the unit. He told me he was working with a vendor to try and fabricate a replacement line. He'll call me tomorrow, he said, to tell me how things stand. I told him that he could keep the van all the way until July 31 if necessary. However, if he can't get it back to me until sometime on Monday, we'll have to go to Plan B to deal with all of our stuff currently filling our hotel room, except for what's going to Churchill. I'll talk more about Plan B if we have to activate it.
Lisa and I walked back to the hotel. The day was warm and humid, at least by our standards. Lisa started having difficulty walking. We did make it back to the hotel, but it was hard on Lisa. She needed to go lie down again. She worked very hard during the trip to Winnipeg, doing most of the driving and having to deal with the vehicle issues, particularly at Idaho Falls. It took a lot out of her.
I spent much of the rest of the day going back and forth between the RBC Convention Center exhibit hall and the Delta Winnipeg, running errands for the WSFS division and otherwise keeping things ticking over.
My route to the Convention Center the past day or so has been via the Starbucks on Broadway, because while it's not the direct route, it was situated in a way that was broadly on the way to the RBC. However, today was the last day that would work, for this particular location was closing for good at the end of business today. There is another Starbucks about the same distance from the Delta; however, the distance is away from the RBC, not more or less toward it. I'm part-way through a string of consecutive purchases that will generate bonus points, so it's extra walking for me to finish the goal.
Part of what I've been doing for Site Selection is to print those ballots submitted by email. I could print them on the printer in the lobby of the Delta, then take them over to Site Selection. We don't have a printer over there, nor would have it made sense to get one for the relatively small number of ballots submitted during the convention.
I took some photos from around the Exhibit Hall. The full Hugo Award History Exhibit did not make it to Winnipeg; however, a few people who had trophies loaned them to create a miniature exhibit. In this case, the base without a rocket and the 2002 Hugo Award trophy (the right two items in this photo) are mine, and I loaned them.
The maple-leaf base with a rocket and the "space metal" maple-leaf-shaped plaques was the 1994 trophy designed by me, and this one was John Mansfield's. Linda Ross-Mansfield loaned it to the exhibit.
John was Fan Guest of Honor of Pemmi-Con, but unfortunately passed away earlier this year. There was a display about him in the exhibit hall, along with a memory book. (I still need to add my comments to it.)
There were fan tables...
... and a dealers' room.
I made another circuit from RBC to Starbucks to the Delta, picking up a smoked sausage along the way, printed the next few ballots, and then persuaded Lisa to come back to the exhibit hall to help with the close-out of Site Selection at 6 PM. That's because Linda Deneroff and I wanted to go to the John Mansfield spotlight panel at 5:30, and Sharon Sbarsky would need help moving material when Site Selection closed from the exhibit hall over to where we were going to count ballots.
People gathered in the Delta ballroom to share memories of John Mansfield. I'm one of those who said that I would not be the person I was today without John, who trusted me in 1994 back when I was a relative newcomer, and put up with my enthusiasm. I suggested that the former Sgt. Major Mansfield might have regarded me the way he might have regarded a young, enthusiastic, but inexperienced second lieutenant just out of the academy. I miss him.
After the John Mansfield Spotlight, Linda and I joined Sharon, Martin Pyne (who is part of the Business Meeting this year), and the folks from the Buffalo bid (the only bid on the ballot) in the now-closed Green Room, which Cheryl Morgan pointed out to me was ideally suited for us for the ballot counting when I was wondering where we were going to do the ballot count earlier today.
There were a decent number of ballots cast, considering the relatively small size of this NASFiC, but actually counting the ballots took less time than it did to do the bookkeeping to confirm that we had money that matched against the number of ballots cast. Including the transit time from the RBC to the Delta, it took just short of two hours to deal with site selection business. The official results will be announced at the Business Meeting on Saturday morning at 10 AM in Charleswood B in the Delta Hotel.
With Site Selection concluded, the entire WSFS division - all five of us, including Lisa - went to dinner at the Elephant & Castle, which is adjacent to the hotel. We were able to get a table on the outside patio, which was pleasant, and even when a thunderstorm came in just as we were finishing dinner, the patio was sufficiently sheltered that we we stayed dry.
After dinner, we all went our separate ways. I went and played pinball for a little while, then went over to the evening social function, where I socialized with people, including TAFF delegate Sandra Bond, who as part of her TAFF trip is attending NASFiC. I have not tried to go the parties, as there has been some challenges with the hotel and parties, and I'm not overly fond of crowded parties since the pandemic hit anyway.
The Business Meeting starts the day on Saturday for me, but it really shouldn't be very long, and other than that, I have no other responsibilities to the convention on Saturday. That will give me some time to work on a different WSFS function, but I'll write about that later.
Here's a nice view looking back over the park toward downtown.
When we got to the mechanic's shop, we explained that we needed to get things out of the minivan. Lisa got the tripod and also the small WSFS banner that we hang from the front of the table where the Business Meeting happens. The owner explained the situation. The good news, and this really is good, is that the compressor and electrical system all are fine. The bad news is that there was no coolant in the system, and when he tried to recharge it, it wouldn't hold. He said he'd search for the leak and get back to me.
Skipping ahead a bit, later that day he called me and said that he'd found the leak: one of the coolant lines had failed, with a hole worn in it. However, he so far as been unable to locate a replacement line that matches the unit. He told me he was working with a vendor to try and fabricate a replacement line. He'll call me tomorrow, he said, to tell me how things stand. I told him that he could keep the van all the way until July 31 if necessary. However, if he can't get it back to me until sometime on Monday, we'll have to go to Plan B to deal with all of our stuff currently filling our hotel room, except for what's going to Churchill. I'll talk more about Plan B if we have to activate it.
Lisa and I walked back to the hotel. The day was warm and humid, at least by our standards. Lisa started having difficulty walking. We did make it back to the hotel, but it was hard on Lisa. She needed to go lie down again. She worked very hard during the trip to Winnipeg, doing most of the driving and having to deal with the vehicle issues, particularly at Idaho Falls. It took a lot out of her.
I spent much of the rest of the day going back and forth between the RBC Convention Center exhibit hall and the Delta Winnipeg, running errands for the WSFS division and otherwise keeping things ticking over.
My route to the Convention Center the past day or so has been via the Starbucks on Broadway, because while it's not the direct route, it was situated in a way that was broadly on the way to the RBC. However, today was the last day that would work, for this particular location was closing for good at the end of business today. There is another Starbucks about the same distance from the Delta; however, the distance is away from the RBC, not more or less toward it. I'm part-way through a string of consecutive purchases that will generate bonus points, so it's extra walking for me to finish the goal.
Part of what I've been doing for Site Selection is to print those ballots submitted by email. I could print them on the printer in the lobby of the Delta, then take them over to Site Selection. We don't have a printer over there, nor would have it made sense to get one for the relatively small number of ballots submitted during the convention.
I took some photos from around the Exhibit Hall. The full Hugo Award History Exhibit did not make it to Winnipeg; however, a few people who had trophies loaned them to create a miniature exhibit. In this case, the base without a rocket and the 2002 Hugo Award trophy (the right two items in this photo) are mine, and I loaned them.
The maple-leaf base with a rocket and the "space metal" maple-leaf-shaped plaques was the 1994 trophy designed by me, and this one was John Mansfield's. Linda Ross-Mansfield loaned it to the exhibit.
John was Fan Guest of Honor of Pemmi-Con, but unfortunately passed away earlier this year. There was a display about him in the exhibit hall, along with a memory book. (I still need to add my comments to it.)
There were fan tables...
... and a dealers' room.
I made another circuit from RBC to Starbucks to the Delta, picking up a smoked sausage along the way, printed the next few ballots, and then persuaded Lisa to come back to the exhibit hall to help with the close-out of Site Selection at 6 PM. That's because Linda Deneroff and I wanted to go to the John Mansfield spotlight panel at 5:30, and Sharon Sbarsky would need help moving material when Site Selection closed from the exhibit hall over to where we were going to count ballots.
People gathered in the Delta ballroom to share memories of John Mansfield. I'm one of those who said that I would not be the person I was today without John, who trusted me in 1994 back when I was a relative newcomer, and put up with my enthusiasm. I suggested that the former Sgt. Major Mansfield might have regarded me the way he might have regarded a young, enthusiastic, but inexperienced second lieutenant just out of the academy. I miss him.
After the John Mansfield Spotlight, Linda and I joined Sharon, Martin Pyne (who is part of the Business Meeting this year), and the folks from the Buffalo bid (the only bid on the ballot) in the now-closed Green Room, which Cheryl Morgan pointed out to me was ideally suited for us for the ballot counting when I was wondering where we were going to do the ballot count earlier today.
There were a decent number of ballots cast, considering the relatively small size of this NASFiC, but actually counting the ballots took less time than it did to do the bookkeeping to confirm that we had money that matched against the number of ballots cast. Including the transit time from the RBC to the Delta, it took just short of two hours to deal with site selection business. The official results will be announced at the Business Meeting on Saturday morning at 10 AM in Charleswood B in the Delta Hotel.
With Site Selection concluded, the entire WSFS division - all five of us, including Lisa - went to dinner at the Elephant & Castle, which is adjacent to the hotel. We were able to get a table on the outside patio, which was pleasant, and even when a thunderstorm came in just as we were finishing dinner, the patio was sufficiently sheltered that we we stayed dry.
After dinner, we all went our separate ways. I went and played pinball for a little while, then went over to the evening social function, where I socialized with people, including TAFF delegate Sandra Bond, who as part of her TAFF trip is attending NASFiC. I have not tried to go the parties, as there has been some challenges with the hotel and parties, and I'm not overly fond of crowded parties since the pandemic hit anyway.
The Business Meeting starts the day on Saturday for me, but it really shouldn't be very long, and other than that, I have no other responsibilities to the convention on Saturday. That will give me some time to work on a different WSFS function, but I'll write about that later.