I got news Thursday that a college friend in Pittsburgh has only weeks to live. The tumor they'd removed came back quickly with a vengeance. She's the person who got me into internet slash fic because in college in the early 90s I'd loan her so many slashy books. Longtime fen in The X-Files or who were aware of my Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Punxsutawney Phil may have predicted more winter, but Staten Island Chuck and Westchester, NY's Cluxatawney Henrietta, a chicken, predicted early spring. Right before New York's temperatures will plunge Friday afternoon and be much worse Saturday, but it's not like they said spring would start this week ( Read more... )

This weekend was way too hot, both days about 90°F/32°C, and it made me useless and miserable. Opening up the wall compartment and installing my air conditioner is a whole big Thing I unfortunately wasn't physically prepared to do those two days. At least this week is cooler.

+++

"Out with the old, in with the new: Last public pay phone removed ( Read more... )

I am so tired. I wandered around New Jersey in search of fall foliage and eventually made my way to Honesdale and Stroudsburg, PA. Round trip total of 327 miles. I saw some nice colors in places. Unfortunately, given the weather and light conditions, the photos were either too dark or too gray-white fuzzy from the flash. I returned to the Stairway ( Read more... )

I was stuck in mild traffic on I-495 when I rolled the windows down and was hit with the scent of home: bitter, acrid, with dampness and a dark herbal scent underneath it, diesel and ozone and damp asphalt and wet wild greenery. I could have been stuck in traffic on a Pennsylvania highway, probably due to the neverending cycle of PA roadwork, at ( Read more... )

I've started reading Michael Moorcock's The Skrayling Tree, Oona's section where she's traveling with some Native American archetypes, and so far it's been more interesting for the side things it's making me think about than the story itself from how there's a lot of traveling and exposition about the Balance ( Read more... )

If you're ever in Stroudsburg, PA--shut up--I firmly suggest you visit Carroll & Carroll Booksellers on 740 Main Street. Used book store with a huge selection. I went there again yesterday but was somewhat intimidated by the selection. I didn't have the time necessary to really browse ( Read more... )

Someone asked how backwoods my part of Pennsylvania was. The biggest nearby "cities" were Stroudsburg, a 45-minute drive away, and Scranton, roughly ditto. We didn't have a supermarket that was less than a 30-minute drive away until two years after we moved in. We had the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend off for doe hunting season. It became a ( Read more... )

It's funny, but two people brought up my Pittsburgh Wendy's job experience to me in the last three days. Out of nowhere, even. Since I have fond memories of that Wendy's and the people there, here's a trip down memory lane.

As I mentioned way back in "May I Take Your Order?" one of the managers would engage in homoerotic banter with one of the ( Read more... )