The past 24 hours rammed home just how mild the last three winters had been. Even Christmas of 2022, with its brutal cold and high winds, didn't give us that much snow ( Read more... )

New Year's Day is a new beginning, so it's a good time to take stock of the past year and plan for the future.

The past year has been frustrating. It wasn't horrible like 2020 when everything shut down, or 2017 and 2014 when loss cast a pall over the whole year. But it just seemed like things refused to go right. Convention sales were mediocre at ( Read more... )

This is another year I'm glad to see behind me ( Read more... )

In "One Last Homecoming" I had my protagonist driving a Tesla because it was such a sharp contrast with the Chevy II that she'd been driving as a senior in high school (a car that was based on one my paternal grandmother and my uncle actually owned, and if circumstances had been different, we might've kept and still had when I was in high school). ( Read more... )

Is it my imagination, or are people becoming worse drivers? I don't think it's just watching lots of Reels of dashcam video of people doing stupid things and causing wrecks, because I've been cut off and passed on the right multiple times, often right at the corner south of our house ( Read more... )

I just finished a very long drive after a long day doing business, then loading out unsold merchandise and store fixtures. The van's driving better, but after hearing a squeak this morning while turning, we're going to take it in to our regular shop before heading back out next week for Kansas City. After the drama of getting down to the St. Louis ( Read more... )

We're in Collinsville, Illinois this weekend for Archon, which is the St. Louis area's oldest science fiction convention. However, the trip down to it became Interesting in a way I could've done without -- the van began to vibrate as we headed down I-55 on the second day of the journey (after a visit to family Wednesday night). I was glad to get ( Read more... )

We lost about two hours to rain which came through just as we were ready to take down the sales canopy. Once the rain stopped, we were able to get the canopy broken down fairly quickly and all the poles into their places. Then I just rearranged the books and the other merchandise to ride, and got some tubs and other miscellaneous stuff in. The ( Read more... )

The past month has been a very difficult one for us. Long story short, the van we use for our retail business was making intermittent noises, and it pointed to the transmission. We took it to the transmission shop, and we're going to be looking at a mid-four-figure fix (unsurprising, given that a transmission rebuild for our old van was $2000 back ( Read more... )

we move toward getting ready for our spring campout event. The van is back in the shop, and with luck they'll be able to track down the squeaking and whining sounds and repair whatever is causing them ( Read more... )